Sid-Mar's of Bucktown (Metairie)

[Jason Perlow]

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

Moderator Note: Sid-Mar's was completely destroyed in September, 2005 by the flooding of the levee after Hurricane Katrina.

Sid-Mar's of Bucktown

1824 Orpheum Ave.

Metairie, LA

404-831-9541

http://www.sidmarsofbucktown.com

Sid-Mar's has all the makings of a great seafood restaurant -- Phenomenal location with a equally phenomenal view, huge indoor and outdoor seating, with presumably access to great Louisiana seafood, cooked simply and expertly. Its sad that this place fails on the details. I so wanted this place to be good.

Waits to get into this restaurant can top an hour if its particularly busy -- such as on the night we went, where we waited for about 45 minutes until we were seated. Patrons are encouraged to go on the back deck, have a few drinks, and look upon Lake Pontchartrain:

As you can see the view is spectacular.

The atmosphere on the inside of the restaurant is very casual.

Crab fingers -- stringy, tough. Overcooked. Not good.

The hush puppies were the best part of the entire meal.

Rachel liked her crab and corn soup, but thought it was a bit too spicy. I didn't particularly care for it.

Crawfish were small, overcooked, and the heads were devoid of any juice or moisture. The family at the next table, a group of locals, who had been to the restaurant on a number of occasions, and who also ordered the crawfish, concluded that these were either overcooked or re-heated, like in a microwave.

This was their fried seafood platter, which was pronounced "Just ok, not as good as Deanies."

My suggestion is that since Sid-Mars is so close to Deanies (its like only a few blocks away) that you grab a few drinks here, sit out on the deck and look at Lake Pontchartrain, and then head over to Deanies to eat afterwards -- Deanies does VASTLY better seafood than this joint, by a mile.

[Rachel Perlow]

That corn and crab soup was good, and I felt the best part of our meal there. I had a salad topped with grilled shrimp and remoulade sauce. The grilled shrimp were cold and dry, the salad part was OK. Jason wouldn't take a picture of it because it was a salad.

The marinated crab fingers were obviously previously frozen and defrosted and they weren't marinated. Instead they came with italian salad dressing on the side. We didn't order them that way. Really, feh.

[Jason Perlow]

If any of you -really- want to see what kind of destruction the levee break did, check out the before and after shots of what happened to Sid-Mars:

Sid-Mars: Before and After (Google Maps)

After looking at the map, hit the red "Katrina" button on the upper right of the page.

Edited December 2, 2005 by Jason Perlow (log)

[OnlyTheBest]

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

Moderator Note: Sid-Mar's was completely destroyed in September, 2005 by the flooding of the levee after Hurricane Katrina.

Sid-Mar's of Bucktown

1824 Orpheum Ave.

Metairie, LA

404-831-9541

http://www.sidmarsofbucktown.com

OH MY GOD! my neighborhood was completely destroyed i never saw that sat. image i was one block away. I loved that area what a horrible year 2005 has been and now Austin Leslie is gone too.

[feedmesomethin]

Note to moderator:Bucktown was NOT a victim of the breach in the 17th St. levee as it (Bucktown) lies on the other (relatively dry) side of the breach.If Sid-Mar's was destroyed ,and I'm sure it was,it was from the storm itself.

[PopsicleToze]

Here are some pictures taken by Chef Jerry on 11/25 on famous N.O. restaurants. Unfortunutely, Sid-Mar's wasn't one of them, but watch the slideshow and you might understand what they're facing -- an uphill battle.

http://community.webshots.com/album/511432705HPAdMi

And note that Arnaud's opened today.

Rhonda

[Jason Perlow]

Note to moderator:Bucktown was NOT a victim of the breach in the 17th St. levee as it (Bucktown) lies on the other (relatively dry) side of the breach.If Sid-Mar's was destroyed ,and I'm sure it was,it was from the storm itself.

←

Also, as I understand, instead of previously believed Deanies came out relatively ok, and it was not destroyed, according to our own LA Forum Host and Site Manager Brooks Hamaker. He should have some more information on it shortly.

[Jason Perlow]

Sid Mars update:

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2006/04...od-restaurants/