Lake Place - Great Dining Experience on 30A

**nolagal** · 09-17-2009, 09:26 PM

Let me start by saying that I am in the restaurant business and am a little snobby about dining out when on vacation at the beach. Seems like we always end up at some tourist trap with horrible steamed snow crabs and overcooked fried seafood. That being said, we love Stinky's and have had several great meals there.

Tonight we decided splurge and go to Lake Place. What a great idea! Nearly every bite was delicious. Here's the lowdown:

1st Course - 1/2 doz raw oysters and fried rabbit with a buttermilk dressing salad

The oysters were really salty and plump. I wish we had ordered a dozen. In fact, I may go back tomorrow night for a couple more dozen. The rabbit was perfectly fried, really crisp and hot from the fryer. The lettuce was cold and crisp and the buttermilk dressing, creamy, tangy and delicious.

2nd Course - Potato crusted grouper and scallop with field pea ragout. The grouper was really moist and the potato crust crispy. There was a surprise of braised carrots that really elevated the dish to something special. The scallop was a beautiful medium rare but the real highlight was the pea ragout. There was an indescribable sweetness to the peas that was really refreshing.

3rd Course - Veal piccata and roasted lamb. The Veal was a perfectly executed version of piccata. The lamb was a revelation. It was a perfect medium rare and was accompanied by a truly delicious tomato/onion jam. They need to bottle this jam. It was incredible.

Desert - Key Lime Crepes and Pineapple upside down cake. After the delicious savory courses the deserts were a bit of a let down. For me they were just too sweet but I am really sensitive to overly sweetened desserts.

All in all, it was a fantastic dinner, just as good as any dinner I've had. -- Not just good for the beach, but really good. Excellent in fact. I can't wait to recommend it to all of my NOLA friends.