New Orleans Seafood & Steakhouse — Restaurant in Toronto

Their business card states, "When the last bite is as good as the first, that's cajun." I would beg to slightly differ. In my experience I would say, "That's New Orleans Seafood & Steakhouse!" In my 76 years, I've had the opportunity to travel through more than a few of the countries in the world, while sampling a wide variety of cuisines, and NEVER have I had better food in a more welcoming, friendly environment. Tables are covered with two red and white cloths and adorned with a fresh rose. New Orleans Seafood & Steakhouse is the hidden gem of Etobicoke. You must go for the best dining experience ever, served in a classy, comfortable dining room and attended to by not one, but many pleasant, well trained staff. The owner, Mike, is a special treat all in himself. He does not miss a table and bestows upon each one an individual attention that seems almost impossible for one man to accomplish in a many-tabled room. When Mike stops at your table, he leaves you with the feeling that you are the only one he has ever had the pleasure to feed. His brown eyes have a mischievous twinkle above a ready smile that is inviting and genuinely warm. His conversation is comfortable and friendly and sneaky. In our one-on-one time with him he learned I was visiting Ontario from Calgary and my girlfriend and I were celebrating our June birthdays. Mine had been the 24th and Joanne's was that day. Have I mentioned the food? The FIVE STAR, amazing food! Beautifully presented and spiced with a deft and knowing hand in true cajun tradition. My girlfriend had the salmon and I had the lamb chops! Portions were more than generous and neither of us were able to clean our plates which meant another delicious meal was to be had from our leftovers. I want to say how tender and flavourful the lamb chops were; only the fresh, seared al dente vegetables seriously threatened to show them up. Of course we shared so I got to taste the melt-in-your-mouth, perfectly grilled, salmon that gave me a jolt of pure Pelican envy, wishing for a beak that could hold more than my belly can! Being much too full to think of ordering dessert we basked in the last of our wines chosen from a broad cellar selection and chatted. Even though it was still early in the evening and the dining room was full, we felt no pressure to get up and leave. Mike arrived again at our table and said they would like to give us complimentary birthday desserts and to please take our choice from the menu. Surprised, we both chose the creme caramel which was served on a large dinner plate with a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY written in chocolate and with a lit candle! Even though we were bursting at the seams we both managed to find room to scrape the last bite of eggy caramel goodness, with a touch of semi-sweet chocolate bark, making it a piece de resistance. Now drowning in our decadent fullness we were served with one more surprise in a small, fluted aperitif. At first taste we thought Sambuca, but the taste was too smooth so we asked one of the waiters and found it was a delightful mix of frangelico and white creme de menthe. Mmmmmm. And there you have it! The cat is out of the bag! New Orleans Seafood & Steakhouse is the place to go for your best dining...

A fine dining experience that delivers amazing cajun flavours in an unexpected location!

I’ve lived in the area most of my life and have always felt the area was lacking when it came to restaurant options, even in regards to take out. I probably have driven past New Orleans Seafood & Steakhouse hundreds of times coming home and never noticed it until I saw it pop up on google maps when looking for cajun restaurants in Toronto. Boy am I happy it did, because this has become easily the best restaurant in the area when factoring everything.

First the location and service. The location is a lacking point, as the restaurant itself is very small and probably fits less than 30 people max. Although its size, it doesn’t get too loud in the restaurant and the interior design is very formal and has a hint of New Orleans culture. As for service, the family running this restaurant are incredibly kind and welcoming, the person I presume to be the owner was around making jokes with patrons and checking in on all of us, ensuring our glasses are full, and all requests are answered.

Now onto the food, man does this place hit the spot. I’ve wanted to try cajun food for years but never thought a place like this would be so close to home. We started our meal with the crab cakes that do come in a serving of two.

Without asking, we were presented our crab cakes on separate plates perfectly plated for myself and my date. Fried to perfection, tender inside but not mushy. Accompanied by a bouquet of fresh veggies, this was a great start to the meal alongside the complimentary bread.

Onto our main dish, there were a couple options on the menu I wanted to try, but I felt Jambalaya had to be my first deep dive into cajun food. This dish, although being priced highly, is a hefty portion and easily feeds 2-3 people. The rice, the sausages, the various seafood, all of it was just amazing and fulfilled all my expectations and maybe even exceeded them.

This restaurant has become the best fine dining restaurant in the area to me and will now become my go to spot for going out to celebrate...

The restaurant is small and quaint. True to the name, the music played and the decor largely reminds you of New Orleans. The food tasted delicious.

Two at the table ordered the Rib-eye Steak. One loved their meal and had no issues. The other found the Steak under-seasoned and repeatedly added salt throughout their meal. Now obviously this is entirely a preference thing, but just an FYI to those that like their meat more seasoned.

Further, there were a couple of concerns we had. Not issues, but concerns. For example, I ordered the Creole Pasta. The menu stated that the pasta type was Penne. The type of pasta I got was Rotini. Now, again, not an issue, but I was not told of the change to the stated menu item, which clearly described the dish as being made with Penne.

Second, we ordered as a table, two Calamari appetizers to be shared towards the entire table. This was then brought out on 4 separate plates already divided behind the scenes within the kitchen. This contained 4 pieces along with a single serving salad per person.

We were told it was, "So we didn't have to worry about dividing it up ourselves". While I appreciate the sentiment and at the time of this occurring, we thought nothing of it, once I got my main and saw that it had changed, this now leads us to immediately think what else was changed without our knowing? Were the portions of the Calamari reduced without our knowing?

A number of decisions were made by the restaurant that took control of the night away from the customer. Again, they weren't issues per se, nothing outright wrong, but a couple flags that could potentially be issues.

Just a warning to those that have not eaten here before. The restaurant clearly decides to take any sort of control of your meal out of your hands and makes unilateral decisions that impact your entire dish. Now I have minimal doubt that there was any malicious intent, but given that an entire dish's main ingredient was substituted without so much as a heads up, there's now doubt. Hence the 3 stars instead of the 4 that this place...