Howe’s Bayou

Loved the food!!! A awesomely different restaurant! The southern menu was delicious! Even had a live band. Great date night spot.

My be I’m biased since I know what real NOLA Cajun food it about. I ordered something simple since I know I’m always disappointed when I try Cajun food, I ordered a shrimp Po boy. Bad idea! Shrimp was over cooked to a point of being burnt. The French bread the Po boy was made of was hard and stale, over all, it was pretty bad! Do yourself a favor, and just order a drink!

I love Louisiana Cajun style food. Howe’s has great food and a decent selection of wine, beer and cocktails. I love the wood bar and the staff is generally friendly. They give good portions and provide great cornbread. I recommend the catfish and the prime rib! It is rare that there is a wait, but, the place is never too empty. I have had hit or miss service here, but, it has been better lately. Usually the bad servers do not last very long.

There is nothing authentically cajun about this place, based on what I tried. I’m from the dirty south and this place made me weep for home.
I decided on the basics — red beans and rice. The andouille sausage was flavorful, no complaints there and the rice was fine. The beans, though, it was like they had oxidized or something. As in, maybe they were old or had been left out. They were whiteish and crusty and viscous. They tasted okay and didn’t make me sick, but I didn’t eat the leftovers.
My partner had the crawfish étouffée and I was excited for her to try it, since she’s never been to NOLA. The crawfish was definitely frozen, which I expected, but it wasn’t defrosted correctly or had frostbite or something. I’ve made étouffée from frozen crawfish before and it didn’t taste watery and flavorless like this did. The other offense to the dish was that it was overdosed on corn starch and turned into a gelatinous blob. The flavors were fairly mild and definitely not bold. Zatarain’s or Tony Cuchere’s needed to called in to help these sad flavors.
The worst offense, though, was the bread pudding. It wasn’t even a close approximation to bread pudding and that was the main thing that wanted to make me weep. It had no moisture to it. It was all bread and no pudding (even though that’s not exactly what bread pudding is).
We may have hit it on an off night, but every dish failed and I have no interest in returning. Based on what we ate, I’m not convinced any of the chefs or cooks have ever ventured south of the Mason Dixon line or have at least had authentic cajun food before.

After trying their crawfish bisque and macaroni (and a taste of my friends pulled pork sandwich) I’m pretty much sold. Our waiter was one of the best I’ve ever had– so sweet and attentive and engaging! On Mondays they have live music, and their décor is quite fun. Will definitely be back!

Just ok. We asked the waitress what the oyster special from 4 – 6 meant on the menu. Her response «it’s at the bar.» We asked what the special was again. She said «it’s at the bar & you don’t save that much.» Ok, whatever that means. We still don’t know what the special is. Like many other reviews you don’t get offered a refill on water. Crawfish bucket special for $ 10 is not worth it. Yes you get lots but with no taste. The shrimp Cajun pasta was good. Waitress was not. She tried denying us the use of out gift certificate. Don’t think we will be back

Really average food. I’ve had much better food has many different places for Southern-​style. If you don’t hear, the jambalaya is not bad and the key lime pie. Have had quite a few dishes and not alone when I send back, but neither would I want to eat again. Good atmosphere and friendly staff

Yaaaaas! Yaaaaaaaassss! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!! We were in Burndale for the night cause cousins wanted to get together for my sissy-in-law’s last night before she Flys back to Hotlanta.
First we went to «Blah-​lentines» ambiance was great, but it was packed with tiara wearing, I just turned 21 crowd that makes me nautious. Yea, no thanks! NEXT!!! «M-​screw» from what I thought would be the savior, didn’t deliver at all. This one was packed with jocks high-​fiving over golf video games and singing along to loud rock music. Hollering and screaming at my friends isn’t my idea of a good conversation. NEXT!!!
Enter Howe’s Bayou, unassuming, un-​snooty, and just plain awesome, shoot the breeze over a few drinks good time. Where we sat at the bar, greeted hella warmly and given a great service short of a foot massage.
My craft beer was served cold in a proper pint glass. Our mussels Creole Style arrived hot and fresh. Which was extremely mouth punching good by the way. There’s something in that sauce that just makes it go the extra hundred miles of yumminess. Use the bread to mop up all that goodness. Trust me on this. I know what I’m doing.
I LOVE YOU HOWE’S BAYOU! I’ve finally found my favorite bar in all of Burndale. Weeeeeeee!

Took my mother here, it was fitting to find her some good Cajun cooking since she grew up in Louisiana. The service was prompt seeing as the place was nearly empty, we beat the rush. We ordered the shrimp as an appetizer which was done just right. The waitress wanted us to get the gumbo but mother refused because she didn’t think her gumbo could be beat, I had to agreed. She ordered the fried catfish which came on a bed of rice, she was pleased! I ordered the steak which came with «voodoo sauce.» Steak was a little fatty, which I personally like. The voodoo sauce made the meal, it was savory and peppery and complimented the whole dish well. Highly recommend Howe’s for any occasion!

