The Cajun Experience

Great food, great and fast service — will definitely come back! Our son loved the hush puppies and called them magical! (he is 11). We had crawfish ettuffee, jambalaya and the catfish platter — the catfish pie that came with the platter was exceptional! We initially wanted to get dessert too (wanted to they their beignets) but we were too stuffed. Something to look forward too the next time!

Tiny little dive with wonderful food. Best Étouffée and fried crawfish. A definite do again. I do have to say we were a little disappointed with the beignets, they were doughy and undercooked and the chocolate ones were basically just weak Hershey’s syrup. But I will take a bad beignet over none at all.

The Beignets are really great and the staff is very friendly. Today many businesses are so commercialized they do not value kindness or just taking that extra step to make sure you have a good experience, but this restaurant does. I’m glad that Leesburg has such a unique place and I’ll be going back soon.

Great place in the heart of Leesburg, VA. We had the Cajun Variety and the portions were so huge we could have split it.
The BBQ Shrimp app was very tasty.
The ambiance was casual and «hip» with some 80’s music playing in the background.
Delicious and we will come again.

Solid 3 star. Good food, but I feel slightly under seasoned. Was better the next day with salt and pepper added. At our table we had the jambalaya (lacked meat and spice) which was average, the fried catfish which was excellent, the crawfish in cream sauce which was good but needed salt, the dried pickles which were yummy, the BBQ shrimp where very good but too much butter and and few other items which were not worth mentioning. I’d say if you were in the area and were hungry go here. Don’t drive out of your fest to come here.

This place has amazing authentic New Orleans food and the owners/​employees are so friendly and nice it’s ridiculous. The beignets are waaaaaaaay better than café du monde too!!!

Today me and a girlfriend decided to get lunch and decided on the Cajun Experience in downtown Leesburg. I’ve been there once or twice before and have been completely satisfied with the food and the service there. Everyone was friendly and there was a great atmosphere; it’s in an oldish house (?) with two levels (we had our own dining room on the second level since the first was packed) each room having a different Cajun theme. Even the owner and his wife had small talk with me and my friend to make sure everything was beyond expectations! How could one resist a family owned restaurant? The server we had was very attentive and checked on us at perfect times, also such a sweetheart. There is one particular dish I come back for each time. The Crawfish Tarts. Lord. Nothing can compare when it comes to a crawfish pastry. Just know that I drove from Fairfax to downtown Leesburg to get a crawfish tart. I also had the jambalaya which was also just as delicious! I’m a big foodie when it comes to seafood and I highly recommend this place!
Place trumps over Chasin’ Tails in my book.
Cheers! Xx

Every dish was amazing! The Jambolaya with deep fried Catfish was the best I’ve ever had! Too bad they were out of Étouffée and Oysters! Charlotte, our server, was friendly and helpful. Can’t wait to come here again. Next time I’m ordering the Étouffée for sure!

Best fried catfish I’ve ever had. It doesn’t taste fishy. Good hush puppies, I always ask for tarter sauce on the side (weird, I know). The always make a great strong cocktail as well.

The sausage and chicken gumbo was expertly prepared! The blackened shrimp salad was just ok, and I thoroughly enjoyed the bread pudding a la mode. Nice atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon.

