Tuesday, 8 February, 2011 7:42
by Chris Jay
A tray piled high with steaming crawfish from Kim's Seafood & Po-Boy in Bossier City.
If there's one lesson that we learn quickly as residents of the great State of Louisiana, it's that you can never judge a book by the cover, especially when it comes to restaurants. During the recent Louisiana Travel Promotion Association Summit in Baton Rouge, Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne made reference to "eating four-star seafood in a one-star shack" as a quintessential Louisiana experience. While it isn't exactly located in a shack (we'll get to that later), Kim's Po-Boy & Seafood in Bossier City (901 Benton Road, located in the Kickapoo Corner Shopping Center) immediately came to mind as I heard Lt. Governor Dardenne praise Louisiana's unassumingly fantastic seafood joints.
Kim's is run by a former shrimp boat captain and New Orleans restaurateur who was blown north by Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed his family-owned restaurant. Decked out in New Orleans Saints regalia and Mardi Gras beads year-round, the dining room exudes a love of New Orleans. Framed on one wall, you'll find heartbreaking photos of the first restaurant this family owned, before and after Katrina's floodwaters tore it to pieces. But don't tarry too long with these photos, for the sizable task of selecting something to eat from Kim's 125+ menu items awaits you.
If you're feeling adventurous, warm up your taste buds with a crawfish eggroll for an appetizer. It tastes like exactly what it is: one of those "guilty pleasure" Chinese take-out style egg rolls, stuffed with Louisiana crawfish. When I die, I would like at least one of these placed in my coffin (preferrably a half-dozen or so). For lunch, I definitely recommend trying a po-boy here. The 9-inch shrimp po-boy comes piled high with so many shrimp that it can easily be shared by two people. The reason I love Kim's po-boys is simple: the bread. It is a substantial hunk of crusty, buttered and baked French bread - in short, it is a New Orleans-style po-boy, complete with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes and dill pickles. Kim's will put just about anything on a po-boy for you, including: oysters, shrimp, softshell crab, roast beef, creole hot sausage, turkey or tilapia.
For dinner, I'd recommend going all-out and eating some seafood that makes you work for it. Order up a pile of steamed blue crabs, or a few pounds of crawfish. The proprietors are extremely proud of what they do, and for good reason. This is some of the best blue-collar seafood I've ever tasted. Never mind that it comes with a paper plate.
Lagniappe
View a slideshow of images from Kim's Seafood & Po-Boy
Visit the Urbanspoon.com page for Kim's Seafood & Po-Boy