Lookout 49 - Gulfport

Over the New Year's Holiday the wife and I dined at Lookout 49 in Gulfport. We began enjoying the Lookout while it was still in Long Beach harbor and have continue to drop by on occasion while traveling to the Gulf Coast.

Lookout 49 serves fresh caught Gulf seafood and the menu changes with the season and what's available throughout the year.

While we've enjoyed some visits more than others I can't remember being disappointed on any occasion that we've dined there. This visit the experience was exceptional.



We began our meal with seafood stuffing cakes, pretty much crab cakes with both crab and shrimp. They were prepared nice, fried golden and served with a tangy ramoulade sauce. They were good, could have been fried just a bit longer, but in all they were well received.

Side salads for the entrees were good, they were a fresh mix of spring greens and baby spinach. Fresh house made croutons and dressings highlighted the salads. I enjoyed a very nice bleu cheese and my wife had the ranch dressing, both house made and very nice.

I ordered the "Catch of the Day", on this occasion it was speckled trout filet served on a bed of rice with a creamy Lyonnaise sauce with chopped bacon, shrimp, sun dried tomato and basil. A side of steamed, mixed vegetables were served - green beans, parsnip, and broccoli.



This was the largest speckled trout fillet that I've ever been served in a restaurant, and it was fried to golden brown perfection. You can tell that it was cooked at a high enough temperature that it left the crusting crisp while leaving the fish tender, flaky and moist. The Lyonnaise sauce was creamy with ample amounts of shrimp and large pieces of bacon, the sun dried tomatoes were a nice compliment to the sauce and the basil married all the flavors together. This was one of the better seafood dishes I've had in a very long time, it was simply exceptional.

My wife ordered the Grilled Stuffed Amberjack. A nice Amberjack steak served over a bed of fresh greens. It was topped with a grilled seafood cake much like our appetizer dish. It was served with the same side of steamed vegetables as the catch of the day.



The texture and flavor of the Amberjack was very good and the grilled seafood cake was a nice compliment. Adding a fresh squeeze of lemon to the jack steak and a bit of the ramoulade to the seafood cake accented the dish well.

The service was very good from the polite hostess to the attentive servers, I would be hard pressed to come up with a negative about this dining experience, so I won't even try.

Windham's Restaurant in Magee

Over the years while having conversations about great hamburgers with friends almost always someone will bring up the world famous Zip Burger. Ok, maybe it's not world famous but if you know someone from Simpson County, Mississippi, chances are that they've told you about the Zip Burger.

Served only at Windham's Restaurant in Magee, Miss. I think I first heard about this local legend while in college, and then it's popped up in conversations throughout the years. Recently I made time to stop in Magee to try this much talked about meat and bread.



Each Zip Burger is hand pressed by the kitchen staff so no two patties are exactly alike, but they're nice. I would guestimate about half a pound cooked on a classic flat top grill to medium well. Served on a straight no frills large bun with lettuce, tomato, onions and Zip Sauce.

Now I can't be certain what all is in the zip sauce, and I am sure they're not going to tell anyone, but it's good. A taste similar to thousand island dressing with a smooth creamy texture without any of the relish or onion bits.



This is a good burger, a really good burger. I won't go so far as to say it's the best burger I've had, but it'll rank up there close to the top when discussions of where to get a great burger comes up again.

Another local twist is the hand-cut battered home fries. It's basically just what it sounds, some hand cut home fries dipped in a flour and seasoning batter and deep fried. They do give you a large cup of the Zip Sauce for dipping with your fries, and you could probably eat just about anything with enough Zips Sauce on it.

A pet peeve of mine is some restaurants not having the firers turned up hot enough and the fries turning out a bit too soft, I think Windham's was guilty of that on my visit. I really liked the concept of the battered home fries, but they just missed the mark.

Overall, this was a great experience. A true small, mom and pop type of place that was the norm for having lunch anywhere in Mississippi until the mid-80's and the explosion of chain establishments from the gulf coast to the delta.

If you're driving through Magee between Hattiesburg and Jackson, Windam's is worth a stop, and my guess is you'll probably try it again.

Pockets Diner - Lucedale

There's something comforting about the familiar sizzle of a flat-top grill. At Pockets Diner in Lucedale that put the old flat-top to good use.

My "real" job takes me all across the state and on Monday I was in Lucedale for business. After my appointments it was getting pretty late so I stopped in at this little road-side eatery. Pretty simple looking from the road, no fancy signs just a cedar and white siding building with a with sign that said - Pockets Diner.

It was about 2:00 PM and and I was the only customer in the place, I was instructed to "sit anywhere" when I walked in. I picked out a table pretty close to the door, you never know when you'll need to make a fast exit in unfamiliar surroundings.


