I have a confession to make. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I haven’t been to Mike Anderson’s in many years. Way too many years. When I was a kid, we used to make the trek out to the former Highland Road location on a regular basis. I always enjoyed those outings and have fond memories of my youthful dining experiences. So recently I decided to make the trek again, this time to the Lee Drive location that was renovated a few years ago, to build some new memories.
Mike’s menu is a vast five pages of fried choices, broiled choices, boiledchoices, baked choices and even grilledchoices. Luckily, I had spied the menu online before our arrival and was prepared for my order. Having shown no such prudence, my companion took some time deciding.
After lengthy deliberation, we went with a single Shrimp & Crab Patty for our appetizer. Also available as an order of two, our singleton arrived topped with a hefty scoop of crabmeat etouffee, making this one cake suitable for both of us. Seen far less often than its more popular cousin, crawfish etouffee, the crab version was creamy and peppery, with plenty of crabmeat and crunchy green bell pepper. The crust on the cake was a bit thick to me, creating a chewy rather than crisp texture. The soft interior was a delicious contrast, but the two competing textures didn’t completely work in harmony. Still, the overall flavor was incredibly pleasing to us both.
Wanting a foil to the fried cake, we also ordered the Smoked Duck and Andouille Gumbo. It was served piping hot, with a visible trinity of veggies that added great flavor, but I was surprised to see the unnecessary addition of tomatoes. The roux was dark and showed no signs of bitterness, and the flavorful andouille had lovely kicks of spice. However, after a few bites of the plentiful sausage, I found it difficult to discern any other flavors, including the smoked duck.
I really appreciated that Mike’s not only serves the salads ahead of its entrees but also offers diners a choice of coleslaw or green salad. My companion chose the coleslaw and described it thus: “Mustardy, peppery and most definitely fresh. Everything was nice and crisp.” I usually bypass coleslaw at any restaurant for being too heavily sauced (frequent readers will note I’m not a fan of mayonnaise), but after one bite of this slaw I kept returning for more. I forgot about my uninspired side salad of romaine, croutons and cherry tomatoes until I married the slaw to the greens to create something far tastier.
After an exhaustive search of the menu, I found The Howard best fit my entree mood. Located in both the “From the Oven” and “Mike’s Lighter Side” sections of the menu, this dish featured black drum baked with scales on, which made it immensely flaky and moist. The enormous amount of seasoning encasing the filet gave it the appearance of a blackened fish. The spice mixture had ample amounts of garlic, as well as other, unidentifiable herbs and spices. After a few bites, the flavor was beginning to overwhelm my palate. Enter a squeeze of lemon and the beast was tamed.
My fish was served with Texas toast, so I requested a single hushpuppy. The hushpuppy was hot and sweet, with very few pieces of onion, the way I prefer. I found it to be a tad greasy, but my companion found it just right. As for the side of steamed vegetables I ordered, they ranged from mundane to dreadfully over-cooked.
With a name like Quail and Tails, our second entree just begged to be ordered. Consisting of two quail stuffed with a crabmeat dressing, it sounded like a delicious south Louisiana Thanksgiving alternative. As if two whole, stuffed quail were not enough food, the dish also came with crawfish etouffee and a choice of side (red beans and rice). To our surprise, it also came with steamed veggies. It was a horn of plenty. The birds were succulent and seasoned uncommonly well. The stuffing was good but deemed unnecessary with such a well-prepared quail. The red beans were creamy with lots of sausage, but I found the dish a bit salty. The crawfish etouffee was so ferociously fishy thatI could not bring myself to give it a second try.
Moving on to dessert, we found the menu varied, with several interesting selections. Avoiding the typical bread pudding, we chose the Lemonade Pie and Amaretto Crčme Cheesecake, both made in-house. We did not have immediate room for them after our generous meal, so we asked for both desserts to be packaged to go. The Lemonade Pie was described as whipped cream and homemade lemonade mixed then frozen in a graham cracker crust. While the wedge was just as described, it looked like marshmallow fluff. Honestly, the appearance was less than appealing, but the flavor was supremely refreshing. Bright lemon flavors paired with velvety whipped cream, it was the hands-down winner of the dessert round. After an indulgent meal, it was a pleasure to have such a light dessert.
Firm, dense and slightly grainy, the Amaretto Crčme Cheesecake was not as creamy as I prefer, but the flavor was pleasant. The amaretto crčme tasted more of black walnut and did nothing to highlight or detract from the cake. Overall score: average.
On the Wednesday night we dined, we arrived around 6 p.m., and the crowd was light. Our servers were attentive at first but quickly became taxed with additional large tables, leaving some of our later requests ignored for an extended period of time. By the time we hobbled out full to the brim at 7:45 p.m., the joint was jumping.Given the brick and wood walls and the glass of an aquarium, our dining room’s sound volume was impressively low for the amount of noise surrounding us. I looked around for some sign of noise dampeners but found none. For such a large space and high-volume restaurant, this lower level of sound was a welcome and surprising respite. I doubt the volume will be so diminutive once Death Valley gets to roarin’, but who wants quiet football fans anyway?
