It was our anniversary weekend and we decided to make the 4 hour drive up to Orlandeaux’s. My wife had gone there on a business trip and told me how good the food was. We arrived just before 5pm and I was thinking that we would walk right in being that it was so early. Wrong! (That’s code for make reservations) It was 1.5 hrs wait. We enjoyed the scenery (the lake & birds) while we waited. Finally the buzzer went off and we were seated. The staff were smiling and friendly. As we were ordering our appetizers the waitress told us that they were out of onion rings. I immediately decided that these were fun people and I started teasing about how we had driven all the way from the New Orleans area just for the onion rings. She poured on generous amounts of the I’m sorrys all in good fun. We ordered the boudin balls and zydeco shrimp. Meanwhile looking over the menu I decided I wanted the seafood platter and my wife had the beef tips and mashed potatoes. I noticed that unlike other places that instead of just fries they had options of rice or potatoes and gravy. I told my wife that I suspected that they would be boxed potatoes figuring that they had to cut corners somewhere. She immediately shot back “No 100 year old restaurant would dare offer boxed food.” So I went for it. I’m so glad I did. One of the staff members told me early on that there was no way I’d finish what I had ordered. He didn’t know that we had not eaten all day. I had been challenged!!! Everything was sooo good. We are foodies and I consider myself a very good cook. I’m also a pepperhead. Let me just say that my wife nor I could remember a time where I didn’t add anything to my food. The stuffed shrimp had a nice little kick to it and I liked those very much. But the unexpected star of the meal was the mashed potatoes and gravy. I swear I’ve never had any before that could even be considered as a close rival to these. BTW I lost that challenge. We had enough food for dinner again tonight. The staff were very attentive and super outgoing. I told them that we will definitely be coming back and I’ll definitely be having mashed potatoes and gravy. It is worth the drive period!

As a side note — If you’re reading reviews and noting that there are some negative ones out there about the staff. Let me say this. We all occasionally have a bad day. Sometimes there are factors that are unseen. AND SOMETIMES you get back what you put out. Just my .02