The server was very nice. After scanning the menu, which included breakfast served all day, I settled on a diner favorite. I ordered the chili cheese burger and a side order of hash browns. I asked that some of the chili be served over my order of hash browns.

There wasn't really much deconstructing of this burger, because it was a messy one. The entire meal was cooked on the flat top from the slight browner than I would have liked hash browns to the hand pressed hamburger patty to warming of the bun itself which has soaked up a little of the clarified butter that keeps the flat top sizzling.


The burger was a diner classic - hot, juicy and full of flavor. From the butter soaked into the bun to the fresh beef to the meaty chili. I can't be sure that the chili was house made, it was good chili not great chili.

The has browns were good with the chili as well.

When I got up from the table I was feeling pretty good about my meal and Pockets and was considering putting them on my list of semi-regular stops.

When I got the register things went down hill. The waitress gave me the total and I gave her my debit card to swipe.

When I got the key pad to enter my PIN, I noticed that the total was $2 higher than what I had been told. That was when I was shown a very small sign by the register that can easily be over looked that there is a $2 per transaction sur-charger on using a credit/debit card. I seldom carry any cash so I was pretty much out of luck at this point. I was assertive but not rude when I expressed my disbelief and displeasure on having to pay the fee.

The food is pretty good at Pockets and the people are nice enough but I can't advise anyone to go there unless you have cash.

McElroy's On the Bayou

On Sunday afternoon Mrs. Food Blogger and I made one of our semi-frequent excursions to the Gulf Coast. I had taken the time to pick out three Ocean Springs eateries that I have been wanting to try. Sadly when we arrived we found that all three close around 3:00 PM on Sundays. Mrs. Food Blogger suggested McElroy's on the Bayou.

I grew up eating at McElroy's in Biloxi, and had not tried the post Katrina McElroy's on the Bayou. After I was forced to accept the fact that we were not going to be eating Mediterranean/Middle Eastern because all three places that serve that cusine in town were closed, I sort of began to want a good po-boy.

Upon entering we were greeted by a very nice receptionist who handed us off to a seating hostess who took us to the table and introduced our server. We were given menus immediately and our drink orders were taken. After a few minutes she returned to ask if we were interested in an appetizer.



We ordered fried crab claws. They were out and served in a reasonable amount of time. They crab claws were lightly breaded and seasoned. They could have used a little more seasoning, but they were not overly salty like you find at some places. They were served with tarter sauce and cocktail sauce. We thought that they would have been complimented well by a nice remoulade sauce.

By this time we had both decided on po-boys. The wife ordered her standard the fried shrimp po-boy, while I fought back an initial urge to order the soft shell crab and ordered a half/half on shrimp and oyster (pictured).



The po-boys were served with fries, they were not hand cut, they were standard processed fries. The positive was that they seem to fry all their seafood and fries in very hot oil and the food has very good texture.



As I deconstructed my po-boy I found ample amounts of seafood on both halves. The shirmp could have been fried a couple minutes more and could have used a bit more seasoning in the breading. They were good, a bit above average but not great. The oysters were well above average, good flavor (fresh), good texture and a good amount.

The food overall was respectable, but not outstanding. The atmosphere was a bit unusual, nothing like the McElroy's in Biloxi that I grew up with, but the people were to notch. Kind of felt oddly Shoney's-ish. Kind of just cookie cutter in the tables, chairs, drab wall art. The view out the back deck over Bayou Fort is beautiful, but they didn't have table service set up outside.

The service we received was top notch. Everyone we talked with was a cut well above average from the receptionist, to the servers to the chef, they made it into a very nice dining experience.

Blow Fly Inn - Gulfport

On Saturday night the wife and I dinned at a Gulf Coast landmark - The Blow Fly Inn. For years I have heard about the Blow Fly Inn. In the last year it has been featured by Guy Fieri on Food Network's Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Without question the location and setting of the Blow Fly Inn on the banks of Bayou Benard is one of the most picturesque locations of any dinning establishment on the Gulf Coast. As we arrived the sun was just setting over the bayou and it was a beautiful sight.

The restaurant was packed, we had to wait a little while to be seated (about 10 min.). The hostess was polite and within a couple of minutes of being seated a server was there to take drink orders. Our server on this visit was very nice, professional and attentive.

We began our meal with an order of onion rings. I don't recall Guy making a big deal out of the rings on the show, but they are something to write home about.

A huge helping of hand cut, wet battered onion rings cooked at the perfect temperature. They used a dredge of mainly flour with just a little corn-meal mixed in, seasoned to near perfection with a blend of cajun spices. The last ring on the bottom of the pile was as crispy as the first ones off the top - that's a rare find. Most of the time the grease drips down the pile and the last few are soggy and inedible. I am sure that at some point I've had better onion rings than these, but for the life of me I can't remember where or when.

