[jlo mein]

Dropped by Alligator Soul (http://www.alligatorsoulrestaurant.com/) in May on a Saturday night and it was PACKED. All the locals in Everett eat here and its easy to see why. No creole or cajun restaurant in Vancouver comes close to the experience I had at Alligator Soul, the food is simply heart warming good.

Sampled turtle soup, deep fried alligator tail, hush puppies, gumbo, jambalaya, and crawfish etoufee. Everything was good, with the crawfish etoufee being a particularly great standout. Finished the meal off with the dessert beignets which had some banana and caramel sauce.

I highly suggest anyone driving down or back from Seattle should stop in Everett for lunch or dinner at this fantastic restaurant. Its really a shame that Southern food doesn't exist in Vancouver, at least at this level. Forgive the poor photos, I was too impatient to deal with camera settings and wanted to dive into the food.

Hush Puppies
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2489640.jpg

Alligator Bites
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2487640.jpg

Jambalaya with shrimp, crawfish tails, scallops, mussels, and clams
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2483640.jpg

Crawfish Etoufee
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2485640.jpg

Dessert Beignets (do not confuse it with the savory appetizer beignets with crawfish gravy)
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2490640.jpg

Table Sauces (also for sale)
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2478640.jpg

[TVD]

It looks good. I'll make a point of stopping by during my next trip down to Seattle. Thanks :thumbsup:

[Jermyzy]

Looks yummy! Thanks for sharing the place! :thumbsup:

[q0192837465]

thanks for sharing

[K-Dub]

Start blogging. ;)

[jlo mein]

Too much work lol...so much easier to just put it up on Revscene, and hopefully a few will benefit. I'm so excited I'm going to be going back down there again this Saturday for their special Crawfish Boil! Shell crackin' fun!

[K-Dub]

You've already put it here, just copy paste it!

[Hot Karl]

anything else in the hush puppies besides corn?

[jlo mein]

anything else in the hush puppies besides corn?

they're made with corn meal, not actual corn. So it's like small deep fried balls of cornbread.

[hal0g0dv2]

w0w that looks pretty damm good

[KingDeeCee]

WHYYYYY. Why must awesome restaurants locate OUTSIDE of BC.

[jlo mein]

Went back this past weekend for their special Crawfish Boil! Check their website calendar (http://www.alligatorsoulrestaurant.com/calendar/) for remaining dates (June 27 is one of them). I must say that the crawfish boil was very spicy. I like food with some kick but this is definitely for those who like stuff really hot.

Beignets with crawfish gravy. I could eat a meal of this stuff.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_2997640.jpg

1lbs crawfish boil. This was quite big for one person, and they even had a 3lbs version available to share.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_3001640.jpg

Bread pudding with bourbon sauce. I liked the beignet dessert I had previously a lot more.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/jlomein/alligatorsoul/IMG_3010640.jpg

[!SG]

I want to thank you for the review. I went to the states to do some shopping today and with bunch of friends decided to try something new other than heading down to seattle for crabpot.

We ordered the 3lb crawfish, turtle soup, and gator bites. good food and good experience!

also tried their beer flights, $12 bucks gets ya 8 beers, 5oz each. man, they got some really good beers down there!

didnt bring a camera so got some crappy cell phone pics, ill post those up when i get a chance.

the georgia peach hot sauce is absolutely awesome! im gonna take my parents to this place next time as im sure they have never had crawfish before. so hard to eat them! must google next time, but pretty much all u got is the tail, and the brains (if ur asian, u love this shit!)

[jlo mein]

Cool I'm glad you and your party enjoyed yourselves. I would have sucked the heads of all the crawfish but after two I was crying from the spiciness lol. All the spices seem to get collect in the head cavity. If anyone wants to try crawfish without dealing with finicky peeling, get the crawfish etoufee. Its one of the best dishes there.

[6793026]

i've read thsi post over 6 times and i an't wait to go there.

thx for posting up.

