Al Mancini on Cravin' Cajun Crab & Crawfish Shack

Nab Cajun cuisine from Lihn Tran, a Vietnamese chef who learned her trade in Texas, at Cravin' Cajun Crab & Crawfish Shack. Food critic Al Mancini from CityLife checks out the restaurant to find that “Tran's bisque is incredible. The broth isn't quite as rich as a typical lobster bisque, but it's silky smooth, delicately sweet and packed with crawfish meat.”

He says the “po' boys are also pretty close to the highest New Orleans standards.” While his jambalaya was a little dry, the plastic bags full of crawfish, snow crabs, king crabs, shrimp, clams or blue crabs arrive at the restaurant live, not frozen. “The seasoning was loaded with garlic, but also had a nice cayenne kick despite the fact I'd ordered them at a medium level of spiciness.”

As John Curtas says, “ELV is not a Jew, but he plays one on this website.” He found no shortage of spices in the dishes at Sababa Grille & Restaurant. “How hot is it? Let’s just say that if Israel lined borders with the stuff, it wouldn’t need all those nuclear weapons.” Curtas finds “a beautifully-seasoned falafel,” “a surpassingly good baba ganoush” and “kabab yerushalmi that atoned for every sin Moses and Abraham ever committed.” [ELV]

Our own Marilyn Hagerty, er, Heidi Knapp Rinella from the Las Vegas Review-Journal visited Sushi Fever this week. “There was nothing bland about the sushi, though. Sushi Fever does, like most sushi bars nowadays, serve fusion rolls in addition to the classics, and I was drawn to a couple of those.” She gives the food an A-, the atmosphere a B-, the service a B and an overall B+. [LVRJ]