Roux Louisiana Kitchen - San Jose

I've been spending my holiday season in good company, as evidenced by the picture above. One of my Christmas time meals was with these two lovelies at Roux (pronounced Rue, now go on, read the title again. so witty). Roux is a posh-ish Southern/New Orleans/Louisiana style restaurant. We walked in and were greeted by a live band which treated us to southern remixes of songs like Nelly Furtado ft. Justin Timberlake - Give it to me. It was fun to guess which song they were playing since it all sounded like southern jazz.

The appetizer of Fried Okra was super good as it had been when I went here last year. Some things never change.

The second appetizer of crab ceviche was my favorite. The portion is too small though as you can see. I'm discovering that raw meat marinated/cooked in lemon and seasonings just isn't on everyone's taste pallette. But ceviche is so good, what is there not to love?

This seafood gumbo right here, it's just alright. As memory serves, this is probably my first gumbo ever. I wouldn't say this was made poorly, but maybe gumbo just isn't my thing.

The grilled tuna entree. I'm sure it has a fancier name but if you want fancy, this isn't the blog for you. I should really break this dish down because it is quite interesting. The tuna was fresh and cooked to perfection. We did not need knives to split this up. Just picked away at it with our forks. There is a tomato half with crab on top of it. This alone could have been some sort of overpriced appetizer perhaps served with some avocado slices and crusty bread pieces (see above picture of overpriced ceviche). The sauce was all sorts of yummy for my tummy. The greens included cucumbers, green beans, and what I think is chayote squash.

This is the biggest reason why I like this dish. Chayote squash is a big part of Vietnamese food and finding it in American food brought me that warm fuzzy feeling people must call nostalgia. Well I guess I can say okra is a Vietnamese vegetable and it's at Roux too but okra is so overplayed. Doesn't that chayote squash look like a grandma's mouth with no teeth?

After dinner we hung out in the main strip of Santana Row for a while and were treated to the infamous San Jose Bike Party. It is a huge bike party that happens the third Friday of every month. I heard that many people are drunk while riding but don't quote me on that and you didn't hear it from me. People basically meet up and ride their bikes along a predetermined route. I managed to capture a clip of their passing through Santana Row and while it's an exciting site, I will NEVER EVER participate in this because I am terrible at biking near other bikers and cars.

Santana Row on Yelp
Roux Louisiana Kitchen on Yelp
San Jose Bike Party