Louisiana Redclaw - Fortitude Valley

Being a great lover of seafood, there is very little that is more satisfying than sitting in front of a large bowl of crab and slowly deshelling it to reach the treasures inside. Being used to the Asian flavours of garlic and shallot stir fried with my seafood, I always had an interest in trying out other cuisines and flavours, so having heard that a new seafood place opened in the valley, with a focus on spicy Louisiana Boil, I knew I had to check it out. Adding it onto my list of places to check out, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invite from the owner to try out their classic platter, so we headed off to try it out without further ado. Arriving at our booked time of 6pm, we were granted the option of inside or outside seating, of course we chose inside, where we could appreciate the seafood themed decor, especially the crab traps hanging from the ceiling. 

I quite liked the menu, which comprised of almost solely seafood and sides. Of note were the three options in tossing sauce, "mild", "hot", and "burn baby burn". Not wanting to go out of our depths, we settled on mild for our first try.

  

We were also provided with a drinks menu, and made a few selections off that. A handy toolbox was also placed on the table, containing all utensils that we would require that evening to enjoy our selection of seafood.

We were also provided with a bib to make sure that no matter how messy our meal was, it wouldn't get on our clothes. Being fully geared up, we were finally ready for our meal to begin.

  

First to arrive were our cocktails, the blu-hito, cosmo and my cotton candy. All were refreshing and sweet, but somewhat light on the alcohol content. I especially liked the warmth of the cotton candy as it went down.

Before long, our main event arrived, to much fanfare. This was the classic platter, in all its glory.

The platter consisted of diamond clams, green mussels, crawfish, crab and prawn, tossed in the signature red claw zing sauce, which is apparently the owner's secret recipe. Without disclosing too much to me, he told me that it is a long process of two four hour stages, that results in a very delicious, intense, spicy, garlic-y concoction that took our breath away. My companions and I enjoyed the sauces so much that we also dipped our tasty toasted cobb bread in the sauces after we finished with the seafood. Of the platter, highlights for me were without a doubt the crab claws (I don't think I've ever had that many in my life), and giant prawns, which were fresh and well cooked. I also really enjoyed crawfish, being the first time I've ever tried it in my life. Like their appearance, they tasted like a combination of prawns and lobsters, and it took a while to work out how to deshell one.

Polishing off the whole bowl of seafood, I rounded off the meal with a liquid dessert, in the form of an espresso martini, perfectly sweet and went down nice with some warmth.

Espresso and Matcha were invited guests of Louisiana Redclaw, but as always, our opinions are solely our own.

Price Range: $40 - $60pp

Taste: 8.5/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Environment: 9/10