Roux Orleans provides elegant evening

Maggie Devine/Editor-in-Chief

A night downtown. Dining in the historical Black’s building. A nice meal. Incredible ambiance. That’s exactly what you get dining at the most recent addition to Cedar Valley restaurants and Barmuda establishments, Roux Orleans.

Roux Orleans is basically the Waterloo edition of Bourbon Street in downtown Cedar Falls, but being in the Black’s building just gives it a certain aura. It is definitely a unique experience.

Myself and my companions arrived at about 8:30 on a Saturday night. Finding a parking place was easy, but I was still concerned that, given the restaurant’s newness, we would have a hard time getting seated. Fortunately, it was not the case, and we were immediately greeted by the hostesses and taken up to our table on the second floor, to the dining area. On the first entrance floor is the Bourre Lounge, which was lively the entire night with fairly loud mostly New Orleans-style music. Because of its open ceiling, we could look down to the lounge from upstairs.

Our table was small, and in what seemed a more dimly lit section. However, the lighting was nice and did not hinder anyone’s eyesight. In addition, the tables had LED candles in cute candle holders. As we learned throughout the course of the night, the floor upstairs translates movement near tables easily and shakes them slightly. We were brought lovely menus and, in addition, a wine list, which our hostess was very worried about us receiving. Our waitress soon arrived to take our drink orders and brought them out just as quickly. The Shirley Temples we ordered were fine, but seemed a little heavy on the Sprite/7-Up and a little low on the grenadine.

Even though we had previewed the menu online, it took us quite awhile to decide on our orders, but our waitress kept coming up and politely asking if we were ready yet. When we were, she arrived back at our table very quickly.

Our salads were brought out within five minutes of ordering. A nice plus and an unusual surprise was that our dressing, on the side, was served in real, washable cups instead of plastic ones. Upon eating the salads, we were disappointed with the quality of the lettuce, which was less than fresh and not very crisp. There was a lack of croutons and cheese as well.

Soon our bright-faced waitress appeared again with refills for our only half-empty drinks. It seemed only a few moments later and we were given our meals, which were covered until they were set in front of us.

When we took our silverware out of our napkins, we noticed that everyone’s knives looked very dirty. It appeared to only be water stained, but it was slightly unsettling. None of us had to use the knives, luckily.

My chicken fettuccini alfredo was served with an average piece of garlic bread, but the dish was amazing. The noodles had a light quality about them, and the sauce was simply delectable. I thought that, although they were grilled to perfection, there could have been more bits of chicken. On the other hand, the similar shrimp fetuccini alfredo ordered by one of my companions had plenty of shrimp that were cooked without error. In any case, both of our meals were plenty of food and worth the $15.99 and $16.99 price tags.

The house creme brulee was excellent and not burnt on the top at all. It was a decent-sized helping as well.

Frequently, our server checked on us. When we were ready, she took our food and boxed it up herself in stylish black boxes.

My visit to Roux Orleans was incredibly pleasant and refreshing from normal dining experiences. The prices were more than I normally pay for dinner, but I believe they were worth it. The entire evening ran smoothly, with great service and food. It was a refreshing and quite delightful excursion.