Hot N Juicy Crawfish, Sand Lake

I had dinner at this New Orleans-esque restaurant on Sand Lake (in the strip mall on the left near the Timpano's and the defunct Samba Room space) on Friday. I was off elsewhere, but, thought this would just be a spur of the moment snack sampler. As such, I only had the Crawfish Po Boy for $8 and a beer ($3.50). The crawfish came fried and was most certainly frozen (tough, rubbery and tasteless). It was by far the worst thing about the sandwich. And is always the case in such circumstances, there was alot of them. The bun was very good (crunchy). The vegetables (lettuce and tomato) were fresh. I liked the spicy remoulde sauce. The sandwich without the crawfish was quite appealing. It is usually the other way around. It came in a plastic basket. The place is a chain, so, I bet most everything (blue crab, snow crab, king crab, dungeness crab, lobster, shrimp, clams, black mussels, calamari, catfish, soft shell crabs, chicken, etc) is frozen. Maybe they can get blue crab locally. That wouldn't be such a problem if it was priced more reasonably. Fried food starts at $11 for catfish and shrimp baskets. Most of the shellfish is "market price" and if boiled (you really should steam instead) crawfish is listed at $10 per pound, you can extrapolate. I've paid half as much for crawfish at a place on Mills. Which makes you wonder why they are at the price point they are at. Rent? It is a more upscale neighborhood. But, much of that section has been empty forever. Rent prices have to be reasonable. Ambiance? It is nicer. The place seats about 100. There are booths on the left side beside a brick wall. The right side has floor to ceiling windows. The rear has a small bar. They have about six flatscreens. It is clean (new). But, the place isn't much fancier than a Quizno's. I think they just have a uniform pricing model and their other locations are in areas where prices are inflated across the board. I think you can be smarter with your money if you are looking for this kind of food. But, maybe you don't want to dig. This is nice and safe. There were about 40 people there when I ate. All colors of the rainbow. Underdressed. It took about fifteen minutes to get my food, so, I guess that means it was fried to order. They had three, young servers who shared service. As I said, I think the prices are about 25% too high and all over the board. Rice is $2. A potato is $0.75. Extra sauce is $1.75. Wine only comes as red or white in a bottle at $30. What is it? I'm sure it's $2 wholesale shit. Most appetizers/sides are $6 and up. Sweet potato fries are $4.25. Additionally, they are a chain and they use frozen ingredients. Not a recipe for destination dining in my book. But, at least they brought something new to the neighborhood.