There is precisely one Cajun restaurant in Salt Lake County where I reside. If you count the Cajun-esque seafood spots where you would describe what they do more as "a boil" then you get a whopping 6 restaurants, though two are multiple locations of the same chain. And I mean, there are some Po' Boys on those menus, but mostly it's baskets of fried things, or bags of boiled things. Which is lovely, and wonderful. But if you want to sit down and order jambalaya, or red beans and rice, you really have to look around.
So imagine my surprise when I went to Logan for a daycation recently, and the Yelp app pulled up a Cajun spot in Cache County.
We rolled in after a lovely hike, quite famished, about 2:30pm. It was pretty quiet in there, with only two other parties. Perfect in the time of COVID, and since everyone working was masked up, we felt good about a dine-in experience.
The ceiling is high and the walls are big, and the menu boards up there are HUGE. We craned our necks to see what we wanted to order, and I was drawn to the platter portion. We ordered jambalaya, and red beans and rice with added sausage and hush puppies. And then, just for funsies, we got the Gator Bites from the Sharesies menu.
They brought out the Gator Bites first, which are, as you guessed, gator nuggets. They're breaded and fried and served over waffle potato chips and served with an aioli. We had some bonus pieces of fried okra in there, but I'm unsure if that's part of it, or if we just got bonus basket finds.
The portions are generous (this would be a theme on every dish) and we dug in. We also tried their sauces, and found the house sauce and the BBQ sauce to be quite good. The BBQ sauce is smoky, the house sauce more creamy.
Then our dishes came out, and they're pretty big. The jambalaya was like 8 or 9 bucks and the red beans and rice was like $7.50 but you add a couple bucks for the meat and hush puppies.
Honestly, the hushpuppies were pretty darn tasty and some of the best I've had. Rather than being dense or hard, they were pretty light and very tasty. My jambalaya as gone in a flash, and I opted for BBQ beans on the side which was nice. I liked the side, but if I had it to do over again, I think I'd get slaw so the cold would tame some of the spice and I would have a nice crunch. But I ain't mad. And it's not too spicy. Spicy enough to make you pause every so often, but not so much you don't want to continue.
The red beans and rice was a massive plate. All of that was good, with the sausage being a highlight. They were generous with everything, but for my taste I like a little more rice, proportionally.
It's not a pure Cajun spot. There are burgers (that marrow butter one looks mighty interesting) and you know they have made concessions in the name of inclusiveness. There's a little fusion going on (Baton Rouge cheesesteak?) but I'm here for it.
The only real misfire is that electric blue ranch. I'm sure some people go nuts for it. But you're already doing a kind of fusion here. And the food stands on its own. Not only did I really not care for the taste, but it was just VERY out of place on the table, and it felt way too gimmicky. Don't let that one criticism keep you away, though. It's just an odd thing and surely it has its own flock of fans.
Nice staff and very quick food, I think we were out the door for $35 which ain't cheap, but gator meat ain't too common in these parts. This would be a fun stop anywhere, but in Cache County, it's a really surprising and delightful place for post-hike lunch (and leftovers!). read more