Cajunator

I enjoyed my Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab and Oyster Po’boy at the Truckeroo Festival at Navy Yard. The crab was battered just right and fried perfectly. I generally don’t care for my fried foods to be too salty and this was just right. The oysters were of a nice size and what really set it off was the special mustard they offer. Yummy! I would definitely come back for more.

I saw the Cajunator truck at Drink the District, and thought it looked like it was worth a try. Before I get to the next point, I need to explain something about how you order here (and at most food trucks) — you order at the front of the truck, then wait at the back for your food.
When I decided to get food from Cajunator, there were a few people waiting to order, and maybe 6 – 8 more who appeared to be waiting for their order. So I waited a few minutes and placed my order, then walked over to wait for my food. A minute later, order #21 comes out. The reason why I mention the order number… and the bulk of the reason for the poor rating here, is that I was order #51. Apparently the wait was so bad that everyone was walking away for a while and then coming back. When I order food from a truck, I do not expect a 40 minute wait. If there is, then the waitstaff should at least mention something about that. Not cool, Cajunator. Anyway, on to the food.
I ordered the Oyster Po’Boy ($ 13) and got a fairly large sandwich, with deep-​fried oysters on top of lettuce and tomato. Hot sauce and lemon optional and available. The oysters were cooked perfectly — well breaded and crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. The sandwich bread was nice and crusty (probably toasted) but the overall taste was a little off. While eating it, I could barely taste the oysters, which kind of defeats the point of getting an oyster sandwich.
Overall, I’d say 3 for food, and a 0 for the wait/​service. And I’m rounding down because the bad experience with the wait outweighs the food. I would say that this place is worth trying if the line is short, but based on my experience, a short line and a short wait are not necessarily correlated.

Asked for their most popular offering and was directed to their fried catfish po’boy. Although the catfish itself tasted ok and was prepared well, the breading to fish ratio was way off. To make matters worse, the fish to bread ratio was also way off, forcing an unfortunate focus on semi-​stale bread and overall poor execution. Not even worth standby in my book.

All I’ve had is the ½ and ½ Po’ Boy, which in my case was half catfish, half shrimp and half oyster. Three halves is a great way to start. The fish are all fried very well– a good cornmeal crunch. The oysters are surprisingly briny, and the catfish very fresh. The shrimp are pleasant enough, and the remoulade isn’t bad. The bread is fresh and there is plenty inside it. Splash on some Crystal and this is a very nice lunch, especially here on Minnesota Avenue NE where food choices are, too say the least, very limited.

I gotta be honest, if this guy is from Louisiana, you would think his friends down there would have the heart and the regional pride to tell him he’s not a very good cook. Lindsay L. is right – people who know good cajun food have a responsibility to speak up when someone screws it up. Cajun food is like the Superman of food, and for me this is like watching a bad guy beat up Superman. You have to save him!
The red beans and rice was an embarrassment to cajun cooking. It was soupy, bland and starchy. The principal flavor in the dish was unseasoned kidney bean. Moreover, and maybe this is an anomaly, I didn’t come across a single piece of meat in the whole thing. When Popeyes red beans and rice utterly blows your dish out of the water, you’ve got some serious soul searching to do.
The oyster po’ boy wasn’t quite as bad, but that’s like comparing a fender bender to a major car accident – you really don’t want either one. James S. hits the nail on the head about the remoulade too – come on guys if you are from NOLA you surely know this is missing the mark. The only thing they really got right is the bread, and I’m pretty confident they don’t bake their own.
Damn you Cajunator – you are the Lex Luthor to cajun cooking’s Superman.

Had the red beans and rice and the seafood gumbo. The RB&R was very flavorful with just the right amount of spice to give it pop. The jalapeño cornbread was not warm, but had a ground-​corn flavor. I’ve save the best for last, the gumbo had fresh seafood and okra. The basestock was excellent.
Well worth the wait.

Let’s face it, DC. We’re a thousand miles away from NOLA. That means there’s no Mothers, or Parkway, or Acme Oyster House around the corner for fresh po’boys. The Cajunator can never replicate the taste of freshly caught Gulf shrimp on perfectly crunchy French bread. What the Cajunator does, however, is provide this New Orleans transplant with a taste of home during the work week (when I need it the most).
I’ve only had the shrimp po’boys, but they certainly hit the spot. They give you the choice of normal dressed or remolaude sauce instead of mayo, which is actually pretty good.
The owner is a Kenner/​NOLA native. I’m going to remain a loyal customer, if only to support one of my own.

