L.A. Bar

Ummm… it says «Cajun, creole and comfort food» and with good reason! Everything I have ever ordered here is De-​licious. A must try is their crawfish which is covered in a thick extra spicy sauce. Their chargrilled oysters are another favorite of mine.-so buttery and flavorful. Mmm
And you can’t go wrong with their Hurricanes! The bartenders and staff are wonderful people. You can’t go wrong celebrating Fat Tuesday here!-fun times!

We started with drinks and appetizers. I had my usual Long Island Iced Tea and my wife had the lemon drop martini. Both drinks were excellent which led to us ordering another round. We ordered the Boudin balls and Link as an appetizer.
Boudin balls and link had good flavor. I tried it with the mustard but found it to overpowering which drowned the seasoning already in the boudin. Over all the boudin was good without the mustard.
For dinner my wife had the shrimp and grits, and I had 1lb of crawfish, had to try them, and a half oyster poboy with a side of combination gumbo. They offer their gumbo two ways. One with shrimp and crab and the other with chicken and sausage. I prefer seafood gumbo with andouille sausage so I asked them to mix the two. The gumbo had a good flavor but I’m not to keen on chicken in my gumbo. Let me remind you I’m from New Orleans and we kinda do it a lil different. That’s not to say the gumbo here isn’t good. You might like it that way for the dish started as a leftover kinda dish throwing in whatever is leftover. So if you do it differently doesn’t necessarily mean you did it wrong. With hat said. The oyster poboy was ok as well. Oysters were cooked to perfection and nicely seasoned. The French bread toasted to hard which meant it probably wasn’t as fresh as I’m accustomed to in the big easy. Also I’m accustomed to my oysters falling out of the sandwich but I digress cuz we are in Texas, but the sign outside touted a New Orleans style restaurant thus my critique relative to New Orleans. Now my wife rates restaurants without the grey in the middle as I do. The food to her is either good or bad. She gave the shrimp and grits a thumbs up. She said it was good. So there you have it. All in all I love this spot because the Long Island Iced Tea and Lemon Drop Martini was on point. After two long islands I completely forgot about the food! Great place to meet up with friends for a drink and a bite to eat!

First Cajun meal since I’ve moved back to Texas and man was I NOT disappointed. I don’t know if it was the buttery Parmesan-​ey goodness of the charbroiled oysters, piping hot French bread, Steaming bowl of seafood gumbo, or the ice cold Karbach beer that really made the evening, but it all was just too good.
Honorable mention goes to the hot out of the oven Beignets (only $ 4!!!)

Located right next to Ragin Cajun actually attached. Parking can be a challenge. We decided to try the HRW lunch menu.
First Course: We selected SEAFOOD GUMBO (The HRW was a cup size and had a lot of seafood and ok flavor) and the RED BEANS (also cup size, per my brother… Good) and RICE. We also added the Boudin Balls (these were nicely fried and a good size but needed more flavor).
Second Course: We split the MANDOLA’S MEATBALL PO-​BOY WITH FRIES (this sandwich was man size and the meatballs were Yummy… I asked for extra sauce with was thick and full of flavor, the fries were very crisp) and the SHRIMP SCAMPI SPAGHETTI (it was a good size portion but was lack luster)
Third Course: Bread Pudding (per brother… It was yummy) and Beignets (a little to dense for my taste and did not resemble NOLA Beignets). I should have ordered the Pecan Pie which was the waiters suggestion.
Service: Very Friendly and Accommodating. Our table was a shaky and the waiter fixed it up. He answered all our questions and our drinks were constantly filled.
BTW, we went for a late lunch.
Giving this place 3 stars of overall experience. I wished the meal was better.

The chargrilled oysters are always on point! When I visit Houston, I come to LA Bar! The location is a little tricky. If the train is passing by, the traffic tends to block the turning lane to get into the resultant.

