La Oie Cajun Cuisine — Restaurant in Vancouver

We keep coming back to La Oie, one of four food carts currently occupying a corner of the parking lot that belongs to Brothers Cascadia Brewing. The move is to order enough food for your party, but plan to rotate entrees so you can try everything. And everything is GOOD. Last night, my wife and I got a bit of a last-minute date night, so we hustled down to Brothers for a couple pints and some solid Cajun fare. Temperature was around 45f with off-and-on rain. The jambalaya (a consistent favorite) and the shrimp etouffee were the perfect thing for dining outdoors under the heaters at Brothers.

What sets La Oie apart? Technique. The shrimps were notably seasoned and cooked perfectly on their own, and only added to their respective dishes upon service, which allowed them to stand out on their own. I don't do this at home, but I think maybe I should. When you're paying a little extra for shrimp, you don't want them to get "lost" in the background flavor, something La Oie has figured out. The rice in both dishes was masterfully steamed. That makes a difference. The jambalaya's sausage was browned nicely, which I'm sure built a lovely fond to season the broth. Real care was obviously taken here, and it comes out in the flavors and textures of the food.

We ended the evening sharing a peanut butter pie and a pecan bread pudding with ice cream. I found the pie a little rich, but that's not unusual for me. My wife absolutely destroyed it. The bread pudding was light and subtle, not overly sweet, and with all the crispy, fluffy, and chewy textural variations I appreciate. It made me so happy.

As I said before, we keep coming back to La Oie. We've eaten there several times since moving to the area a year and a half ago. The food never disappoints and the staff at the cart are friendly and kind, even on a rainy...

(Can't rate the atmosphere as it was a pickup from a food truck.)

This was one of the FEW places that would do pickup on mother's day. We were SO hungry&being turned away for pickup even after driving 20+ mins to other locations. It was SUCH a relief to finally hear such a friendly voice on the phone! They must've been slammed, as they said the order would be about 20mins but took around 45. Whatever, it was a holiday, I figured they probably suddenly got busy.

The man on the phone was friendly and patient when I asked questions(my kiddo has allergies) as well as when I forgot stuff&called back, etc.

But the main thing- ARGH I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the food! It was very tasty. I'm a sucker for mayo on tomato based things, as well as hot sauce, so I put some on the side of my bowl of etouffee. After a couple bites I not only didn't want the mayo or any other condiment, I regretted even having the mayo in there at all&scraped it all out. Their etouffee is delicious as it is and doesn't need to be tampered with. It was also the perfect amount of heat. More than a tiny zing- enough to actually be a little hot, but not too hot. They were not stingy with the shrimp either and the roux was well cooked. I didn't have the heart to steal any of my partners Monté Cristo as he was very hungry, but it looked good.

The beignets- they were tasty&can't complain. Personally, I like them more petite. They make some Big Boys there, so be ready for something more substantial. With the beignets, in my opinion the portion is generous, it takes up the bottom of a standard sized Styrofoam takeout container.

I was bummed I couldn't have their gumbo(it's only served on a certain day of the week) but in the end glad it meant having their etouffee. I'll eat here again if I...

One of my coworkers has eaten here before and said that he'd had really great food from here, and I was really excited to try it out! I even went with him, and I got the Monte Cristo and Etouffe with Smothered Fries. We got there, parking was no problem and the guy helping us was alone, but had really great customer service skills!

We get our food and go back to our work, and I start with the Etouffe. I was prepared for spice, and was not disappointed on that front; however there is a difference between flavorful heat and heat for heats sake, and this tasted like the latter. It wasn't "bad", but I ate it because I ordered it and didn't want to waste it.

The Monte Cristo was much the same. I usually LOVE a good Monte Cristo, but this one left me disappointed. It was VERY fried, and served with syrup instead of jam. I was willing to give that a try, but it didn't really help. The Monte Cristo was so fried I couldn't really taste the cheese or the ham in it, and the syrups flavor just made the grease flavor more pronounced.

Finally, the smothered fries. The fries themselves were fine, if not a bit salty, but the gravy was extremely salty. To the point where salt was the defining flavor.

Overall, I ate all my food because I paid for it, not because I liked it. I'm not sure if it was because it was just the one guy there, or any other amount of factors, but I won't...