With gumbo all over my hands as I tried to crack open a fresh crab leg, I thought of a photograph of me as a child with food smeared all over my face. My mom says I must have enjoyed the food, given the mess. So if messiness has anything to do with tastiness, I am sure she would have said the same about my experience this weekend at Papa Joe’s Cajun & Soul Cuisine.

“You got to get down and dirty,” said my waiter as I wondered how I should attempt to consume the heaping bowl of gumbo with shelled crawfish and crab legs. “Snap the heads off and then suck the meat out them.”

So that is what I did, and man, it was delicious.

The recently opened Papa Joe’s, located at 305 Burnet Ave., is one of the only Cajun food restaurants in the Syracuse area. Owner Crystal Lucas’ family comes from Baton Rouge, La., and she grew up eating traditional New Orleans food. When she decided to open a restaurant, Lucas thought she would try something different and honor her family — the restaurant is named after her deceased father.

At Papa Joe’s, she shaped the menu around Cajun classics, like gumbo and jambalaya, and included soul food, like fried chicken, pork chops and hearty sides of mashed potatoes and collard greens. The menu requires that diners enter the restaurant with an empty stomach.

The restaurant itself has a homey feel. With brick walls, beautiful wooden floors, large green tiles on the ceiling and ambient lighting combined with natural light from the window, it felt like entering a home rather than a restaurant. The best part though, was that the food tasted fresh.

Before eating, I was nervous that seafood in a Syracuse restaurant would not taste the same as it might in New Orleans. I was wrong. The gumbo I ordered came with an assortment of shellfish and did not have an overpowering fishy taste.

The thick broth seeped into the rice beneath it and made a great dish for a chilly fall day. The Cajun holy trinity of ingredients — celery, bell peppers and onions — added a fresh element to the dish.

After cracking open the crab leg shells and continuing to use my hands as I ate, I also ordered catfish nuggets with a side of seasoned fries. The nuggets were tiny but there were plenty on the plate to complete a full dish. The meat was fresh, flaky and full of flavor. The fries were also tasty and seasoned well.

To finish off my lunch, I tasted the shrimp etouffee served over white rice. With a creamy, flavorful tomato-based sauce, the dish was a little too spicy. Instead of letting other flavors shine, much of the dish was overpowered by its heat. That being said, there was not much left of it when I finished.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the prices on the lunch menu. Available in half portions, the seafood delights ranged from $9.50 to $13. Though it might be a little more than the average person is willing to spend for lunch, the portion you receive — including a buttery cornbread muffin on the side — along with the ingredients used, make this price very reasonable.

The least favorable thing about the restaurant is its location. Close to campus but not accessible by bus, it would be hard to get there without a car.

But if you’re willing to get a little messy and are looking for some home cooked food, Papa Joe’s might just be the place for you.

Published on October 14, 2013 at 1:19 am

Contact Nicole: nlfisher@syr.edu