 
|
                        |
Perino's Boiling Pot
Harvey: 3754 West Bank Expy. 504-340-5560. Map.
Very Casual.
AE DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS Perino's ranks highest in my casual count of men wearing white T-shirts in sit-down restaurants. In a boiled seafood house, this is probably a good sign. Boiled seafood is messy, and you don't want to wear your best tie while pulling a crab apart. The people who most love boiled seafood know this, and keep the restaurant focused.
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY Finding a restaurant with boiled seafood is harder than we tend to think it is--even on the West Bank, which has the best seafood markets in the area. Perino's is the definitive West Bank place for making a mess cracking crab shells and peeling shrimp and crawfish hot out of the pot.
WHAT'S GOOD You come here for boiled seafood, and that's what you get. It is very fresh, very well selected, and almost always served still hot from the pot. They understand that eating boiled seafood takes awhile, and there's never the sense that one is being rushed. A few appetizers and seafood platters round out the short menu. If you want a poor boy sandwich, buy a fried seafood basket and, for $2.75, they'll sell you the bread, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayo, etc.
BACKSTORY Sam Perino was a seafood dealer for a long time before he had the idea, in 1972, to open a cafe for his well-regarded take-out boiled seafood. The place did well enough that, twenty years later, it moved across the highway to a more amenable but no more visible location. Eight years after that, Perino's took over an adjacent building and expanded yet again.
DINING ROOM
Boiled seafood and raw oysters--the two main specialities of Perino's--are among the most primitive of dining activities, as they should be. Perino's is right in step with that. Although there's no connection with the motel next door, the exterior doesn't promise much. Inside the place is brighter, spartan but pleasant, with tables a shade too close to one another. On the other hand, when the place gets busy on Friday at lunchtime or Saturday evening, you'll be glad all those tables are there..
[title type="h6"]FULL ONLINE MENU[/title]
BEST DISHES
Starters
Crawfish boudin
Stuffed artichoke
Fried calamari
Gumbo
Raw oysters on the half-shell
Popcorn shrimp salad
Entrees
Boiled crabs, crawfish and shrimp in season
Fried shrimp, oyster, or catfish baskets
Stuffed crab
Fried soft shell crab
Fried crawfish tails
Fried chicken tenders
FOR BEST RESULTS
The tangle of ramps from the West Bank Expressway can be confusing for non-West Bankers. If you're coming from the Crescent City Connection, get off the elevated at the Barataria Boulevard exit, hook a U-turn at the intersection, then stay at ground level in the right lane, headed for the nearby Harvey Tunnel. Perino's is right before you veer into the tunnel.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The seafood platters are served in those plastic baskets that have become common in local seafood restaurants. Plates would be a lot better.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment
- Consistency +2
- Service+1
- Value +2
- Attitude +1
- Wine & Bar
- Hipness -2
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Easy, nearby parking
- No reservations
