Big L's

OUT AND ABOUT
Big L’s Soul Food Hut
1109 13th St
Lake Charles LA
337-564-6619


Monday thru Friday 6 AM to 9 PM $1 to $9

In a space that started out as a tamale joint, this genuine hole in the wall deals out soulful plate lunches. They range from Beef Stew to Pig’s Feet & Tripe depending on what day you come in. While mainly take away there are three tables in front of the counter. They also do a few short order things and offer BBQ plates every day

First go round I opted for Liver and Onions, a favorite of mine. I received two nice slice of beef liver smothered in onion gravy along with yams, mustard green and cornbread. Sometimes mature beef liver can be tough but this had been cleaned properly then cooked correctly. I adored the fork tender texture with a nice liver flavor. The gravy stood out also. The greens proved a little too vinegary for me and the yams ranged from soft to hard. However the cornbread was like my mother use to make, a little on the sweet side. You can bet I loved that

Second time I went for the Oxtails. The flavor was beefy with some kick to it. The gravy followed this model also. While not exactly fall of the bone it was tender and made gnawing on the bone enjoyable. I am a bone gnawer from way back. Oxtail in my opinion is the third beefiest part of the animal with cheeks in first and heart in second. I went with the same sides and got the same result. They also have individual pies here. I got the sweet potato one which featured a crisp sweet dough crust along with sweet spice sweet potato filling, tasted perfect.

I branched out to the BBQ next. I ordered the Pork Steak. The sides include potato salad, beans, and dirty rice. They drizzled some excellent sauce on the excellent meat. It was not enough to drown the meat but compliment it. The meat itself was tender and smoked throughout. The potato salad and rice certainly met the common standard. The beans were soft and had an almost refried texture with nice flavor. I enjoyed ever bite of this dinner.

Last time was Wings & Red Beans. The size of the wings being on the smaller side offered an excellent ration of skin to meat. The crispy crust contained black pepper rather than the red pepper on most fried chicken in this area. This made for a different spicy flavor and one I liked. The beans were cooked but still a little firm for my personal taste. However the flavor and spice made up for this. A major contributor to this was the discs of sausage that they used for seasoning.

Come to this nice friendly place to get some good food and enjoy. I recommend it. Also not a bad thing, they are on the way back to my house from work.