Charlie’s has excellent reputation that’s well deserved

• By JUDY BERGERON
• Restaurant reviewer
• Published: Oct 23, 2009

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Passing by the plain brick building you’d think it was just another country restaurant. But with the parking lot packed on a rainy Wednesday night, maybe there was something to all the talk we’d been hearing about Charlie’s.

“You’ve got to try the onion rings,” someone had said. “Oh, and the crab cakes,” another said. “And they give you a lot of food.” This last comment was a constant when anyone mentioned Charlie’s to us. This was further affirmed by customer reviews I’d seen online. We agree on all points: thumbs-up on the onion rings and the crab cakes, and yes, be prepared for to-go boxes. Looks like everyone leaves with one. Or two.

Inside the large, nondescript building is a sprawling dining area. The walls are a muted green, and feature wainscoting. Louisiana-themed paintings hang on the walls, and recessed lighting dots the ceiling. Clean and neat but not much on atmosphere, Charlie’s is more of a family, neighborhood kind of place where it’s all about the food.

We started things off with the onion rings ($4.25). A platter of about 20 very large rings arrived, much more than the three of us could eat. They were the old-fashioned kind, with a crunchy, well-seasoned, textured batter surrounding thick rings of onion. Simply delicious.

In  order to sample several different things in one dish, we ordered the crab dinner ($18.75), which consisted of seafood gumbo, crabmeat au gratin, a crab cake, crab fingers and a stuffed crab, along with French fries, bread, hush puppies and a dinner salad.

The dinner salad was a definite notch above the standard, lettuce, tomato and not much  else variety. A generous amount of iceberg lettuce was tossed with tomato chunks, croutons, cucumber slices, shaved carrot, purple onion slices and shredded purple cabbage, with a choice of dressings.

The gumbo was piping hot and quite satisfying, a light brown roux filled with small shrimp, crabmeat and just the right amount of seasonings and rice. The crabmeat au gratin offered a plentiful amount of crab mixed in a creamy, cheesy and rich sauce. Although slightly salty, the dish was still quite good, and, that and the salad could have been a meal in itself. The crab cake was undoubtedly the largest we’ve seen, the size of an average large hamburger and thick as well. The cake was full of tender crab in a nicely-seasoned breading and crunchy coating. Charlie’s added some of the au gratin as a topping, but the flavorful cake could easily stand on its own. The stuffed crab was nicely seasoned as well, with the right balance between crabmeat and breading and a crunchy crust topping it off. About a dozen lightly breaded and fried crab fingers were also delicious.

A guest tried the small seafood pasta ($8.25), and opted for potato salad instead of a dinner salad. The potato salad contained pickles and egg along with the potatoes, but had so little mayonnaise as to make the salad almost dry. The seafood pasta, however, was quite pleasing, with small shrimp, crawfish and pieces of crabmeat in a very cheesy and creamy sauce served over spaghetti. Although this was the “small” version, there was still some to take home.

Charlie’s also has several steaks on the menu, and a guest tackled the 16-ounce ribeye ($19.75). When the waitress asked if he wanted it butterflied, that should  have given us a clue to its size. The steak arrived, filling the plate, and the thickness of two average-sized steaks. The beef had a satisfying, robust flavor, tender, juicy, nicely marbled and mildly seasoned. Grilled shrimp were added as a topping for $5.25. The shrimp were tender and plump and a nice complement to the beef. Salad, bread and French fries also accompanied this dish.

We also enjoyed the cheeseburger po-boy ($7.25, whole). The foot-long sandwich featured thick hamburger patties with a nice grilled flavor, along with melted cheese, shredded lettuce, pickle and tomato.

With the leftovers, we took home two desserts, the bread pudding ($3.25) and the cheesecake  ($5.25). The large square of dense bread pudding was topped with a thick rum sauce. Pecans added extra flavor and crunchiness to the scrumptious pudding. The cheesecake was light and creamy with a generous amount of sweet strawberry sauce and dollops of whipped cream.