The Lost Cajun – Rochester

Yum! That’s all you need to know! Free samples when you sit down — red beans & rice is excellent! Looks like a little hole in the wall place… Those are the best ones. Super cute décor & very friendly! And Yum!!!

Food is delicious and great service. Might be a little expensive but what can you expect from Cajun food in the north. Love the gumbo.

Loved this hidden jewel in Rochester. Great Cajun food… Good service. I was greeted by the owner… He is very friendly and makes sure that you are happy with your order and service. Very casual atmosphere. The complimentary table sampler is a great way to see what you would like to order and taste test a sample of their food. I had the gator Bites and fried jalapeños — loved it. I also had the lunch special — ½ po’boy of food catfish and chicken and sausage gumbo…

Had the shrimp po-​boy and it was delish! VERY friendly and helpful staff… our waitress Hamesha (sp?) was just terrific!!! Will definitely be back.

The service was good. Everyone was very nice. I loved how they brought out a sample try to the popular dishes before we ordered. I ordered the jambalaya and my husband got the cat-​toffee. We both enjoyed our food and we tried the beignets. They were tasty also. The reason for my low rating was because of my to go order. I ordered the lobster bisque to go so I could eat it in my hotel room later for dinner. I was really looking forward to the bisque. When I opened the container to warm it up, it was wrong. I was so sad. I was given a bowl of etoufee instead. Not what I wanted at all. I will go back again. If I order food Togo I will just check it before I leave.

The Lost Cajun. In Minnesota? Yes, definitely lost.
I was visiting my aunt and cousins near Rochester. We drove into town for some supper. «Where shall we eat?» they kept saying. «Hu Hot?»
«No,» someone said. «I don’t feel like it.»
«There’s that Cajun place,» my cousin’s husband said. «I could do with some jambalaya, and they make pretty good gumbo.» They couldn’t decide. They didn’t care all that much.
They asked me «Where do you want to eat? Rochester has a good variety. If you could have anything to eat for supper what would you choose?»
Well what a dumb question. The answer to that has always been «My mom’s gumbo.» So I said, «Well what a dumb question. My mom’s gumbo.»
Silence.
«Well, you Asked,» I said, somewhat severely.
We got as close to that as we could. I was dubious but impatiently curious.
The waitress brought us a sample platter of gumbos, red beans & rice, étouffée, jambalaya… and it was The Taste. The taste of the South, the taste of childhood birthdays and family gatherings. After living in Yankee territory for more than a year now again, I’d forgotten how tasty food Can be. If my chicken & sausage gumbo had been any hotter I would have had to back off.
It was perfect. Never before have I had such good gumbo.
Other than my mom’s.
And mine.
Well, and that Cajun neighbor lady who taught me to butcher turtles.
Now the potato salad. (This is always controversial.) We agreed it was a very good potato salad in spite of being heavily mustarded. I didn’t expect it to be like my mom’s: «Aunt Mary’s Potato Salad» is always spoken in capital letters.
The hush puppies were among the finest I have chowed in my 29 years.
Sadly, there was no cornbread with my gumbo. It was served with garlic French bread. Perhaps that is the New Orleans way. And guess what? I’ve never eaten gumbo in New Orleans.
We finished with a basket of beignets. No rancid oil flavor here.
So I give the food at The Lost Cajun five stars.

This is my first time posting in Unilocal!I must say I was not expecting a Cajun restaurant in Rochester MN. The food was fantastic. We really liked the fact that they brought out a paddle with a sampling of 6 different menu items. My husband and I shared the Lobster Bisque (Yum oh) and the red beans and rice as an appetizer. I had the Jambalaya and it was very tasty and my husband loved his
Cat-​Touffee. It made us both think we were in Louisiana. If your in the area, I would recommend this place. The food and service was very good and we will be back.

Great authentic food and Griff was there himself! Clean interior. It seems like it’s caught between being a fast food joint and a sit down restaurant. It falls into the fast food with the bench seating. Give it a try, great red beans and rice.

We passed a good time at the Lost Cajun, food was almost like bein’ home. Stupendous!

Hubby tried gator tail and says it was AMAZING! I personally love their seafood gumbo, crawfish étouffée, and fried oysters! All are so delicious! This place is definitely a gem in a small town like Rochester.

Awesome cajun food! The chicken and sausage gumbo is great! Nice amount of spiciness and flavor. This quickly became one of our local Rochester favorites.

Sad that Amber is no longer there~ very bad service the last time we were there that resulted in us getting our check taken care of. I would rather have paid for our meal and gotten great service… they have some work to do…
But yes, the food was delish as always (once the orders were brought to us correctly!). We we in LOVE with the red beans and rice and the seafood gumbo and the catfish. Okra was great too! :)
Will look forward to coming again in hopes that the service meets the level of the taste of the food :)

Went there when they fist opened, left very disappointed. Nice place. Food was weak. Cajun food should be robust and flavorful. This places food lacked flavor and spice. So sad.
If you don’t have any meaningful experience with Cajun /​Creole, you may love it.
If you have any experience with Cajun /​Creole food be ready for disappointment.
The kind of food one can expect at an airport food court. Uninspired and lacking character.

I got the spicy Cajun sausage po’ boy, delicious! I could have gotten one of everything off their sampler plate. I can’t wait to bring my husband back here!

