The Big Easy

Chicken wings with the Caribbean jerk sauce was delicious. The Louisiana pretzel was ok but I would never order it again

Help! I’ve been robbed!!! $$$
Unfortunately, this place was a ginormous disappointment. Crab pretzel… not very good and nooo crab meat. Aligator apetizer was good but heavily over seasoned. The craw fish etouffe was ok… but we’ve had much better. The crab cakes though. …I’m disgusted that this business charges innocent, unsuspecting people $ 15 for freaking peppers and bread crumbs. These were the $ 2 crab cakes you get at the store. I even told my waitress that I hate to complain but this was unacceptable and she said all she can do is say sorry. I’ve never felt so ripped off. I’m on a tight budget and my money was wasted. Don’t make the same mistake I did. There are plenty of other places in Raleigh that serve quality food and appreciate your business.
I will never eat here again and will not recommend to anyone.
I hate that they didn’t even offer me another option. This place is a ripoff!

There was a guy there playing the saxophone, providing a nice atmosphere. I had a Peach whiskey drink of some kind that was tasty and «effective». I also had the Louisiana Pretzel as an appetizer and crawfish étouffée as my entrée. BOTH were phenomenal and the portions were large. I shared my dishes, and I left stuffed with plenty to take home. Our server Kelly was also fantastic!

Great food and great location (except that time we got stuck at the most awkward table that could seat a party of 8 and we were a small party of 3 and there were plenty of better tables available). Their sampler is so yummy! My favorite is their étouffée (although bragging rights… my fiancé’s is better but I think small batch home cooked étouffée is always going to be better). Oh and their cornbread… I wish I had the guts to just ask for a basket of ten cornbread muffins and not feel like a fat tub of lard :) it’s so good! Dessert is fine… nothing to brag about, but don’t worry… you won’t have any room for it anyways after their amazing entrees.

My drink called Ragin’ Cajun was phenomenal. My meal, awful. I tried the surf and turf meal. The meat was cold. The fish unseasoned. The rice plain. The beans undercooked. I tasted my husband’s gumbo and it had a weird aftertaste. Nothing like New Orleans at all. However, the music was beautiful.

We drove 1.5hrs just to wait 2hrs because they wouldn’t put tables together. Apparently they would rather allow a party to sit there no longer ordering food or drinks instead of new customers. Hostess didn’t seem to care. We definitely won’t be back. Waste of a drive.

All of the other nearby restaurants were crowded so we game this place a shot. Walked in on New Years Day at 1:30pm. The bathroom was covered in vomit and was not cleaned up from the night before. We didn’t eat here so can’t comment on the food. Cleanliness is foundational and cannot be ignored.

First of all, the location and space itself is pretty cool. The service was prompt and the waitresses were definitely doing their jobs. My two issues with this place are: 1) the food is gross; 2) the gross food is overpriced.
I ordered the sampler and all 3 dishes shared the same vaguely bland dirt-​like flavor. I don’t know if it’s a certain spice they used, or if the sauces came out of the box, but it wasn’t good. Also, the drink I got was supposed to be a special spicy creole concoction but it tasted like cheap grocery store mixer. At the end of the day, the space can be space cool, convenient and the staff can be amazing — but if the food does not taste good (at around $ 14 a dish for dinner), I’m not going there. There’s too much competition for the price point.
It’s a shame because this place has such potential.

Meant to write this a few days ago. Ducked in here for lunch. I’ve walked by a million times, but never actually stopped.
This review *could* be a 4, but nothing knocked my socks off. I had the oyster po boy, which was «good», but not «great». Bartender forgot my extra side of cajun mayo. Fries were good.
Smells a little like a damp dish towel inside.
Bartender is friendly, but seemed a little bothered, so I stopped asking her for things.
I think there is so much potential here. Wash your dirty dish towels. Remember special requests. Smile and say yes when you are working for tips. (I still tip well, regardless, but come on now… let’s bring it up a notch. I don’t work for tips, nor commission, but I try to go out of my way to please people who pay to patronize my business)
The interior is pretty. I do like the décor, however, it feels more like a tourist trap *trying* to be New Orleans, but just missing the mark by a few inches… feet…miles…

Good was tasty, service was good. Floor was extremely sticky, restrooms needed a make over!