I had the gumbo for lunch today. I’ve had very good gumbo in the past and what Cajunator was serving was, unfortunately, not gumbo. It was closer to a thick chicken and rice soup. It fell far short of the heartiness real gumbo has.
That said, as a thick chicken and rice soup it wasn’t bad… and for the cold windy day that it was, it hit the spot. The chicken itself was moist but the sausage was almost flavorless. The overall flavor was good, again, as chicken and rice soup, but as gumbo, I could only call it a notch above bland.
Aside from that, my two nits to pick are:
1) The bread served with the soup was not fresh. It wasn’t stale but it was dry and probably a day or 2 away from being stale. Not a big issue as the bread was dunked in the soup.
2) The soup was not served piping hot. By the time I made the short walk from the truck back to my desk, it was just above lukewarm.

Good stuff. The po boy was good — not too overstuffed like some people try to do it. Some places I’ve been to (in Maryland) think a po boy is supposed to be an open-​faced sandwich you can only eat with a knife and fork. Not so.
If I had my choosing, I would go for the gumbo. It’s a little spicy (like it’s supposed to be), but delicious. Especially now that it’s getting cold out, their gumbo will hit the spot! Recommended.

I REALLY wanted to like this place and now I’ve given Cajunator a few chances to redeem themselves. However, after sampling a wide range of the dishes here… it’s blah. I LOVE Cajun food and grew up in households that viewed departures from Cajun cooking rules as sacrilege — so, I am a bit harsher than most for this particular cuisine. I CAN say that if you are looking for Authentic Cajun Food and tastes… this is not the place to go — hit up Acadiana (pricey) or Bayou.
First, LOGISTICS — there have been a number of occasions that Cajunator didn’t show up on the day they said they would or showed up very late. So, even though I wanted to try the food, the Cajunator truck was no where to be found.
The FOOD:
The Chicken and Andouille Gumbo was exceptionally bland — no okra or file powder, usually you have at least one in a gumbo? Also, no spice/​heat at all and the portion for $ 8 is rather anemic (at least add some shrimp or other seafood to make it a more worthwhile dish) or serve an extra side of rice which this dish could also use. HOT container is not a good one for carry-​away food — thank goodness for the side of bread I was able to use as a hot pad. after adding a healthy dose of my own habenero hot sauce the gumbo was bit better but most of the proteins were rather flavorless the sausage had almost no flavor at all.
The Shrimp Po’ Boy. Again, bland — I even asked for extra remoulade which had little flavor other than mayo. The shrimp were also very oddly prepared. They should be crisp and crunchy after a brief flash fry but these tasted like they had been tossed in cornmeal after being cooked? The coating was literally dripping off of the shrimp into the sandwich. So, the sandwich ended up being a rather goopy flavorless mess.
The Red Beans and Rice. This is a dish that is generally pretty hard to screw up. Yet again, the flavor profile was very uninspired. There were large slices of Andouille Sausage in the dish, which you would expect to add some flavor, but it does not — I can only guess that Cajunator is gettign a low quality Andouille that doesn’t have much spice or flavor. After a healthy dose of Tabasco the dish was a bit better but really only now tasted like hot-​sauce.
The Fried Shrimp Étouffée. This was the final straw… first I was a bit leery of «fried» shrimp in an etoufee. The raw shrimp are generally added at the very end and just cooked before serving. However, the really tragedy was the TOMATOES. This goes back to my original comment about rules. Tomatoes are CREOLE not Cajun and NEVER belong in a Cajun Étouffée. Also, gauging by the crunchiness of the veggies this dish didn’t get enough time to simmer and once again, go figure, it was bland. The shrimp were better than what had been in my sandwich but did not belong in this dish.
The VERDICT: Sorry Cajunator… I wish we could have had a better relationship, I dream about good Cajun food, but unfortunately, this is not it…

Once I saw the golden shrimp being tossed around in a stainless bowl I HAD to stop. I just didn’t realize I would be waiting for 30 minutes for a shrimp po boy!
For 10 $ you get a sandwich and fries. No drink?!? Yeah I know…
The shrimp aren’t too small but they are large enough to satisfy the average person. It comes with some form of sauce on it as well. It kinda reminded me of a semi-​spicy mayo.
The fries were crispy and toppled with a cajun seasoning. Might be a little salty to some people but I didn’t mind.
I was going to rate it two stars because of the wait but the sandwich was good. I can’t deny that… Get the orders out quicker guys!

Tried for 1^st time today. Have never seen this truck before. I tried the shrimp po boy and was pleasantly surprised. The flavors were just right, the bread had just the right amount of crunch and they give a nice portion. Next time i’ll ask for a lil more sauce. .And they take credit/​debit cards. a rarity with some of these trucks.