We made the trek out to Leesburg to walk around – before heading out we looked at a variety of restaurants online and The Cajun Experience caught our attention. The items on the menu looked great so we figured we’d give it a try.
After we were seated, we were greeted by a very charming and friendly manager named Sherif. He was so welcoming – we felt like we were visiting an old friend. He certainly lives up to the sign in their entrance – «Enter as guests, leave as friends.» He spent time talking to us about the menu, the restaurant, and the history of house that the restaurant is in (and even gave us a tour!). We were impressed by his enthusiasm and pride in the restaurant. His excellent hospitality and customer service is second to none… many other restaurants could learn from his customer service!
The food was incredible – our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomach. We had the fried okra, crawfish, and hush puppies for appetizers. My husband, who grew up on hush puppies, said that they were the best hush puppies he has ever had. I haven’t eaten as many hush puppies as him, but I’ll definitely agree with his comment. The fried okra was also really good – they tasted fresh! The crawfish was also tasty – it was my first time trying them! The house cajun remoulade (in which we dipped all of these delicious morsels) is to die for… and they sell bottles of it… we bought one to take home.
For the actual meal (I can’t believe we ate so much!), Hubby got a shrimp po-​boy sandwich. Most of the po-​boy sandwiches he’d had in the past (at other restaurants) had hard bread (like baguettes) and a small amount of tiny shrimp. But, he was pleasantly surprised (and pleased) by the size and number of shrimp this restaurant put in the sandwich. The bread was perfect too. I had the chef’s special, which was crawfish etoufee with fried catfish. It was absolutely delicious. About ¹⁄₃ of the way through my entrée, I was wishing that I wore my stretchy pants so I could eat more. I had to box up the rest, but that’s okay… I’ll be able to continue enjoying my meal the next day. We decided to go for a walk and let the food digest a bit before deciding on the beignets… we came back and got some beignets to go (one of each flavor – plain, honey, and chocolate) and we took small bites of each (so far) and they were amazing. Hubby is still full, so I may have to save him by eating the rest. :-)
We will definitely be back, even though this is quite a drive for us… and we highly recommend The Cajun Experience for their delicious food and excellent customer service!

It was first Friday, so I understand it was busy… But… We waited 40 minutes before our order was even taken. The waiter would come over and say he would be right with us and not return for 15 minutes. We got there around 5:30 and didn’t get our food until 7:45. Our one friend had to have her meal boxed up because her child needed to go home to go to sleep. The waiter had also forgotten three things we had ordered. The owner was working very hard to help us out… Just not a good first experience for us…
On the other hand… The food was very good and the band brass connection was amazing!

Overall, very good food. Staff seemed disorganized and a bit overwhelmed. After being seated, our service was slow. The waitress was very polite and apologized several time. When served our entrées, one of the dishes was wrong. After approximately a minute of looking at the plate, the waitress came back with the correct plate after she saw the puzzled look on our face. She apologized again and asked if we needed anything else. There was about a 10 minute wait for our dessert. The chocolate beignet were hot and delicious. The crawfish mac n cheese bites were awesome! The gator bites were good. I loved the Abita beer. The bill was a little pricey. I will be back to try the po’boy sandwiches.

I went for dinner on a Tuesday night with 2 other people. When we arrived we where the only people in the place (around 5:45pm). They were out of many items. They said it was because they had been very busy over the holiday weekend.
We ordered oysters (raw and blackened) and pork & rice rolls for appetizers, blackened shrimp salad and mac & cheese.
Service was great, the food was very good, oysters and salad were very fresh.
We had beignets for dessert. We had to wait as they were not ready due to the holiday weekend, but they were definitely worth the wait.
Iced Tea was very weak, it might as well have been water.
I would eat here again and recommend this place for a casual meal.

I have to say that the experience here was extremely underwhelming. First, the service was extremely slow even though we were the only ones inside. Second, they had run out of alligator, shrimp, boudin balls, crawfish, etc. This in the middle of lunch service. They should have been better prepared. Third, we ordered a crawfish po’boy and Andouille sausage po’boy. We also added a basket of hush puppies. The bread for the sandwiches were old. You could tell immediately. The sandwiches were barely «dressed.» The crawfish in that sandwich was tough — definitely over fried. Mine came with two little pieces of Andouille sausage. Barely any lettuce and once slice of tomato per half. The fries were so soggy and cold, you could bend them and they didn’t break apart. The hush puppies tasted like the oil has not been changed in a long time and they crumbled upon trying to break them apart.
When the waitress came over to ask how our meal was, after disappearing for a long time again, we told her it was underwhelming. She brought the manager out, who wasn’t any help either. She began to argue that their bread was brought «fresh» every «week.» She also said that they clean/​change their frying oil once a week. Having worked in a kitchen before, I can tell the a hasn’t been done in a while. Then she asked why we didn’t complain to the waitress before eating the meal. «Uh, because she was gone for about 25 minutes and we were starving. Where were you?» She tried to defend the restaurant’s quality control practices a bit more.
I wonder why someone like that cannot just say:
«I am so sorry your experience was not up to par. Here’s how I can make it up to you.» Not that I wanted or was expecting anything, but it would have been nice not to have to justify the fact that the food was very underwhelming.
She gave us a 30% discount. Gee thanks. I’m not coming here ever again and I suggest no one frequent this place.