So I got the Cajun Ribeye with broccoli and mashed potatoes. The steak was cooked exactly like I like it, but I expected more out of the Cajun dry rub that was on it. My mom got the shrimp platter and it was ok. All in all, not bad, but a bit underwhelming. I think I’ll give them another try and come back for lunch.

Not a dinner spot. Good for late night live music. Service is some of the worse I’ve seen downtown. Bar tenders constantly on their phones and snacking behind the bar. No regards for the customers and being attentive, only chatting amongst themselves. All service had to be called upon my the customer. And they seemed highly uninterested to be there. I came at dinner time and sat at the bar, never was I asked if I wanted to see a menu and they just kind of pointed at me to get my drink order. Bar tender set my drink down with no words and walked away.
I’ve been before late night but this was my first dinner experience. And they must always be in late night mode. Tables around me seemed to be getting alright service but still none at the bar. After a drink I had to wait 10 more minutes to try the attention of the bar tender. From this point I was so annoyed I closed out and went to another place to grab dinner.

I came to The Big Easy with a party of five on a Friday night, after getting bounced from two other places in downtown Raleigh. One of these other restaurants’ maitre d’s recommended the place, noting that it was big and likely to be able to accommodate us. She was right, and we were grateful to walk in and get a table.
The place was big, separated into front and back rooms, with more space upstairs. We were put in the back room, which was kind of a strange area. It felt a little forgotten and crummy, and there was the acoustics were off in a way that bordered on unpleasant. There was live music later on in our meal, but it didn’t sound particularly nice where we were sitting. That said, we were comfortable enough. It was easy to sit around and enjoy ourselves.
Service was decent, and food and drink came out quickly. We had a couple Louisiana pretzels to start, and these were interesting, if nothing I’d ever expect to see in New Orleans. They were giant soft baked pretzels smothered in a thick, creamy crab and artichoke dip, with parmesan cheese on top. Decadent and tasty in a mildly gross way. I had a crawfish étouffée for my dinner, and this was satisfying. It featured a mound of seasoned rice in a pool of crawfish sautéed in a butter roux with vegetables and spices. The rice and sauce were really good, and I enjoyed the sweet little morsels of crawfish. I washed my dinner down with a Moscow Mule, which was probably too strong. I like alcohol as much as the next person, but can’t say I love the taste of vodka.
Anyway, we had a good time at The Big Easy and were mostly grateful that we could sit down, eat food, and drink drinks. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here or anything, but I’d recommend it if you’re looking for an open table in the area.

Just a review for the bar section. Service was good and they had an OK assortment of draft beer, could definitely be better. Atmosphere was un distinctive as well. God place to see a band when they have them. I would like to return and try something to eat here.

I was brought to this downtown Raleigh restaurant for a evening of fun and comfort dining. As well as for my love of Cajun/​Creole cuisines, you see my (I) family is from New Orleans, so I know good New Orleans food (flavor) when I taste it. I must say that I was pretty impressed with the décor. It made me feel like I was walking through the streets of the French Quarters, with memorabilia reminiscent of New Orleans Mardi Gras. The dining area was set to make you feel as if you were sitting in a courtyard, with painted murals of everything New Orleans. Like a portrait of Louis «Satchmo» Armstrong, Bourbon Street at night and many others. The dining area is clean and well maintained and close to the kitchen so the food is delivered hot.
Which brings me to the food itself. I ordered the Crawfish Étouffée (well I did say wanted to see what this was made of), and I must say I was not disappointed. The crawfish didn’t taste like it was frozen, which is good because that was the first question I asked my server, if the crawfish was frozen or shipped fresh. To my luck they had just received a deliver that Wednesday and we dined there Thursday. The sauce was flavorful and well seasoned, my compliments to the chef. To make my visit feel more authentic I had the Hurricane cocktail and it was awesome.
All in all, I can definitely say that I will be back here on my next visit to Raleigh and can’t wait to try the other variety of dishes and of course another Hurricane.
The one reason I gave this establishment 4 as opposed to 5 was because I felt the live bands should have played music more inline with New Orleans culture like Second Line, Blues and Jazz.

