FOR a satisfying taste of New Orleans, make a hard turn off River Road at the 7-Eleven opposite the harbor in Belmar. Park the car on 11th Avenue and cut through the convenience store parking lot to the narrow sidewalk. As cars scream past with inches to spare, head around the corner to the faded old house with tables out front and a smallish sign: “Ragin’ Cajun Since 1992.”
Up the steps and through the doors is the main dining room — a portal to the Crescent City. A laissez-faire approach to décor results in an interior partly lined with bookcases holding a commingling of T-shirts, cookbooks and menus; on the other side of the room is stage space. (There’s live blues four nights a week.)
The secondary dining room, divided from the kitchen by a counter, is even more casual; on one visit, a large, unzipped duffel bag sat behind a table and next to a randomly placed floor lamp in the corner. Upholstery is worn; some of the tablecloths are unhemmed lengths of fabric, and the kitchen looks disorganized.
But on two Saturday night visits to Ragin’ Cajun, the food was fresh and spicy, and it arrived in timely fashion — from the giveaway of a roasted head of garlic before the meal to coffee afterward. The service was low-key and unflashy.
Ragin’ Cajun is a find. It’s the creation of Tracie Orsi, a former bartender turned restaurateur. She has no roots in New Orleans and hadn’t even visited the city when she opened it; she was inspired by a friend who had a Cajun restaurant in Virginia Beach. The three-page menu is augmented by specials listed on a small chalkboard that is carried from table to table. Appetizers — not a big tradition in Cajun cooking and eating — read more like small-portion meals or sides, and work that way as well.
Pair the steamed broccoli and hollandaise with the small vat of nicely flavored but unadorned red beans and rice, or maybe the Caesar salad with the tender Nola barbecued shrimp or the “scampied” artichoke (both, oddly, were half-submerged in a spicy broth). Within the traditional appetizer category, a table favorite was a special of plump, clean mussels in a butter and white wine sauce seasoned with garlic, onion, oregano, rosemary, thyme and pepper. Less successful were the blackened tuna bites, with spices that obscured the flavor of the fish, and the lobster bisque, which was creamy and studded with morsels of lobster but had neither the fragrance nor much of the taste of lobster.
Of six entrees sampled, four stood out. Shrimp jambalaya was a huge mound of soft rice studded with shrimp and andouille sausage (shipped up from Metairie, La., along with alligator sausage) flavored with the holy trinity of Cajun cooking: bell peppers, onions and celery. Second was chicken and shrimp étouffée that had been cooked with more peppers, onions and celery.
Third and fourth were both red snapper dishes — one, a Creole version, with a base of spicy tomato stew softened with basil, and another that was first covered with an overabundance of mustard sauce, then baked and served over rice.
Blackened catfish was credibly executed, but the technique buried the gentle flavor of the fish. And chicken Diane, with its mushrooms and broccoli in Madeira-garlic sauce with angel-hair pasta? That’s not Cajun, and it was uninspired.
Desserts, listed on another chalkboard, had their flaws: a soft crust on the Key lime pie, not enough pecans in the pecan pie, and bananas foster that lacked the brown sugar and the flaming rum I expect. Skip them all and stick with coffee. If you time it right, and the music has started, you may not be in a hurry to leave. And at Ragin’ Cajun, no one will rush you.
Ragin’ Cajun
1102 River Road (Route 35)
Belmar
(732) 280-6828
ragincajunnj.com
GOOD
THE SPACE Old house with laissez-faire décor; two small dining rooms that seat 40 inside; patio seating for about 50. No wheelchair access.
THE CROWD Noisy and casual; laid-back servers; some children. Live music Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
THE BAR Bring your own.
THE BILL Dinner entrees, $15 to $22, with the occasional special spiking to $27. Major credit cards accepted.
WHAT WE LIKE Broccoli with hollandaise, Caesar salad, Nola barbecued shrimp, “scampied” artichoke, red beans and rice, shrimp jambalaya, chicken and shrimp étoufée, baked and Creole red snapper.
IF YOU GO Open for dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., daily until late October, then closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Street parking.