Rita LeBleu

rlebleu@americanpress.com

By Rita LeBleu

rlebleu@americanpress.com

Photos by Jenny LeBleu

Special to the American Press

Seafood lovers will be hard-pressed to find a more extensive seafood menu than Cajun Tales Seafood Restaurant at 501 North Adams St. in Welsh. Service was quick and friendly. Choosing an entree was a challenge. Cajun Tales not only offers the expected — shrimp, catfish and oysters — it also offers fried soft shell crab, crab cakes, alligator, frog legs, redfish and crawfish prepared so many ways, you’ll be tempted to try them all. I ordered the Crawfish Platter with gumbo, fried crawfish tails, crawfish pie, crawfish cocktail and crawfish etouffee. (It was enough for two, or it should have been.) Next time I’ll zero in on the crawfish pie, which is a delicious crawfish filling in puff pastry, baked and topped with crawfish etouffee.

This is the first place I’ve ever dined that offers a Seafood Platter for $22 and a Mini Seafood Platter for $16. The mini features a cup of gumbo, three fried shrimp, stuffed crab, fried catfish and a choice of crawfish tails or oysters. The fried onion rings might have been the best the group has ever sampled, and we’ve sampled quite a few in our combined years, including those of our own making.

Cajun Tales Calorie Watch Corner offers broiled redfish, mahi-mahi, catfish and tilapia. My daughter ordered the broiled redfish. My mother and I sampled it. It was delicious. Seafood salads are also available, as are burgers, chicken fried steak, red beans and rice, steak, po-boys and kids’ dinners.

During Lent, Cajun Tales is offering a special seafood dinner with a big ol’ hushpuppy, side salad and dessert for $11. Order between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Friday. This week’s special is six fried shrimp and catfish courtbouillion. A seafood buffet is available weekend evenings. Call 337-734-4772 for more information.

l

Online: cajuntalesseafood.com.