Don's Seafood Restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Review

Recently, I was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, meeting up with several old friends. During our discussion about different Southern food dishes, someone mentioned that people eat alligator and that it was pretty tasty. Intrigued by the prospect of eating something vaguely reminiscent of a prehistoric dinosaur, we asked a few locals what restaurants they would recommend we try to eat some 'gator. The first place they told us about was Don's Seafood Restaurant, located near by on Airline Hwy (we were staying in the suburb of Baton Rouge, Walker).

Don's Seafood Restaurant is actually a chain of restaurants located mostly in the deep South. They have restaurants all throughout Louisiana . They try to do a country decorating style, with a little bit of southern-style stuff added in for variety sake. The place we visited had a giant alligator head, stuff, placed on top of a barrel full of breath mints. This was probably just random, but we couldn't help but remark that this was some sort of statement about the power of the breath mints.

We got there at a fairly busy time, Saturday evening, and a whole local baseball team showed up as we did, prompting us to consider dining elsewhere. However, the staff assured us that it would be only a 15-20 minute wait so we stuck around. It turned into a 30 minute wait and our table service wasn't exactly stellar-slow, but are waiter for very apologetic and friendly (the baseball team had delayed things for everyone supposedly).

We tried an order of friend alligator as an appetizer. It was a little salty, but still fairly tasty. The best way I can describe alligator meat is as a cross between chicken and halibut. It's a white meat, not quite a bird and not quite a fish. Interestingly enough, for me the alligator meat was similar to frog meat, just in large helpings.

I also had a cup of gumbo and a plate of etoofe(plate of crayfish meat, sauce and rice). Both were quite good, although the price on the gumbo was pretty high ($3.99 for a teensy-tiny cup). Also, it might do to order an extra serving of white rice to go with the latter dish, as they don't give you enough rice to really mix in with the sauce/crayfish meal.

The atmosphere of Don's is pretty rough and country, but in a good way. People were all quite friendly and the decorations were passable (not that you could see them very well, thanks to the uber dim lighting). The staff was also very warm and welcoming, something nice for strangers from out of state.

Don's isn't the nicest seafood restaurant, nor the best priced in the area, but it is a decent place to get together with friends and enjoy some Southern food. I don't know if I'll be back but I did enjoy my experience overall at Don's outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

6823 Airline Hwy
Baton Rouge, LA 70805-4706
(225) 357-0601