At Compass Run, Louisiana heartland treasures make it to Buffalo | Restaurants

“Compass Run is called after chef and co-owner James Roberts’ childhood reminiscences of operating foggy pre-dawn routes in a bayou boat with solely a compass for steering,” learn the restaurant’s announcement, written by a seasoned advertising skilled named Connie Roberts, his spouse and enterprise companion in Compass Run and Toutant, their Ellicott Avenue restaurant.

“En path to fishing, shrimping and searching within the Louisiana Delta and marshes, Roberts realized to belief the compass from his father and grandfather, who would rely the turns between landmarks to navigate the water when fog descended.”

Compass Run’s menu zigzags throughout the panorama of Louisiana but additionally the world of Roberts’ starvation. When you belief his compass, it’s the journey of a lifetime.

There’s Cajun classics like fried catfish and boudin balls, but additionally a uncooked seafood crudo. Cajun delicacies doesn’t have fun uncooked fish, however Roberts does, and the result’s breathtaking. Domino-thick slices of yellowtail ($16) have been stacked ready for swiping via tomatillo and smoked fresno chile sauces, blessed with coriander blossoms.

Omnivorous however with a definite urge for food for seafood, Compass Run delivers pristine shrimp, fish, oysters and extra with a stage of exact care that approaches reverence.

Let the Good Livin’ platter ($26) take you to the church of contemporary seafood.

4 jumbo poached shrimp, 4 uncooked oysters, a break up poached lobster tail, housemade cocktail sauce and mignonette, plus contemporary shredded horseradish are bedded on a tray of ice. Customized sizzling sauces Loup Garou (inexperienced glow) and Suzumebachi (habanero-based, one drop is sufficient) are there to your creativeness.

As an individual who prefers shrimp to lobster, Compass Run’s tasty waterbugs are Crustacean Delicacies Corridor of Fame materials. “Jumbo” solely describes measurement, not provenance. Right here they’re from the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana if attainable. Backside-dollar shrimp farmed on the opposite facet of the world are the Yellowtail Cabernet Sauvignon of the species, whereas these are the Grand Cru Bordeaux. These are trophy shrimp, worthy of hanging in your mantel.

Consuming one, I skilled a brand new sensation, at 55 years of age. For the sake of preserving that good shrimp second, I wished to cease consuming proper there.

Oysters, from Prince Edward Island, have been cool, briny swallows of ocean, punctuated as desired with the crunchy zing of contemporary grated horseradish root.

The Captain’s Platter ($28) is the fried seafood unfold of expertly cornmeal-coated and fried catfish fingers and extra of these trophy shrimp. There’s crispy-fried smashed potatoes and tartar sauce jacked with dill pickles and herbs, as well.

Heat buttered buns ($10) speckled with sesame seeds and accompanied by honey butter, are the proper hiya. Pork stomach “burnt ends” ($12) offset the meltingly luscious fats with pickled Fresno chiles.

How can Compass Run please? Let me rely the methods.

Roasted poblano mac and cheese ($10), with charred chiles and biscuit crumble, was voted All-Star honors by tablemates, a spotlight of their lifetime mac-and-cheese ledger. Diners can add crawfish or pork stomach, however this gorgeously lactic lily wants no gilding.

Nationally honored Benton’s nation ham ($10), an all-American prosciutto cousin, arrived with grapefruit marmalade and housemade mustard. A humbler hit was bouillon mushrooms ($6), button mushrooms in an addictive spicy broth.

Roasted native beets ($11), with their greens, basil, stracciatella cheese and icewine tomato vinegar, prolonged the file of protecting a considerate seasonal dish on the menu.

A smoked half rooster ($24), atop candy corn grits, drizzled with white Alabama barbecue sauce, was the shock stunner of the night time. Deeply smoky but lushly moist rooster is uncommon already, however discovering it married to contemporary corn and slow-burn house-pickled chiles was thrilling all the best way right down to the bones.

One other wide-ranging specialty that lands at Compass Run is the Oklahoma-style smashburger ($16), griddled over steamed onions. Its grass-fed Plato Dale beef reminded my company of when hamburgers tasted like beef. The bun, house-baked, after all, didn’t harm.

It’s value noting that Compass Run is a extremely accessible restaurant, in contrast to Toutant, which has staircase points. However Compass Run does share its sister restaurant’s normal of menus clearly marked to information the gluten avoidant, proper right down to the dessert card.

The sweets lineup at Compass Run is one other exhibit in my ongoing case towards not telling prospects about dessert decisions up entrance. Right here, desserts ($8) needs to be contemplated earlier than consuming, as a result of later, you is perhaps full, after which unhappy.

Our go to discovered Thorpe’s blueberries within the buckle. Bananas Foster introduced rigorously bruleed bananas over ice cream and a caramel bourbon sauce tableside pour-over. A bourbon praline collaboration with Lake Impact Ice Cream ($5) is worth it, after which there’s pie of the day.

With all the American heartland cooking panorama coated by Roberts’ zigs and zags, the shortest distance between you and satisfaction simply is perhaps a Compass Run.

Location: 500 Seneca St., compassrunbuffalo.com, 716-322-6004

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday via Saturday

Costs: small plates, $6-$15; entrees, $18-$38

Wheelchair accessible: sure

Gluten-free: many decisions, on clearly marked menu

Outside eating: no, however inside patio