A year ago, I posed the question: Can a very good Cajun restaurant make it in Vero Beach?
Twelve months later, I remain worried about support for Cajun Cove, a smart casual restaurant featuring tasty renditions of the type of cuisine popular in New Orleans.
The eatery on Royal Palm Pointe – with colorful New Orleans street scenes on the red walls – is attractive and spacious. The host is gracious. The servers are excellent. But while management professes that things are going well, it still looks to me like Cajun Cove is in need of more diners.
That’s a bit hard to understand because the food – from the first bite of the warm broccoli-and-cheese corn bread to the last bite of the beignet we had for dessert last week – is mighty good.
On this most recent visit, mindful of the large entrées you get at Cajun Cove, we decided to pass up the appetizers – which we have enjoyed on previous occasions. I started with a house salad, my husband ordered the wedge, and our companion went for the very flavorful white bean, kale and andouille sausage soup.
But if you have a hearty appetite, excellent appetizers that we have had here include the oysters Rockefeller; the fried green tomatoes, fresh and hot on a bed of creamy grits; and the lightly dusted fried Cajun calamari, served with a marinara dip.
For entrées on this most recent visit, our companion and I opted for the paella ($56 for two, $36 for one), and my husband decided to have the seafood special, French Quarter grouper ($36). My husband’s grouper filet was perfectly prepared, sautéed in a light egg batter, and finished with a white wine lemon butter sauce. It was served with a nice selection of al dente vegetables.
The paella was a very interesting take on this dish, loaded with crawfish, shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams, as well as pieces of tasso ham and chicken. It was extremely flavorful, with just a bit of a Cajun kick – and tasted every bit as good as it appears in the photo on this page.
Other dishes we have savored on previous visits include the shrimp and andouille sausage jambalaya – a perfectly prepared rendition of this New Orleans dish – and the chicken Louisiana, a lightly blackened chicken, blended with andouille sausage and tasso ham, and sautéed with fresh peppers and mushrooms in a slightly spicy cream sauce
With entrées ranging from the low $20s to $40, dinner for two with a couple of glasses of beer or wine is likely to run $80 to $100 before tax and tip. Management also says it plans to introduce some lower-priced entrées shortly.
So where are the diners? Many of this area’s fine Italian restaurants have been packed all through season. But this is also a fine restaurant, and it’s nice having the tastes of New Orleans in Vero. If you still haven’t been there, you really should give Cajun Cove a try.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of this newspaper.
