If you want to eat seafood, look for water and boats. Believing this to be true, seafood restaurants and their customers are inexorably brought together. Sometimes it results in happiness all around, as it does at Orlando's in Madisonville, a small town built on the dock-lined banks of the tidal southern extremity of the Tchefuncte River.
Orlando's opened adjacent to the related Frog's Pizza in late 2009. It was and so far remains the last business at the western edge of Madisonville, but still close enough to be thought of in connection with the half-dozen or so other eateries there.
It looks like any of hundreds of seafood restaurants along the Gulf Coast, but brighter and more spacious than most. Panels of wood in natural colors are covered with crabnets, mounted fish, rods and reels, oars, paintings of alligators and the like. In the new look of the post-K era, the restaurant is two-thirds of a flight of steps up, to lift it out of potential hurricane tides. The service staff is friendly and bright, but gaps open up in the delivery of the food.
Check the specials board on the way in to note whether the excellent grilled oysters are on, and whether any good local fish has come in. Appetizers are super-sized, so consider splitting one for two.
| Attitude | 2 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 0 |
| Hipness | 0 |
| Local Color | 2 |
| Service | 0 |
| Value | 2 |
| Wine | 0 |
