In St. Martin Parish, nowhere do agriculture and tradition meet innovation and community more prominently than they do on the plate. Emerging from a culinary heritage inspired by family recipes, local restaurants and eateries offer everything from weighted-down plate lunches, to hydroponically-grown vegetables, to Breaux Bridge’s iconic zydeco breakfasts.
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Buck and Johnnys Exterior
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Buck and Johnnys Beignets
This is where we recommend you begin your culinary tour of the area, with breakfast at Buck and Johnny’s—a not-to-be-missed Saturday tradition serving up dishes like “Swamp Rice” (scrambled eggs and rice topped with crawfish étouffée) and beignets with Bottomless Bloody Marys and Mimosas, and the best local Zydeco performers on the circuit. After breakfast (served from 8 am–11 am), keep the energy going at Tante Marie’s Breakfast Jam (which is served around brunchtime, from 11 am–1 pm)—or come back on Sunday; both mornings offer live music, boudin biscuits, pain perdu, and more. Café Sydnie Mae, which carries on a long-held tradition of elevated local cuisine in the historic building that once held Café des Amis, offers its own exciting brunch menu, with dishes like: “That Cajun Irish Woman” (two potato galettes, crawfish étouffée, and two fried eggs) and good old-fashioned shrimp & grits with a tasso cream sauce. Buck and Johnny’s, Tante Marie, and Café Sydnie Mae all offer tantalizing lunch and dinner menus as well, with occasional live music performances in the evenings.
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Outdoor dining at Bayou Teche Brewing in Arnaudville
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Cajun seafood specialties arrive hot and delicious at Crawfish Town USA in Henderson
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In Breaux Bridge, the brunchtime Bloody Marys at Tante Marie's are justifiably famous.
For more chances to two-step, spend an evening at the iconic Bayou Teche Brewing—where in addition to live music, themed nights, and local brews, you’ll find some of the best wood-fired pizza for miles ‘round. Dancers will also enjoy Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf—where Chef Jude Huval continues his father’s tradition of utilizing fresh locally-caught seafood in recipes passed down from his grandmother. Weekends bring live Cajun, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop performances in the restaurant’s adjacent Atchafalaya Club, which boasts a massive historic dancefloor right over Bayou Portage. Just down the street, make the most of Henderson’s esteemed status as “the town that crawfish built” at Crawfishtown USA, where you can enjoy the local delicacy at its best within the restaurant’s iconic 19th-century barn.
If you’re interested in patronizing local institutions, head on back to Breaux Bridge, where Chef Jacqueline Salser has been serving traditional French (as opposed to Louisiana French) cuisine—think rabbit cooked low and slow, seafood gumbo, and on special occasions, bouillabaisse—for over twenty years at Chez Jaqueline.
The St. John Restaurant in St. Martinville is another landmark worth the visit. Nestled on the Bayou Teche, the spacious historic warehouse restaurant offers traditional Cajun dishes, crafted with innovative sourcing techniques developed with sustainability in mind. Most of the vegetables served with the beef tenderloin salad, alongside your steak, or in your bisque were grown in the onsite hydroponic greenhouse—making the ingredients as local as you can get.
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Plate lunch goodness from the Long Branch Café
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St. Martinville's St. John Restaurant
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In St. Martin Parish, good things come in styrofoam packages
Finally, find preparations of no-nonsense, good old home-cooked goodness—served in that oh-so-nostalgic white Styrofoam box that defines what we Louisianans call a “plate lunch”—at local joints like Chicken on the Bayou & Boudin Shop in Henderson; Myran’s Maison de Manger in Arnaudville; the Cajun Corner Café and Long Branch Café in St. Martinville; or Glenda’s Creole Kitchen and the Creole Lunch Box in Breaux Bridge. If you can’t fit a sit-down stop into your schedule, no worries. Grab a box on your way out of town. You’ll be glad you did.
Learn about other great eateries and restaurants in St. Martin Parish at cajuncountry.org.
