Clesi’s Crawfish & Catering

Found this place via Unilocal.It was my first time having crawfish and it was delicious! I really wished they gave more potatoes and corn with the meal but the corn was the best I’ve ever had. Definitely recommend!

It’s a little hole in the wall we found through Unilocal.We went for the crawfish, which are great. Juicy and well seasoned; but I decided to try a burger. The burgers are awesome. The burger is huge, hand made patties on grill toasted bun. Not over cooked either. I recommend sharing a burger and fries or just get the burger. Both is too much food.

Most people come here for the crawfish. I’m not a big seafood guy but my mrs is and when in Orleans, you have to try the seafood.
The crawfish in NOLA sell out quickly so we were lucky to get a pound. We also got the jambalaya cheese fries since I was over the seafood at that point. Recommendations, come early or beware of not getting the crawfish.
The cheese fries were pretty good but had so much cheese on it. When I did get the fries, rice and sausage in one bite I was pretty happy. I liked the spiciness and freshness of the crawfish but the mrs mentioned that the bottom crawfish were really spicy cause they were swimming in the seasoning. Watch out when you get to the bottom. Other food options were pretty good too so if they run out of the craw, you’re good to go with other options.

If u come to Nola this place is a must. Friendly staff. Amazing crawfish, fresh farmed daily. even got a tutorial on how to enjoy these little guys. Highly recommended by locals. And got get me started on the cheese fries.

My boyfriend and I got to witness southern hospitality at its finest!
This is our first cross county trip from California to Florida! We had to stop in New Orleans or NOLA as the locals would say. We just finished an 8 hour drive from Austin and were ready to finally get some food in us! We decided to try this place since it’s walking distance from our hotel. It’s a small eatery with a lot of character. We were immediately greeted by the guy at the order counter; everything looked awesome and we ended up ordering a pound of crawfish and the jambalaya cheese fries. Everything came out piping hot and super fresh. The crawfish was awesome, like mini lobsters! The jambalaya cheese fries reminded us of home — it was like NOLA’s spin on carne asada fries! :)
The flavors were bold and the sausages had a kick! As we were eating, the guy at the counter brought over a bread pudding for us when he overheard that this was our first time down here — talk about southern hospitality! Everyone was super friendly and attentive, even though it was super close to closing. What a great way to kick off our NOLA adventure! :)

This place is awesome. Crawfish is super legit, as is the rest of the food we had. Fried catfish, meat pie, fries. It’s the drinkin food you want.
The owner James is super cool and so are the dudes that work there. Love this neighborhood, thanks guys.

I REALLY wanted to like Clesi’s crawfish because he’s such a nice guy and I was happy to see the addition to the Mid City neighborhood, but…
I had some of their boiled crawfish from an event that they catered. I gotta say… it just wasn’t good. The crawfish themselves just fell flat for me on flavor, and the potatoes and garlic were both undercooked. I LOVE crawfish boil garlic. That soft, mushy deliciousness smeared onto a potato. Twas not to be. I couldn’t even smash the garlic between two fingers.

Fantastic! We’ve eaten there 3 times during our week long stay in New Orleans. What does that mean? It means their crawfish is one of the best. Their jambalaya is delish, even the catfish is great!
Nice sitting area outside when it’s not raining. Staff is super nice and friendly and will engage in a nice chitchat with you. They don’t sell booze, but literally next door on the corner is a bar where you can get your drink to go. So there.
Overall a great experience!

A local recommended this place to us. We were excited to give it a try because of the locals go there then it must be good. However, we were disappointed with the crawfish. It didn’t taste like fresh live crawfish. Maybe we had a bad batch?

Man, these are probably the BEST crawfish I’ve had! I consider myself a foodie and for crawfish im really, really extra picky, so for me to say that it’s freaking delicious, trust me, me, it’s delicious, spicy and full of flavor!

First crawfish boil was a success thanks to this place. Took me about 6 crawfish to get my technique down, but I’m a slow learner. A friendly gentleman approached us early on and dished out some pointers, turns out it was Mr. Clesi himself (also the man stirring the pot). His crawfish were delish, with a strong kick. 20 bones got my girlfriend and I 3 lbs of crawfish, which was enough. I’ll admit I was still a bit hungry after, but that means you have room to go out drinking after dinner.