My husband and I spotted L.A. Bar when enroute to Truluck’s for our anniversary dinner. We’re both suckers for cajun food, so I trusted my husband’s logic of «It’s not like we haven’t had Truluck’s before, let’s try this.» We were pleasantly surprised!
For appetizers, we started with boiled shrimp and boudin balls. These are the best boudin balls in town… if you love spicy. If you dont, I dont know what to tell ya. The shrimp was good, but the presentation was very basic; shrimp placed in a circle around the plate. It would be great it they added a potato and/​or piece of corn to the plate.
I ordered the seafood pasta and my husband ordered a shrimp po’boy. The seafood pasta was delish! I seriously had more seafood than I did noodles. Someone felt my greedy spirit and knew I wanted the good stuff, not just a bunch of fillers. Husband was pleased with his po’boy, noting this will be his go-​to place for such sandwich. We also ordered hurricanes, they were tasty, but not strong.
The service was perfect. They were attentive, food came out in a reasonable amount of time and we had plenty of food to take home. The place is a little pricey, but worth it.

Upon entering the parking lot, I immediately noticed the lot filled for LA Crawfish. LA Bar is apart of LA Crawfish. The place looked dead, but there were a few people inside. I’m guessing this place is the upscale version of LA Crawfish, just my theory. The bread is soft and served warm garnished with parsley or Rosemary and a side of whipped butter, which is delish.
Appetizers: served in a timely fashion, red beans are from LA Crawfish, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Red beans are always good, they never disappoint. Crawfish beignet sauce was bland and I could tAste the smell in the crawfish, which didn’t appeal to me at all.
Entrees: fried shrimp have really crunchy lightly seasoned batter. Approximately 10 medium to large sized shrimp is well worth $ 16. The fries remind me of Popeyes light battered fries, but better. My hubs loved the salmon, corn cake wasn’t bad, but definitely not a fan of the green beans. Then again, my hubs hate green beans and only eat them if I cook it. Green beans are crisp and seasoned with freshly ground salt and pepper.
I would return and the server was prompt. We never had to ask for a refill, sauce more bread or anything. My kind of server. Server was able to provide excellent service to my hubs and I in the dining area, while serving the guest at the bar.

Love the crawfish and blue crab. My only complaint is that they now allow minors. I was in a few weeks ago. There was a small group of 10 or 12 sitting near us. They had about 6 kiddos with them. The kid nearest to me literally barfed in his plate. A very smelly barf I must say. Not that he was drinking Lol, but there is a reason bars should not allow kids. Because adults would like a little adult time!!!

Kind of place where you fell like home. The waiters and the owner treat you specially and individually. Good environment, the food is good, different brands of draft and bottled beers. Good for crawfish lovers but also different seafood plates.

Being a native Louisianian, I was hesitant to try LA Bar. I went there for boiled crawfish by the pound and was pleasantly surprised. While the crawfish were expensive and nothing special, they were not bad. What was life changing was the grilled oysters! You are doing yourself a disservice if you go to LA Bar and don’t try them. They have a great happy hour and you get a basket of cornbread and other breads while you wait on your food.

Service was terrible. Food was slow to arrive and when it did it was lukewarm and subpar. To add insult to injury, a 20 percent gratuity was automatically added to the bill because we were a party of 8. Even though the manager did apologize for terrible service I will not be back. Not a glutton for punishment. Too many good quality Cajun restaurants in the Houston area to choose from.

Have been wanting to try this restaurant for some time… my husband is in a wheelchair and the parking and access to the place was not user friendly for us! Bad start! The service was OK and the fried shrimp and fried oysters were fair.
One guest of ours ordered the BBQ shrimp and did not eat… Politely said they were not very hungry. So been there. tried it out… Not again ! Smelled like stale cigarettes too!’ One good thing… Wednesday is ½ off bottles of wine!

This review is based on the service alone. We did not go at a peak hour, yet we rarely saw our waiter. We all have bad days at work, but he clearly had no interest in doing his job Saturday. There was ketchup (or cocktail sauce???) on the booth seat that got on my pants upon our arrival. I guess the booth wasn’t cleaned well after the previous party. I let the waiter know that it was also on the tablecloth and he and the bus boy rolled their eyes and were obviously annoyed. After leaving I did call to speak with a manager simply to let him know how terrible the service was. He did apologize and he offered to make it up to me. The only thing he can really do is be more aware of his staff. Good customer service goes a long way, but bad customer service goes further.

