Lil' Easy Fine Cajun Food & Bar — Restaurant in Austin

This is going to be a bit of a different Review. For those in a rush: Food: My order: 1 order of Craklin' with a special home made dipping sauce, 2 bottles of water.... To go. My fast take after 3 bites.... Glad no one around me looked maternally, cause it's so good I may have compelled to get to slapping! Cracklin?!?!? This is everything you love about bbq, just right fatty meaty bart of the bite....the smoke so sweet you can ALMOST see the poker game in the back of the place.. Almost. That noise? It's New Orleans coming to reclaim what's rightfully theirs.... Or throw a righteous party for one of their own bringing "da easy" to the city keeping it weird. Go get some of dat culture ASAP! Atmosphere: Check out this dope lil chill spot in a neighborhood that is heavy on the "might be" in this "might be up and coming" Service: I know it's long. No disrespect.. Can ya let a brother cook for a half minute or so? Ill do my best to get this out the door quick. I have become very used to the idea that at any moment, in a variety of ways, the diginity and respect of being an equal to my fellow brethren in the world will be challenged. Disrespected. Possible Violated. Kindness, respect, care and concern for anyone not part of "your group" is in short supply these days. After an enjoyable weekend with friends, great conversation and the like, I'm feeling a bit.. jaded(?) about my fellow humans. Too many social media posts of someone being violated, disrespected or othered for nothing more than existing. This is at the back of my mind walking into Lil Easy. All I want is a bottle or two of water, for my bus ride. I'm prepared for anything. Anything.. Except.. I'm greated with kindness and respect. I politely ask if I can purchase a bottle of water. Asked if I'd like anything else. I ask if I can purchase two. He smiles and says "Two bottles of water, coming right up.", turns and heads through the double doors. That's when I smell the food. It smells delicious. Dispite it being a late aftermoon Sunday, the place has a decent amount of people present. I decide to look at the menu, checking the time. If I'm going to order anything, I needed to do so immediately and keep it as simple as possible. The man that greated me at the door returns, asking If I'd like anything else. I smile and said it depends on how fast their kitchen staff can push an order. I make my selection, and he lets me know they will have it out to me in 5 to 10 minutes. He points to a bench with some comfy looking pillows, and kindly asks if I'd take a seat. Hot, tired, and yeah my knees hurt. Another bit of kindness deeply appreciated. I check my account, and have some additional funds transferred. That's when a young lady, politely walks up to me with a card scanner, tells me the total, and waits. Her energy is patient and kind, as if she has all the time in the world. I'm hurriedly trying to unlock my bank card, not wanting to hold her up froeèm other tables. I show my appreciation for showing me patience and kindness by including a meager tip. I sign, and all seems well. She then says, with not even so much as a hint of anything other than patience, my account was 31 cents short of the full amount. I'll admit, I'm immediately flustered. I'm embarrassed. The money has not transferred. I quickly begin checking my accounts, apologizing rapidly as I quickly reach for a card for another account, funds present. Where is THAT card?!? Ok I can do tap to pay, please one moment. "Sir, it's 31 cents. We got it." She says, with a smile. Nothing in her tone but sincerty and kindness. My stupid pride rears it's ugly head. "I'm so sorry, please just a moment, I have the funds." I set up yap to pay, a function I rarely use. Maybe that's because, once again, I have a phone that DOESNT have NFC as an option. "Sir, it's ok. We got it. It's just 31 cents." She smiles and walks away. That's when the gentleman returns with a small plastic bag, one side hot, the other freezing cold from the two bottles of water, carefully handing me...

You should definitely check out this new restaurant. It has an awesome atmosphere, friendly staff and great food. So why I’m I giving it 3 stars? Well our first visit was fantastic but our second visit was disappointing. I think this restaurant being new is still working out some kinks. Here is what happened:

Our first visit was their soft opening on a Saturday night. We were lucky enough to have some friends bring us along, and that night the restaurant was packed. We must have tried 10 food items and everything was fantastic (except the dry cheese fries) The grilled garlic oysters were to die for, the pork cracklings were amazing, the fried fish and short rib poboy were great as well and the drinks, specially the painkiller were really good. The service was wonderful, we really fell in love with the place.

Then, our second visit was at 2pm on a Thursday, during a relatively slow time for the restaurant.. My wife ordered the Thursday special which was the crawfish etouffe and it was really really good! Easily the best I’ve had in Texas, just that alone totally worth going back for. But I ordered the pork cracklings which I had been dreaming off since my last visit and it was awful. As soon as I saw the dish I could tell something was very different. And sure enough, the taste was off and the last bite I had I had to spit out because it was an absolutely disgusting piece of gooey pork fat paste. I can’t emphasize enough how bad that bite was and I can’t stop thinking about it. Then I noticed the pieces and the bottom of the small bowl looked absolutely different than the pieces that were in top. As if they put the perfectly cooked pieces on top and the grease soaked overcooked pieces at the bottom. I don’t understand how that left the kitchen that way.

Then we got the grilled oyster like last time, they were ok taste wise and each oyster looked different from the other, meaning the seasoning and ingredients added to the oyster were completely inconsistent from one oyster to the other. I don’t understand how it even left the kitchen that way either.

I also had the fried shrimp basket which was ok but it felt like it needed some type of dipping sauce because the dish was dry. The service that day was great, and the hostess very friendly.

I hope management sees this and works out the kinks because this can really be a great staple of the Austin food scene. It has a nice casual atmosphere and the food is elevated. Definitely go check it out and see...

As someone from Southeast Louisiana, and someone who likes good food in general, I’ll never return back to this place. I’ll list the pros and cons below, starting with the pros because the list is much shorter.

Pros: The staff was very nice, and our server was great. He honestly did the best he could with what he had.

Cons: The food is trash. I don’t use that term lightly because I understand food taste can be subjective, but it is not only not good in Cajun food terms…it’s just not good in general. -The Po Boys are made with hoagie rolls….not French bread. Why do knock off Cajun restaurants do this? Laziness? Cost? Ignorance? I feel like that doesn’t need anymore explanation because this alone is enough for me to blacklist any “Cajun Restaurant”. -The gumbo came out cold. Not room temperature….ice cold. It’s obvious they don’t make it fresh, and they didn’t heat it up enough upon taking it out of the freezer. They did take it back to heat it back up, but it was incredibly flavorless, so it wasn’t even worth it. -All 3 people in my party got sick. I literally spent half the night throwing up last night. The only thing everyone in my party shared was the meat pie, so unless they utilize poor storage and handling for multiple food items, the meat pie had to have been the culprit…which is a shame because it was the only decent tasting thing we had. -My debris hoagie (“po boy”) came fully dressed despite asking for no lettuce or tomatoes. I watched the server input it correctly so this was a kitchen issue…which would appear most of this issues are coming from, other than the owner never having tasted Cajun food in their life.

To be completely honest, this restaurant is really an embarrassment. Even if we didn’t get physically sick from the food, I still would never go back. It’s so hard to find a good Cajun restaurant anywhere other than Louisiana, so I understand there will be limitations, but you also shouldn’t market yourself as...