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Copeland's of New Orleans
A word of advice when you go to Copeland’s of New Orleans, which recently opened in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Southlake Town Square: Bring some Tupperware. Bring a large appetite. Bring a small army, because the portions are ridiculously, insanely huge.
They don’t even have a cup of soup; the choices are "bowl" or "BIG bowl."
Copeland’s was founded in New Orleans in 1983 by colorful entrepreneur Al Copeland, who made his first fortune as a co-founder of Popeye’s Chicken. This branch in Southlake is the only Copeland’s in Texas, as the management brags, but it is not the first: Copeland’s had a run in Dallas on Belt Line Road until it closed a few years ago.
The primary theme is Cajun, with fried and blackened seafood, gumbo and etoufee. There are also pasta dishes and steaks, served on a sizzling skillet similar to fajitas. The decor has a swanky New Orleans feel, too, with multiple dining areas, a burgundy color scheme and heavy curtains.
Four of the seven steaks were filets. Al’s Favorite ($28.99) came topped with caramelized onions that were intensely dark and with a flavor so concentrated, they seemed like super-onions; a little went a long way. Side dishes ran from $2.99 to $5.99, including such steakhouse standards as sauteed mushrooms, spinach, and asparagus. Mashed sweet potatoes had enough sugar, butter and cinnamon to make you forget you were eating a vegetable.
The signature fried seafood platter ($21.99) would easily feed a family of four, no exaggeration. Served on a broad oval plate, it started with a mountain of French fries. Strewn over them were a dozen fried crawfish, maybe more; half a dozen each fried shrimp and fried oysters; four fried catfish filets (or was it six?), breaded crab cake; at least a pint of fried onion strings; four corn fritters; and toasted French bread.
Individually, each item was capably executed. Seafood had a crisp cornmeal crust and a hot, greaseless finish, though some oysters and shrimp veered towards "overcooked."
Fries followed the fast-food mode: crisp, golden, salty, nearly on a par with Mickey D’s. The fritters came spiked with corn kernels and a sweet cakey flavor that brought to mind doughnuts. The catfish broke easily into tender bites. The crab cake contained diced bell pepper, though the details began to blur after a while. All that fried food eventually dulls the senses. And the volume guaranteed that much was left behind; what a sad waste.
A popular Sunday brunch specializes in eggs Benedict dishes; lunches and salads are said to be lighter in portion. Copeland’s also houses a bar with vodka on tap, and a bakery with house-made sweets whose scale matched the entrees: enormous slabs of multi-tiered carrot and chocolate cake, and broad wedges of cheesecake topped with rivers of fudge sauce and fruit. At $5.99 to $7.99, the desserts give you a lot of bang for your buck, and, like everything else, are entirely too big to finish in one sitting.
Cuisine: Cajun
Essentials: Major credit cards accepted, full bar, smoke-free, wheelchair-accessible, kids menu
Entree cost: $13-$40 per serving
Signature dish: Fried seafood platter
Noise level: Rich carpets and drapery keep sound buffered
Good to know: Typical entree easily feeds two, maybe four
This review originally appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Friday, Sept. 28, 2007.
