Cecelia Creole Bistro

I came in here early on a Saturday night during my trip to the area. I walked in around 5:15 hoping to snag a seat at the bar. The host informed me that it would be around a 45 minute wait since the bar was full. For an actual table, it was going to be over 2 hours. I opted to get on the waitlist for the bar and he even jotted down my phone number so I could grab a drink next door while I waited. The timing estimate was perfect! Once I was seated at the bar it did take a while for the bartender to get my order - she did address me and apologized for the delay. She was the only bartender and had to prepare drinks for the whole restaurant (which had multiple large parties that evening). For food, I started off with a half order of the skillet cornbread. They recommend pouring the syrup on top when they serve it. The syrup and the cinnamon butter made it feel like I was eating breakfast for dinner. It was almost like a dessert but absolutely worth it! I'd say the size of a half order is still sufficient for a group of 4. For dinner I ordered the Redfish Cecelia. It came with crawfish etouffee on top and was served over grits. The food was amazing and I enjoyed the variety of the dish!

Absolutely an unbelievable find. Noticed that there was many great reviews so we decided to check it out for ourselves. Coming in on a Monday evening without a reservation, we were able to get a table, but the place was quickly full even the night before a major blizzard! Highly recommend reservations for this local as it is in demand and after eating here, you will understand why. Full bar available, but we went for some NA beers and a mock tail which really hit the spot. Service was fantastic and cannot say enough about the exquisite food that served here. Creative, fusion, and fantastic quality. The house size salads were an incredibly generous portion. A real cozy restaurant that's perfect for a romantic evening or just casual time with friends. This is a must stop for Baton Rouge visitors

The best experience of flavor and soul prepared perfectly and sound can only be found at this place. My first visit was in February and let's just say I am a regular and my favorite thing to order is the Rosemary Pear Martini, skillet cornbread and the shrimp and grit plate. Everything is good!The service is really nice with being seated in a short period of time and a server comes to take your order timely too. If it's busy you may have to wait but I've never waited over a few minutes to be seated. The building at this establishment gives you a nice "warehouse" vibe with nice pictures and things that reminds you of Louisiana. The music that plays relaxes you as you enjoy the total ambiance of great service, food and atmosphere. You can't go wrong with picking Cecelia's on any day.

Hi! It's me, your new favorite spot to grab a bite to eat downtown in BR! Highly recommend getting the cornbread as an appetizer but also, why not as a dessert?! We each got a couple glasses of wine and beer with our meal. We ended up splitting the Cajun Grouper (spicy!) with a side of braised collard greens (which were outstanding and I could eat that all by itself). Service was quick, food never took too long and were there in under an hour and a half. Love the quaintness of this restaurant. Definitely will sit at the bar next time we go but highly recommend for date night, eating by yourself or just wanting a great, home cooked meal! Shoutout to it also being Valentine's Day - wish they would have done something special for those that dined in that evening (I made these reservations over a month in advance) to help celebrate that day.

It was our first time here and man they didn't disappoint at all!!! Everything we had from our drinks to dessert was phenomenal :) Service was great and our server checked on us after every 1st bite. We went during the lunch rush and we didn't have to wait long at all. Definitely a well oiled machine. The restaurant was small and cozy with maybe 20 tables. I loved everything about it. Our appetizers consisted of the crab cake and the pork belly and andouille eggrolls. Entree was the seafood pasta and the redfish Cecilia and dessert was my all time fav, vanilla bean crème brûlée. I'll definitely be back again :)

I have picked up dinner twice while working in the area. Both times I ordered the maple bourbon cornbread! And this last time I also ordered the Parisian gnocchi with crawfish it was amazing and didn't want to stop eating it reservations always recommended sign on door...it's true...they were busy!

My friends and I got lucky to not only stay in an AirBnB just across from Cecilia's, but to be able to sneak for an early dinner before my hooding ceremony at LSU a few weeks ago. Because we didn't realize that we had to make an RSVP a day or two in advance, we didn't get a table but were able to be seated at the bar. The bartender was great and we must have arrived a bit before the dinner rush as everything came out from the kitchen fairly quickly. So I cannot even begin to describe how heavenly this meal was from start to finish. My friends and I ordered some appetizers to share including the Skillet Cornbread, Sweet & Spicy Alligator, and the Sweet Chili-Glazed Brussel Sprouts. What a great mixture of apps to get us started. Given that we were celebrating my graduation, I went ahead and ordered what sounded like the best sounding item on the menu for me - the Redfish Cecilia. That is a dish that I could have as my last meal on this Earth and be completely content with. It was absolutely delicious. And the funny part is that I don't even like grits, but I loveddddddddd these grits. The crawfish etoufee and the braised collards just make this the perfect all around dish if you want to get an authentic Louisiana dish while staying to Baton Rouge. Cheers to the chef!

We came here on Friday night without a reservation at around 5:30 and got a seat as the small bar. This place was recommended by the sweet bartender down the street.We started with the fried green tomatoes on crostini with pimento cheese. I kinda wish this had been just: pimento cheese on top of the tomatoes (the bread was unnecessary and a little stale.)We split the fried jerk chicken served on top of red beans and rice. The chicken was fantastic, a little sticky and a little spicy. The red beans and rice were good, but not really warm enough.We had the blueberry white chocolate bread pudding for dessert. also good, but couldn't really taste the blueberries or the white chocolate - the topping of like a praline caramel was warm and very good.

We stopped in early because we tried to make a reservation for "dinner time" and there were none, so we walked in at just before 5pm. The hostess was def still getting herself together for the evening so offered us a seat at the bar even though all but two tables were empty. I could only assume she had a lot of reservations on the books for right at 5pm. Bars and high tops are not my favorite because I'm short, but the bar did have bag hooks under the counter so that was a plus. The bartender took our drink order and then the hostess came back and offered us a table. She also apologized and said the bartender would keep us so that we didn't have to close the tab and start a new one which I found thoughtful on all parts at the time. However, the bartender was nice but a bit overstretched. We got water refills from another server and overheard the specials when they were communicated to another table but we were never offered them. The place is cute, small and intimate and I don't have complaints especially as it felt like one of a very few elevated experience options in downtown but I'm not sure I need what I ate again. They are known for the cornbread skillet and it was RICH and even with the half serving we didn't need most of it. The alligator bites were very saucy, nothing to write home about and the boudin balls were not bad inside but too thick on the fried outside.

Great food & service. Lovely setting. Preferably for small dates. Comfortable pricing for 2