10 Best Places To Eat In Lafayette, Louisiana’s Cajun Heartland

For those of us whose lives revolve around food, Louisiana’s Acadiana region is a veritable paradise.

Homegrown Creole and Cajun flavours endow the destination with an intoxicating culinary landscape that starts somewhere with your first taste of boudin and ends when you roll back to where you came from, chock-full of gumbo.

I’ve always said that the best way to experience a destination’s culture is to taste it, and my trip to Lafayette to experience Mardi Gras at the heart of Cajun Country was pleasantly full of belly-busting gastronomical experiences.

Now that my guide to the best things to do in Lafayette, LA is live, I just had to share a foodie post all about some of the best things to eat in Lafayette, Louisiana and the surrounding area.

My press trip with Lafayette Travel was my first visit to the southern United States so I definitely can’t profess to be a Cajun/Creole food expert, but I can tell you what I, as a British tourist, enjoyed eating there!

A lot of these foods were completely new to me – in fact, more than once I had to ask our hosts to pronounce the names of these delicious morsels again so I could make sure I had it right.

Not sure where to eat in Lafayette? I gotchu, as they say in Louisiana. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)

10 Foods To Taste When You Visit Lafayette, Louisiana

Here’s exactly what to order and where to order it when you visit Lafayette and the surrounding areas.

Watch my full Youtube video to see what Cajun Mardi Gras looks like

1. Cajun favourites at the Tabasco factory

The Tabasco Factory is one of the top tourist attractions near Lafayette, but it’s the on-site 1868 Restaurant that will leave a truly memorable taste in your mouth.

Order their sampler if you want to try some of the most popular local Cajun dishes. You’ll get generous helpings of stick-to-yer-ribs chicken and sausage gumbo, crawfish étouffée and red beans and rice. Yum!

Go wild with their impressive Tabasco selection once you take a seat. Are you more of a Raspberry Chipotle, or a Scorpion hot sauce person?

2. Crawfish at Randol’s

Randol’s Seafood Restaurant is the home of the best crawfish in Lafayette, and crawfish is the thing to eat if you visit south Louisiana during crawfish season, which starts in January and lasts until around May – although the meat can get a little tough towards the end of the season.

A staple of Cajun & Creole culinary culture, this is one food you absolutely have to taste in Acadiana. At Randol’s, you can enjoy live Zydeco and Cajun music with your meal.

3. Hand pies from a local bakery

I have to admit that when our host told us he’d bought us these sweet treats for dessert, I misheard and thought we were about to eat ham pie.

Hand pies, it turns out, are hand-held pastries with sweet or savoury fillings.

Ours were from a bakery called Champagne’s (pronounced differently from the fizz). They’re sold throughout the year and deliciously filled with tangy cherries, apples or other fruit fillings.

If you visit Lafayette during Mardi Gras, pick up a bag of the bakery’s purple, green and yellow festive cookies!

4. Plate Lunch at a Lafayette diner

What’s not to love about an old-fashioned American diner? As a British visitor, I just love the novelty of this stereotypical US experience!

We had a dirt-cheap but very satisfying breakfast at Dwyer’s Cafe, which is something of a Lafayette institution, having been open since 1965.

The diner is famous around town for its soul food ‘plate lunches’, comprised of ‘meat n’ three’, with seafood options on Fridays.

You order the plate lunch from the back of the diner, choosing from three dishes of meat, all smothered in sauce. This traditional meal costs less than $10 and the service is super smiley.

5. Boudin at Don’s Meats

It’s almost sacrilegious that I’ve gotten this far into a Lafayette food guide without mentioning a boudin joint. New to my foodie vocabulary, this spicy pork-and-rice sausage is synonymous with Creole and Cajun cuisine and it’s Louisiana’s answer to fast food.

It tastes different everywhere you get it, and there is no shortage of boudin spots in Lafayette.

One of the most popular is Don’s Specialty Meats, a food market with a deli counter and a dedicated boudin stand. Their boudin was voted as the best in Acadiana, nine years running!

You can pick up some of Don’s sauces or seasonings here to take home as a souvenir of your time in Louisiana.

6. Tapas at Pamplona

If your stomach can’t handle any more Cajun food (you clearly need more training), Pamplona Tapas Bar & Restaurant in Downtown Lafayette offers an alternative in the form of rustic Spanish dishes with international fusions.

We had the creamiest mac n’ cheese I’ve ever tasted there, along with mouthwatering beef carpaccio and flavoursome salads.

The expertly mixed seasonal cocktails at Pamplona are worth visiting for alone. Probably best to order a few small plates to soak up the booze, though…

7. Tacos at Tula

If you’re craving authentic Mexican food in Lafayette, Tula Tacos + Amigos is your safest bet. The cute eatery has Instagram-friendly decor and the street food style menu is both colourful and delicious.

The Queso Fundido is a good choice to share – it’s a wonderfully comforting combination of oaxaca cheese, chorizo and serrano with fresh flour tortillas.

Try the Crispy Fish Tacos with masa beer-battered gulf fish, crema, shaved cabbage, radish, serrano and pineapple pico, washed down with one of the unique Jarritos soda flavours.

8. Social Southern Brunch

The best brunch in Lafayette, LA can be found at stylish bar Social Southern. Join the locals who come straight from church on Sundays and sink your teeth into the Brunch Burger.

America’s version of biscuits is confusing to us Brits, but you won’t regret ordering the melt-in-the-mouth Sweet Potato Biscuits and Gravy here. I stuck my nose up at them until I tried a mouthful!

I ended up finishing the serving we’d ordered to share. Oh, my mouth is watering just typing this…

Stayed up late last night? The Walk of Shame Frites will cure you. A dish this sinful should be illegal!

9. ‘Nose to tail’ at a boucherie

Committed foodies might like to experience a culinary celebration that’s unique to South Louisiana at an old fashioned boucherie.

This traditional jamboree’s focal point is a humble hog; which is slaughtered, butchered and cooked in various dishes by local chefs. It’s a community event that sees everyone, young and old, take part.

At the one I attended, the butcher lifted his tiny son on top of the animal to help with the slicing.

Every part of the animal is used and there’s live music with dancing as the chefs prepare the meat. This one is definitely not for the squeamish!

10. Zydeco Breakfast at Buck and Johnny’s

Buck and Johnny’s in Breaux Bridge serves Italian food with a Cajun twist, and their Zydeco Breakfasts on Saturdays attract a huge crowd.

Order plates of beignets, the ‘official state donut of Louisiana’, to start and move on to one of the local-themed dishes such as Cajun Swamp Rice or Don’t Mess With My Tasso.

Wash down with coffee, or Cajun Bloody Mary’s if you’re in need of a kick up the bum before the dancing starts. Live Zydeco with breakfast? Only in Cajun Country!

I don’t regret a single pound of the weight I gained in Louisiana. I thoroughly enjoyed sampling the local food and experiencing some of the best restaurants in Lafayette during my trip, and urge other visitors to follow suit. Let me know if you find a spot I missed!

You can check out my Lafayette Mardi Gras highlight on my Instagram for a play-by-play of my trip, and follow my Facebook page and Twitter for more travel tips and guides.

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, I visited Lafayette LA on a press trip with Lafayette Travel before travel restrictions were introduced in 2020. Views are my own.

Pin this

• 

•