We were excited to try The Lost Cajun Restaurant and we weren’t disappointed. We had a great time and enjoyed a dessert that we haven’t had before.
When we walked into the restaurant, we were quickly seated by our waitress, Amber. She brought us our free samples of their gumbos, which was a great way to help us pick what we wanted to order for lunch. We enjoyed them all and we decided to get a Shrimp Po’boy and Crawfish Étouffée lunch combo for $ 10, their Lent Special (3 Catfish, 2 Shrimp, Fries, and French Bread) for $ 10, and their Hushpuppies for $ 5. We finished off the meal with an order of traditional Beignets for $ 5. Total bill with tip was around $ 37. A little bit pricy for lunch in the atmosphere that they are going for, but we were satisfied and had a pretty large order.
We always share our dishes and compete on the best one. The Crawfish Étouffée won as our favorite dish. We’ve had Crawfish and Gumbo before, just not cooked this way prior. It was a very nice dish. If it was a little bit spicier (it had no heat to it, really) it would be perfect (although they had Hot Sauce on the table). The Po’boy, Catfish, and Hushpuppies tasted very similar to other dishes we’ve had a various places in the South. All very good. The Beignets were fun to try, but we though they were supposed to be crunchy/​crispy. Ours tasted more like biscuits/​rolls with powdered sugar on top. Anyway, if we order them again (we probably will not order them again), we’d probably go with their order of ten bites over the traditional (easier to eat?).
The restaurant is small. It wasn’t busy when we visited, with only three patrons, and we worry that it could get really loud in here with more people. It’s clean and well decorated. The seats are basically benches, so it may be uncomfortable for some people. It would be a nice place to bring kids for the free beads. Easy place to get in out of.
Our waitress, Amber, was professional and friendly. She took our orders and brought the food quickly. She had a smile on her face the entire time and was helpful with the menu and the service.
A good place to get some close to authentic cajun food (I’m used to more spice in this type of cuisine) so far from the bayou. We’ll be back. Next time we’ll pick up one of the repeat customer cards (buy ten get one free bowel) and each of us will get one of their gumbos (our favorite thing on the menu). I do want to try their okra a well (I really love good okra).
Our suggestion, one that we actually heard another customer mention while we were eating, would be for the restaurant to offer wipes. They have a roll of paper towels on the table, but some of their food sticks to your fingers and a wipe would help clean up.

Never had cajun food so I can’t compared to others, but I found the lobster bisque very good. First time I’d ever had hush puppies, I enjoyed them. We also tried the red refried beans with sausage. It was just a little bit spicy, meaning I could handle it. We ended the meal with benyeas. Something I’ve never tried before. They were very good. I’m not a fan of spicy foods but I did enjoy tonight’s dinner. I’ll be coming back, I’d like to try a poboy sandwich, they looked good.

I and my native Louisianan girlfriend love this restaurant. All of the gumbos and soups are delicious, the po-​boys (while a little small) are made perfectly, and the beignets; do not get me started on the beignets!
I do wish they had a bit larger menu, with more non-​seafood items included, but I understand that seafood is the cornerstone of bayou food.
I highly recommend you dine here.

Basically OK, but avoid the beignets.
Pros: The catfish is great, and they bring you samples of the dishes before you order. Most of the samples I tried were decent to good.
Cons: Prices are very high considering the «fake roadhouse atmosphere.» The servers shout some of the orders to the cooks, that combined with the total lack of carpeting or curtains makes the restaurant almost deafening when busy. The beignets are just terrible. I found the lobster bisque to be very close to drinking mildly flavored heavy cream.
Go get a plate of hushpuppies and fried catfish and you will be satisfied.

I’m actually really impressed with Lost Cajun!
It’s a relatively small place, but there’s a large patio to help serve crowds in good weather. I enjoyed the staff bringing us samples to taste test before we ordered, and was really impressed by the flavor of their lobster bisque.
We ended up trying the Gumbo, some okra, hush puppies, and taking home a couple of beignets.
I was a little less thrilled at how the servers send orders to the kitchen (they literally yell your order at the top of their lungs to the kitchen, who calls it back), but I can get this being cute and fun when the restaurant isn’t busy. (They were in the middle of a busy dinner service when we checked them out, and that meant that someone was shouting right beside or behind you pretty much through the whole dinner.)
I didn’t run into the slower service some people have pointed out, but I heard them say they’d only been open for a week and a half at this location — I suspect that it’s a matter of hammering the kinks out as they get used to service.

Minnesota might be the last place you’d expect to find delicious, authentic Cajun quisine, but The Lost Cajun delivers just that. This place is a little slice of New Orleans in the heart of the Midwest.
Guests are first offered samples of six different dishes; gumbos, étouffées, red beans and rice, and delicious lobster bisque. I chose the «Cat-​Touffee,» strips of deep-​fried catfish smothered in in crawfish étouffée and served over a bed of rice.
The atmosphere is loud, fun and colorful, with lots of New Orleans kitsch on the walls. It had the feeling of a place that had been open for a lot longer than three days– that’s right, the Lost Cajun just opened on June 27, 2014.
We also tried the fried okra, which was salty, crispy and delicious, and got some beignets for dessert– tasty, yeasty, chewy and covered in powdered sugar.
If you find yourself in Rochester, Minnesota, and you wish for a taste of the deep south, give The Lost Cajun a try. You won’t be disappointed.