Open Time:
11.00 am – 10.00 pm
What we had
This is a review of Cajun on Wheel’s old menu. For our latest review, click right here or below.
Seafood for daaays!
Cajun on Wheels is Colombo’s latest craze and has got seafood lovers wildly curious, so we’re here to put all your questions to rest. The Singaporean franchise takes on the “spirit of a gourmet food truck” although they’re not an actual food truck but now takes up the shipping-container-restaurant spot on Buller’s Road where Aura Café used to be. They claim to serve up premium Creole Seafood and have a very cute exterior with lots of foliage, red crab memorabilia and quite a few different seating options.
You’re welcomed with polythene bibs and a plastic table cover so you know it’s about to get messy! The menu ranges from Rs. 450 to Rs. 12,700 and includes lots and lots of different seafood preparations, prawn rolls as well as some delectable looking burgers. They only offer mineral water and fresh fruit juices for now though but we’re hoping for an expansion on their drinks menu soon.
Their signature is their Bucket Bundle which is just a huge bucket of seafood to share with friends and starts at Rs. 5,800. Since our wallets aren’t bottomless though, here’s what we tried.
Appetizers
Cajun fries- Rs. 300
This was a portion of crispy, hot, thick cut fries doused in Cajun seasoning. You could really taste the spice and herb and the garlic and onion powders make it incredibly scrumptious. We would have liked more seasoning though because some of the fries were bare and bland so it kinda disrupted such a great experience.
Fire cracker hot squid- Rs. 580
They have two squid options on the Sides section of the menu, a Deep Fried Squid and a Fire Cracker Hot Squid. The waiter asked us twice and we specified that we wanted the latter but we still can’t help but wonder if they gave us the Deep Fried instead of the Fire Cracker because this dish was not spicy at all. It was an ample serving of pepper and salted deep fried squid that would serve two people well as a starter. The flavors were alright and the squid itself was crispy on the outside but with a more rubbery meat on the inside and a little too much on the oily side for my liking. It could work as a pretty mediocre appetizer.
Mains
Sailors Feast- Rs. 2400
This is a smaller and more affordable version of their signature Seafood Buckets and serves two people. It comes with torpedo prawns, deep fried squid, fried snapper filler, chicken meatballs, and two dips: chilli tomato concasse and sambal mayo.
The number of items of each variety were pretty small but considering the whole bucket, it was a pretty generous serving of seafood. There were three crumb fried crispy and delicious torpedo prawns. We’re unsure of where the name comes from, probably from the shape of the straightened out prawns but it could have used just a little more seasoning – or salt at least.
A huge let-down in this dish was the squid because we definitely were not a fan of it. They came deep fried in huge slabs of meat that resembled the texture of a mushroom (i.e.: rubbery and dry) and was served with the legs as well. They were rubbery, unseasoned and frankly sat kinda gross in our mouths.
The fried snapper fillets though were a golden hit. They were crispy and well-seasoned and absolutely delicious. Definitely a yes to the fish!
The chicken meatballs tasted like it was made with fresh ingredients and had that nice homely feel to it. There were 4 of them in the bucket and were skillet seared instead of deep fried. Pretty good, but again, a little under seasoned.
The chilli tomato concasse was kind of like a marinara sauce but fresher, you can taste the tomato and the herbs more and it works quite well as a fresh twist to the heavy seafood. Dipping the seafood into this was a nice break from all the deep fried stuff. The sambal mayo takes some time to get used to. It is a mixture of the typical Malaysian sambal and a spicy mayo with pieces of dry-shrimp incorporated into the mayo. It wasn’t my jam because there was way too much dry-shrimp flavor in there and it pretty much over powers the seafood.
Ocean box (Fish)- Rs. 800
The ocean boxes come with a seafood option, corn on the cob and a choice of carb and sauce. We got the batter fried fish with Aglio Olio pasta and Cajun cheese sauce.
The batter fried fish was crispy on the outside and fresh and tender on the outside. It was flavored quite well and was definitely the highlight of the C.O.W. seafood.
The Aglio Olio Pasta was a mixture of olive oil, coriander, garlic and spices and was topped off with red chilli that made it so super spicy. Like can’t-take-a-satisfying-mouth-of-it-without-tearing kind of spicy. It wasn’t a favorite and quite a lot of it was left behind.
The corn was just boiled and salted. It wasn’t anything too special but was definitely a respite from from all the rich flavors of the other components of the dish.
Coming to the highlight of the entire meal, though, the Cajun cheese sauce was cheesy (obvs) with lots of spices – we tasted oregano and paprika and was a great accompaniment to the seafood. Dip literally anything in this zest of the Gods and it tastes SO much better!
They have a steady flow of Coldplay and Sheeran playing in the background and the staff is very attentive, with the manager making sure to converse with each table. The food takes about 15 – 20 mins to arrive at the table. The biggest question though, was whether or not the food was worth the buck. With our bill coming to a total of about Rs.5,000, it was fairly reasonable but we’re yet to be fully satisfied with the experience of dining there. They’re only a couple months old for now so maybe they’ll get better with time.
Have you been to Cajun on Wheels yet? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments below!
Tip: the Cajun cheese sauce us a winner!
