Cajun's: Bargain buffet serves brilliant fried chicken
The scene: There are two things diners will find ubiquitous on a road trip through the South: fried chicken and all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants. But usually the buffet is the main event, the chicken just one of many afterthoughts. At Cajun's the opposite is true, and this is all-you-can-eat, high-quality fried chicken, with a surprisingly strong supporting cast, all at rock-bottom bargain prices.
Cajun's sits on a busy commercial strip and looks like any other fast-food restaurant. But it is less than a mile from the ocean, and very close to the golf courses and casinos, the main reasons visitors come to Gulfport. As you'll see from countless online comments, many regular visitors to the region feel Cajun's is an absolute must for a dining detour, and it consistently lands in the top 10% of all area eateries, including fine dining, on sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp. From the outside, it resembles a run-down Pizza Hut, a rectangular building with lots of glass windows and a red sloped roof. Inside there is a counter to the left where you pay, and a main dining room to the right. In this half, the buffet runs perpendicular to the entrance, front to back, with two sides, one along the pass-through kitchen wall and one freestanding, plus an area at the back with drinks and desserts. Everything is served in partitioned styrofoam plates and plastic cups, with seating in well-worn synthetic booths, and in the almost complete absence of service, the food is the only reason to come. But it's a good reason.
Reason to visit: Fried chicken, biscuits, dirty rice, fried chicken livers, bargain price
The food: Fried chicken is one of the world's great comfort foods, and one of those maddening dishes that seems so simple in principle yet is hard to execute well in practice. At Cajun's Fabulous Fried Chicken, the poultry lives up to its boastful name and they execute it well, twice, with regular and spicy versions. They pull off the hardest dichotomy in the fried chicken world, pairing a crispy, delicious and not-greasy coating with still tender and juicy meat inside. Even though it is all-you-can-eat, the pieces are quite generous, not the undersized breasts and thighs many fast-food places serve. The only minor disappointment is for fans of hot food, because the spicy doesn't live up its billing, and is very similar to the excellent regular, but with bit more pep in the seasoned breading. You get a little heat buzz afterwards but it is not hot, certainly not while eating, yet it is still some great fried chicken.
If that was all there was for under eight bucks it would be a great deal, but the poultry has a chorus of worthy accompaniments. Most of the sides were well above average, including the less common and very tasty pickled okra. The best were the cole slaw, crunchy and fresh and a great partner to the fried foods, and the dirty rice, which had a distinctively homemade flair. The biscuits, a must with Southern fried chicken, were buttery, tender and clearly fresh. Among the large spread there are some non-descript choices that fall short, like the fried okra, which was mushy and bland, and the other hot entrée, fried catfish, which had too much breading and too little flavor.
The one really notable addition to the basic offerings here are the fried chicken livers, not at all common on buffets or in restaurants period. These have a strong and distinctive taste, sort of gamy, and are definitely not for everyone. But if you like chicken livers, you will like them here because they are done quite well, and if you haven't had them, it is a cheap and easy opportunity to give the new taste a whirl, along with its delicious, meatier chicken brethren.
The simple desserts, chocolate brownies and a chafing dish of peach cobbler, didn't look very impressive at first glance, but tasted better than they appeared. Basically what Cajun's offers is very good fried chicken with better, sometimes much better, than average sides at takeout fast-food prices.
Pilgrimage-worthy?: No, but worthy of a detour from the touristy Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: 112 Pass Road, Gulfport; 228-863-3112
Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.