Battiste & Dupree Cajun Grill

Hearing many good things about the chef here so I had to try them out. I’m not aware of any Cajun restaurants in the area so I was excited to get a chance to taste. I got in on a group takeout order with friends from work and it was highly suggested that I try their wings.
I ordered the fun box which includes a po’ boy, wings and fries. The po’ boy was legit with a soft roll, spicy sausage, crunchy coleslaw and fries on top. Yep, I would eat one of these again. The fries are are something fun. They are more of a steak fry with a spice seasoning sprinkled on them. The real star were the wings. Crispy on the outside, maybe lightly floured, with a light slathering of subtle sweet and spice sauce. Nothing overwhelming but as I started to eat a couple of these, the spice builds up. Really one of the best wings I’ve had in the area.
From what I have sampled from their menu, I am very impressed with the quality and taste of the food.

I’ve tried this place 2 times. One word «Overpriced» I ordered a $ 15 catfish dinner for take-​out and instead of expecting catfish fillets or some sort, we got 3 tiny undercooked catfish nuggets and it had only 3 steak fries. Also, the owner is patronizing to his cook, I would never criticize my employees or belittle them in front of customers, the owner also has weird comments from time to time, which is a bit uneccessary. The owner needs to invest in customer service, lower the prices on food, and maybe hire one more person at least part-​time to assist with his operation.

Absolutely wonderful food. We tried the jambalaya (fantastic!), the gumbo (even better!), and the General Jackson chicken entrée which, if you like it spicy, is the meal for you (we *loved* it). Not to mention Junior, the owner, is super hospitable. He’s extremely personable and will ask your name and remember it. We will be back! Make sure you try it if you’re in the area!

This is a fantastic find! First time there! I went with my brother expecting your go-​to creole place with 4 vats of the general «Midwesternized» drunken chicken, gumbo, etc…
This is not that! Battiste & Dupree is a quaint sit-​down restaurant with the best creole/​cajun food I have ever eaten outside of New Orleans, with one of the most warm and welcoming hosts, Junior!
My brother ordered the Chicken & Sausage Gumbo which he absolutely loved!
I had the Corn Maque Chaux which was light, spicy and delicious!
We both split the Chicken Étouffée which had what we think is hand breaded chicken in a wonderful étouffée with rice. We ordered it mild, and it still had a nice kick to it.
If you are looking for a fast food creole joint, this is not the place. The food is all prepared to order and comes out in courses. So make sure you have some time to enjoy. The food is definitely worth the little wait.
Junior gave us a taste of an item that was not on the menu. He called it Dirty Rice. I don’t know what was in there, but it was heavenly! He says he usually makes it on Friday and Saturday, but he may be moving it to the menu soon. I highly recommend asking him if there is any Dirty Rice available on your next visit.
In conclusion, Battiste & Dupree is a fantastic creole/​cajun restaurant with a wonderful host and owner! If you have never had creole food, I highly recommend trying it here! If you love creole food how it’s supposed to be made, then this is definitely the place for you.

I really enjoyed the homemade, fresh delicious choices we made ! The owner made us feel like family! We ordered the shrimp, zucchini and okra and barbecue Cajun wings for appetizer! It was plentiful, hot and extremely tasty! For our main course the chicken and French toast was the favorite! The gumbo was filled with all kinds of seafood but I was underwhelmed. The polish poboy was excellent! The coleslaw was fabulous! The rum cake and pralines which were complimentary were off the hook!!! I almost forgot the dirty rice egg rolls were different yet out of this world!!! I definitely would recommend this fine eating establishment! Junior Batiste was an excellent host to our party!!!

