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Seymour's
Harahan: 2216 Hickory Ave. 504-737-3148. Map. WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY WHAT'S GOOD BACKSTORY DINING ROOM ESSENTIAL DISHES FOR BEST RESULTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Casual.
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Seymour's is a neighborhood-style seafood restaurant at the extreme tippy-top of Harahan. With inexpensive apartments on one side and the large, mostly affluent River Ridge on the other, it has a natural clientele.
The menu is a minefield. The better dishes (hamburgers, fried seafood, and seafood pasta dishes) are quite good indeed. The fried stuff comes out hot, crisp with a cornmeal coating, and well seasoned, and never overcooked. But we also find a lot of mediocrity, mostly among the appetizers. The handful of Italian dishes are squarely ordinary.
Although at least two generations were involved, previous appearances of Seymour's date back to the late 1960s, first on Carrollton Avenue just off Canal, then at the entrance to West End Park. It was at its peak in the latter location, where it different from its many neighboring restaurants in having no lake view but its own parking lot. After a long absence from the scene, Seymour's reopened in 2008 in a building formerly occupied by a neighborhood restaurant called Winner's.
The exterior is stark and somewhat uninviting. Inside, however, the walls are painted with faux brick and banana trees, as if one were in a courtyard in the French Quarter. Off to the left, behind closed doors, is a dark bar and video poker machines. Most of the customers seem to be regulars.
Starters
Crab cakes
»Shrimp remoulade or cocktail
Fried cheese sticks
Jalapeno poppers
»Fried eggplant sticks
Chicken wings
Stuffed artichoke
Chicken-andouille gumbo
Soup of the day
Salads
Tomato stuffed with shrimp salad
House or caesar salad, with chicken, shrimp or oysters
Grilled or fried chicken salad
»Chill-down salad (shrimp remoulade and potato salad)
Sandwiches
»Hamburgers
Panned veal poor boy
»Fried shrimp, fish, oyster or soft-shell crab poor boy
Meatball poor boy
Entrees
»Fried shrimp, fish, oyster, soft-shell crab, or combo platter
Stuffed shrimp
»Hamburger steak
Panneed pork chops
Fried chicken tenders
Crab cake
»Crab on crab (soft-shell on crabmeat pasta, cream sauce)
Crabmeat au gratin
Fried sea bass with crabmeat meuniere and fettuccine Alfredo
Meatballs and spaghetti
Eggplant Parmigiana
Eggplant Linda (shrimp and crawfish cream sauce)
A case could be made that the daily lunch specials (the typical lineup for a New Orleans neighborhood place) constitute the best eating here. And although it seems unlikely, the hamburgers are the best for many miles in any direction.
Video poker is a blot on any restaurant with pretenses to seriousness about serving food.
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- Reservations accepted
