Restaurant Review: DiCristina’s Italian and Seafood Restaurant–Covington, LA
The final restaurant review from our most recent trip to Louisiana is for DiCristina’s Italian and Seafood Restaurant in Covington, LA. This nearly-hidden family spot is certainly a gem in Covington’s food scene crown.
DiCristina’s combines the old-school Italian cooking that my other half remembers growing up in an East Coast Italian neighborhood with the seafood flavors of Louisiana for a fantastic dining experience. (In fact, it was so good, we went back a second time to try more!) Besides the awesome food, the atmosphere at DiCristina’s is cozy and feels like an old-school Italian family spot–in fact, both times we were there, it was full of families enjoying good food and good company.
On our first visit, I went the seafood route and had the Crab Cakes Over Penne Pasta with Crawfish Sauce and my other half had one of his favorites–Veal Parmesan with Baked Macaroni. Having looked at everyone else’s plates around us, we knew the portion sizes were going to be generous, but when we got them we were pleasantly surprised at just how generous they were!
Veal Parmesan
The Veal Parmesan was delicious, tender and breaded perfectly–someone has been making Veal Parm for a while because they have that dish dialed in! Alongside the veal was a generous serving of baked macaroni. This, however, is not your modern-day elbow macaroni… instead, this dish had a long and thin tubular pasta that my other half was delighted to see as it was the type they ate in his neighborhood growing up. Not only was the macaroni an opportunity for us to talk and laugh about his childhood, but it was also very good!
Covington, LA
Crab Cakes Over Penne Pasta with Crawfish Sauce
The Crab Cakes Over Penne Pasta with Crawfish Sauce was the second dish we tried. Now, I’m a huge crab fan, so I have some crab standards…. these exceeded all of them! The two huge lump crab cakes were delicious, seasoned perfectly and were the perfect texture to hold together, but not be too dense. (Again, someone had this recipe dialed in too!) They were plated on a huge bed of penne pasta and covered with an out-of-this-world crawfish sauce which left both of us wanting more—which is the whole reason we went back later that week!
We couldn’t get enough of the crawfish sauce so we went back again later that week and ordered an appetizer of hush puppies and a side of the crawfish sauce. The hush puppies were some of the best I’ve ever had and when dunked in the crawfish sauce–oh goodness me! The pairing isn’t on their menu as an item, so you will have to ask for them separately–you will thank me later!
Trout Jacob
This second visit my other half wanted the crab cakes and–you guessed it–the crawfish sauce covered penne pasta. So he ordered that, and I went for one of their specials–Trout Jacob. If you’ve been a Mason Jars and Me Reader for a while, you have seen me make trout on here before. I am a sucker for trout on a menu when I see it, so I had to try it! This is a speckled trout which they fried and put on a bed of angel hair pasta and–you guessed it–crawfish sauce. The trout was prepared perfectly, the breading was the perfect consistency and thickness, and it was fried to the perfect state of doneness…making it a pretty dish!
The combination of the skilled classic Italian cooking combined with the use of local seafood makes DiCristina’s one of my favorite Italian restaurants! More importantly, though, you can tell this is a favorite place for friends, family and community to gather and enjoy one another which is priceless. Great work to the DiCristina’s team! We hope to be seeing you again sometime!!
Other Covington, LA Restaurants to Try
If you are looking for other Covington, LA restaurants to try, you will not want to miss The Shack!