Went for a 6 course meal for Mardi Gras. Was told to be there at 5:30pm only to be served the first course at 7pm. Each course took an additional 45 minutes to wait. We ended up leaving 5 hours later and had to get dessert togo. The whole event was disorganized as everyone was getting their food at different times. Also, the owner was doing all the cooking and running around thus the long wait but also he was not in the best mood. We were hesitant to ask for anything! He was rude when we asked for hot sauce. The red beans were barely cooked, still hard. The crawfish was boiled in salt water, no seasoning. I used to live in Houston, TX and have been to many different parts of Louisiana as well so I know that crawfish shouldn’t taste like dirt and be served with a bunch of huge baking potatoes. Luckily I had good company to dine with since it was such a disaster… at $ 60 a person too!

It’s slow slow slow slow, and the guy that owns it is a weird motherfucker. But… It’s absolutely delicious, yes it’s overpriced, yes it’s painfully slow, yes the man that owns it has no idea how to run a restaurant. Having said that, if you have 5 hours to spare it’s worth it

Well let me start this off by saying I am from South West Louisiana, and have a HUGE Cajun family. I have spent much of my life eating and visit New Orleans, and most of the creole and Cajun areas of the south. This was by far one of the worst experiences I have ever had eating. It took hour upon hours to get food, no one at the table got food at the same time either. The gumbo was VERY thin and watery with ONE and I mean ONE shrimp in it, the crawfish had zero seasoning on them no corn and HUGE russet potatoes that were not cooked, the red beans and rice were not cooked, in fact the beans were still basicially hard and raw. I asked for hot sauce and they asked was it not spicy enough for me??? Well no it was not considering there was NO spice in anything at all. There is one person running the place and cooking and he is not very nice. The restaurant is extremely dirty and I an not sure how it has not been shut down by health inspectors. In the time it took to get our food I could have driven to Louisiana, eaten there and drove back to Ohio. I am not sure who wrote the other reviews but I will assume they are from the people who work there…

Five hours later, can I have my night back? It was like being trapped in a time warp. I was a prisoner of dinner. We arrived at 5:30p for what was supposed to be a 5 course Cajun dinner. The first course came out close to 7p followed by another course every 40 minutes. We left before the last course arrived because we got a baby sitter for dinner not infinity. We left at 10:30p because we couldn’t stay any longer. The crawfish were boiled with zero seasoning and no corn on the cob only massive potatoes and not red skins. The whole ordeal cost us $ 60 a couple but I would’ve paid him $ 100 If I could’ve left by 8p What can only be described as the longest and simultaneously the worst dining experience I’ve ever been a part of. I really wish I could put into words how upsetting and ridiculous this dinner was. I’ll never be back. I don’t understand how they have a business. No paper towels in the bathroom. A patron got locked in the bathroom and they had to take the door handle off leaving a whole in the bathroom door. We asked for hot sauce, they had to check if they had any and brought out a small soufflé with some Tabasco sauce in it… Cajun? Nah, CAGED IN! Just don’t.

I lived in New Orleans for four years before moving to Cleveland… I have eaten in a couple of the Cajun/​creole restaurants in the city and nothing comes close to batiste and Dupree I feel like I’m home in New Orleans everytime I eat here… best Cajun food in Cleveland!!!

This is a small place that has counter and stools but if the tables are full, I don’t see how anyone can fit on the stools. Anyway, we went it was so cold the entire time. My boyfriend went to get my coat out of the car after we were there for 45 minutes because we hadn’t even received the appetizer yet! We ordered gumbo, shrimp dinner and Polish Boy. The gumbo was decent and the shrimp dinner was over priced for portion size. The Polish Boy was way too hot for my son. I was under the impression that fries were served with sandwiches. No, two fries were served on the sandwich. Our food took almost an hour to get so we sat there cold. After awhile we asked for bread, which they brought us, but it isn’t anything they seem to normally serve.
There is a Unilocal check-​in offer, but the owner wasnr aware of it and wants it removed. He gave us a 10% discount instead of the 15% offer posted.
Overall…we were there for 1.5 hours. We were cold and left unsatisfied. The owner was super nice and hospitable but I don’t think we will be back for awhile.

