Beware the Counterfeit Cajun. Lean Creole instead.
Despite what you’ve been told, New Orleans isn’t the place where you want to track down true Cajun food. Unfortunately for the city-bound, true Cajun food comes from the smaller communities in the rural part of the state.
Sure, you’ll find plenty of “CAJUN STYLE” dishes on local menus — things that are blackened, boiled crawfish, things in a “Cajun cream sauce” — but they’re basically there because the tourists started expecting them in the mid-80s. If you want the real stuff, you’ll have to go about two hours west to the region of Louisiana known as Acadiana (or Cajun Country).
There’s one exception to the rule — a great middlebrow restaurant called Cochon (on Tchopitoulas Street in the Warehouse District). Chef Donald Link (born and raised deep in Cajun Country) and his Puerco-centric partner in crime Steven Strejewski go whole hog in bringing the spirit, flavors and soul of Cajun cuisine to a urbane, small-plate centric joint in the Warehouse District. Click here for more info.
Otherwise, give the Cajun stuff a pass. There’s too much good New Orleans food to get stuck with imitation Cajun.