I love Clesi’s! We decided to try Clesi’s because of its 4.5 stars on Unilocal.And they did not disappoint. We ordered 3lbs of crawfish, fried shrimp, and jambalaya. The crawfish was so fresh it tasted like butter! The seasoning was appropriate, not too salty not too overwhelming you can still enjoy the fresh meat juice. Their fried shrimp is good too, nothing too significant I mean fried shrimp is just fried shrimp you know how can you do it worse lol. Their jambalaya had a lot of sausages if you’re into that. Not the best jambalaya but defs one of the better ones. I think the price at Clesi’s is reasonable. $ 6 for a lb of fresh, delicious crawfish. We tried Cajun Seafood and it had the same price but the quality is wayyyy opposite. Ahh and the owner is super friendly too) And they have outlets to charge your phone if youre having tourist problems like I always do hahaha

The perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon! The crawfish were perfectly cooked and good size. Easy to peel and nice and spicy! And while they don’t have beer, Bank Street Bar is right next door, so just grab your beer over there. Plus, it’s only six dollars a pound. And all the cooks have beards. Very manly. I’ll be back!

Oh my goodness… this was by far my absolute favorite place that we stopped the entire time we were in NOLA. I wish that I could give this place 10 stars!!! The food was epic, especially the crawfish and the jambalaya. The crawfish was cooked perfect and easy to crack and so inexpensive! The jambalaya was amazing too, spicy and flavorful. We also tried their meat pies and the cheese fries, both of which were good but I’d just save extra room for the first two items next time! The thing I loved the most about this place was the staff! They were sooo friendly and welcoming and accommodating! They cook the crawfish right outside and you can watch and chat it up with the guy while he’s boiling them! If you can only choose one place to eat out while in NOLA, you should definitely choose this place! You won’t regret it!

Loved the place. Great atmosphere. Friendly people and neighborhood. Owner was super nice. Great place for crawfish lovers. Seasoning was good, a bit on the salty side but good nonetheless. We had 4 lbs of crawfish plus the jambalaya fries. Crawfish were $ 6/​lb.

Good service, very friendly! Super fresh mud bug’s! Never had meat pies, that was smacking good! Came in before the wave! Definitely be interested in coming back! Very affordable!

Oh baby crawfish! My SO had a friend in town who wanted crawfish, and we had been wanting to try Clesi’s, so to Clesi’s we went!
Upon walking up, we were warmly greeted by Clesi himself; and he said «Come on in, the crawfish are soaking and they’ll be coming out in a few minutes!»
So we walked in and waited in the short line to order, and when we got to the front, Clesi had come aroung to take our order. I got an order of crawfish (comes with a corn, a potato, and a sausage) and fries. My SO got the jambalaya cheese fries, and her friend got an order of crawfish and meatpies.
The crawfish were excellent! Perfect amount of salt and spice. Not too spicy, not too salty. They were flavored not to offend anyone, but still be satisfying. The potato, corn, and sausage had also absorbed that good flavor.
The fries had a good helping of cajun seasoning on them, which was great by my standards. And the jambalaya cheese fries… My goodness! I’m sure the jambalaya would be good by itself, and I know the fries are good by themselves. And obviously cheese is never bad. The combination of all three was like a slice of gooey, cajuny heaven.
Clesi’s far exceeded my expectations and I can’t wait to go back.

GENIUS can only portray the culinary revelation that James Clesi has called Jambalaya fries!
Upon entering the very homey and welcoming open air atmosphere that cannot be described as anything but New Orleanean, we were greeted by none other than the owner himself, James Clesi. After a brief glimpse of the chalkboard menu, I was confident that anything I ordered would be delicious. Because I had a friend in town who had a hankering for crawfish, my friend and my fiancé each ordered crawfish. I don’t know how — because the smell was irresistible — but I managed to peel almost all of my friend’s crawfish without eating a single one. Damn you high blood pressure and low sodium diet! I will have to go back when crawfish will be the only thing I consume all day with 5 gallons of water. Both my fiancé and friend assured me that the crawfish were excellent. If smell is anything to go by, I definitely missed out.
While I ordered the jambalaya fries for myself, I tried my hardest to consume as little of them as possible. They were certainly not low sodium… But I believe I consumed about half of them. With 3 forks and 3 people, I had to eat pretty fast to surpass my cohorts in consumption rate. Those things were gone almost before they hit the table. When we asked Clesi how he came up with the idea for his jambalaya fries, he told the story more eloquently than I am capable of remembering. What I got out of his story was that they were something he created for himself to eat because he was hungry, of course! Friends and customers asked him
what he was eating, and from then on they were a hit.
Others may eventually catch on to this soon to be foodie phenomenon; however, Clesi’s will always remain the home of the ORIGINAL jambalaya fries. YUM

Best people, best crawfish.
Spicy enough for your lips to burn, but too tasty to not suck every single head!
James Clesi knows exactly what he’s doing– come by and getchu some!

What a diamond in the rough. The only reason for the four instead of a five is because they need more picnic tables. Atmosphere was great. Lot of locals. Crawfish was great. Went on a Sunday night and it was still packed. We in town for a week and planning another trip.