Flaming Out

Our son was here over the holiday weekend with the kids. And kids like excitement. And Jude misses his hometown food. It seemed a perfect choice to visit Drago’s for lunch: chargrilled oysters for Dad, and chargrilling flames for the kids.

Truthfully, that last thing mentioned was the main reason I thought we should go. Unfortunately, the chargrilled oysters at their place of origin are the least good out there, having been surpassed in goodness by all the copycats. It seems to me that everyone has better chargrilled oysters than Drago’s now.

And when we arrived the 12-foot-high flames weren’t even dancing. Still. it was nice to be back in the house where we have so many memories. Miss Klara was at the front as always, welcoming her guests as she has all these years. The restaurant’s namesake was not in his spot at the front of the house as he had been for so many years, having succumbed 5 years ago to the same disease that now plagues our lives.

But a trip to Drago’s is always sweet. We have too much history there to not smile. Many Eat Clubs and cruise dinners with lobsters galore have been celebrated in the room upstairs. We go so far back at this place that we remember the Croatian menu.

There was so much on the table this day that it was hard not to find something to love. The chargrilled oysters were not as charred as they have lately been, but one dozen worked for all of us.

Drago’s has been getting into gator in a big way in recent years. One day my family was visiting and they sent out gator tacos that were a big hit. This time Klara sent out gator bites that mostly Tom enjoyed, but enjoy them he did.

Jude ordered a chicken andouille gumbo but a seafood arrived, and we didn’t much care for it. They then sent out the other kind and we liked that better, but it definitely wasn’t among the best we have had.

We ordered some boudin balls and fried eggplant appetizers, and both had that too-dark trademark for fried foods. The boudin balls were, well, damp. Too soft.

The eggplant sticks were better than the boudin balls.

What I do think Drago’s does better than most is their seafood pasta. Shrimp and crabmeat in a cream sauce are tossed over pasta. This is superb, exceptional in the crowd. I was not hungry enough to get such a large portion, so I skipped it this day. I did get what I think is the very best thing here, which is their Fleur de Lis Shrimp. Drago's has the number one poached recipe in town, the chargrilled oysters, but they were the first to poach the number two copied recipe from Bonefish Grill. These are fried shrimp tossed in a spicy cream sauce and covered with chopped peanuts. I find this dish irresistible.

The last of the appetizers was spinach dip, which looked unappealing but tasted quite nice. This came with large fried tortilla chips, and was surprisingly good.

There were two Caesar salads on the table that weren't eaten because there was a sweet taste to the dressing.

We also got a fried seafood combo platter, which came with fries and onion rings. The onion rings were the thick variety, the fries were ordinary frozen ones, and the oysters and shrimp were good. The shrimp were large and fried well, the oysters a little less so. Overall it was a decent platter.

The scene at Drago’s is always fun and buzzy, and you are likely to see people you know. We like the very friendly service as well. The food is fine but just average, and not something you will ever think about again. Nor will you be inclined to rush back to have it, which is too bad for an institution like this.