Cypress Grill — Restaurant in Austin

New Orleans is best known for its Mardi Gras festivities: glitzy parades, Bourbon Street bars, and smooth jazz throughout the French Quarter. The Big Easy is also known for its delectable Cajun food, a cusine uniquely American, and made popular by chefs like Paul Prudhomme, Justin Wilson, and Emeril Lagasse.

If you're jonesing for a cup of gumbo or a plate of jambalaya, you can drive over to the Crescent City in seven and a half hours, or hop on a plane that will cut that trip to under two hours. Either solution seems expensive and time-consuming. Don't fret, Cypress Grill has you covered.

When I visited the restaurant last week, we (my wife and I) tried a lot of food to really get a taste of their version of NOLA bayou cooking.

Appetizers: We tried tried the Crawfish Eggrolls ($10.99) and the Boudin Balls ($8.99). I preferred the eggrolls that were stuffed with cheddar jack cheese and jalapeños in addition to fresh crawfish tail meat. While the cheese and jalapeños dominated the first burst of flavor, the crawfish muscle their way through at the finish. Look inside the rolls, Cypress does not skimp on the meat.

My wife preferred the more subtle flavor of the Bouldin Balls, saying the pork sausage and bread crumb mix blended harmoniously and was best when dipped in the house remoulade sauce.

For the main course, my wife was polite and went for one of the house specialties, Atchafalya Catfish ($18.99). I can't pronounce it, so here's what's in it. You take a piece of catfish, bread it, and fry it. Throw it on a bed of dirty rice and completely smother it in Crawfish Etouffée. For those not familiar with what is an etouffée, it's where you poach your protein in a sauce using a boatload of spices, and of course Louisiana's "holy trinity" of peppers, onions and celery to create a roux. Then you hydrate it. I know that's oversimplifying it. This is not a cooking class.

FYI: Etouffée roughly translates to "smother," so when I said earlier they "completely smother it in Crawfish Etouffée," the first smother is a bit redundant. English teachers, am I wrong?

Oh, the fish is...delicious!

Fatty Matty the Cajun Piggy, that's me, couldn't make up his mind. So I ordered a Quarter Muffuletta ($11.99), Jambalaya ($10.99) and two sides the Red Beans & Rice and the Cheese Grits You get 1-2 sides with entrées, otherwise they are $1.99-$2.99 each.

The Red Beans and Rice were killer. I wish my friend David Butler would have been here with me to give them his blessing. He's from New Orleans and makes that dish from scratch.

The jambalaya was also really good. There was no skimping on the andouille sausage or the chicken. I kicked it up a notch by having them add a special Cajun spice on top to increase the heat. My waitress further hooked me up and brought me a bottle of Yellow Bird Habanero Hot Sauce. BOOM! Mouth explosion. Yeah, it was...fire!

The cheese grits were very smooth and perfectly salted. Before I dove into my muffuletta, I asked the waitress if I had tried any other sides. She said yes and brought me a small sample of the mustard greens. I'm so glad she did. There was no bitter aftertaste, and clearly, someone in the kitchen knows how to properly use pork in the recipe. DON'T, forget to order these when you come.

My food coma was starting to set in at this point, probably helped on by the Abita beers. My wife and I each tried a small piece of the muffuletta and saved the rest to take home. Cypress Grill duplicated Central Grocery's masterpiece, masterfully (again, English teachers, can I say that)?

Long review, so look up both the Central Grocery to see the history of the muffuletta and what's actually in it.

Fantastic service, good ambiance, and amazing food. The place was packed and on a wait most of the time we were there. Clearly, people love them and their tasty Cajun...

Really good food, consistently, and a great value. Please bring back the Meatloaf!!!

Cypress Grill, makes the BEST MEATLOAF I have found (outside momma's kitchen of course) in town. but

Cypress Grill meatloaf is PERFECT! The sauce is balanced and tangy, the loaf itself rich yet light, overall it is heavenly. Problem is, they only have it available once in a blue moon, which is tragic! I always pull up their menu hoping the majestic meatloaf will be there, but its a elusive treat!

