The arrival of a restaurant that adds new flavors to Bend’s culinary mix should be a cause for celebration in Central Oregon.

Unfortunately, I am having a hard time getting excited about Fat Tuesdays Cajun & Blues, a New Orleans-style eatery that opened its doors in January on South Third Street.

There’s no “wow” factor at this restaurant, as there decidedly should be when we’re talking about jambalaya, crawfish etoufee and filé gumbo. And even though its name reflects Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday,” from the French), I have yet to find a party going on.

In each of my three visits, service has shown itself to be inexperienced and unprofessional. Food has been merely adequate, with the unique “N’awlins” flavors failing to emerge. What’s more, I have yet to visit when the kitchen has not run out of something. Atmosphere is enhanced by good recorded blues music and frequent live midday and weekend performances, but any sort of festive or intimate mood is lacking.

Fat Tuesdays is a large diner, seating 100 guests at its rows of booths and several dozen more in its adjoining lounge, but one without any real flair.

Fat Tuesdays, by the way, is locally and independently owned by Vince Parker, a Louisiana native who came to Bend by way of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has no relation to the Atlanta-based Fat Tuesday restaurant group, which has more than 20 stores in seven states and the Caribbean.

Getting acquainted

It would be easy to forgive my first visit — only two weeks after the restaurant opened — had not many similar problems persisted on subsequent visits.

I took no notes on that initial “get-acquainted” meal. I do recall that our server had not been told by the kitchen which menu items were available and which were not; twice, after we had ordered, she returned to our table to apologize for having run out of both ribs and prawns. When the dishes were eventually served, they didn’t come out of the kitchen at the same time — one entree was served a full five minutes after the other.

I don’t remember what we ordered, other than being terribly disappointed in our Mercedes Street crab cakes, described as “succulent blue crab meat spiced with our cool seasoning and served with a Creole aioli.” The crab tasted stale and “fishy,” which is what sometimes comes with shipping seafood cross-country rather than taking advantage of the delectable Dungeness crab harvested on Northwest coasts.

Lunchtime visit

An out-of-town friend joined me for lunch on a recent Saturday. I immediately inquired of our server, when our menus were presented, if there was anything we shouldn’t consider ordering — and although the weekend was only half over, she alerted us that there was no more crab, nor were there any baby back ribs.

“It was really busy last night,” she apologized, hurrying between multiple sections of the restaurant. Two other servers, she explained, hadn’t arrived for work on this day, so Fat Tuesdays was very short-staffed.

Our meal was a simple one — a bowl of gumbo and a plate of jambalaya, with a couple of cornmeal muffins to start. The muffins were served with individual, chilled packages of butter. It wouldn’t have required a lot more cost or effort, and certainly would have added class, for a dish of whipped butter to have been offered.

My choice, Papa Dee’s gumbo (for executive chef Dee Green), was served as a stew. Shrimp, chicken and spicy Louisiana sausage were boiled in broth with onions and celery, then presented on white rice with a sprinkle of dried parsley flakes and Cayenne pepper. The dish was moderately spicy but flavors could have blended better with longer cooking time.

My friend ordered jambalaya, a New Orleans classic of Andouille sausage and chicken, simmered with green and red peppers and with onions. Like the gumbo, it was served atop white rice with dried parsley and pepper. The flavor was smokier than that of the gumbo, probably a contribution of the Andouille.

Dinner for two

The following week, I dropped by with my regular dining companion for an early dinner. On this occasion, following my query, we learned the restaurant had no oysters. A classic cornmeal-rolled Po’Boy sandwich would be out of the question.

What about a muffuletta? we asked. This sandwich of various meats, cheeses and marinated olive salad was a standard on our visit to New Orleans a year ago.

The server confessed to having no knowledge of Cajun or Creole cuisine. She said she’d never tried anything with that flavor profile before getting her job at Fat Tuesdays. She had never heard of a muffuletta.

So we ordered a salad, to share, followed by two entrees. Five minutes later, our server returned to the table to ask if we wanted to start our meal with the salad. We assured her that we did.

The wedge salad was basic: a half head of iceberg lettuce, covered with creamy blue-cheese dressing and extra crumbles of blue cheese, along with red onion, a generous amount of chopped bacon and an ample sprinkle of Cayenne pepper.

My companion’s shrimp and grits featured a half-dozen large prawns, with their tails removed, lightly seasoned and sauteed until tender in a mild cream sauce. The seafood was excellent, but the huge mound of white hominy on which the shrimp were served was thick and relatively tasteless.

My baby back ribs — yes, they were available this time! — were brushed with a moderately spicy barbecue sauce before and after smoking. Heavily sprinkled with dried parsley (fresh parsley would be better), they were served with two kinds of potatoes, Cajun-seasoned fries (excellent) and red potatoes sauteed with red and green peppers.

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com