Jason Seither grew up boiling crawfish in the backyard with his father, a fisherman, and cooking beside his mother, which explains half of what comes out of his kitchen on Hickory Avenue.
The other half is harder to account for. Seither opened his restaurant in Harahan in 2004, and the menu has been drifting somewhere unexpected ever since. Southern fried crab fingers meet Japanese sauces and seared eel in a dish called Kung Fu Tuna. The Volcano arrives as an upside-down Asian-style taco salad built with fresh ahi, crab salad, and shrimp. The Totem Pole stacks crab stuffing, crispy soft-shell crab, fried eggplant, and a shrimp kabob into a tower. There is a sushi po-boy with snow crab and eel that has won awards at the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival.
None of that shows on the outside. The building sits behind a parking lot paved with old oyster shells, the menus are laminated, and nobody has spent a dollar on the facade in twenty years. Reviewers keep writing some version of the same sentence about not letting the exterior fool you.
Traditionalists have plenty to work with. Louisiana Cookin’ named Seither’s the best place in the state for boiled crawfish, and the boiled platters come loaded with blue crab, Gulf shrimp, and crawfish alongside boiled potatoes, corn, mushrooms, and carrots. The seasoning carries real heat. The house-made hot sauce has followed more than one visitor home. Gumbo Ya Ya covers the traditional side, and the fried platters, soft-shell crab, and blackened catfish handle the rest.
The po-boy list is where the restaurant built its reputation. A Killer Roast Beef, a blackened shrimp and avocado, a boiled shrimp version, and a barbecue shrimp and andouille sausage all appear. The Delacroix nachos pile blackened Gulf fish, boiled shrimp, salsa, avocado, and spicy mayonnaise over chips. Crawfish rangoons open a lot of meals. Psychedelic crab claws divide opinion, which is what happens when a kitchen puts sriracha on blue crab.
Guy Fieri filmed here for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and the national attention did not change the room. Live local music plays on the weekends in the parking lot, and there is no cover. Seating runs indoors and out, with four dog-friendly tables outside. Boiled specials rotate, and regulars watch for them.
Getting there takes about twenty minutes from downtown New Orleans, straight up Jefferson Highway. The address is 279 Hickory Avenue in Harahan, a few blocks off the highway near the river levee. Anyone searching for it near Lake Pontchartrain or in Kenner will end up in the wrong part of the parish.
Hours need a phone call. Current listings show Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., with Sunday and Monday closed. Older listings show a longer week and a 9 p.m. Friday close. The number is (504) 738-1116, and the restaurant takes reservations, takeout, and delivery.
Go on a weekend night, sit outside while the band sets up, and order one thing you recognize and one thing you do not.
