The Best Things We Ate in Baton Rouge, Lafayette | Food/Restaurants

Stir-fried fresh flat rice noodles at Asian Seafood House

As a newcomer to Baton Rouge, I’m always excited to try Chinese restaurants, but I’m also always a little nervous. In the South, the flavors I grew up with are often sacrificed in the name of business practicality.

Stir-fried noodles are one of the best stress tests of a good Chinese restaurant. It tells you about the flavor profile of a place and shows you how generous they are with their liao (the non-noodle ingredients used in stir-fries). When I took my visiting family to eat at Asian Seafood House, I raved about the dim sum and congee, but more than anything I was impressed with their Beef Stir-Fried Fresh Flat Rice Noodles ($16.80). The flavor is subtle and delicious. After trying Asian Seafood House’s rice noodles, my parents said they wanted to spend Thanksgiving there.

Asian Seafood House Restaurant, 11294 Florida Blvd. (Serena Puang, Reporter)

Quesabirria at Taqueria Los Compadres

The birria is back! After a fire in their building in early April, Birria and Barbacoa De Chivo Los Compadres were forced to close their doors. The small restaurant, once located in a strip mall at Airline and Cedarcrest, was known for its quesabirria tacos.

After securing a food truck and finding a location, the Taqueria Los Compadres truck has finally made its way to the corner of Airline Highway and Old Hammond Highway, serving up their coveted quesabirria. And it still tastes just as good as ever. The crowd-favorite special stands: four shredded beef quesabirria tacos in a griddle-baked tortilla, filled with melted cheese and stuffed with delicious slow-cooked goodness, topped with cilantro and onions.

There’s still that side of delicious beef consommé to dip into, and a sample of their three salsas. There’s also an assortment of tacos, burritos, and tortas to choose from.

Taqueria Los Compadres, Airline Highway and Old Hammond Highway, Baton Rouge. (Jennifer Brown, Editor in Chief)

Crispy Chicken Sandwich from Mercy Kitchen

The crispy chicken sandwich was a treat, filled with buttermilk fried chicken, honey mustard slaw, pickles and aioli between a brioche bun. As the name suggests, the chicken had crispy bits on the outside but was also tender on the inside.

Whenever a sandwich, especially a chicken sandwich, has pickles in it, I always hope they are homemade. To my delight, these were. There is just something different about homemade pickles.

Mercy Kitchen, 1312 Verot School Road, Lafayette. (Lauren Cheramie, Reporter)