I was invited to Lafayette, Louisiana for Mardi Gras. I immediately wondered if I would find the same amazing Cajun and Creole food there that I’ve enjoyed in New Orleans. And I hoped it would perhaps be more kid-friendly.
And indeed, I found enough delicious gumbo, boudain and king cake that my waist-band got a little bit tighter during my five-day stay. And the restaurants were less expensive and more laid-back and family-friendly many of the Big Easy’s high-profile eateries.
Lafayette has a small downtown, and we had some of the best authentic local food beyond it, in strip malls, a boxy catering hall and what appeared to be a local grocery store. A good food tour does some of the legwork for you, but you can also do pretty well on your own with Google Maps.
Remember that portions are generous and the food is rich; sharing is often a good idea. Some places have kids’ menus. If they don’t, check out the sides and appetizers. Most places will work with you to find something your child will eat.
Here are seven Lafayette-area restaurants I enjoyed immensely when I visited.
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Things to do with kids around Lafayette (including my Mardi Gras tips!)
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7 Kid-Friendly Lafayette Restaurants For Yummy Gumbo, Grillades & King Cake
Start With Breakfast Restaurants
1. A light breakfast
I stopped by Poupart Bakery for its Louisiana-style king cake, replete with cream cheese filling and green, purple and gold-colored sugar on top. But this bakery, started by a French baker who transplanted himself here in the 1960s, is a great place for a light breakfast.
Order of a cup of Baton-Rouge-based Community Coffee and choose from plain and filled croissants, quiche, Danish, tarts, biscuits, cinnamon rolls and flaky, caramelized kouign-amann, which sell out early.
In the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras they have boxes of local king cake ready to go. You can also order a traditional French-style king cake, with puff pastry and almond cream filling, which I like better than the cream cheese. They’re less sweet but also less colorful. You can’t go too far wrong with either.
2. A hardy breakfast
You can’t go home without having breakfast at The French Press, but don’t plan to eat for the rest of the day after you do.
The chef enjoys putting a quirky spin on classic local ingredients. Make sure to order a side or two of praline bacon for the table. It delivers that addictive salt-sugar-fat combo made perfect with a dab of Tabasco.
Their signature breakfast dish is the “sweet baby breesus,” which puts three fried boudin balls on biscuits with bacon and tops it off with locally made Steen’s Cane Syrup. It takes that sugar-salty-fat-combo to a whole new level.
I had grits and grillades (bits of meat), topped with eggs, a rich and savory breakfast dish that was new to me and that I really enjoyed. The Cajun Benedict, which pairs poached eggs with boudin and gumbo, is also worth ordering. Most egg dishes come with cheese grits or potatoes.
Kids can opt for chicken and waffles, stuffed French toast or enormous pancakes (definitely ask for a half order). You can also just ask for a scrambled egg with a biscuit or side of potatoes.
French Press is one of those restaurants located in a strip mall, in this case about 25 minutes from the town center.
What’s Boudin?
Boudin is a French word for sausage. Ask for it in different parts of Louisiana and you’ll get slightly different things. In this part of the state it’s a rice and pork sausage that can be loosely packed when it’s handmade. It’s often tossed in with other ingredients but try to eat it plain at least once to get a real sense of the flavor and texture.
Pause For Casual & Cheap Lunch Restaurants
3. Classic Po’Boys
I can count on one hand the number of sandwiches I’ve had that I thought were transcendent. I had one of them at Old Tyme Grocery, a hole in the wall buried deep in one of Lafayette’s modest residential neighborhoods.
From the outside, it looks like any other vinyl-sided corner grocery. The front room has a counter for ordering po’boy sandwiches to-go and refrigerator cases with bottled beer and soda.
Proceed to the backroom to a cozy sit-down space with curtains, wooden tables and a hurried but helpful waiter. The things to get are the fried seafood po’boys: crispy oysters or shrimp any day, catfish on Fridays and crayfish during lent.
If you can’t make up your mind between two of them, ask for a half-and-half. But bring someone to share with. Half-sandwiches are available and are an ample meal for most people.
Old Tyme’s po’boys come with thick and crunchy Zappo’s potato chips, or you can order fries. The thick-cut fries are hot, salty and crisp, but on top of the sandwiches, one order is enough for four-to-six people to share.
Kids can order sandwiches on sliced white bread. In the summer, the grocery runs a snow cone stand next door, the perfect incentive to get them to finish their meal.
4. Old-fashioned ice cream
Borden’s isn’t the least bit Cajun, but the one is Lafayette is the last one left in the country. And if you — or more likely your kids — need a break from all that rich Louisiana cooking, the vinyl booths, old-fashioned counter and 23 ice cream flavors can make for a nice change.
They have modern flavors kids love, like birthday cake and cotton candy. But I appreciated the hard-to-find old-fashioned choices like peppermint (one of my favorites), vanilla-fudge swirl, butter and orange sherbet.
The savory food menu is limited to hot dogs, chili, nachos and Frito pie. You can indulge in these childhood favorites or skip them and just go for the old-fashioned sundaes, banana splits and ice cream drinks.
Sample Everything Cajun at Dinner Restaurants
5. An Out-of-the-Way Favorite
At the tail end of several days of amazing eating, Randol’s Seafood Restaurant & Dance Hall still stood out.
If they’re in season, order boiled crayfish by the pound. You haven’t experienced Cajun Country until you’ve eaten a plateful of seasoned crayfish tails.
Fresh oysters, dark gumbos and rich bisques are uniformly excellent. The boudin balls might have been the best I had (and I had them almost everywhere I went). The spinach and artichoke dip is a departure from the rest of the menu but is warm, gooey goodness.
This is one of those places where it’s better to order a bunch of plates to share rather than stick to entrées. Everyone will want what everyone else is eating anyway.
There was live music the night we ate there, but the dance hall is glassed off from the rest of the place, so the music is there in the background, but not overwhelmingly loud.
7. A busy downtown standby
We went to Don’s Seafood and Steakhouse before watching one of the many parades that roll right by its doors. Needless to say it’s crowded, loud and perhaps not the most kid-friendly restaurant during Mardi Gras season.
For any other time of year, it’s a reliable standby with something for everyone: Good cocktails, a kids menu and killer gumbos alongside steaks and simple fish dishes.
If you like okra (I do!), try it fried as an appetizer, or in the shrimp gumbo. Hush puppies and batter-fried green beans are reliable kid favorites from the main menu, and adults will also dig into them, too. The only thing that disappointed me were the dry alligator bites.
The seafood salad is the thing to get if you want something that isn’t fried or in a roux. The chicken and sausage gumbo was perfect on a chilly night and the shrimp rémoulade is a good version of this classic.
If you want all the flavor and spice of Cajun country, Lafayette is a great place to try all the foods that make Louisiana unique.
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* I was the guest of Visit Lafayette for most of these meals. I did not agree to any particular coverage in exchange for the meals. My opinions are always our own.
* All photos by Eileen Gunn© except those pastries (Poupart Bakery).