Don’s Seafood and Steak House has been a Lafayette institution for over 70 years. The downtown restaurant used to draw huge crowds that formed a line around the outside of the building, waiting to get in (as shown in the many historic photos lining the dining room walls). Today the crowds are smaller, and the average age of the customers older, as the major highways have long since bypassed downtown, and most tourists and travelers just passing through stop at the chain places on Interstate 10 and Evangeline Thruway. But, thanks to a stable base of local fans (and a few from out of town who’ve discovered this gem), Don’s persists. Interestingly, Don’s (along with other Don’s locations in Beaumont, Texas, and several other Louisiana cities) is the last vestige of a Cajun seafood restaurant business run by the Landry family, who’s squabbles tore the company apart in the 1980s and resulted in Houston restaurant tycoon, Tilman Fertitta, acquiring most of the pieces. The Landry’s and Willie G’s restaurants, which Fertitta has expanded into other parts of the country, share their roots with the original Don’s location in Lafayette. However, unlike the modern chain incarnations of Landry’s, which serve "seafood for the masses" and lack the Landry family’s signature recipes, the original Don’s in Lafayette stays true to the Landry family’s concept of fresh Gulf seafood, served fried, broiled, and grilled, and prepared in the traditional cooking methods of southern Louisiana with a heavy dose of Cajun spices.

Walking into Don’s is like experiencing a little bit of a time warp. The quiet, dimly lit dining room, brick walls and columns covered with black and white photos, vinyl-upholstered chairs, and laidback style of the servers evokes a time in the past when eating out was a special treat, not an everyday occurrence. The extensive menu features a wide selection of red snapper, flounder, shrimp, crab, and crawfish entrées, along with steaks and chicken. There are dishes here you aren’t likely to find at any national chain, like crawfish au gratin, a wonderful casserole of crawfish tail meat, cheeses, and a creamy, spicy sauce. Don’s is also well known for their combination dinners, which allow diners to sample a variety of the kitchen’s recipes at once. These dinners are mostly centered on one particular type of seafood, such as shrimp, crab, or crawfish. Ordering the crawfish dinner, for instance, will get you a combination of crawfish au gratin, crawfish etouffee, fried crawfish, and other crawfish items, along with a baked potato or potatoes au gratin and a salad. Portions here tend to be large, but not unmanageable, and are a good value for the prices charged. Service is very friendly, and some employees have been with the restaurant for many years. Food can be a little slower to arrive at the table than what you’d expect in large chain where the kitchen operates as more of an assembly line, but be patient; I assure you, the food is worth the wait.