Catahoula Bar and Restaurant

[chowfun]

We are not the couple who run to places that have just opened but after reading Michael Klein's blurb on Catahoula that just opened in Queen Village, I had the overwhelming urge to try it. We have been to New Orleans many times and we have eaten our share of great food there. It sounded really good and their menu looked really good.

We went last night for dinner and it was really good. The food was full of flavor, authentic, delicious. We had the fried oysters served with tasso ham, tomato jam, spinach and cream sauce. It was rich, excellent, delicious, flavorful, great..... I could go on!

We shared the arugula salad with barbecue shrimp, watermelon and more tasso ham. It was very, very good.

The duck leg jambalaya was fantastic.

I enjoyed my Pims cup, it had strawberries in it which surprised me. I am used to having just cucumber in it and the drink having a lemony flavor. This was fruitier. I do prefer the Pims cup at Napoleon House (or the Continental for something closer to home).

All servings were large and for the sharing. We could have done with two dishes instead of 3 so that we could have tasted one of their amazing sounding desserts.

Very casual bar setting. It felt like we could have been sitting in nola or anywhere in louisiana. It is also a good place to watch the Phillies. Multiple tv's with the sound off all around. Very good music selection.

[chowfun]

We went back to Catahoula last night for a late night dinner after the Phillies painful loss to the Nationals. We tried to order light to be able to get to dessert. We weren't particularly successful at that due to the richness of this cuisine and the generous portions, but we took one for the team and shared a dessert anyway. This time my husband ordered gumbo with sausage and chicken. It was wonderful. Full of rich flavors and the perfect thin consistency of soup (I hate when gumbo is made as if it is a hearty stew). A little bit of rice, lots of andouille and chicken, and that wonderful flavor that was perfectly spicy and lingered in my mouth after we finished the last drop.

I had to have the fried oyster dish again. I was thinking about it since we had it and it was just as good as I had remembered. Definitely worth the millions of calories that it must have. We also got the salad again that the kitchen split for us. It was better than last time with a little more fresh watermelon to balance the spicy and saltiness of the tasso ham and spices on the barbecue shrimp. This is a huge generous salad and it is full of perfectly cooked shrimp, it is great for sharing.

The dessert we tried was the Reverend Chesta's peach cobbler with Southern Comfort Gelato. The gelato was fantastic and I liked the cobbler topping. I prefer my peach cobbler with a thicker cut of peaches for a juicier bite in the mouth and I also found this dessert sweeter than I would have liked it to be. I still would like to try some of the other desserts here.

[Carlson1105]

Finally made it over to Catahoula on Saturday night. Had an excellent dinner with great friendly service. We had 3 appetizers, the shrimp remoulade, fried oysters and a cup of gumbo. They were all great, leaving a little bit of heat lingering in your mouth. For entrees we had the jambalaya, with a perfectly cooked duck confit leg on top and a special of grilled mahi mahi with a crawfish okra sort of ragout underneath. Both were perfectly cooked and seasoned. For dessert we shared the Makers Mark gelato. A couple glasses of wine and some Abita Purple Hazes topped it all off. Have to say it was a very enjoyable evening and can't wait to go back to try more.

[mrbigjas]

Has anyone been back here since the chef bailed for Cantina? Any thoughts?