Cajun Soul Bistro & Bar — Restaurant in Cocoa

Cajun Soul Bistro & Bar 333 King Street Cocoa, FL 32922

5 Star

New Brevard County Number 1

When Lady Luck smiles upon you, your life is bright and shiny. Well, I have to say she was beaming at me on Sunday. Cajun Soul Bistro & Bar came up in my random name generator, which happens to be Soul Food Sunday here. Let's just say we've got a new number 1 in the county. This place has been open for about a year and a half, according to my EIC. I had him call to get their back story. While neither Kenya nor Lance were on site, he did speak with Mika. Mika said she had been with Kenya forever, going back to the food truck days. They still have a food truck and use it to cater events and such. Kenya, from Georgia, brings the Soul and Flavor to the menu, while Lance, from Louisiana, adds the Cajun and Heat. Only in America! In the words of Yakov Smirnoff, “What a country!” Manny was my waiter today and he was adequate. He performed his duty with professionalism and slightly above average competency. I asked Manny for some Buttermilk Fried Chicken, one Chitterlings Dinner, a Meatloaf Dinner and some Banana Pudding to round out my incursion into Cajun Soul Bistro & Bar's menu. The day chef was on top of his game as not only was our food out in no time, but take a peep at those pics! The food was plated with care, made with love and served with a goodly portion. Not what it would have been 5 years ago, but bigger than your average “shrinkflation” serving you get these days.

I eagerly wrapped my mits around a piece of fried fowl and ripped off a nice-sized chunk. The chicken was tender, juicy and flavorful, while the batter was obviously applied by hand and just as succulent as the meat. How did they do this? The chicken is marinated in a Buttermilk brine. Yes, you read that right. A Buttermilk brine. Day-um, Kenya! Brilliant!! My chosen sides of Mac & Cheese, Corn bread and Butter beans were on par with the Chicken. The whole thing was a dance of joy on the palate and I was in Southern Heaven.

Forcing myself to move on, I took a cautious taste of the Chitterlings Dinner. I always order this when given the opportunity in a place that serves Soul Food, as it is a disgusting food item and MUST be prepared properly even to be edible, let alone scrumptious. Today, 40 years after my first taste of this Soul Food staple, I found the embodiment of Chitin perfection. Holy Wilbur, Charlotte! I done died and went to Soul Food Heaven. Un. Real.

Once again, I had to force myself to move on as I had a job to do and if I didn't stop “sampling” the chitlins I wouldn't have room for the Meatloaf and Nana’ Pudding. Speaking of the Meatloaf, one bite in and I was in love. It was dense in texture and complex in flavor. The side of Cajun Yams were banging. These were also the BEST collard greens I've ever had. The Candied yams were flawless and the Banana Pudding so freakin' addictive I wanted to buy the whole tray and take it home.

The Big Boy says, “ When the worst thing you can say about a place is that they have above average (not spectacular) service, you have a grand slam home run and we have a new Brevard County Number One....

We went in with high hopes from the reviews. The place was very busy with people waiting for a seat at 6pm. Our server was very nice but had challenges. She would walk away mid sentence as you were ordering something and say, I'll be right back. We ordered appetizers for four people. They showed up timely but were dropped off without plates. I asked the person that dropped them off for four plates. We sat for ten minutes watching the app get cold. Finally, we got four plates. Our order was taken for dinner in good time and it showed up in a reasonable amount of time. I ordered the pork chops and she said they were sold out. On a Saturday at 6pm. That seemed odd. She walked away mid sentence to check and after 10 minutes she came back. Eventually, she said they did have them. The Jumbalaya was good. Large portion. The Shrimp Eteouffee was also a large portion but seemed to be mostly sauce and not a lot of shrimp. The fried catfish was decent. A little mushy. The breading was separating from the fish when you broke it a part. The smothered pork chop was good. The red beans and rice were also good. The collard greens were way too salty. Several of us ordered them but could not eat more than one bite. We mentioned it to the waitress. Not to be rude. To let her know for others. She said we were not the first people to tell her that tonight and the kitchen gave her a hard time when she told them. We had a final round of cocktails and she brought me the wrong drink, after confirming twice which one I wanted. Once the bill arrived she had to redo our bills three times in order to get it done correctly. Like I said, she was very nice but she had a lot of challenges through our time there. The last thing that I will say is that it's extremely loud in there. The acoustics are terrible. It was hard to hold a conversation with the people on the other side of the table. They need to put something on the ceiling and walls to help with that. They have been open a few months now. Maybe it was an off night. Maybe they still have a few things to work out. We will come back at some point but we didn't leave saying we can't wait to return. Service was ok and the food was "good" overall and the atmosphere with the sound...

Wanted to try this place since it opened. I know it’s only been open for almost a month, and they are still going through the pains of getting in the groove of things. A lot different from the food truck they had before. We went on a Sunday afternoon. It was busy, but not packed. In my opinion, they didn’t have enough wait staff for how busy it was. They were hustling and doing the best they could. Staff was friendly. We had to change tables as they originally tried to seat us at a high top by the stage, but my elderly mom was with us and didn’t like sitting at those types of tables. They reset us at a booth on the other side of the restaurant. Our server Colton was very nice. He had to deliver the bad news that they were out of red beans and rice (which one of my group was really looking forward to having). I had the white sangria, my husband got the cat 5 hurricane. Both drinks were underwhelming. My sangria did not have enough juice in it. It was more like a wine spritzer. The cat 5 wasn’t very good either. They weren’t the worst drinks I’ve had, but not great either. I had the chicken fingers basket, my husband got the Sunday catfish dinner. I absolutely LOVED the chicken. It was crispy and juicy and had a whole lot of good flavor going on. My husband really enjoyed his catfish as well. My mom got the chicken fingers basket as well, but substituted collard greens for the French fries. The collard greens were good, but we got the last that they had. Heard our waiter tell another table they were out of collard greens later. Our server explained that on Sunday’s ,people get out of church and come in and wipe them out of a lot of items. They are still learning how to make enough food without making too much that will get thrown out at the end of the night. It was nice knowing that they don’t use leftover food for the next day. Overall, great food, friendly staff, they just have some more growing pains to get through. I think when they get it figured out it will be really good. I would also recommend not having a lot of high top tables as a lot of people have issues sitting up high like that. It’s not comfortable if you’re older or shorter. I will be back again for those...