Our server was polite enough not to serve the side salads along with the appetizers, a few minutes after the rings arrived she brought out the salads.

Pretty standard fare of lettuce, tomato, cucumber a few red onions with some boxed croutons. A pleasant surprise was that my blue cheese and my wife's ranch dressings were house made and better than average. Honestly, with that big plate of rings on the table, far from empty, I didn't wast much time on the salad.

I kind of had my mind made up that I was going to try the stuffed flounder that was featured on Triple-D, but they did have three weekend-specials that were very tempting. This weekend they featured a grilled Amberjack, a broiled redfish fillet and a fried grouper fillet served over rice, topped with a crawfish and shirmp etouffee.

I fought the urge to try one of the specials and ordered the stuffed flounder. Flounder is in my opinion the most under appreciated of our native near-shore species. The flavor is mild, delicate and is one of the easiest fish to clean and prepare due to it's unique skeletal structure.

The flounder was served whole (headless), it was bisected down the midline and the fillets were pulled back. Inside the chef packed the flounder with a generous amount of lump crab meat stuffing. The entire fish, stuffing and all, was flame broiled to near perfection.

The flounder was well seasoned on the outside with a cajun blend that also covered the suffing, it was garnished with lemon slices and parsley. The flounder was flaky and the texture of the slighty chared skin was compliment to the stuffing. The stuffing had plenty of crab meat and only way that this dish could have really been improved, in my opinion, is to use a slightly smaller amount of bell pepper in the stuffing. It sort of grabbed you instead of melding with the onions, celery and spices.

This is one of the better seafood dishes that I have encountered on the Gulf Coast since Katrina.

This portion of the review is provided mainly Mrs. Food Blogger. This was a unique interpretation for grouper. Grouper is also somewhat of an under appreciated local fare. It's usually found filleted, fried and stuffed in between a po-boy bun. This is one of Mrs. Food Bloggers favorite off-shore fish because of it's mild flavor and firm flaky texture.

The grouper was battered in a mix similar to that the onion rings were dredged in, but had more texture, maybe added egg whites? The breading was seasoned nicely. The fillet was served over a large bed of rice, and garnished with steamed whole green beans, carrots and what we believe to have been parsnip.

Over the entire dish was poured a better than average crawfish and shrimp etouffee. The combination of flavor was nice, the fillet had a little too much batter and may have been slightly over-cooked. Had the dish had more of the etouffee and a little less rice it would have garnered a better review.

We each sampled the others entree, and both agreed that the grouper dish was slightly above average, but the flounder was very good. In all it was a fine dinner, the service was well above average, the meal as a whole was very good, and the setting on Bayou Benard is second to none.

Lil' Ray's in Long Beach

Last night the wife and I found ourselves on the Coast. We decided to stop at a staple of Gulf Coast cuisine "Lil' Ray's". The original Lil' Ray's was opened in Waveland in the 1970's and since then the family has opened other locations across the coast in Gulfport and Long Beach.

I've often stopped at Lil' Ray's Long Beach location while working on the coast and suggested that to the wife because we were visiting friends on the west side of the coast.

The decor is simple and what you would expect from a seafood/po-boy shop along the coast. The server was friendly, fast and efficient.

We started with an appetizer of smoked yellow fin tuna dip. The tuna dip was probably the highlight of the meal, it was fresh, seasoned very well, large helping of smoked tuna served over a bed of lettuce with fresh sliced tomato.

I ordered the fried Grouper (fish) po-boy with a side of fries. My wife ordered the half/half shrimp platter. That consisted of half an order of fried shrimp and half an order of grilled shrimp.

My Grouper sandwich met the expectations that I have for Lil' Ray's. The fish was fresh, flaky and fried to a golden brown. It was not over or under cooked. Served on a fresh bagget (they truck their bread in daily from New Orleans). The homemade tater sauce was a pleasant complement to the tasty grouper. The fries were very average and over-priced for what you get, in hindsight I should have gone with a cup of seafood gumbo or shrimp and corn bisque.

The shrimp platter was good, not great. The shrimp were fried in a flour and cornmeal dredge that was a little too thick for fresh shrimp. They were not bad, but average is about as high as I could rate them. The grilled shrimp on the other hand were much better. They were lightly seasoned with some cajun/creole seasonings and then grilled over the open flame just right. The potato salad served witht he platter was average at best, but the hush puppies were nice.

All in all it was a good meal. A bit on the pricey side with the total for two people being more than $40 for a pretty simple dinner, considering that the only beverages we had was sweet tea (very good sweet tea).

When most folks from the Hattiesburg/Laurel area travel down to the coast we end up eating in Gulfport or Biloxi and far too many times we end up eating at a chain you can get at home. I encourage everyone to venture to some of the smaller towns - Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Ocean Springs, D'Iberville and try some of the home-owned establishments.