rachael's café

amazing food. had the scallop starter, real scallops perfectly cooked (fried).
wife and i both had the grilled seafood platter.
presentation was poor, but oh my god was the food good. fish was lightly seasoned but tasty. stuffedshrimpwas simply amazing. jambalya was unique and delicious, not overly spiced. crab claws had excellent flavor as did the shrimp. the best stuffed crab i've ever eaten, lot of crab meat, light and fluffy. most places cook a heavy and oily stuffing.
went at 5 o'clock, very busy so service was a bit slow but staff was friendly. excellent value at this small (10 table) café, highly recommend.total price of the meal was 47$ (including tip), worth every penny.

tasty food. my seafood was cooked well and tasted fresh. i had a grilled seafood platter with a sweet potato. theshrimpwere a little overcooked, but everything else was done well. i also had a bite of my husband's hamburger steak. it was incredibly flavorful. the chicken sausage gumbo was a bit watery and oily. the roux was dark, but it wasn't a very thick broth. could have tasted richer. i would like to come back and try more to get a feel for the menu.

their stuffed crab was buttery... but not enough to make you feel sick or oily in your mouth.

the service was what you'd expect of a tiny place run by a small staff. i don't like hovering, so it suits me fine.

honestly pleasently surprised! this was my first experience and i wasnt too sure considering i have never heard of it but i really liked that they had an alternative healthy menu which was very tasty. i had the grilledshrimpwhich were seasoned perfectly and plentiful. the brussel sprouts are so good too! small place on a side street so i really didn't think it would get busy but to my surprise there was a good crowd for a thursday evening. i will definitely be back!

great for plate lunches. dinner is questionable.. i'm torn about this place. i've eaten here countless times and tried most of the menu mainly because it's very close to were i live so it's easy to pick up after a long day. they're plate lunches are very good. you get a lot for only 9 bucks. the chicken fried steak plate lunch is literally the best i've ever had, i just wish they would put it on the dinner menu! the crawfish bisque is to die for! but there are some things that disappointed me. the seafood boudin balls is not even boudin, it's just their seafood jambalaya fried. also, if your looking to eat good and normal jambalaya, don't order it. the flavor is not like jambalaya at all. all of the fried seafood is mediocre, decent but lacks flavor. there are a lot of "stuffed" items there but they're all the same stuffing that goes into a stuffed crab. the stuffing has sweet taste to it, which isn't bad but also not really the flavor you want. the au gratin dishes are way too thick for my liking, have zero flavor, and is more filling than seafood. do not waste your money on it! the stuffedshrimpisn't ashrimpcoated in stuffing. it's just stuffing with a couple nickel sizedshrimpinside. if you get any gumbo withshrimpin it, theshrimpwill immediately turn into mush as soon as bite into it. also if you order to go you apparently have to ask for things like tartar sauce or fixings for your baked potato or they won't give it to you, which i find very careless. as for everything else i haven't mentioned, it's all pretty good. all in all, with as many places so similar to this in lafayette they will never make it unless they stop cutting corners and being lazy with their food. i can pay the same prices at so many more cajun restaurants in the area for a much better quality meal!

excellent food. i went to rachael's cafe' two different times while i was on a business trip. the first time i got a grilled seafood platter and bread pudding, and the second time i ordered a grilledshrimppo-boy, duck gumbo, and bread pudding. both times i went the food was excellent (i never go to the same place while on a trip so this really says a lot about the food). i would defiantly recommend this place if you are anywhere close.

soop's ii the seafood gumbo.... soop's ii
the seafood gumbo had been frozen and then microwaved. i could tell because some of theshrimpwere dark from soaking in the roux and oneshrimpwas pink, which means they used old frozen stock and added a little fresh ingredients. the fried fish was greasy and tasteless, everything lacked seasoning. the stuffed crab had a strange vanilla taste, i wonder if they mixed up the breads from the bread pudding? i was hoping the service would have been better than soop's, which is famous for horrible service, i'm disappointed to say it was only slightly better. this place can't survive long on only friends as customers. maybe their other specials are good, i only tried the seafood platter, but i'll never know, because i'm not going back. is it too much to ask for fresh seafood gumbo?

will be regulars!. great little place! great food! started with a cup of seafood gumbo, loaded with freshshrimpand crabmeat, seasoned just right, it was such a large cup that i shared it with my husband!. we decided on the special which wasshrimppoboys. for $5 we weren't expecting much, well were we surprised, we got large poboys overloaded with fresh shrimp, fried perfectly. the bread had a soft middle with a light crispy outside that made it so easy to eat, which we did devour all of our poboys. we shared an order of fries which were the best fries i have eaten at a restaurant. then the owner who was our waitress, gave us a complementary bread pudding to try. it was shaped like a mini bundt cake in a delicious sauce. i have eaten bread pudding at a lot of places and this is my favorite. it was not heavy or overly sweet and it didn't have raisins, which i don't like in bread pudding," a+".can't wait to go back and try other things on the menu. this was an excellent meal at a great price.