Happy Mardi Gras! Riverbend Bar Restaurant Review

Happy Mardi Gras, St. Louisans!!!  One of my favorite things about St. Louis is our amazing Mardi Gras celebrations, and there is no better place to celebrate in St. Louis than in Soulard.  But if big crowds and cold weather isn't your thing, no worry, because Riverbend Bar down in South Soulard brings New Orleans cuisine to St. Louis year round.  Riverbend is almost a year old, and was started by a true New Orleanian.  It was recently listed in St. Louis Magazine, naming their shrimp and crawfish etoufee as their best dish.  Jessie, Joe and I love good, authentic, Cajun food and we knew we had to try it!

When we first got there, we noticed a neon sign in the bar window advertising Abita beer.  Jessie and Joe had just gone on a trip to New Orleans last year and they got really excited because they drank Abita when they were down there.  Nothing better than authentic New Orleans beer!

Abita Amber

The atmosphere in Riverbend is pretty much like any dive bar/restaurant, with dark wood paneling, pretty low lighting, and with seating in the front and up on a platform in the back.  They don't take reservations, but I heard the waits aren't usually long, and you can always sit at the bar while you wait.  We went on a Wednesday night (they are closed on Tuesdays) and we immediately seated ourselves up on the platform area.  Note that the single room can get really noisy and Jessie and I were literally screaming to each other just to have a conversation.  Once a couple group of people at the tables around us left it got a lot quieter though.

For an appetizer we ordered crabmeat stuffed shrimb.  It was six jumbo shrimp (tails already off!) with a dollop of toasted crabmeat in the curve of the shrimp, all sitting in a buttered sauce and lemons in a hot casserole dish.  It was delicious!!!  I definitely recommend it.  And if crab isn't your thing, I would at least get an order of the jumbo shrimp, because they were really flavorful.

Crabmeat stuffed shrimp

For our entree we ordered the dish that we came there for... shrimp and crawfish etoufee!  I would normally get crawfish etoufee, but the shrimp one sounded good too.  I just couldn't decide, but luckily I didn't have to, because you can get a combination of the two!  It was an easy decision, and a good one!  Jessie and I came to the restaurant planning to split and entree, but we took one look at the etoufee at the table behind ours and we knew we had to have our own.  It was amazing!  Tons of crawfish in each bite, the perfect amount of seasoning, but without being too spicy, and a good amount of rice packed in a small mound in the center of the plate.  I was in heaven.  It brought back really good memories of my trips to New Orleans.  Riverbend definitely does Cajun food right!

Shrimp and Crawfish Etoufee

We were so happy with our meal, we decided to split their House-made Creole Bread Pudding with Whisky Sauce for dessert (for $4, it was hard to pass up!).  It was pretty good and the whisky sauce was really sweet.  It had some hidden white raisins in it, which I didn't even notice until I looked closer.  It was interesting.

House-made Creole Bread Pudding with Whisky Sauce

Overall, I highly recommend Riverbend Bar in Soulard!  It was such a great experience, and the food was amazing!  I'm always wanting to have some authentic Cajun food and I can't wait to go back and perhaps try one of their Po-Boy Sandwiches (that is...if I have the strength to not order their etoufee again).