Restaurant Review: Fontenot’s Cajun Café, Winter Park, CO

 

While out in Winter Park earlier this month on vacation, the Hubs & I were perusing the local restaurant guides trying to decide where to partake of our evening meal, and I saw the ad for a seafood restaurant called Fontenot’s.  As you can see from my header graphic, I’m quite familiar with the Fontenot name, and knew this had to be a Cajun place.  My in-laws, however, who aren’t really familiar with Cajun food and aren’t as adventurous eaters as us, were a little intimidated by some of the words on the menu.

Us:  They have chicken fried steak…

MIL: I don’t think it’s a regular chicken fried steak… it said something about a “doobie” sauce…

Me: “Doobie sauce???” (Reexamines the online menu) Ohhhhh… that’s “Andouille”.

All the same, they decided to hang out at the condo, so the Hubs & I ventured out on our own.

(Skiers…that’s not something you usually see outside a Cajun restaurant!)

The inside is really cute, with eclectic NOLA-style art on one wall, and a representation of French Quarter balconies over the bar area:

 

First things first—one of the things we were really excited about was that the Restaurant Guide advertised a pretty extensive Happy Hour menu, with entrée options for $15.  However, they’ve changed that, so it’s just drink and large appetizers now.  Grrr… 

We got over it pretty quickly, and reviewed the menu to shift gears (I had really been looking forward to trying that “Doobie Sauce”, but the Chicken Fried Steak at regular price was about $20.)

The Hubs ordered a Cuban po-boy, and I got a Trio of Sliders.

(Tuna, shrimp, and crab/crawfish cake sliders, served with fries and a ginger-lime aioli.  Hubs po-boy is in the background.)

One thing we realized first off is that, while this place was probably more “Cajun” in the past, it seems the current owner/chef has switched gears.  There were a lot of Asian-influenced dishes on the menu, and it seems they’re mainly just focusing on the “seafood” concept. 

The food was great—especially the crab/crawfish cake---chock full of big pieces of crab & crawfish.  The tuna was really fresh & well seasoned.  The Cuban “po-boy” was really flavorful, though the only thing “po-boy” about it was the french bread.

All in all, it was a pretty good dining experience—the service was good, the food had great flavor, but I don’t think I can call this a “Cajun” restaurant, no matter what they put on their check holder: