A Bourbon Street Adventure

Bourbon Street Menu

The decision to go to Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen was somewhat of a spur of the moment decision. I had asked my three best friends if they wanted to accompany me on this delicious mission, and all of them happily agreed. The original plan was to go to The Magic Time Machine which I had heard from some of my friends was a really fun place. Although, that didn't work out. What had happened was, we were about to leave to go Magic Time Machine, and we hadn't checked the hours it was open. Unfortunately, when my friend reminded me to look up the hours, they weren't open until 5:29 P.M. ! (Yes, 5:29 and not 5:30) That time didn't fit into any of our schedules, so we had to sit and brain storm for awhile as to where we should go to eat. After several minutes of unhelpful suggestions, my friend Cece suggested Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen. None of us had been there before, not even Cece, but Cece had said she heard about it from her sister who had said it was better than Papadeaux, another seafood restaurant that is well loved by many. So we all agreed on Bourbon Street, nobody had ever been, so it was an adventure for all of us! We GPS'd it and were on our way. Luckily it wasn't too far away either. I'm from a suburb town of San Antonio called Converse. It took us a little under fifteen minutes to get there, and it was quite simple. It wasn't near any popular landmarks necessarily, but coming from where I live it was pretty easy to find. We stayed on 1604, passed Rolling Oaks mall, and took the Red Land Road exit. Once you exit there's a stop light, and Bourbon Street is directly to your right, can't miss it!

It was Wednesday, and we got there around 2:00 P.M. So for the duration of the time we were there, there was no one but us. I'm guessing this is because their menu is somewhat pricey, and most people that can afford to eat pricey food were at work! The lowest price for an entree on their menu, I noted was 12.99. When I got out of my friend's car and observed the restaurant's exterior, I wasn't very impressed. It seemed pretty plain, and it was somewhat random placement, with it being in a mini shopping center. Although when I entered, I was much more impressed and quite surprised! The exterior of the building made it seem like the restaurant would have a somewhat plain design on the inside.

A Beautiful Re-creation of Bourbon Street

 Although to my surprise it was decorated with what seemed like a vintage New Orleans theme. As for lighting, it was really dim and different. They used old fashioned street lanterns, and had a large mural on the back wall of Bourbon street. This mural literally took up the entire back wall. Overall the inside was really pretty, and gave the restaurant a unique classy sort of personality as it recreated Bourbon Street. It was very quiet, although it may have been also because, like I mentioned earlier, we were the only one's there for a duration of the time. As soon as the host sat us down, our waiter was coming out to meet us with bread and dipping sauce and ready to take our drink orders. We all decided to try the bread, while he was away. After dipping it in this peculiar green sauce and trying it for the first time, a lot of “MMMMMM” 's filled the air. Then we all  discussed how delicious the sauce was for literally about probably three minutes. It wasn't a sauce that any of us were familiar with and it had great flavor. We were so engrossed in the bread that we hadn't even looked over the menu, so when the waiter came around asking if we were ready to order, we had to ask him to give us a little more time. I decided to ask our waiter what the sauce was made out of, and he responded that it was simply cilantro and olive oil! I would've never guessed something that delicious had that simple of ingredients! I honestly didn't even feel the need to order, I just wanted to eat the bread and cilantro sauce. My friends and I joked about this.

Delicious Cilantro Sauce

We took a while to look over the menu since we had never been there before and there were quite a few dishes that sounded good. The waiter was really patient with us, and came over probably about three times asking us if we were ready to order, and we still needed time to make up our minds. Looking over the menu the first dish that caught my eye was frog legs, which was offered as an appetizer. Now I know what you're thinking, "eewww! frog legs"? Well I have grown up with very curious taste buds, thanks to my grandparents. So I'm really into trying new and strange food. I have heard my dad and grandparents praise frog legs before, and because of that I've always wanted to give them a try. Therefore I grasped onto this opportunity with lots of excitement! We ended up ordering two appetizers, the frog legs, and my friend Sonia ordered fried alligator. All of us had had fried alligator before and liked it, so we agreed we'd help her eat it if she ordered it. Although, only Cece volunteered to help me eat the frog legs if I ordered, Raessa and Sonia were a bit skeptical. When the appetizers were brought out, we all dug in. I was very quick to try a frog leg, and was absolutely swept away by the taste. The frog leg was lightly breaded, and seasoned with what tasted like a buttery lemon pepper sauce. The texture of the frog leg was very similar to dark chicken meat, like the leg or thigh, while the taste was similar to that of cat fish. 

The Lemon zesty frog legs

It was so, so, delicious, I was having a ball. Sonia and Raessa thought I was crazy, but then Cece tried it and joined my happy party. Since both me and Cece liked it, Sonia gave in and decided to try it. She said it tasted good, but also found it very strange. Raessa refused to try it, her excuse was that she had seen a frog earlier that day. After I was done devouring a sufficient amount of frog legs I decided to try a piece of fried alligator, and I wasn't all that impressed. 

Sonia and her Fried Alligator

To me the taste of fried alligator is very similar to fried calamari. I think what made it not so appealing to me was the sauce, which I later learned was Creole. It was the first time I had heard or tasted this sort of sauce. It was kind of spicy and reminded me of Gumbo a little bit. I was at first wanting to order a creole pasta out of curiosity, although after tasting it with the fried alligator, I decided against it. Instead, I decided to go with the Parmesan Shrimp Pasta. Cece decided that the bread and frog legs were enough to make her happy so she just ordered a bowl of Chicken and Sausage gumbo. Sonia decided to go with the Stuff Crab, and Raessa went with the Pecan-crusted Tilapia. The meals came with a salad, and the salad was very simple- just lettuce and dressing. Although sometimes I don't like the taste of some restaurant's Ranch dressing, but I really enjoyed their creamy Ranch dressing. By the time the entrees came out, I was already full due to pigging out on all the other food, but I still tried my Parmesan Shrimp Pasta of course! The pasta was delicious, although similar to a lot of other Parmesan sauce pastas I have tried. The sauce had a cheesy buttery taste with a hint of lemon. Sonia was very happy with her stuff crab, and Cece also with her gumbo. Although Raessa didn't like her pecan crusted tilapia at all. We all gave it a try, and Cece agreed with Raessa that it was nasty, claiming it reminded her of the taste of uncooked Ramen. (This lead us to a humerus conversation over why she knew what un-cooked ramen tasted like.) I tried it, and to me it wasn't bad it just had a very plain taste. The texture, because it was pecan crusted, tasted a lot like fried fish usually does except a bit gravely. The texture not as smooth as that of fried fish. Sonia thought it was good, but for the majority it wasn't something we would order when visiting again. Since everybody had eaten so much of the bread and appetizers, we all had a to go box, except for Cece who ordered the Gumbo. The waiter asked if we wanted dessert, and as delicious as that sounded we had to decline due to over-full bellies. We gave our waiter a pretty good tip for his good sense of humor, quickness, and patience with us taking forever to actually order.

Overall it was a fun delicious experience. Getting to try frog legs for the first time, discovering what Creole tastes like, and having the opportunity to taste the delicious cilantro sauce that came with the bread! I will definitely be visiting Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen again, and I'm very excited to introduce my family to it next! I would recommend everybody who lives in the the San Antonio area to give it a try, and for directions and information visit the link below!


Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen Website