Trip down the Bayou for Happy Hour!

It's been awhile since I've been to happy hour, so my friend Kristen and I decided to head to Toulouse Petit up on Queen Anne, Seattle.  My other co-workers had already been there for lunch, and had pretty good things to say about the place, so of course I had to try it.

When you walk in the dining area is spacious and nicely decorated.  Nothing too fancy, but that was a good thing for me because I didn't want to feel like I wasn't welcome in my jeans and t-shirt.  We headed to the bar area and frantically looked through the menu because we only had one hour left for happy hour.
"Quick Kristen! Narrow it down to 4 to 5 dishes from 40 delicious sounding menu items!"
"Okay Okay!  ummmm...er...uhhh...wow, there's a lot here."

Everything sounded fantastic, making it harder to choose, so in the meantime the waitress took our drink orders. Kristen had a white wine ($6 or $7) and I had their Pomegranate Mojito ($6.95), which isn't really a deal, but with their menu items at $5 each, maybe that's where they were making up the difference...who knows, but my Mojito was fantastic!

Anyhoooo, we ordered what we thought were going to be tiny plates, but ended up with generous portions of, in no particular order:

1.  Bayou Garlic Shrimp (Really basic, but nicely presented in a skillet full of garlic and butter.  It was delicious!)
2.  Spicy Fried Alligator (We loved it!  The alligator wasn't tough at all, perfectly fried, and the creamy sauce it was served beside was super yummy.)
3.  Seafood Gumbo (A big bowl of hearty goodness, with a touch of sweetness from somewhere!)
4.  Crawfish Étouffée (Much like the gumbo but a lot spicier and without the sweet hint like the other one had, which wasn't a bad thing...I just think I preferred the gumbo.)
5.  Corn and Tasso Macque Choux (One of the best corn and ham dishes I have ever had!)
6.  Fried Green Tomatoes in Remoulade (Nicely done with a lighter corn batter.)
7.  Buttermilk Beignets (Nothing to write home about; I am guessing the strongly flavored Chicory Anglaise sauce with it's coffee-like taste, was supposed to pair well with the less flavorful friend dough, but I'm not sure it worked for us.  I would have much rather have some kind of whipped cream or fruit compote.  But whatever, we ate almost all of it!  *hides)
8.  Pear Hazelnut Frangipane  (I think we both liked this one the most and pretty much had to stop ourselves from licking the plate.)


Okay wait, hold on...this is a lot of food.  OMG KRISTEN!  Hi...


10 minutes later:  Waitress comes back.
"Hi, can I get you another Mojito?"
"Oh no, I shouldn't, WELL OKAY!"


Seriously, the drinks were pretty good.  Either that or I was really thirsty.  Yea, thirsty that's it.
So folks, if you're looking for a decent happy hour and want to try something we don't see a lot of here in the Northwest, check Toulouse Petit out.  The only thing, is that their happy hour is from 4:00-5:30pm, so plan on leaving work a bit earlier.  Just do what I did, and tell the boss you were just stepping out for a bit, and you'll be back...and then RUN!