When you were a child, odds were that the perfect slice of cake consisted of a lot of icing and not much cake. As you got older, however, odds are that the opposite became true; you now prefer more cake than icing.
Cajun Blu has created the perfect chocolate cake for adults: three layers of moist, velvety, dark-brown cake blanketed with a thin, glistening sheet of bittersweet chocolate icing, the old-fashioned kind that's slightly grainy, the kind made from recipes in dog-eared copies of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
Cajun Blu's cake is one heavenly cake. And it's just one of several things that the restaurant does well.
Located a short distance from the middle branch of the Patapsco River in Cherry Hill, the restaurant specializes mainly in seafood, prepared with or without Cajun spices.
White table linens and just loud-enough jazz in the background give the dining room an elegant, comfortable ambience. And we were lucky enough to have co-owner Ken Whitfield wait on us. He was filling in for the regular server, and we found his enthusiasm touching. Each time we complimented him on the food, he returned to the kitchen and told the chef, who came out at the end of the meal to thank us.
Among our appetizers, we found the cream of crab soup tough to top - a creamy concoction loaded with slivers of meat. Two delicious, spice-encrusted catfish fingers were hot enough to warrant water-glass refills. Cajun-spice-crusted chicken fingers were good enough, but not quite as flavorful as the other two appetizers.
The baked rockfish was the best I've ever had - simply prepared in a sweet mayonnaise-based sauce that obliterated the oily taste often associated with the local delicacy. Three baked fillets of tender, farm-raised catfish dusted with a judicious amount of Cajun spices looked pretty but arrived at the table a little chilly.
Shrimp Alfredo was outstanding: six or seven fat, perfectly cooked crustaceans stirred into a fruity, golden cream sauce that was thick enough to coat the pasta but not so thick as to weigh it down.
Each entree came with two sides. The best of the four we tried was the most Cajun, a spicy, smoky mix of red beans and rice. A vegetable medley that consisted of sugared baby carrots, cauliflower and broccoli had potential, but, like the catfish, was lukewarm. Baked potatoes and applesauce were pretty straightforward, although one potato was undercooked.
For dessert, in addition to the chocolate cake, we also thoroughly enjoyed a mammoth, fudgy brownie topped with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. A decent bread pudding topped with strawberry sauce lost points because it was served ice-cold.
The majority of Cajun Blu's customers use the carryout side, which is a handy thing to know about. But this pleasant newcomer is well worth a longer, sit-down visit. We hope Cajun Blu is here to stay.
Cajun Blu
Where: 1810 Cherry Hill Road
Call: 410-347-2266
Open: For lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday and brunch on the second and fourth Sundays of each month
Prices: Appetizers $2.50 to $7.95; entrees $10.95 to $19.95
Credit cards: DC, MC, V
Food: ***1/2
Atmosphere: **
Service: ***1/2
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *