Charlie’s Seafood

Crawfish was delicious! My family enjoyed it and will be going back for more in the future.

Did they change their phone number? I called and got this was a disconnected number.
I am so sad.

The food was good but felt like something special was missing (pretty boring menu). The jambalaya grits were the best. they seem very understaffed, it took a long time just to get a refill on water and the waitress rarely came to our table due to having far too many tables to care for.

could not have found a better local restaurant in greater New Orleans than Charlie’s Seafood in Harahan, La.
our table of 4 (adults) ordered: meatball sandwich, half Muffuletta, appetizer of onion rings, half turkey Po Boy and a roast beef Po Boy and each was huge, yes huge, in size (even the half portions). the meatballs were homemade and delicious and the olive salad in the Muffuletta was outstanding. we tried a small portion of alligator sausage and it was delicious — I should have ordered the Rajun Cajun (grilled alligator sausage sandwich) but next time I will.
Nita, our server, was more than accommodating and very friendly.
we went on a Saturday night and would have gone back the next night but the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

If you are looking for excellent food in a neighborhood setting this place is for you. I had the generous portion fried seafood platter which was cooked to perfection.
I am looking forward to sampling other items on the menu. it was a tough decision to order with several other options

I ate here a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome! We arrived pretty late but the hostess seated us with a smile. I shared the seafood platter with my hubby and we couldn’t finish it. Large portions, seasoned perfectly and you can tell the grease was fresh because it was so flaky and lite. We can’t wait to try the boiled seafood!

Biggest, sweetest oysters I’ve had in recent memory and the seafood gumbo was very nice too! Would highly recommend this place!

Wow! All I can say is that I am thankful that my girlfriend moved to River Ridge and introduced me to this joint! It’s a great little joint and feels very homey. There are several rooms and not that many parking spaces. But hey, park on the street! This place is so good it’s worth it!
My girlfriend and I ordered the bbq shrimp special and boy am I glad we did! We came during the Christmas holidays to exchange Christmas gifts and her birthday gift (it was my treat). Well, the shrimp were frigging HUGE!!! They were definitely jumbo shrimp and plenty of them! Plus the sauce they were in was scrumptious! We used that half a french bread loaf to dip every delectable bite into the sauce. Me, being the decadent glutton that I am proceeded to put butter on the bread before dipping it into the sauce! hehe…
Although it was a bit pricey, I believe the quality of food that I received was well worth it! I had been there once before and ordered a dish (of course now I forget the name of it) but it was so good I wanted to cry.
I heart this joint!

Unilocal! reviews got me here. The food is easily 5-​star material. The service was pretty good and not exactly NOLA jerks but friendly and helpful.
If you love seafood and are in the area, you have to try this place!
Beware, it does not look like an eating establishment from the road.

Surprisingly good! I’ve passed this place many times and I’ve been meaning to give them a try. I recently read a review that stated it was purchased in 2009 by the same people who run Brigtsens. The outside of this place looks like an old fashion neighborhood restaurant, the inside looks just the same. I always like to try something new, so the Shrimp Calas sounded interesting. It looked like a hush puppy but the inside was soft and fluffy with rice and shrimp. Delicious! For my entrée, I ordered the Catfish and Grits. Delicious! See my picture. To top it off, the prices are very reasonable. I’ve been to Brigtsens before and while the food is excellent, its pricey. Since this visit, I came back with some co-​workers. This time I had an oyster po-​boy, caesar salad, and onion rings, all of which tasted great!

A good friend was visiting and insisted we go here… and I’m so glad I did!!! Growing up on the MS gulf coast I was raised on fresh seafood cooked well. This is one of those places.
I’m starting to make myself salivate
The wine is served in tiny carafes. Tres chic!
Start with the onion rings. Not too thick… not too thin. Just the right amount of batter. Crispy. Crunchy. We almost fought over the last one until we decided to split it. Only fair thing to do.
Then the utterly delicious, I could eat 2 plates soft shell crab arrived. A good sized crab sat atop a large portion of sweet potato fries. Serious yummy fried goodness! Salivating again. Words cannot describe the heavenly dish. Go yourself and see. For now just take a look at the pic I’ve loaded. You’ll wish you had scratch n sniff on your PC.
The thing that I really love is the décor is traditional no frills seafood restaurant. It’s not she-​she, swanky or pretentious bc it doesn’t need to be. It’s perfect!
Charlie’s has been around for ages but it almost ended with Katrina. The original family who owned this place wasn’t going to re-​open it after Katrina. Chef Frank Brigtsen owner of Brigtsen’s restaurant grew up coming here. When he found out they weren’t going to reopen… he decided to do it.
CHEERS to Chef Brigtsen!!!

