Orleans Bistro and Bar — Restaurant in Titusville

Orleans Bistro & Bar 2204 S. Washington Ave., Titusville, FL 32780

4.5 Stars

Arriving at precisely 12:30 PM, I was expecting at least somewhat of a lunch crowd. What I walked into was a ghost town sans the blowing tumbleweeds. As I've said before, an empty place at peak hours does not usually bode well. However, formicating about the bar were a few of Titusville's Finest (wink, wink) so the place wasn't completely void of life.

Lliana is our server today. I don't know if it's the fact that this place is bereft of life or the obnoxiously loud music blasting from somewhere, but Lliana moves like she is stuck in quicksand. She performed her waitress duties to a “T”; it just took forever to get there. I asked for an order of Etouffee with Shrimp and some Creole Cheesy Grits with Fish.

Thankfully, the quicksand did not seem to extend into the kitchen as my food was out in no time. Snapping the mandatory pics, I got to work. First up on the Big Boy's palate was a forkful of the Etouffee with Shrimp. Etouffee literally means smothered or suffocated giving way to the popular Cajun cooking method of “smothering.” It is basically a seafood stew served over rice. The chef nailed this offering of the classic Cajun dish, as I found the flavors to be complex, full-bodied, and downright delicious! The shrimp was undoubtedly not of the fresh variety, but that didn't matter in the least as it was nestled in a sauce of onions, celery, bell peppers and Cajun heat. The Shrimp was tender, succulent and inundated with tastiness.

It was all I could do to move on from this delightful dish, but I wasn't here to enjoy myself, so to speak; I had a job to do. To that end, I turned my focus to the Creole Cheesy Grits with Fish. After one taste of this, I knew it was going to be a go-to place when craving food influenced by the swamps of Louisiana. Consisting of yellow stone ground grits, Swiss, provolone, and cheddar cheese topped with bell peppers and Cajun spices. This was a hard-to-beat dish. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fun, Mardi Gras-themed menu. After all, just like it's always Carnival in Brazil...it's always Mardi Gras in New Orleans!

The Big Boy says, “You don't need to bring beads, just your appetite for a tasty tour of Crescent...

Unusual circumstances! I've been hospitalized for 2 weeks! The hospital food is simply disgusting. My doctor told me if I needed to bring in something, he was fine with that. My spouse knows my likes & dislikes after all this time. So he went on a hunt to find the most delicious lunch we could locate in Titusville. He has errands to run & asked at each location what the best place for lunch was in the area. On his Tire Kingdom errand, he asked the rep that question & the rep told him New Orleans Bistro. It was close. He knows I like seafood & catfish is another favorite of mine. He was confident he has a winner. He got fried shrimp & fried okra bites. Normally way too much fried food for me but as I said "special circumstances" when he walked in I could smell something delicious accompanying him. He looked so pleased & unveiled the most beautifully golden, jumbo fired shrimp 🍤 I've seen in ages. The dish was decorated with okra bites, Cocktail Sauce & Tartar Sauce! 1st bite was sheer heaven! The tartar sauce was given as much thought as the dish itself & was outstanding. Each bite after was increasingly better. The shrimp is the perfect combination of batter & shrimp meat. I don't care for the crumb recipe & this was the perfect fried shrimp batter. The fried okra, also outstanding. It was the best friend shrimp I'd had in years. I forgot to count the shrimp in the order but it was certainly a good quantity. Since my spouse was so kind in assisting me in getting something so terrific, I wanted to share with him & offered him the last half dozen which he seemed to find as delightful as I did. I always try & share with you all, the very best & the part I liked least of my experience. I can't do that this time, I thought every part of my delightful lunch was epicurean perfection! It was a "to go" lunch & I will be going back to find out what other dishes would thrill me as much. By far the very best fried shrimp ever. I hope you will all give it a try. As for me this little boost may have been just what I needed to turn the corner & get the heck out of this...

When Orleans opened at first this was easily a 5 star restaurant but as time went on they slowly went downhill. Recently I have started going places to leave reviews, well I went 2 separate times last week to give the benefit of the doubt. I have to give this 3 stars as of right now and it’s not because of the food. The consistency is way off. On my first visit I ordered one of their martini cocktails & a crawfish boil. The cocktail was poorly made, they had shook it which caused the ice particles to dilute the taste, the rim was half garnished & the half that was garnished was very messy. The crawfish was way over cooked, personally that doesn’t bother me but when they charge the high prices they do, the food should be pristine. I decided to go back 2 days later in hopes for redemption, this time I ordered a fish sandwhich, cole slaw & a muy thai (off the menu). The bartender looked up the ingredients and then made the muy thai, absolutely phenomenal job on it. The food however was subpar. Fish was dry, the onions took up most of the flavor & the cole slaw I swear tasted like it had to be atleast 5 days old. Very disappointing. Thankfully the bar tender and waitress on both times were amazing or else this review would of been a 1 star based off the food. It’s one thing to have food like this if you’re only charging 5$ a meal, but to charge the price they do for the quality they are producing is horrible. I will eventually go in again and update a review, hopefully some things have changed. Once again they were really good when they first opened a...