I tried the Cajunator on the street yesterday (at L’Enfant). I was early so I didn’t have to wait in line and actually had a chance to chat with the guy in charge/​chef. I had the shirmp po’boy and fries. It was all pretty tasty. I think too many chefs put in too much spice because they think or their customers think that is what is Cajun/​Southern Lousiana fare. It should be tasty without burning holes in your mouth. I thought this po’boy struck a nice balance. I tweeted the guy suggesting he offer something sweet maybe pralines that could be made ahead and expand the menu somewhat. The fries were fine. I wasn’t particularly interested in the fries, but I wanted to give him more business. I ate more of them than I should have. They could have been crisper, but I have never cooked fries in a truck so I don’t understand the challenges.
I will look for the truck so that I can try the gumbo and the roast beef po’boy.

(SIGH)
It is with great sadness that I key this review. I really wanted to like these guys but I self-​admittedly am an extremely tough sell on cajun food. So unorthodox as it may be, I gave them a hometown handicap. (HEY don’t judge me). The owner is a fellow Louisianan (hailing from Kenner, LA) and cajun culture is near and dear to my heart so YES, I purposely approached this truck with high hopes and low expectations.
The first strike was an unsuccessful attempt to purchase gumbo after waiting 30 mins in line. «You can’t run out of Gumbo… Nooo.» Does anyone know how it feels to have the guy right in front of you get the last ANYTHING, after waiting for over 5 mins in a line. Yeah… it sucks. But twisted as it may be, it only heightened my desire for a bowl from the Cajunator. The high demand had solidified it’s delicious worth. So I left with nothing, determined to return for exactly what I had come for. The next week, I was able to order whatever I desired. I got one bowl of gumbo and one order of shrimp étouffée.
The Food:
The gumbo tasted more like an under seasoned gravy w/​chunks of low grade meat than a carefully prepared Louisiana roux. The sausage couldn’t pass for andouille by any stretch of the imagination, and the chicken was dry and flavor-​less. The consistency made it evident that the cooks were too heavy handed with the flour when the roux was prepared. Last but not least, cajun food can fail on a lot of levels, but the quickest way to go down in flames is serving a bland dish.
…
…
…
FLAMES
Although the étouffée was better, it wasn’t by much. The roux suffered from the same problem… to much flour, to little of the holy trinity. After bitting into a crunchy piece of onion, it was evident that the timing was way off. Cajun food IS NOT low-​effort cuisine. The little salad shrimp, and disproportionate helping of rice sealed the fate of the Cajunator. Needless to say I will not be back but, I could not in good conscience let this be passed off as good, or even decent cajun food.

Tried the Cajunator at Truckeroo 2.
I will definitely say that the Roast Beef Po’ Boy came out much tastier than the shrimp po’ boy that day.
The roast beef po’ boy was packed with flavor and moist. The sandwich bread was able to soak up all the juices.
While on the other hand, the sandwich bread for the shrimp po’ boy’ was overly toasted to the point where it made it every bite like biting into rock-​hard, stale bread. However, the cajun flavors of the popcorn-​type shrimp were definitely there — the whole sandwich just didn’t come together when it came to this particular item on the menu.

So here I am putting my reputation up on the line for yet another Cajun inspired operation, this time a new addition to the food truck scene which surprisingly hasn’t garnered a lot of attention. Having appeared at the last Truckeroo and most recently at the H Street Festival I thought for sure they would have a few reviews by now, but apparently not. Hopefully they don’t follow the same route as Tru Orleans and provide great service and food to me and follow that up with total disappointment for everyone else.
I was a little bummed that I arrived at the truck, and had my order placed by 12:20, and they were already out of the shrimp po’boy from the menu. After seeing some of the shrimp étouffée and andouille sausage & chicken gumbo portions I was a bit hesitant to order them, as they honestly looked a bit small. This left me with the roast beef po’boy as the only option on the menu. I really didn’t have high hopes at this point and was beginning to regret my 10 minute wait in line, but went ahead with it since I knew whatever it was I had eaten worse from the «House of Falafel» truck which was ironically parked right next to it.
This sandwich delivers, in just about every measurable way a New Orleans style po’boy should. In fact it just about instantly reminded me of eating at Mother’s, an institution for the city. Truth be told, I actually liked a lot of elements of the Cajunator sandwich even more than Mother’s, as the bread was nice and crunchy and the roast beef was significantly more flavorful. Granted, Mother’s is mostly well known for their dipped sandwiches, which are intoxicatingly enticing, but that’s somewhat of a 1-​hit wonder. Since they had run out of the shrimp he knocked the price on the roast beef down to $ 8 for the sandwich, which I would consider a great deal as I was not only full but completely satisfied. I’m hard pressed to find a flaw in this sandwich, even the sweetness of the pickles worked well.
It is cash only, which will always be a detractor for me, and service was a bit slow for the 2 man operation, but not unbearably so considering they’re still relatively new. I’m glad they’re not joining the «gouge you for sodas» club and sticking to an honest $ 1 per water, Coke, etc… I can’t wait to go back and try their shrimp po’boy, and hopefully raise their score accordingly.