Sketchy on the outside, warm and clean on the inside. It was our first visit and we had questions for our server, a lovely lady. Starting with Cane River meat pie, we split one and loved it while she shared the history. Another Southern tradition we knew nothing about and now we need to visit Cane River.
I had the special, Butter beans and it was wonderful. Husband had the catfish poorboy and loved it too. The bread was fresh, the fish was floured and fried in the kitchen. We ate at 5 pm on a Thursday and watched the tables turn and the place fill up by the time we left at 6. Will go back when we are in the area. We want to try the seafood pie and more!

Thank you Unilocal for bringing me to a place that I would have probably never visited on my own.
The exterior, street location, and parking lot size does not give justice to the incredible food and customer service that you will find insides Charlie’s. I was very leery about coming here since I’m pretty much tired of fried seafood after 3 months in the New Orleans area.
We were met immediately by a very friendly young lady who immediately seated us and took our drink orders. I decided to go with the Giant Caesar Salad with calamari. The food was out within minutes and boy was I surprised. My salad almost had more calamari on it than lettuce. I have actually gotten less calamari on appetizers plates that I paid double the price for. The salad was delicious with croutons and bacon along with the calamari.
Can’t wait until the next time I have the opportunity to visit here again.

The service was more college student indifferent then I expected… but we did arrive right after a couple of large parties, on a slow Tuesday night.
The house salad was indifferent iceberg lettuce a few mini tomatoes, decent croutons and sliced purple onion, but the dressing was good. Still iceberg, really? I expected more.
I had the AMAZING seafood au gratin. Seriously a perfect blend of really high quality crab meat (including obvious chunks of claw meat) and shrimp. I was in high cholesterol heaven. And my brother got a special of barbecue shrimp which was really delicious and highly spiced. Both dishes came with generous servings of really fresh french bread.
So I would definitely go back… and maybe just forgo the salad.

I respect the fact that everyone has different taste. However, you serious foodies need to disregard Lisa D.‘s comments of 4÷21÷2012. This place is not a «dive». Was I expecting it to look like the dining room at the Ritz…(hell no, but it was clean & cheerful).
What’s wrong with a chilled Iceberg lettuce salad? …Were U expecting mircro-​greens & heirloom tomatoes for $ 3.95??? This place is about quality food, prepared to order. No frills… just great food. If the portions didn’t satisfy your appetite, you need to check out an all u can eat buffet like the Golden Corral in Kenner.
Ms. Janet’s meat pie was awesome. Stone ground cheese grits topped with fried catfish. and creole tomato sauce… slap yo’ mama. Run… dont walk. Its worth the short ride from New Orleans.

Charlie’s was a treat. After a long week in New Orleans, eating the usual fare of po’ boys, meh etouffe and other fare in the touristy establishments my meal at Charlie’s was the perfect note to end my Louisiana trip.
My coworker raved about this place on the way over, stating another companion introduced him to the wonderful food. «It’s kind of a dive» he cautioned en route «but the seafood is awesome.»
Awesome was an understatement. Parking was plentiful, service prompt and friendly, and the food… oh, the seafood. Fresh boiled crabs were being picked at the table next to us, and the gents enjoying those crustaceans had an icy cold pitcher of Abita.
On the other side of our table, a group of elderly Southern women noshed on salads with fresh shrimp and around us washed a sea of gumbo, broiled redfish, shrimp scampi, and, of course, giant po’ boys with a pound of deli meat. Giant soft shell crabs looked like fried monsters toppling towers of fresh French fries.
We started with the shrimp au gratin, huge Gulf shrimp swimming in butter with giant pieces of crab, which we dipped freshly-​baked French bread. Per our sweet waitress’s suggestion, I selected the catfish ‘n grits. The crispy fish was served atop a bed of cheesy, stoneground grits graced with a tomato sauce with peppers, onion and just the right amount of Creole seasoning. Sacre couer I was so deliciously full.
If you’re heading to the New Orleans airport, pop by Charlie’s for one last meal before you leave. I’m glad I did.

Things I tried… fried oyster Caesar salad, fried eggplant with shrimp and lemon Parmesan sauce, grilled fish with shrimp and sauté crab meat on top and mixed vegetables (green beans, onion, carrots, etc), cheese grits, shrimp étouffée, bread pudding.
Frank Brigston is an amazing chef and the food is 5 star all the way.

