According to most restaurant critics, the perfect Creole meal is served on a plate, which rests on a table with legs. With today's Groupon, $10 gets you $20 worth of table-topping fried seameat, po' boys, and more at N'awlins Creole Café, located in Avon, about 30 minutes west of downtown Indianapolis by alligator-drawn airboat.

N'awlins Creole Café is authentic to the cuisine and culture of the Big Easy, right down to the zydeco band living inside the soda machine. The restaurant ships in all its seafood from New Orleans, giving customers the freshest catches from the baitsmiths of the bayou. Menu items include several 6-inch po' boy sandwiches, including the classic shrimp po' boy ($8) and an alligator sausage variety, as well as traditional Crescent City jambalaya ($8.50) with chicken and hot, smoked sausage. Seafood plates (with one side, French bread, and house or potato salad) include a dozen fried shrimp or oysters ($12), and a seafood platter ($14) contains the tasty troika of shrimp, oysters, and catfish. Indecisive fleur-de-lis fanatics can opt for N'awlins Creole Café's sampler platter ($12), featuring jambalaya, red beans, rice, and the choice between gumbo with crawfish or shrimp étouffée.

For Indianapolis residents still harboring football-related anger toward the city of New Orleans, N'awlins Creole Café is an olive-branch offering, if olive branches tasted like gumbo. Owner Brian Marcelin was born and raised in New Orleans and shares his spicytooth and laid-back attitude at N'awlins Creole Café Wednesday through Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, he lets his taste-makers take the day off to curl up with a romance novel.

Reviews

Eighty-three percent of Urbanspooners say N'awlins Creole Café's Cajun eats are the real deal. More than 75 people are Facebook fans:

• My great grandmother is from Louisiana and being from the South I like to think I know the taste of authentic NOLA food…This was excellent and reminded me of my great grandmother's food. I am not sure I have ever said that about any other food I have ever tried and this is the best compliment I could give! – Aumdainae, Urbanspoon
• Stopped in for lunch the other day... Outstanding food at a great value. If you desire or want true authentic New Orleans food, then N'awlins Creole Cafe is the spot. – Erick J., Facebook