Mother’s

Mother’s is one of the most well-known restaurants in New Orleans, particularly for their Po’ Boys. Sarah and I visited there on our honeymoon, and we definitely had to return on this trip.

Sarah ordered the Ferdi Special (pictured below), a po’ boy with baked ham, roast beef, debris and gravy. Debris is Mother’s term for roast beef scraps that fall off the meat during cooking. It’s juicy and very definitely “melt in your mouth” tender. The creole mustard on the sandwich really pulled everything together. Sarah loved it, and she doesn’t even like ham much.

(Photo: riacle)

I ordered the Shrimp Creole. The peppers, tomatoes and onions in the sauce tasted liked they had been slow-cooked for hours. I added a few dashes of Tabasco, which really brought out the flavors of the dish.

Mother’s even has a kid’s menu. We made the mistake of letting Jonathan choose his own meal, though, and his interest in “catfish” after seeing them at the aquarium didn’t materialize into an enjoyment of the fish. It was actually a good specimen of cornmeal fried catfish, but I think the inherent gaminess of it put him off a bit.

We were really happy with our experience at Mother’s. Does anyone know of a place in Cleveland where we can get food like this?