Food was amazing! Grilled oysters were great! BBQ shrimp were not but… crawfish were good! Juicy and spicy crawfish with corn and tators with a side of sausage! Next to Ragin Cajun which was loud and picnic dining, this side of the place had a more quiet sit down dining experience! We miss New Orleans now that we live in Oregon, only in Houston one night this place hit the spot! We’d definitely go again!

Dear Mandola Restaurant Group,
L.A. = Los Angeles, an excellent place for cocktails, but definitely not known for «New Orleans cuisine»
LA = Louisiana, a much better bet for char-​grilled oysters, and probably the place you meant to name your restaurant after
Xoxo –C

This is a great place… I normally only come here during crawfish season but, the food is always good here.
Like I said the crawfish is great! Always! But, it’s also the little things. Such as really good home style cornbread that comes with every meal. The «Lafayette Roast Beef» Sandwich is a favorite of mine. And my girl swears by the Cobb salad & oysters on the half shell.
The place is clean and the staff is pretty good. Averaged price for this type of dining.

I recently went to LA Bar during HRW for lunch. I had the gumbo (slightly above average), the crab salad (below average) and the bread pudding (surprisingly good). I also started with the charbroiled oysters, which when executed properly are the most delicious bite of food in the world. These, however, were subpar. Thisplace has a lot of potential, especially given the lack of good Cajun food in Houston, however, did not meet my admittedly lofty expectations.

I thought this was LA (Los Angeles) and not Louisiana bar, so my expectations of this restaurant was a bit off. It is located next to Ragin’ Cajun on Richmond and share the same kitchen.
We started off with the grilled oysters. They were good, but pricy for $ 22/​dozen. We shared the bowl of seafood gumbo based on the waitress’s recommendation of the «special» roux. It was almost too salty to be edible, the shrimp was mushy, didn’t see other seafood in there, there wasn’t any okra, and it was too thin (we like our gumbo thick).
We split the Mahi Mahi entrée. The fish was ok, a bit dry and flavorless. The veggies tasted like frozen vegetables and had too much salt. The best thing on the plate was the corn soufflé. It was steaming hot with the right amount of butter and sweetness from the corn.
I’ve never been a fan of Ragin’ Cajun’s food, so it’s not a mystery why I didn’t like the food at L.A. Bar. They share the same kitchen so I assume it’s made by the same chef, however they overcharge at L.A. Bar because it’s a seat down restaurant. Food is way overpriced and not worth it.

I don’t know why but everyone seems to be a huge fan of the Ragin Cajun restaurant chain except for me. I wanted to try LA Bar to give it another chance so I came here for happy hour with my coworkers after work.
The Happy Hour food specials were the same price as their regular menu so I wouldn’t really call them specials. The frozen margaritas were pretty reasonably priced at around $ 5. I ordered the Mango Ceviche which was ok but I wouldn’t recommend it. I had one of my coworker’s Chargrilled Oysters however and I really liked it! I also tried a bite of my coworker’s Chicken Pesto Pasta and it was pretty good. The Mahi Mahi Sliders seemed to be a hit as well. 20% gratuity is added on for parties of 8 or more I think since we had 8 people. I only ordered the Mango Ceviche and a drink and my total was around $ 16. For Happy Hour, I expected more for my money so I wouldn’t recommend this place for Happy Hour. I would possibly come back for the Chargrilled Oysters though because they were delicious!

So upon hearing of these «Chargrilled Oysters» here, I wanted to try it out. It’s literally right next to Ragin Cajun and you can even walk between the two inside.
We ordered an order of the Chargrilled Oysters (which is pretty expensive at $ 20 for an appetizer) and although the flavor was OK, the oysters were so big and not cooked enough, that it was a bit unpleasant to eat. I have had Drago’s in New Orleans on multiple occasions and this does not come close, sorry to say.
The rest of the food we had was the standard fare, but the oysters were what we really came for. It wasn’t bad and may be what others are looking for, just not what I was looking for.