Papa Boudreauxs Cajun Cafe

Never disappoints. This place is an amazing hidden prize. Cash only. BYOB. The food is remarkable. Authentic Cajun cuisine. Don't be fooled by the cinderblock building. This is the real deal. Service is always consistent. Huge servings. Fresh. Delicious.

We were in Theta, Tennessee for an after Christmas trip, and this place popped up as a suggestion. It was delightful! We had the shrimp and grits as well as the crawfish and the etoufee. It was all very tasty. The boudin balls were good as well. It is a tiny hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere, but we enjoyed it very much.

Let me be clear. Pro: The food is good. It is fresh, not too spicy and served while hot off the stove. Which is good because tha place is only probably 40 by 20, including the kitchen! A cozy little house looking building on the side of a country road. (Like residential country road where each house has about 100' frontage) we took a very pretty scenic drive from Cool Springs to Sante Fe, approx 50mins. You can get there faster via I-65 but you miss the country drive. We had the Boudin Balls, served hot and crispy! Then I had the Oyster shooter. There seems to be plenty of menu items that don't quite make the menu too. There is a specials board for which they may, or may not, have all the ingredients necessary. (Very common in little country places) I was full after my two items but my husband continued with a small app size bowl of the gumbo which was very good. He then finished off with a bowl of etouffee. It was also very good! So the food lived up to the hype. Cons: they are only open 3-4 days a wk and only by reservation? Probably reserving the right to not open at all of no reservations for that day. The place has maybe 10 tables and when we walked in 2 had been put together to seat a larger party who already had drinks and bread. We sat down and opened our BYOB bottle of wine (beer/wine only). Our very friendly waitress came by, got our order, all friendly enough. The place ended up filling up. She was the only waitress. She could handle it fine with the help of a food runner asst that would pop out of the kitchen every so often. This place gives the appearance of being a small country family friendly place until you look closer. (My fault- but the 3 youngsters noticed too) our server was wearing a ball cap that said "Sh#+ show supervisor) ok haha. The front of her tank top said "always late..." what a coincidence so am I! But the back in very large print said "Go F##k yourself!" Um, really? Maybe it's just me, but I'm not used to reading messages like that at a restaurant on the staff. I mean this isn't the #WhiteTrashCafe! (IFYKYK) So just a word to the wise because I haven't run into this type thing anywhere I've eaten before and I've been to NOLA more times than I can count.

The boudin balls are incredibleThe whole visit was great- it is a wonderful small local business that you can tell takes great pride in quality meals and service.Highly recommend- Only wish they took credit cards even if they charged a processing fee- cash is just so old school and a pain.

Great Cajun treasure in Little Santa Fe. Be sure to order the Boudin balls. Down-home checkered tablecloth 's, festive and casual atmosphere. It's reservations only and open Friday and Saturday and Sunday nights. Nonetheless, they fit us in because we were there right when they opened and before the rush. The friendly Chef and waitress came out to greet us when we arrived. Apparently, pre-Covid they had lines going out the door. Be sure to make a reservation. Good fun and a lovely drive from Franklin.

I had been to confession right before coming to Papa Boudreauxs, and by the time the meal was over, I was asking God to take me now, because it would be a glorious last meal. The food was ~really~ that good.We live only about a 15 minute drive from the unassuming place in Santa Fe, TN. But I would have driven two hours for this food. The menu is small, but has everything you need in a Louisiana style restaurant. With about 8 or so choices of appetizers, everyone in your party could find something to love. We decided to skip the appetizers, though, because the portions promised to be large on the entrees.My wife had shrimp and grits, which were a generous portion and seasoned to perfection. They were not too cheese-heavy, but instead were balanced and seasoned expertly.I was torn between the gumbo and the jambalaya. I finally went with the gumbo, which included lots of seafood and sausage, and allowed for adding spice to my liking, in other words it was not over-the-top spicy. Our waitress offered, and of course we accepted, a dessert of beignets ("bennies"). They were light and airy, and dusted with generous amount of powdered sugar.If I had a childhood to be transported back to in Louisiana, this undoubtedly would have done it. Unfortunately I am from Philadelphia, and now lamenting the fact that this wasn't my diet growing up.Oh, and the bill was less than you would pay for a glass of good scotch in Nashville.Do not miss this gem!

We took 12 people here for a birthday celebration. Food, service, and entire experience was a blast! Highly recommended....have to have reservations!

PThis is a hidden gem in Fly, TN. The food and service were immaculate. Our large party was served on Thursday evening which is closed to the public. We started with Fried Crawfish as an appetizer then Red Beans and Rice, Etouffee, Shrimp Creole, with Beignets all around were enough to feed twice our reservations. This was a fun evening!

We moved to Maury Co 5 years ago and heard about Papa Boudreaux's right when we got here. We put it off long enough and finally it got the better of us today and we decided to give it a shot. The wife made a reservation for 5:15 (good thing too, I'll come back to that.)We get to the cinderblock hut and I got excited. Some of the best food I've eaten came from a very similar building. Went inside and felt like we were in for a treat when we were seated immediately while the live music in the corner was playing. Drink order placed and received quick.Appetizer order placed and received quick.Entree order placed and received eventually.Appetizer was boudin balls. Kinda over salted, but I've had worse.Entree for me was jambalaya. Wife had one of the specials (St Jacques I believe). Now it took 30 minutes from the time we placed the entree order for it to arrive. Hers came out first and about 5 minutes later mine showed up. I've eaten and cooked my fair share of jambalaya. Even had jambalaya out of an MRE pouch in the military. The stuff they gave me didn't come close to tasting like jambalaya. Plenty of trinity in it, but the flavor was horrible to me. Yes there are plenty of additive seasonings on the tables, but you shouldn't have to do that if it's cooked right. Also for chicken and sausage jambalaya, there should have been equal portions of the chicken and sausage. I had three slices of sausage and the equivalent of an eight piece chicken finger special mixed in with the rice. Wife's said all she could taste was the corn they poured over top of the fish and pasta. Like they cooked the corn separate and rather than scooping out the corn from the pot, to add it to the dish, they dumped it on, water and all. She was making it through some of the fish that wasn't in the corn water until she found scales on the fish. At that point she asked me to get the check so we could leave.The waitress asked how everything was and I gave her my opinion of the jambalaya. She was taken aback but did offer some beignets on the house. We politely declined.Overall not happy with the food, disappointed with the speed of delivery, and sadly will have to mark this place as a "do not recommend" to our friends.So I'm glad she reserved for us at 5:15. Gave me time to be able to find something truly edible for us this evening. Ice Cream.

Food was very good and so was the service.reservations are needed,wish we were closer to the location.