Kelly's Cajun Kitchen

OUT AND ABOUT

Kelly’s Cajun Grill
584 West Prien Lake Road (Food Court)
Lake Charles, LA
337-478-0025
www.kellyscajungrill.com

Open the mall is $5 to $10

This food court venue is part of International Restaurant Management Group. Check out the webpage. There are 108 of these in the country. The concept seems to be to use Cajun flavor in Chinese style fish, shrimp and chicken dishes. As far as I am concerned they have succeed for the most part.

First, I tried the seafood plate. You get blackened catfish. Don’t pass it up. It was about the fifth best blackened thing I have eaten. It was not burnt or too salty as most. It possesses an excellent flavored crust with a moist interior. I went with fried shrimp for my second choice. It turned out to be my favorite dish in the Chinese arsenal. Salt and pepper shrimp which are coated with corn starch and wok fried. Then they are wok stirred with a salt and black pepper mixture. Be forewarned they are cooked in shell. Except for the tails they are truly edible. Try to resist peeling them as all the flavor is on the shell. You also get a side item. I went with lo mein (noodles) because they did not have steamed rice only fried rice

Second time I went with the Chicken Plate with a choice of two styles. Mine were Bourbon (their signature
dish) and Cajun Chicken. Again I got lo mein. Both of these options feature boneless and skinless chicken chunks wok cooked with individual sauces added. The Bourbon was dark and rich with a slight sweet undertone and the Cajun tasted like sauce piquante to me. Both chickens were tender, moist and not overcooked

Last time I went for Shrimp Etouffee. Their version consisted of stir fried shrimp in that spicy red sauce with onions, carrots, and jalapenos slices. While quite spicy and tasty, I liked it least of all. This time I got the stir fried rice which turned out be steamed rice with soy sauce. My question is why go to the trouble. Put out white rice.

The lemon chicken and Cajun chicken looked decent. I may have to try them next time I am at the mall. My final thoughts are it is not perfect Cajun but the food is inexpensive and tasty. Certainly worth a try.