Best fried pickles I’ve ever had. Best fried catfish I’ve ever had. The food is salty and spicy, which some people don’t like apparently. I happen to love it. My dad was eating his remoulade sauce for the fried pickles out of the bowl with his fork, if that tells you anything — I guess mostly that my dad needs some better manners ;)
The owner runs the whole thing — takes your order, helps cook the food (there is one woman in the back who did most of the cooking it seemed), buses your table. And most importantly, he will chat you up in a non-​annoying way. It just feels so authentic. You feel like he values your presence in his restaurant, he wants to learn about you, and he wants you to enjoy your food and drink.
My parents are visiting from out of town and he wrote down directions to places he thought they would enjoy.
Don’t expect to be in and out of this place in a hurry. Everything is deliberately prepared and it takes a while. The prices were a little higher than I was expecting, too. But I think it is worth it for the experience and the taste.

Food rocks. Drove by and decided to stop and get food. Great prices and awesome sea food. Thanks junior

Cajun Fried Perch w/​AUTHENTIC Jambalaya & Fries were excellent! This is the REAL DEAL! The food was fresh & cooked to order. The owner, Junior was friendly and answered my questions about New Oeleans. When I mentioned to the owner I would be visiting NOLA soon, Junior offered to provide me with recommendations of places to eat off of the obligatory «tourist path».

Still delicious food but sadly very slow service because only the owner is usually working and there’s a good amount of people coming in for take-​out. Waited 30+ minutes for our food, one of which is the something that’s scooped from a big pot.
Also bit overpriced for the amount of food. The portions are small but generous on the ingredients. But due to the higher prices, can’t eat here as much as would like.

After reading the reviews and then stopping by for the seafood po’boy, I can confirm how wonderful this place is. As most reviewers have noted: the food is made to order, which is slow but fresh and worth the wait. Another selling point was the conversation and general friendliness that the owner provided. One last thing; the po’boy was $ 18 but worth every cent. You could feed 3 people with that monster of a sandwich. If you’re in the neighborhood, take the time to stop in. You won’t find too many places like this anymore.

If you’re in a hurry I would think twice about eating here as it takes quite some time to get your food. I tried the seafood gumbo and jambalaya. The food was fantastic. The owner was a very nice guy. I will definitely eat here again.

After being told to come here YEARS ago, we finally made it. I was sent here for the fried pickles, but I don’t think they were as amazing as I was led to believe. I ended up unable to eat a lot of them because they were incredibly salty and the portion was huge. I got the cajun chicken nuggets from the appetizer menu and I don’t think I’ve ever had better. My husband got gumbo, I believe, and it was amazing. I was a little jealous of his meal, but when I realized how perfect my chicken was, I completely forgot about how tasty his was.
The service was friendly and even though we were the only people in the place, we didn’t feel like they were hovering over us or anything. This restaurant is truly special. I can’t wait to come back and try some more complex dishes that really show how good they are at what they do.

Only crawfish boil in Cleveland and boy, was it good! Fresh, spicy, potatoes cooked to perfection! I was munching on the corn even the next day and counting down the days to the next boil!
The owner is as fun as can be and will tell you everything you want or need to know about his food and goes out of his way to offer suggestions and cook you whatever you want.
The drinks are PERFECT. Only regret is they dont have soda water, so I had a lot of fruit juice that day.
Also, anyone who mentioned that it is in a bad neighborhood, it’s 100 yards from WholeFoods. Get a grip.
Can’t wait to be back!

Quite an impressive fried catfish platter. I had a craving for some Southern food, so I went to try Battiste & Dupree.
The fried catfish platter came with two sides — I chose the red beans and rice and the Creole potato salad. The fried catfish was perfectly breaded and fried. The sauce, which is similar to a Creole tartar sauce, also tasted very good. Only thing I would change is to have less salt in the breading. The rice and beans had decent flavor and was just a little bit spicy. I liked how the Creole potato salad had Granny Smith apples in it. The potato salad overall was sweet and not too creamy.
This place is a small restaurant in a strip mall, so there isn’t a huge dining area. There is a large bar, though, to sit at. The dishes are moderately priced. (my entrée was $ 15).