Went here for lunch for restaurant week and it was delicious! I was very surprised with the food since I have only been here at night when it’s a bar. When you walk in, it definitely has the bar atmosphere feel. The floors are sticky and still smell like the stale beer spilled on it from the night before, and the lighting is super dim so it’s hard to really even see the menu or your food!
The appetizers were great. The stuffed shrimp were my favorite. The sauce was delicious. The crab and alligator bites were good as well along with the pimento cheese fritters. The pimento cheese bites were a little greasy for me.
I ordered the crab cake sandwich which was a good choice! The crab cake was tasty, but it was super thin so the roll of the sandwich was practically bigger than the crab cake itself.
For dessert, we tried the brownie and the bananas foster. Yum! Dessert was my favorite part of the meal. Both were super flavorful and cooked just right. The ice cream with chocolate sauce and caramel was an extra bonus!
For a 10 dollar lunch for restaurant week, this was a good deal. But for an average night for dinner or afternoon for lunch, I’m not sure I would choose to eat here. I will say the service was really fast and we got our food in a speedy manner though!

I used to come here years ago and I think I liked it because I missed NOLA. But I think I’m giving up the ghost. I came last night and had the Étouffée and I feel that it is one of those sauces that are instant. It lacked flavor and was drenched in butter and cream to pretend that it had flavor. In the past, it was much better. The server looked as if he had been pole dancing at a gay bar, he was straight but still, he was a good, uninterested soldier. The entire place has taken a dive and is starting to look like an eatery at a theme park. If you want to experience a one dollar ride without thrill then come in. It isn’t the worst of Raleigh place.

Well Big Easy, you’ve gone and done it now. When I moved downtown in January 2015, I also moved the trivia group that I organize once or twice a month from Edwards Mill to The Big Easy.
First off, we LOVE Cindy (who runs trivia on Tuesday nights) but the service has gone DRAMATICALLY down hill.
It started off horrible when we arrived last night. I’ll bring 10 – 15 people regularly on Tuesdays and we always just get 2 or 3 tables at the front. I told 3 different employees when we arrived what we wanted to do (what we always do) and they started freaking out right away. «OMG that many people!!! And you want one table???» I was like… «No… we want to take up the three tables that are currently empty up front». This place is ALWAYS dead on a Tuesday so we’ve never had a problem. After we got it all figured out, we sat down and tried to order drinks multiple times. The server was new and she forgot/​added drinks/​forgot/​added drinks/​over and over again and didn’t take food orders for an hour. It was insanity. My entire trivia group does not even want to come back even when it’s not trivia night.
They also didn’t have a place for Cindy to set up her trivia stuff when she arrived. She’s always been left a table and so either management didn’t tell all this new staff OR they just didn’t listen.
So we’re moving our trivia group to a different bar which is a ton of your Tuesday business.
Get your servers trained better and don’t have so much new staff on one night.

I recently visited The Big Easy for a quick meal and drinks. It wasn’t my first visit to TBE, but since I only had drinks prior, I didn’t feel the need to write a review, but now I will!
First off the positive, I do like the atmosphere, and they had a guy playing some jazzy music which was nice (Although the rest of the band was just electronic, would have been better to have a full quartet If you didn’t know better though, it did sound like a full ensemble.)
The place is dimly lit, at least around dinner time, and over-​all a cool New Orleans style atmosphere. I looked over the menu and ordered the oysters rockefeller. At other places I have seen this as an appetizer, but here it was an entrée. The entrée consisted of 5 oysters, rice, steamed veggies and a salad. The cost was around $ 16, so not super cheap, but it was a pretty fair amount of food. I think nearby 42^nd street offers the best representation of oysters rock that I have had in this area, and sadly TBE’s version didn’t quite measure up in my opinion. The oysters tasted «watery», and there was quite a bit of spinach and not much oyster. Also the oysters were «gritty». The rice that accompanied the dish really didn’t have much flavor. I did like the salad and the steamed veggies though.
Overall a lackluster dining experience. If I was rating just based on the food alone, I would give them two stars. I thought our server did a good job though, and this is a pretty cool place to come for a few drinks, so next time I visit I will probably just stick to drinking and listening to live music.

Rounding up…
–It was more ‘fun’ than it was ‘good’.
–Better than airport Cajun but not as good as real Cajun.
–The food prices aren’t too bad.
–Right in downtown Raleigh