Good choices: Jazzfest shrimp, oysters Jean Lafitte, blackened chicken fingers, beef quesadilla, Caesar salad, gumbo, crawfish etouffee, burritos, bronzed or blackened red snapper.
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: Street-level entrance; all facilties on one floor; doubtful wheelchair access to restrooms.
New York moved out and New Orleans moved in, all in one little corner of Danvers. East Side Mario's folded up its pasta and slipped away. Luisian Grill arrived, undecorated the exterior, making it look like a bayou shanty, and started cooking. And the name Luisian? Well, it's spelled lUiSiAn on the sign, and co-owner Michael Larkin hoped the USA would stand out, an idea he says didn't work.
The inside has been opened up, with pipes, ductwork, and electrical conduits trendily exposed in the high ceiling. Murals and New Orleans memorabilia, such as a photo of the Olympia Brass Band, adorn the walls. Recorded music alternates between Cajun tunes and traditional jazz.
Since Louisiana and Texas are neighbors, the restaurant throws in some Tex-Mex dishes for good measure, and totally out of the blue a complimentary appetizer of fried wonton skins with duck sauce for dipping.
You could get lost in the appetizer section at Luisian, and we're going back to try some more.
Onion rings ($3.49) served with horseradish dip are the big puffy kind with a batter that falls off if you're not careful. We found them too salty.
We've always thought the best approach to oysters was open and eat, with maybe a drop of lemon juice. Oysters Jean Lafitte ($6.95) make a tangy argument for another way, stuffed with spinach, Cajun spice ham, peppers, cream, and Parmesan cheese.
Jazzfest shrimp ($6.99) follows a recipe voted best new dish at the 1997 New Orleans jazz festival, and it's easy to see why. Think of a garlicky-crusted pizza topped with perfectly cooked small shrimp, then add sauce with a wonderful zap of white pepper, and you've got it.
A beef quesadilla ($6.99) was equally pleasing, with real muchaka (shredded beef, not ground), salsa, and cheese layered in tortillas that are made on the premises. Blackened chicken fingers ($5.25) were properly spicy but not very black. We suspect they were "bronzed," something we'll get to later.
All of Luisian's appetizers are large enough for several people to share, and, as with other dishes, Luisian does spicy without going overboard.
In the soup and salad department, a Caesar ($4.65) had oodles of rich dressing while the romaine lettuce retained its essential crispness. Gumbo ($2.95, $3.95) was thick and rich with ample amounts of chicken and andouille sausage. It was topped with fresh chopped scallions and contained rice that appeared to have been cooked separately and added at serving time to avoid sogginess.
A chicken burrito ($6.79) enhanced the feeling that Luisian does Mexican well. An enormous tortilla was stuffed full of tender chicken that was mildly peppery on the tongue. Again, less salt would have been better. The real spice of the dish came in the accompanying red beans and rice and spicy tomatoes, lettuce, and onions.
Pork was a mixed bag. Two stuffed chops ($10.75) were perfectly seared on an open fire, but our taster complained that the stuffing was so meager as to be unnoticeable. A dish called Best Pork Ever ($9.99) featured a sublimely smoky pork loin, but it was on the dry side. Both pork dishes came with something called a Luisian cocktail, a strawberry-based relish apparently styled after a New Orleans mixed drink called the Hurricane.
Crawfish etoufee ($7.45) was everything it should be, loads of crawfish tails swimming in a delicate sauce. Chicken Big Easy Style was moist and tender in a sauce with a lemony tang reminiscent of a light bernaise.
Cedar plank catfish ($8.99) was a Catch-22. Our taster felt the stuffing overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the fish, but it could also be argued that the stuffing added zest to a plain fish.
And what would a New Orleans-style restaurant be without blackening, a craze chef Paul Prudhomme started and which spread everywhere to be used on almost everything. Prudhomme's original was blackened redfish, which Luisian does not have; instead it offers catfish, red snapper, mahi mahi, salmon, scrod, tuna, and swordfish.
Luisiana does "bronzing," which it believes is superior to blackening. Similar spices are used, but the meat or fish is cooked over lower heat, the intent being to keep it juicier. They were out of the mahi mahi ($10.99) we ordered, so the chef recommended substituting bronzed red snapper (normally a dollar more). We were pleased with the result: spicy, moist, and without the oiliness that sometimes comes with red snapper.
Luisian has no desserts. If you must have extra calories, order a second Abita Amber Beer, a Munich-style lager brewed in Abita Springs, La., using a German yeast strain. Mmmm, beer.
Tips & hits