Friendly staff and here it the rundown on what I love and you should order, and also a few you should pass on and never ever order LoL
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Overall a great menu, these are top picks :)
Smoked Salmon — Served with capers, red onion and horseradish sauce
Smoked Peppered Mackerel — from Maine
Great Lakes Smoked Whitefish Dip
Calamari — Flash fried, with peperoncini relish
Voodoo BBQ Shrimp — Marinated and grilled
Sautéed Alligator Sausage — served with peppers, onions and white wine
Side of Macaroni & Cheese
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Skip these, for your own sake please skip these LoL
(trust me, they are nothing special and not very tasty)
Red Beans and Rice
Jambalaya — tomato scented rice with chicken and Andouille sausage
Popcorn Crawdads — mild Cajun spiced and fried
Garlic Smashed Potatoes
Two Thumbs Up !!!

Loved the crawfish and the home made sauces, specially the tartar sauce. We got the jambalaya and voodo po’boy. Both entrees were delicious (however the cornbread was slightly dry)
Overall a nice place with great food and service. Our server Matt was friendly and informative about the menu.
Good pick if you are looking for a casual place for dinner and a few drinks.

My boyfriend and I stumbled across Howe’s Bayou after a restaurant we wanted to go to had a long wait time and I’m really glad we did! I feel like this little place is one of those best kept secrets. I wasn’t even aware that there was a creole restaurant in Ferndale. My favorite thing to order is the fried catfish with mac & cheese and collard greens as a side along with the complimentary corn bread. The food was very hot and fresh, and the portions were huge. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. For me personally, I find it kind of pricey, but that might just be because I’m cheap. My meal was probably between $ 15-​$ 17.
Howe’s Bayou has a lot of specialty drinks, I’ve never tried them, but if you’re into trying different types of alcohol, you might want to stop in!

Stopped in for lunch to get a taste of New Orleans. The food was great! I hadn’t been in a few years even with living so close. Both my friend and I were asking ourselves why we don’t come more. The drinks were good and strong. I ordered the shrimp pasta. It was very flavorful with veggies and generous with shrimp. It was served with cornbread and was a decent size for lunch. My friend ordered the shrimp po boy and liked it, she did not love the slaw. We splurged and split the peach cobbler. It was served warm and went great with our bourbon. Affordable for lunch and great service!

Still an okay place to go for Creole but you will get less food at a HIGHER price. The menu recently changed to a la carte and the price per entrée significantly increased.
For example, my long time favorite New Orleans Pasta dish was $ 15 (already expensive) and was served wIth a side dish and a piece of corn bread. Today you ONLY get the pasta dish with a smaller piece of corn bread and the price is now $ 17. Wow how does that make sense to pay a lot more and get less? Howe’s is already making more money by discontinuing the side dish with the pasta but then to increase the price of the a la carte pasta? And to increase it not by $ 1 but $ 2??? is just plain GREEDY!!!
I understand restaurants must change their menu and reasonably increase prices in order to survive but not how they did it. As a local patron that has dined here for more than a decade, it will be a very long time before I go back.

I came in later in the evening on a weeknight. I had a seat at the bar and the bartender was very prompt and friendly. I got a Dark and Stormy to drink and the Creole Chicken to eat. The Dark and Stormy was good, not shy with the rum. The Creole Chicken was super yummy! I like spicy food and it was delicious. The chicken was juicy, the tomatoes/​onions/​peppers underneath were seasoned very well. I ate it all but didn’t try the cornbread since it’s not my thing.
I asked about dessert and I’m super sad they do not serve pecan pie. Management, pleaaaassseeee put pecan pie on your dessert menu!!! I was so sad to hear it. What’s better than pecan pie and bourbon? Nothing. So I ordered the key lime pie and it was really delicious, I will admit.
My dinner bill came to $ 25. Oh yeah, you read that right. Two drinks, dinner, and dessert. Insane. I will definitely be back.

This place is amazing. My mom is from New Orleans. She passed away a few years ago and of course sometimes I miss her cooking. Well howes comes very close.
The food is amazing! I love the red beans and rice. My hubby had the catfish with greens Mac and cheese. AMAZING!
The staff is friendly. Ryan the bartender is great.
If you want good creole southern food you HAVE to eat here. It’s the best in town!