In comparison, Kerby Lane meatloaf is hit or miss, but the sauce needs more acidy... Oasthouse makes a good meatloaf, but its too dense and the sauce is not it....

When the magic meat loaf is not available at Cypress Grill, I normally order the skinny chicken plate. No joke, I order it at least 3X/week. I always pick the lemon-pepper seasoning, white rice, and broccoli. The chicken is almost always fantastic, and when its not, its still decent and edible.

I am super picky and get the "ick" about food textures very easily, like I can still remember the exact McDonalds where I had a grisly cheese burger as a child, ending my ability to eat them to this day.

Cypress Grill never overcooks their chicken it into firm-hocky puck-oblivion and it seems to be decent quality meat. The chicken doesn't have the weird overprocessed texture other places have, like the chicken breast at Cheddars, they are always, I don't know, sort of "spongy" almost? like the meat texture of the chicken at Cheddars is too plump and tender, in a bad artificial way, (like chicken shouldn't be cuttable with a spoon, it should have some "meat" to it?). That's a rant for another review...

The cobbler options at Cypress Grill are also fantastic! I like the blackberry and mixed berry the most. The ice cream they serve it with is also excellent and never icy/freezer burned.

Pros: Magical Meatloaf(when available); Consistently awesome food, that is minimally processed, and a good fair price; Skinny Chicken plate is great; Broccoli never mushy/overcooked; Cobbler is excellent; They have some of the best gravy i've had in Texas (sort of smokey?), really good with tenders; recyclable takeout packaging (no styrofoam); nice staff, easy to get to

Cons (very few): Meatloaf is rarely available; the online menu system is confusing and could use an upgrade; wish there were other "starch" options than white/dirty rice (wildrice/brown rice/quinoa/cauliflower rice/etc); the silverware provided with takeout orders is unusable (management, if you read this, please try ordering the chicken plate yourself and eating it with the to-go flatware you provide, you'll see what I mean immediately; upgrading to something a tiny bit more substantial would make the eating experience less...

We don't head out for Cajun often, mainly because of Suzie's shellfish allergies. On our way home, after needing some feed after a day downtown, we just went for it. Something a little different than our usual locations we know and enjoy close to home.

Arrived around 6pm and there was a small wait, 15mins and then were seated at a 4-top, which we were grateful for. A little more room to stretch out if you would. Alyssa came by shortly afterwards and we opted for the boudin balls and a couple of wines to start. She noted the allergy and off she went. When she returned with the boudin, we ordered our entrees, Catfish Atchafalaya and Red beans and rice. I opted for fried catfish, yeah do that.

Boudin balls were soft and tasty. Nice and crispy batter outside and I think there were like 7 to an order. Big helping. This would continue with the arrival of my Catfish and Red Beans. We also opted for Mustard greens, as you would, as an additional side. My Catfish filled the plate with a thick layer of etouffee resting on top of a bed of rice. Serious eats here folks. The catfish was piping hot and had a great crunch, even if it was smoothed with etoufee. Spice was on point and the rice was not a mushy mess. Very good and a hearty serving to boot. I only managed to knock back half of it. Nice fresh steamed broccoli came along for the ride. I liked the mustard greens as well. Just a hint of swampy long stewed goodness. I had a spoonful of Suzies Red Beans and the andouille snarsage that came with it. A pretty dang big link to boot. Also well seasoned and filling.

Alyssa was on top of it, friendly and timely. Checked in with us and visited for quick little chats but stayed on course. Excellent service. We choose to pick up a T-Shirt, how touristy, they were cute. I wondered to myself, why has it been so long since we popped by? Cypress seemed to me to be more what you Louisiana mum would cook for you. The meal was meant to be fulfilling, which definitely was. After we got home, I found myself hitting up the fridge to polish off the dish a little later in the evening. Sleep like a bear in hibernation afterwards. Happy we made the right into their big parking lot, then heading for a burger just...