Crawdaddy's serves up classic Cajun cuisine in SLO
When it comes to Cajun seafood, Crawdaddy’s in San Luis Obispo has it in the bag.
After selling his Kai Lana sushi restaurant in Atascadero, Jon Kim took a year off to research what his next project would be. Kim knew he wanted to stay in the area, and he finally decided to bring the Cajun cuisine he had often enjoyed in other cities to the Central Coast.
“This type of cuisine has been blowing up,” Kim said, “and there wasn’t any here, so we’d always go to San Jose or L.A.” He explained that Crawdaddy’s niche is specifically Cajun, not Creole, and offers a casual approach to seafood much like a Southern crab shack.
Kim spent more than four months gutting and remodeling a former Mexican restaurant on Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo, and opened Crawdaddy’s in December 2013.
The restaurant’s brightly colored interior is awash with all things nautical, from glass buoys and fish floats to signal flags and fishing nets. After placing your order at the front counter, grab a seat at one of the booths along the walls or at several picnic tables in the middle of the dining areas. (The picnic tables can be pushed together to accommodate larger parties, and there’s also a banquet room that can seat 30 to 40 people.)
Crawdaddy’s signature menu item is spicy boiled seafood, which is brought out in a big plastic bag and poured into the middle of your table. Get the bibs, claw crackers and napkins ready because you’re going to be diving in and getting interactive with your food.
You have several options as to how you’d like your seafood boil assembled. First, choose your seasoning: garlic butter, garlic lemon butter or wet Cajun style — or order them all with the Kitchen Sink option.
Then, select a spice level ranging from “Mild — Little Sting” to “Extra Spicy — Can’t feel my Mouth.”
From there, it’s all about the seafood. Single-selection boils include shrimp, various types of crab, and, of course, classic Cajun crawdads. “When crawdads are in season (from early/mid-spring to late summer), we’ll even get them fresh,” Kim said.
You can also add corn-on-the cob, potatoes and andouille sausage to your bag, as well as sides of steamed white rice and French rolls with garlic butter.
If you can’t decide, or need to please a group, opt for one of three combos — the largest of which includes a one-pound king crab leg or a two-pound Dungeness crab, plus a pound each of shrimp, crawfish and mussels, and three each of corn cobs, potatoes and sausages.
In developing the Crawdaddy’s concept, Kim did stray a bit from tradition in order to cater to Central Coast palates.
Figuring that people from this area would appreciate having more options, he added several other menu items. Choices range from shrimp tacos to a chicken quesadilla, from a grilled salmon plate to a mahi mahi wrap, from a crawdad po’ boy sandwich to Cajun fish and chips. You can also get burgers, several salads and appetizers of wings, fries and hush puppies.
To go with your meal, Crawdaddy’s has 12 rotating taps ranging from Coors Light to Firestone Walker Brewing Co. to See Canyon Hard Cider. Bottled beers are also available, as are local white wines and sakes. Non-potent potables are self-serve and all-you-can-drink.
While many people are initially drawn to Crawdaddy’s because of the additional menu items, Kim said, “The Cajun seafood boil is really catching on. Once people try it, they come back. It’s all about the bold spicy flavors and the freshness of the seafood.”
Crawdaddy’s
1761 Monterey Street, San Luis Obispo | 547-1620 | www.facebook.com/crawdaddys.slo.ca
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Wednesday in the winter, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Wednesday summertime, closed Thursday (sometimes closed Wednesday afternoons, so call ahead)
The scene: A casual, family-friendly spot akin to a Southern coastal crab shack.
The cuisine: Specializing in Cajun seafood boils, but includes po’ boys, salads, tacos, fish and chips, burgers and wings.
Expect to spend: Most items $15 and under, seafood boils $10-30 for single items, combo boils $37-77.
This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Crawdaddy's serves up classic Cajun cuisine in SLO."