[Obsideon]

Aw man I have like a whole bunch of pet Crawfish in my tanks at home ... it would make me a little sad to eat these ... but ... meh I'll just pretend they are baby lobsters! I will definitely try this place next time I head south!

[F1 4ever]

Crawfish looks delicious, anyone know where you can get in Vancouver?

[!SG]

crappy cell phone pics

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs156.snc1/5813_234999405380_530405380_7912975_6818783_n.jpg

Beer Flight...
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs136.snc1/5813_234999325380_530405380_7912970_4808234_n.jpg

3Lbs of crawfish/crayfish
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs136.snc1/5813_234999345380_530405380_7912972_6561316_n.jpg

The largest one from the bunch
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs156.snc1/5813_234999390380_530405380_7912974_6259670_n.jpg

[JulyZerg]

How was it !SG?

[Obsideon]

Damn we went down there yesterday but I misunderstood the Crayfish Boil was a SPECIAL and we didn't get to order it :(
We had:
Hushpuppies - Pretty good, awesome for dipping!
Turtle Soup - It's a VERY strong taste, it feels like it should be more of a sauce than an actual soup
Onion Soup - VERY cheesy, very good onion taste, the cheese was stringy all over the place, AWESOME! One of the best Onion Soups I've ever had!

Alligator Tail Bites - The Alligator meat was very good! Tender but crispy! It was like a cross between eating a Black Cod and Pork!
Crayfish Etoufee - for me this was way too fishy and the tails were so tiny I thought they were baby shrimp... its too bad I missed out on the Crayfish boil ... maybe next time!

The beers they had there were delicious!

[jlo mein]

Turtle Soup - It's a VERY strong taste, it feels like it should be more of a sauce than an actual soup


I brought home some of the turtle soup once, and also had a cup of leftover rice in the fridge. I found it tasted much better with the two mixed together, as like you said, it is strongly flavoured.

[hamsup]

I went with Obsideon on Monday and had the same impressions.. the beer was really good.... and the hush puppies were pretty good too... everything else was BLEH !!! lol..

French Onion Soup was the highlight of the night.. but it is not even that hard to make at home.. lol

[Obsideon]

Haha I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I was tasting the Turtle Soup.. "hmm.. this would go really well mixed with rice" haha ... asian mentality $ .. damn we should have got that "Flight of Beer" haha looks good!.. but then it was just lunch time...

[!SG]

haha, i youtubed how to eat crayfish/crawfish

hahaha,

[jlo mein]

Went down again this past Saturday and my experience was much different than before. Our server informed us that they were very short staffed that evening. It took 45 minutes to get seated, 15 minutes to get our order in, half an hour to get our appetizers and another 40 minutes to get our entrees. Our waiter apologized saying their level of service is never like that, and ended up comping our entire meal and dessert (although I never openly complained). The experience left a sour taste in my mouth, but I think I will return since I've never had a bad experience previously, and if this did happen often at the restaurant, I doubt they would comp our meal.

Started off with beignets and crawfish gravy and hush puppies. The beignets really are a great appetizer, and the gravy makes everything taste better. I tried the deep fried beef brisket po'boy in brown gravy. It came out very dry and seemed like a lackluster effort, with just shredded brisket in bread (nothing else inside), then lightly deep fried, and a weak gravy on top. My girlfriend had the crawfish etoufee, and as always it was fantastic. Ended with a sweet potato pecan pie and its one of the best desserts they have.

[!SG]

call ahead or even email them for the crawfish boil, they dont always have it =/

[Obsideon]

Yeah last time I went I was so excited to try the Crawfish boil but they said they only do it once in a while for special events... they usually fall on Friday/Saturday so I can never go since I work those days ... I hope they eventually do one on a Sunday! :\

[hal0g0dv2]

w0w that food looks so yummy

[hotong]

w0w that food looks so yummy

x2

[ShanghaiKid]

video reminded me of this joint... im so hungry for some crawfish right now

RPeeIKWyQkI&feature=rec-fresh+div-r-7-HM

[HonestTea]

When do they usually have the crawfish boil and is it worth going for just their regular menu without the crawfish boil?

