It was our first trip, so it was a touristy trip. We tried the things you see on tv over and over instead of trying to find hidden gems. Especially shocking was how good SO MANY of the classics turned out to be. Only twice was I disappointed, and by disappointed I mean the place was only good. Much more often I was surprised by how much better the place was than expected, a rare treat repeated and repeated in the Crescent City. If you are from our neck of the wood, or anywhere else than NOLA, it is a completely different world, and one worth experiencing for multitudinous reasons. Vegas is a different world but it is a calculated and manufactured experience, New Orleans has evolved in a storied and historic manner into what it is, you can feel it everywhere you go. Nothing like it.      True Dat.
 

Deanie's Seafood
 New Orleans, Louisiana        Date of Visit  12/15/15           http://www.deanies.com

Heard about Deanie’s from a few sources. Planned to go the original Bucktown location on Lake Ponchatrain (sing Power of the Ponchatrain). Time limits keep us in town and we dine at the French Quarter location. I imagine they have to be really similar in product which made me glad we didn’t make it to Bucktown. Deanie’s provided us super fresh loads of seafood, but I had expected them to kick it up a notch (NOLA pun fully intended), which didn’t happen. Some of the additions were spectacular, as were the building blocks, it’s just the middle that suffered.
 

Things started off, well, awesomely. Odd server guy didn’t bring us a loaf of Leidenheimer’s bread but instead brought us a bowl of wrinkled red skin potatoes. They are out of the crab boil, they are coated with the seasoning from the boil, they are steaming and fluffy inside, they come with do it your self butter, salt & pepper, and hot sauce. Glorious. Crystal is a great sauce when you are looking for all of the flavor with some restraint in the heat department and a few splashes running into the melted butter on crab boil taters is a confluence you couldn’t create in a lab.
 

Double Surprise, They're Stupendous
 

We got a bowl of corn and crab chowder and a salad, which were both stupendous. The salad was topped with a sweet and warm creole honey mustard dressing they make in house which really stood out. The soup was almost as thick as a congee and just as full of the sweet flavors of corn and crab. Nothing in New Orleans was really spicy, but everything has a little kick of it, especially the things you wouldn’t expect to have a little fire. The soup was no exception and the light layer of spice was perfect. Then the two entrees arrived and so did a bit of disappointment.
 

The half seafood platter (I can’t imagine what the full one looks like!) consists of fresh shrimp, catfish, oysters, stuffed crabs and crawfish croquettes. Good things. It's enormous, the seafood IS really fresh and fried well. For me the downside was the coating, it didn’t manage much in the texture or flavor department. Just a little salt or some crunch would have made a world of difference. They do an incredible business, people seem to love them, it’s just not for me. The crawfish croquette was unusual, almost molten in the center with a unique seasoning blend. It was alright. The stuffed crab I would have passed on, it did nothing for me. Meh.
 

What I was most excited about trying were the barbeque shrimp. Jumbo head-on shrimp sautéed in a unique blend of seasonings which are whipped into about a pound of butter. The shrimp are huge, I knew it was going to be a mess fest, some things are worth it. I popped the first head off the shrimp, gave it a squeeze and downed dark, right and slick awesomeness. I pulled off the legs, peeled the tail, dipped it into the pool of delicious in the bowl and WOW, what flavor. At one point I actually had to pull a six inch long antenna back out of my mouth, I was undeterred by that. Steph not so much. It was on the second shrimp I realized they had not been cleaned or depurated. The flavor was worth all the work. I didn’t find it worth having to scrape the poop chute out with my fingernail. There are ways to leave the shell on and clean the little buggers, or depurate them.
 

I finished them a little bitterly. Dipping the little loaf of bread into the bowl ameliorated my bitterness; that was divine. I dipped some of the fried fish, the fried shrimp, and the fried oysters in as well. Things were better then, gave me a plan for the future. Take new people to Deanie’s. Tell them they absolutely have to get the BBQ shrimp, order anything else, dip it into their flavor bomb while they are doing tiny colectomies. That I could do.

Mother Dear was crying/laughing watching the juices run down my fingers and arms and pulling legs and antennae out of my mouth, and at Steph's bit of a situation...until odd server guy asked if we had room for dessert. After Luke, Willie Mae's, Dookie Chase's, and the mountain of seafood, she wasn't laughing anymore. I can't remember a more emphatic no.