Oxbow’s Louisiana cuisine prepared with special touch
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It’s been a few years, but those who remember the Oxbow Restaurant from its origins on La. 1 south of New Roads might have one fault to note since it moved: The view through the windows isn’t nearly as scenic as that of False River, which gave the eatery a reason for its name.
Otherwise, there isn’t much to complain about.
The Oxbow has a variety of south Louisiana favorites, all done with a special touch and with attention to detail. The service is friendly without being bothersome. The atmosphere at its second St. Francisville location — from 2001-05, it was at The Myrtles Plantation — has a minimalist elegance.
The crab au gratin ($19.95) has an impressive amount of crab meat, especially since many restaurants like to use bread crumbs as a filler to give the dish some substance. One feature that made this dish different was that, rather than being mixed throughout, the white sauce, crab and cheese were in separate layers. Not bad, but different.
Fried shrimp and oysters are local favorites, and the Oxbow does them extremely well. Although they’re separate menu items, our waitress let us order a combination plate ($16.95), and they were cooked to perfection. That can be a restaurant review cliché, but it fits in this case — larger-than-average shrimp, firm texture, crisp, flaky batter with enough seasoning that the horseradish sauce is a nice addition, but not necessary to give the meal its flavor. We forgot to count the exact number of shrimp and oysters we received, but we didn’t feel cheated. This is served with French fries.
Likewise, the crawfish etouffee ($16.95), another south Louisiana staple, was just the way we liked it — creamy and peppery, but not overly so.
The 12-ounce rib-eye steak ($24.95) was not the best we’ve had in this area, but it was good — tender, with a pleasant marinade whose ingredients we couldn’t readily identify. The kitchen’s interpretation of medium seemed more like medium-well to us, but otherwise it’s a good steak.
The seafood gumbo ($5.95) was OK, but not especially memorable. It could have used more seafood, a bit less pepper.
The two desserts we sampled were excellent. The peach bread pudding ($5.75) was delightful, served hot and with bits of peach mixed in a pudding accented with rum sauce. The strawberry melba ($6.50) features vanilla ice cream with whipped cream, strawberries and raspberry sauce.
On our Friday night visit, the main dining room was busy, though not full, and loud enough that table conversation was sometimes a struggle.
Friday, Apr 04, 2008
3:50 PM