[jlo mein]

When do they usually have the crawfish boil and is it worth going for just their regular menu without the crawfish boil?

You just missed a crawfish boil at Alligator Soul this past March 13. No future boils are on the calendar at the moment (http://www.thealligatorsoul.com/calendar/index.html). They're usually on Saturdays and will become more frequent in the months ahead.

Alligator Soul is definitely worth visiting for the regular menu. I would argue that the crawfish etoufee is a tastier meal than the crawfish boil, as it requires less effort to eat and uses the fat of the crawfish for flavouring (yellow stuff in the head area). Other great offerings include the beignets (savory appitizer with white gravy or sweet dessert), hush puppies, gumbo, and jambalaya.

[Obsideon]

You should join their mailing list if you want updates on when they will have their next Crawfish boil. Seems like they haven't had many recently. I saw only 1 in the last few months? I missed the one on March 13th as it was so last minute... hopefully I will be able to make it out to the next one.

I tried the regular menu, it wasn't "wow" ... but definitely looking forward to try the Crawfish boil!... sucks that it's pretty much ONLY on Saturdays and I have to work :(
(They had one of the best Onion Soups I've ever had)

[HonestTea]

A long fucking drive down there in treacherous weather conditions and it was not worth it, IMO. The drive down there was about 2hrs and 15-30minutes or so if we drove straight there but we elected to stop at Seattle Premium Outlet and Alderwood. At 7pm we left the outlets and made our way towards Alligator Soul, we arrived close to 8pm and got sat right away. Their were A LOT of empty tables and only about 4-5 tables were occupied, but meh we drove all the way here and we might as well try it out.

We ordered three dishes, the Crawfish Etoufee, Crawfish Beigneits and the Crispy Chicken Gumbo. The Crawfish Beigneits were decent but it was mainly just flour and nothing too special. The Crawfish Etoufee wasn't good, small pieces of crawfish and it was too salty. The Crispy Chicken Gumbo tasted like over-salted gravy with over-salted Deep-fried chicken with some rice, definitely not good. They used way too much salt in each of their Gumbo and Etoufee dish.

It was quite disappointing after hearing the rave reviews from a few RS members but I personally would not be coming back to this place, I think I'd rather eat @ Eagles Buffet/Olive Garden or The Keg next time.

2/10

[jlo mein]

FYI: Alligator Soul is having a Crawfish boil Saturday April 10 from 11AM-3PM. Make no mistake, if you hate peeling shrimp for a meal, you're not going to like a crawfish boil. However if you love really spicy crawfish and like having a little fun with your food you'll have a good time.

Jenson Button, I'm sorry to hear you had a poor experience. Over seasoning/salting seems to be part of the Southern style of cooking so you either love it or hate it. I remember watching Jamie Oliver's American Roadtrip and he tried to cook a few Southern staples and serve it to the locals, who all told him he didn't season the dishes enough. My opinions on Alligator Soul may sound over enthusiastic simply because I love Southern food and they do it better than anywhere here locally, even more so since Dadeo's closed on Cambie St a couple years ago. If you've ever eaten at Ouisi Bistro (decent) or Big Al's Soul Food (subpar) in Vancouver, you may realize how special Alligator Soul is.

[6793026]

i had a huge expectations regarding this place. i was really disappointed.

they had live band playing so it was nice but seriously, i had the Alligator bites. Seriously, they were smaller than freaking popcorn shrimp. we had 4 people eating there and we barely got 7 pieces to share. We all had one piece and the 3 other piece were the size of pop corn shrimp. It was served with regular fries and just sprinkled with lots of paprika on the size. It was deep fried and it does taste different.

I had the Catfish hushpuppies, it was decent. The hushpuppies were pretty good, not oily at all.

Seafood Jambalaya was ok, it did haev a lot of crawfish that were the size of my pinky, it was... ok.

i'm going to og back again and try the crawfish but i really hope its better.