Mulate’s the Original Cajun Restaurant

Good friends of ours Sheral and Bruce, who live in Las Vegas, were in New Orleans for a weekend during Mardi Gras. We were excited to be able to see them! Bruce suggested we meet at Mulate’s, the Original Cajun Restaurant.

As you know, Steve and I have been visiting New Orleans regularly for about 20 years. We have enjoyed food in so many different places there and yet we had never been to Mulate’s. It’s always fun to have new experiences in a place that feels like home. But because of Mardi Gras parades it was quite a challenge to get there!

To save time Steve put the restaurant’s address in our GPS. The problem was that every single street that we were guided to turn on in the French Quarter, was CLOSED DUE TO MARDI GRAS PARADES! So I became the navigator. Once we escaped the madness I called Sheral to explain our problem. As it turned out they were facing a similar issue. They couldn’t get a cab to take them to Mulate’s – DUE TO MARDI GRAS PARADES.

So I suggested they stay put and we’d pick them up where they were waiting on Canal Street. It seemed to take forever, but we finally reached them. A drive that should have taken 15 – 20 minutes from our RV Park to where they were, took an hour or more. By the time we arrived at Mulate’s the Original Cajun Restaurant we were all ravenous.

Fortunately our reservation was still honored and we were seated immediately. The atmosphere was casual and lively. A family was on stage playing Zydeco music and people were dancing in front of the stage.

The menu was quite extensive and we wanted to taste as many dishes as possible. With that in mind we selected a few shareables plus a couple of desserts. Without exception, everything we tasted was delicious.

Mulate’s the Original Cajun Restaurant is famous for celebrating and keeping the food, culture and music that can be found in southern Louisiana bayous and small towns. Taking pride in being true to its roots, the restaurant would not exist if the owner Kerry Boutte hadn’t ventured out of Cajun Country. After exploring restaurants and dance halls in New Orleans, Houston and Europe, Boutte decided to open his own place and share his Cajun experience.

Kerry Boutte grew up in the small Cajun town of Arnaudville LA. Kerry watched his mom Ida, a renowned Cajun cook, prepare everything from gumbo and fried chicken to fried calf’s brain and corn maque choux. She didn’t teach him how to cook. Instead he learned how to appreciate good cooking. Ida Boutte’s recipes are at the root of Mulate’s menu to this day.

According to their website: “Featuring Cajun musicians at Mulate’s not only helped launch a revival of Cajun music. It helped to bring the Cajun culture into the international spotlight. Boutte turned to musicians like Richard and Michael Doucet, who played traditional Cajun music, and to old-timers such as Hector Duhon and Octa Clark. He opened up a space in front of the bandstand and welcomed people to dance. Soon the nights that Mulate’s offered live music were the restaurant’s hottest nights. He gradually added more musicians until the restaurant had live music seven nights a week. Even in its first few years, Mulate’s attracted people from around the world as well as locals. Visitors and travel writers spread the word about how much fun they had at the little restaurant. With the World’s Fair planned for New Orleans in 1984, Boutte saw an opportunity to spread the word even further. He began planning a year in advance, contacting tour bus operators and bringing them to Mulate’s for a taste of what he could provide their customers. In no time more than a hundred busses signed up. When the World’s Fair came around, not only the tour busses, but dozens of other visitors who had read about Mulate’s in newspapers and magazines made the trip to Cajun Country to experience it for themselves.”

And now a little bit about what we ate. We started off with a whole bunch of Chargrilled Oysters. The smoky grilled oysters on the half shell were anointed with butter, garlic and Romano cheese and served with a loaf of French bread to sop up every drop of deliciousness.

Along with the Chargrilled Oysters we shared crispy on the outside and tender on the inside Fried Oysters with a tangy Remoulade to dip them in. In addition to that we had the scrumptious Lump Crab Beignets served with Mascarpone and Remoulade. We love beignets, but the addition of lots of crabmeat inside made for an exceptional bite.

I seem to recall Gumbo or Jambalaya being eaten. But since I don’t have photos to prove it, I could be hallucinating. What I do know is that we managed to inhale a couple of very yummy and over the top desserts.

The first of those decadent desserts was Mulate’s Famous Bread Pudding with Butter Rum Sauce. It was sweet, but not too sweet. Perfect actually.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also shared the incredible Nutella Crème Stuffed Beignets dusted with the perfect amount of powdered sugar. The beignet are served warm so the hazelnut flavored chocolatey filling just oozes into your mouth.

The four of us were certainly glad that Kerry Boutte had such wonderful vision!