Blue Crab Beignets - La Petite Grocery, New Orleans, LA
To be fair, we admit that our issue was right there in the title: SMALL PLATES, BIG TASTE. That is the Best Thing I Ever Ate episode on which Alex Guarnaschelli featured the blue crab beignets from Le Petite Grocery in New Orleans. So perhaps we should have heeded the warning on the whole "small plates" of it all. But what the episode title should have also included was the phrase "GIANT PRICETAG."
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| Apparently You Have to Pay a Lot More Coins for a James Beard Award |
Look, Vodka lives in New York City. She is rarely shocked by restaurant prices outside of the Big Apple, because at worst, they tend to be on par with what she's used to. But said blue crab beignets cost $21, and there are exactly three (3) of them served on the plate. That is $7 each for an item roughly the size of an engorged tater tot!
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| We Could Buy Three Dunkin' Donuts for the Cost of One of These Suckers! |
Were the blue crab beignets tasty? Sure. Was the accompanying malt vinegar aioli a pleasing addition? Yeah, okay. Was each one worth the price of an egg and cheese sandwich in New York City? Absolutely not.
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| Also, the Presentation-Via-Napkin Leaves Something to Be Desired |
The rest of our meal at La Petite Grocery was pleasant enough, but clearly not so much that Vodka took any notes about it (so guess for yourself what these dishes are).
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| Whatever They Were, They Probably Cost Less Than the Beignets |
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| Mystery Shrimp and Grits |
The butterscotch pudding was the highlight of the evening, though even that is described on the menu as being served alongside "cookies," when we received... a single cookie. (At $10, this is still a far better bang for your buck than those pesky beignets, even if half the promised cookies got left behind.)
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| The Cookies Are In the Kitchen with the Rest of Our Beignets |
Overall, perhaps it is best that Vodka, due to her lack of access to the Cooking Channel, cannot watch these new episodes of Best Thing I Ever Ate, as the dishes from this second incarnation of the program have been decidedly more lackluster than their previous counterparts. Still, New Orleans remains one of the top culinary mainstays of any city we have ever visited... just not at New York City prices.
La Petite Grocery's Blue Crab Beignets: 3 stars
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