When you realize you have to nurse your water glass because you’re sensing it’s never going to be refilled (and it never was) you know you’re well on your way to a special and memorable night!
Our server informed us she’d just gotten ‘slammed’ with 3 tables seated at once when she introduced herself, thus helping us anticipate her fullest attention in advance. We knew we only wanted to sample some smaller items and we waited 45 minutes for delivery. Since I’m such a fan of hot yoga, the restaurant did its best to simulate that temp for us while we waited.
My crawfish bisque arrived with a surprise piece of cornbread, hubby got his Voodoo Chicken Po’Boy but, the mac & cheese I’d ordered was MIA. Our waitress looked confused when we pointed that out & got ‘slammed again’ by multiple other tables who also hadn’t seen her in 45 minutes. I mentally took mac & cheese off my wish list.
The soup had plenty of crawfish & the spice was decent but the base had a cheese goo quality to it that I really hadn’t anticipated & found off putting. The cornbread was hard & dry. I was offered a bite of the Po’Boy but the look on his face told me I should pass & I did. So yum!!!
We asked for the mac & cheese to please be removed from the bill & to please bring the bill when we actually received some attention informing us it would be a few more minutes for my m&c to be ready. Again sympathy for the ‘slammed restaurant’ was requested but, hubby clearly expressed he wasn’t buying it especially when we had witnessed another server who had no such problems with more tables who clearly received good attentive service. Not another word or eye contact was included in the remainder of our interaction on her end.
So it’s another 1 & done restaurant ticked off the list. And my 3^rd ever 1 star review — I don’t do this without good reason!

I love Cajun food. After reading some of the rave reviews I decided we would give it a try. Simply put, it was awful. Awful food and the worst service I’ve had in recent memory. Oh, and to make it the perfect trifecta, the air conditioning was woefully inadequate to the point that they should have bussed all of us to a community cooling center to recover. It had to be mid 80’s or more in there.
We were seated right away (the only positive thing I can say about the evening) and waited for anyone to acknowledge us. I was dehydrating fast (HOT!) and we finally got menus and water. Little did I know that water was being rationed here cause I never got offered any more. 45 minutes waiting for the ice to melt just so I could get another sip is not my idea of a great experience. Once the waitress with the dyed red hair sections (I’m not naming names) showed up, we ordered right away. A voodoo chicken po boy, some bisque and mac and cheese. That was the last we saw of her for 45 minutes. Now, I’m not a chef but I’m pretty sure that I could toast a bun, dip a ladle of soup, and microwave some mac and cheese in a lot less time. It’s not like they were swamped.
Feeling abandoned, we had just reached the point where we stood up to leave when we saw her across the bar looking our way and grabbing a tray. Ok, one more minute we can wait to see if we would get served. Sure enough, she brought food. Not all of it but some. When we asked where the mac and cheese was, she said «oh, did you want mac and cheese?» Nah, just forget it, we don’t have another 45 minutes to wait. She got angry. So I said just bring the check now. The food was not good. Voodoo chicken was dry and overcooked. The «savory New Orleans bbq sauce» is a figment of someone’s imagination because there was nothing there. Nothing. The bisque was pitiful as well.
Finally got the check and paid with cash because I honestly didn’t trust her with my credit card. I mentioned she was angry.
There are so many other fine choices in Ferndale. I will frequent those instead. I won’t be back.

What this place lacks in actual Bayou food knowledge they make up for in trying! Had the fried oysters, crawfish lobster bisque, gumbo, voodoo blackened chicken, and jambalaya as our dinner order. First off wait staff is very accommodating and friendly which is nice and beer selection rings true to the new age craft beer selections offered anywhere.
The bisque and the gumbo were decent, especially when sauced up with some hot sauces found on the table. Fried oysters were nothing special. They could have been fried anything and tasted the same. Jambalaya was mostly tomato, with little else to taste beyond that. Blackened voodoo chicken was nothing more than pretty decent grilled chicken on a bed of rice. Without the sauce it was nothing. Could have gotten that anywhere. They also love to bring dry, crumbly corn bread as a free side to any soup or dish. While sweet it lacked the true stickiness of a good sweet corn bread. It’s just a good way to break up the monotony of their spicy to the ordinary person’s palate.
Overall glad I tried it but Nawlins will never be beat!

I think Howe’s deserves a 3.5 maybe… mostly because of the awesome outdoor dining space. The service was friendly and fairly fast, and the food was a LITTLE pricey and under-​seasoned, but good overall. I’ll return, probably, but maybe just for drinks and a snack rather than an entrée. You’ll get better taste and prices at Harbor House downtown.
We each ordered soup to start — gumbo for him and the crawfish bisque for me. The gumbo was decent, but it’s much better at Harbor House… and the crawfish bisque was really good, but not QUITE hot enough for me. (I like soup to come out steaming.) Definitely worth ordering.
I then had the tenderloin tips with voodoo sauce, because they’re known for their voodoo sauce. They were perfectly cooked, well seasoned, and the rice was a perfect texture. Yum. I didn’t realize they were served over a bed of rice, so I also ordered the dirty rice as a side, and it was very bland. Like, Zataran’s dirty rice from a box is better.
Hubby ordered the catfish po’ boy and subbed mashed potatoes for the chips. The sandwich was decent — well fried and on good bread, but the potatoes were bland. Everything needed hot sauce. He also ordered the mac n’ cheese side, and while the pasta was perfectly cooked and the cheese was yummy and melty, it was also lacking in flavor. You could easily skip it.
Overall, a decent experience, but nothing to write home about. They have a ton of bourbons, so maybe I’ll go back and sample those.