It wasn’t a meal, IT WAS AN EXPERIENCE!
It was impossible to decide what to get. Charlotte (my guide on this food journey) managed to reign me in, she suggested the special that day (Boudin, Gumbo, and beignets!) And Hurricanes of course.
The seafood gumbo was amazing but the chicken and sausage? Oh my God! I blinked and the bowl was empty. I had hot sauce but I didn’t need it. So much flavor and just the right amount of heat. The boudin was the most exciting because I have only heard about it via Beyonce songs. The remoulade with it was magical. I could best describe it as if dirty rice… and fried chicken had a baby. The beignets were everything The Frog Princess had me hoping for. Puffy and sweet and hot!
Thank you Charlotte for an amazing experience and facilitating my gluttony and NOLA/​Cajun noobness! Can’t wait to comeback!

Great meal. We wanted to try everything. Gonna have to come back.
Deion did a good job.
I had the chicken sausage gumbo special. My sister had the jambalaya. Two thumbs up!

I stopped by here today for lunch and was greeted by such a friendly server. I ordered the hush puppy for appetizers. So yummy! The lobster mac and cheese was the ultimate comfort food!

Our service was fantastic. The lady that helped us was incredibly friendly and informative and welcoming.
The prices were higher than I had anticipated, but that wouldn’t have mattered had the food lived up to the prices commanded.
To be fair, I’ll disclose that I grew up in southeast Texas and lived in Louisiana and I’ve been cooking Cajun food since I was a teenager.
We ordered an appetizer of gator bites. I’m just not okay with paying twelve dollars for an appetizer and receiving a fast food red plastic basket one eighth full of the tiniest bits of gator I’ve ever had. I’ve hunted, prepared, and cooked alligator and I can only think they must speed up a soaking process having the meat cut so small, but it really detracts from the experience when you’re mostly eating breading in every bite… or nibble. The romulade, however, was frankly fantastic.
For entrees I ordered the crawfish half and half. There’s a gas station in Lena Louisiana called Hilger’s Texaco on the side of I-​49 that sometimes sells etoufee for around 5.00 a serving. I would put the etoufee here on par with that. I make this dish and I know the time put into making a rich seafood stock and a light roux… and I know how to fold the butter in so that the sauce doesn’t separate and when I make it there’s so much depth and spice that your palate gets cleansed and every bite is like the first so that you always experience the rich savory decadence and spice. This dish can and should be magical, and what I had here was bland, shallow and one dimensional.
The hush puppies were the best I’ve ever had. The salty crust broke open to reveal a perfect balance of soft salty and slightly sweet insides… they were phenomenal and I’ve never really been a hush puppy guy.
My fiancée ordered gumbo and the crawfish Mac and cheese. The gumbo was not anything like I make. I can only liken it to a a Creole style gumbo sans okra and filè. I’m accustomed to Cajun style gumbo made thick with a perfect black roux and spice that compliments seafood offers one of the ultimate comfort food experiences. This just wasn’t that.
The Mac and cheese I liked tremendously. I would have ordered Mac and cheese and hush puppies had I been able to sample the food prior.
The bignets were the best I’ve had outside of New Orleans, including other parts of Louisiana, and the honey bignet was surprisingly decadent and delicious.
I liked the décor and that they’ve been able to do so much with such a small space, but it was very cold inside. In the front room the wind blew the cold directly in the gaps in the door, and in the bar it came through the window a.c. unit.
All in all, I don’t mind dropping a c-​note on dinner for 2 (I had a few beers and tipped in accordance to the service I received which was fantastic as I mentioned) if it’s earned, but this food fell far short. I really like the idea, the open carry support, the décor, and I feel like the business could have been my favorite place in Virginia, but given my experience with the food I could only see coming back if I could cook it myself.

Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, but everything we ordered was amazing! Can’t wait to come back. The gumbo was perfect on this cold and rainy day.