On the way back from Wichita Falls, we passed thru Roanoke, TX. Roanoke sits between Fort Worth and Denton off 35W. This little town has been growing quite a bit in the last few years. It’s downtown area is one of my favorites as it mixes the old with the new with boutiques and many, many delicious restaurants. I’m sure you will find something here for everyone.

My manager recently told me about a new restaurant that she pretty much became addicted to called Bayou Jacks that recently opened up off highway 377 in downtown Roanoke. So new, I can’t find a website for them so you will just have to trust me on this one. On Friday, our team ventured there for lunch (I forgot my camera) and on the way back from Wichita Falls, Sy had to stop to try it out.

The atmosphere is everything Bayou which basically translates to Louisiana, crawfish, gators and spice.

I think I was beginning to embarrass Sy so there isn’t a picture of the full layout of the restaurant however I think you get the jist of it above.

The menu is quite extensive when it comes to variety. Let’s see what I can remember.

Appetizers: Fried Oyster Nachos, Dirty Balls (there was no explanation on the menu for this one for this Northern gal), Fried Gator, Crab Cakes. All the favorites.

Main Course: Bayou Jacks has the usual, poboys and lots of ’em. It’s like Bubba from Forest Gump except with Poboys – shrimp poboy, catfish poboy, oyster poboy, etc.. They also have Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Jambalaya, Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi, Grilled Catfish and Shrimp, Shrimp and Grits. Bayou Jacks also offers a meal where you can choose your meat (Salmon, Catfish, Mahi Mahi, etc) and you can choose to have it grilled or blackened and it comes with rice and veggies. I realize I’m forgetting a few items, many items, but if you are into Cajun or at least want to try it – you shouldn’t have a problem finding an item that tickles your fancy.

Now, I’m going to be honest. When we went with our team on Friday, not everyone was pleased. So for your sake, if you are thinking of trying this place out – I’m going to provide some feedback before I get to the good stuff. They weren’t impressed with the blackened chicken salad (lettuce was off) and the fish and chips (too much batter on the fish).

Now, I had a feeling I was going to venture back to Bayou Jacks (Sy loves some Cajun) so on Friday’s appearance, I tried out the grilled salmon with dirty rice and coleslaw. The grilled salmon was great (kind of hard to screw up grilled salmon), the dirty rice was delicious – the rice was plump and full of flavor and nice cubes of sausage in there. The coleslaw kind of threw me off, although it’s my own fault I mean we are at a Cajun restaurant, right?! It’s a bit spicy but it was good (once I got use to it).

Saturday.

Stop Number Two.

Yea – I’m a sucker for Crab Cakes so I had to try them out.

For $9.99 you will get two crab cakes (featured below) on a bed of lettuce with sides of remoulade, cocktail and tartar sauce. Choose to have them fried or sauteed (I chose sauteed).

You know how sometimes you will go to a restaurant and order crab cakes and you can really taste the crackers in the cakes which they use to hold them together. Not these bad boys! These cakes were all crab. They were moist, flaky and practically melted in your mouth. My only downfall is that I found them a bit expensive for an appetizer but they were delicious.

Sy’s meal of choice: Crawfish Etouffee.

I believe this big ole plate was $9.99.

Loads of crawfish in a tangy and flavorful roue with white rice. I’m lucky I even got a bite off his plate. Saying he loved it is probably an understatement.

Dessert: My favorite! I mean if you say that dessert isn’t your favorite meal you are just lying to yourself here. Bread pudding. That’s all I want to mention. They do have other options but I mean the bread pudding is where it’s at and that’s all you need to know.

Delicious! Scrumptious! Why didn’t they put more on this plate it is so good?! It may be a good thing that I haven’t allowed myself to attempt making bread pudding at home. The bread pudding was scrumptious. Moist and flavorful but when paired with the whiskey sauce it pretty much melted in your mouth. If you tried the whiskey sauce by itself, you could really taste the flavor from the alcohol. Paired perfectly. Price: $4.99.

Overall:

Now I will honestly say that I found some items to be over priced. The appetizers seemed to be closer to $10 each which I find a little pricey for an appetizer. I was honestly expecting a bigger serving of the bread pudding for the price compared to other restaurants which serve the dessert. Poboys are around $8-10. The overall price for a main course is around $10-$13 which isn’t bad.

If you are into Cajun food in North Texas and are just craving some crawfish but can’t get to Louisiana quick enough I would definitely recommend trying out Bayou Jacks. Regardless of the Cajun dish that tickles your fancy, I have no doubt that you will find something here that will fix ya right up!

If you do have a chance to swing by Bayou Jacks, let me know what you think!

Bon Appetite!