J's parents and us together had a joint-birthday-dinner at Acadiana, a restaurant in DC serving contemporary Southern Louisiana-style cooking.
It was the first visit for all of us. It's always fun to try a new place! Following sparkling water, our server brought warm biscuits with sweet jalapeño jam and cream cheese. Biscuits were ok, but pretty salty. The jam was weird...
Our appetizer was charbroiled oysters, which many yelpers recommended. We ordered two platters so that we all could enjoy three pieces. They were pretty good! Really good!
My first dish was roasted sweet corn and blue crab soup. As a corn lover, I liked the soup very much. Not spicy. There were a lot of crab meat too.
J had smoked chicken and andouille sausage gumbo. I tasted a bit. It was smokey!
J's parents shared Louisiana crawfish étouffée. It looked nice. I like any stew with rice.
It was difficult to choose a main dish. After staring hard at the menu, I narrowed candidates into three: pan crisped roasted duck, Southern shrimp & grits, or New Orleans style BBQ shrimp. The finalist was BBQ shrimp. The dish came with a mini loaf of bread to dip it into the sauce. I don't have any references because I haven't had BBQ shrimp before, but it was fine but honestly I wasn't impressed.
J got today's special fish dish. I tasted a little of fish and a fried oyster. I thought it was very nice.
J's mother had duck. It looked great! I hope she enjoyed her meal.
I think J's father ordered catfish. The presentation was unique as it was seen...
At the end we got a lovely complimentary sweets with a chocolate-written "happy birthday" wish and a candle. How sweet! Several kinds of candies enough for four of us to share. Glad we didn't order any desserts.
Even though it was an awful windy freezing evening, the restaurant was very crowded by the time we left. The service was not bad but somehow slow. It wasn't a problem for us because we were at a cozy box sheet and enjoyed nice chatting. Happy birthday everyone and me!
