It’s time to roll up your sleeves, prep yourself for some intense spices and get your appetite on because there’s a new seafood place in town that is bound to kick it up a notch for your taste buds.

This quaint little hole in the wall seafood restaurant, New Orleans Cajun Seafood,  specializes in Cajun style crawfish. It opened its doors in Falls Church, Virginia (7 Corners, near Mark’s Duck House) back in April. This cozy family-friendly restaurant will soon become a new local favorite.

The restaurant is not much to look at and can seem slightly intimidating, but I guarantee you that it will not disappoint.  The service is absolutely amazing, with a  staff that is eager to make suggestions and to help you out.  The menu offers a large variety of seafood choices from fresh seafood simmering in their own juices and authentic New Orleans style spices to simple fried seafood and po’ boys, all at a reasonable price.

Oyster Po’ Boy

The po’ boys are on a French baguette stuffed with lightly breaded seafood and are topped with lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles and a homemade mayo.

(Did I mention that all of their sauces are homemade?  All of their vegetables are never pre-cut.  Everything is cut when you order to ensure the freshest ingredients go into your meal.  And the bread comes fresh daily from a local bakery.)

My pet peeves  are when sandwiches fall apart easily or the bread is too chewy or soggy.  You can have the best of ingredients in a sandwich but if the backbone of its construction doesn’t hold up to the test, what’s the point?  Fortunately, this po’ boy stayed in place.  The bread had a nice crisp texture and was not so hard that it was tough to eat.  And it is a great bang for your buck with prices starting at $7.50.

Fried Catfish

The fried catfish is also lightly breaded and flaky.  However, by itself it lacked flavor, but coupled with their creamy homemade tartar sauce it was a home run.  I’m not a big fan of tartar sauce but theirs is so creamy and buttery it’s hard not to want to dip everything into it.

Jambalaya

You get a spoonful of something in every bite.  It’s packed with crab, oyster, crawfish, shrimp, celery, tomato, rice and sausage and it has got a kick to it as every jambalaya should.

The Mecca of Steamed Seafood

Now we get to the good part.  And exactly what I would come here for…their fresh hot boiled seafood which is flown in daily.  All of their hot boiled seafood is cooked to order.  Nothing is washed or cleaned until you place your order.

You choose from their special Garlic Butter or Cajun options but if you’re a flavor lover like me, you can get the whole shebang and choose both.  They will also adjust the spice level for you for those who love a lot of spice in your life to those who like to take things nice and easy.

Tip: Call in advance or come with no major plans afterwards.  Why?  Because it’s made to order, it can take up to 20 minutes to cook your meal.  Plus, it’s oh so saucy.  Like I said not for the dainty or weak-hearted.   You will get your hands dirty because you’ll digging in and it’ll be finger licking good; expect to leave smelling like a pot of Cajun seasonings because the food is heavy with garlic and all other sorts of good old fashioned New Orleans seasonings.

I sampled their crawfish, blue crabs, Dungeness crabs, Alaskan crab legs, and shrimp and everything was cooked to perfection.   The juices all stewed up in the crawfish head, so you can’t help but want to suck out all of its goodness.  There is a meatiness to all of the crabs and they are cooked so well that the meat just slides out of the shell making the eating that much enjoyable.   And when they say fresh, you won’t ever deny that it is after cracking anything open.

With all of that said, the experience was enjoyable.  Anybody want to join me to suck some heads and pinch some tails?

-ADT (Angie)