This place surprised the ever living shit out of me. I was going out for lunch the other day with a pretty sizable group form work. My initial thought was «Charlie’s Seafood, huh? Yeah I’ll go, but damn I hate a menu of nothing but fried seafood.» After we drove for what seemed like 20 minutes and were halfway there, I thought, «damn, not only is my waistline going to suffer, but now my billables are going to really be crap for the month.» When we finally arrived and I saw the building’s exterior, I had reached the point of total resignation, thinking «Yep, this is going to be Deanie’s re-​dux…»
I couldn’t have been more wrong. the group started with appetizers of meat pies and shrimp balls. The meat pies were amazing. They came with a delightful pepper jelly as well as spicy mustard that paled in comparison. It was all I could do not to gobble all those meat pies down (again with the restraint I show around my co-​workers!). The shrimp balls were out of this world. They look like boudin balls and are perfect pillows of super sticky rice and big hunks of shrimp, served with some sort of ranch-​esque concoction. I am glad for everyone’s sake that they all ended up down the table from me, because it could have been a bad scene.
My entrée was the sauteed drum with crabmeat bordelaise and shrimp with a side of sauteed vegetables. Normally I wouldn’t order such a dish because 1) not many chefs properly season fish and it almost always comes out bland and 2) sauteed vegetables usually means some frozen seafood medley that I am quite capable of buying at the grocery store and boiling at home, thankyouverymuch. Suffice it to say that this was different. The fish was perfectly seasoned, served haloed in a pool of buttery goodness. The crabmeat bordelaise was almost pure crab, and the three shrimp on top were massive. The real star of the meal, though, was the vegetables: a huge portion of julienned carrots, green peppers, onion, cabbage, and God knows what all else, sauteed in what had to be bacon grease & butter and perfectly carmelized. This shit was bananas. BANANAS!
Everyone raved about their meals, and we all left satisfied and (somewhat) happy to return to the office.
Waistline and billable hours be damned! I will return!

Mr. Binky gave his life so that I may write this review. For his valiant sacrifice, let us share a moment of silence, in his exoskeletoned boiled honor…
SILENCE (if you just read that, it doesn’t count. Go back and try again. This time follow directions. Do it for Mr. Binky!)
Now we shall begin the review. This place has been on my list since I read about it in some local magazine I don’t remember the name of, but that was totally free (what? I’m sorry, like I’m supposed to remember everything?!) It was a good article and thus added this place to my bookmarks for a seafood hankering. It is kind of a venture though, so it remained among my bookmarks for awhile, patiently waiting for me to make the drive. Until finally that joyous day came. (Okay for some reason that sounds like something involving Tiger Woods and a porn star named Joyous Day…)
Make this drive, Tiger! I can only comment on the blue crab, which was huge and boiled and male. (I could tell because they told me) They also had some fancy name for him, like Number TK-​421 or something, but we christened him Mr. Binky. His photo has been memorialized here. Feel free to click and say hello. I also got a big old pile of fried catfish and fries, with the most wonderful housemade tartar sauce and cole slaw. My friend got the stone ground cheese grits, which she adored. They had some kind of special power. I think it’s possible they can combine to form Voltron, but don’t quote me on that.
I ate way too much to eat any dessert, but I will certainly return again to try more of their menu. Boiled crawfish needs to be tried, as do their Meat Pies, Seafood au Gratin, and some other stuff I want in my face.
Viva la Binky!

It’s official: I like grits. Especially the stone ground cheese grits here. They’re uh-​mazing. And they were the straw that broke the Michigan girl’s back, where back = refusal to eat/​enjoy grits. It only took like 10 years, but I am now a fan. And I feel a little bit more southern now. Though I refuse to stop saying the word pop. (For those of you who are wondering pop = cold drink. And for those of you who aren’t from here cold drink = soda = coke = pop.)
The day we were here, they had boiled crabs, which were HUGE and approximately $ 4 each. It was slightly disturbing to watch Mr. Binky (yes, we named the crab, and yes, the name was inspired by the Mr. Binky’s billboard we saw on the way there) be devoured piece by piece, and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the insides of boiled crabs. However, squeamishness aside, the grits here are amazing, and if you’re into eating creature (which most of you are, I’m sure), this place is TOTALLY worth the drive out to Harahan. Our waitress was super friendly and attentive, the food was fantastic (if a bit. hands-​on), and overall it was an excellent experience. Shh… don’t tell the tourists!
On the menu, I think, I read that this place is «A real New Orleans joint.» The only way that could be more accurate is if they’d spelled it jernt. A missed opportunity, if you ask me.