Bozo's (Metairie)

[Jason Perlow]

NOTE: This topic is part of the Eating New Orleans series.

Bozo's Seafood

3117 21st St.

Metairie, LA

504-831-8666

Having just landed in MSY, We decided to hit the ground running, and after picking up our rental car, we went straight to Bozo's, a popular seafood eatery in Metairie.

Bozo's is in a rather obscured location, and as it says in Pableaux's book, the place has no visible signage and is definitely an "insider's" restaurant -- they probably rarely get tourists, if ever. Nevertheless, Bozo's is producing great seafood, and has impeccably good raw oysters as well, along with seasoned oyster shuckers.

We ordered a plate of the raw oysters, which are served unadorned. Each table has a bottle of Hunt's Ketchup, grated horseradish, and Crystal/Tabasco. Along with a dish of lemon juice, you're given small dishes in which you mix your own blend of these condiments. I put a rather large amount of horseradish in mine. The cold freshly shucked raw oysters were a great start, as we just walked out of 93 degree heat. They were fresh as can be and were absolutely delicious.

Here's the oyster guy shucking away.

This is Bozo's signature gumbo, which has no roux in it whatsoever. It has a lot of okra, a little bit of shrimp, a lot of chicken, and a bit of sausage. It's fantastic.

The Bozo's seafood platter is much like others in town, like Deanies, but the cornmeal crust is on the oysters and catfish only, and is only lightly seasoned. The catfish was pristine, absolutely clean tasting, and the oysters were excellent, as were the shrimp, which was lightly breaded with breadcrumbs. The crab stuffing was also very good.

Not pictured here are the endless plates of broiled halves of buttered french bread, which basically melt in your mouth. The reason why we don't have any pictures of is testament to how good they are -- we went thru 2 baskets and could easily have eaten four.

[Rachel Perlow]

Bozo's was a great entree to our trip. I got the fried oysters I'd been craving since our last trip to New Orleans in 2003. There was also a plain lettuce and tomato salad (and they mean it, that's all it was) and some french fries (steak fries) served with the fried seafood platter. Very pleasant service and totally a non-tourist spot. You'll need to add the GPS to your car rental to find the place.

[Mayhaw Man]

Jeez Louise, a gps? It's at 21st and Ridgelake (Ridgelake runs parrellel to Causeway and 21st is across the from Lakeside Mall). How hard it that?

But you are right. It is totally a locals place and they have some of the most dependable seafood of the type around.