Mouton's Southern Bistro - Leander

Mouton's Southern Bistro 

We were not here for the music
as you can see from the sky, we eat early

This location on the old 183 to Leander used to be Moody's Breakfast House. I am not sure if it changed hands or just names. To me it seems identical apart from a paint job inside, and my husband pointed out there was new flooring. Every thing else seems the same, Moody's only served breakfast and lunch, Mounton's does lunch and dinner, and only serves breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.

Crawfish Dip

If you like fried food you will probably really enjoy their dinner menu. We started with the Crawfish Dip, not fried, served with French bread. It was very nice. Crawfish, bell pepper, onion in cream cheese served warm.

I do like French bread, but I do not like my bread to be served already buttered. And I use the term 'buttered' loosely, for it was definitely not butter. It had the aftertaste of margarine and I can't stand that. As the bread had been lightly grilled the margarine had soaked into it and really didn't taste good to me.

I don't do fried, so I found one item on the Speciality section of the menu that did appeal to me, even though I usually avoid pasta I do like alligator so when I spied the Bayou Pasta with grilled alligator, tomatoes, trinity, artichoke hearts and asparagus in a jambalaya cream sauce, I was prepared to try it. The pasta was fettuccine. Served with garlic bread.

Bayou Pasta

I was sad to discover when my plate arrived, that there was no obvious sign of alligator steak. I had hoped to see a whole piece of meat sitting on a bed of pasta. The serving was huge, way more than I could eat. I searched and found about half a dozen tiny pieces of alligator, almost too small to really get the flavor.

I like alligator meat, specially if it is cooked well. I suspect this meat was cut into tiny pieces because chewing it would have been just that - chewing. It was very tough and tasteless.

The jambalaya cream sauce on the other hand was delicious. I enjoyed the artichoke hearts and some of the other vegetables (trinity for those who are not familiar with Cajun, is usually a mixture of onions, celery and bell pepper). There was so much food on my plate that I had barely made a dent in it when I was too full to eat any more. I did risk one taste of the garlic bread, which I really do like but unfortunately it was just the same as the lightly grilled French bread with margarine. I tasted absolutely no garlic from it, just margarine.  Happily the glass of cabernet was at room temperature and was very good.

Sheridan Shrimp

Both my mother in law and my husband enjoyed their selections, Sheridan Shrimp for Mildred and Shell Beach Platter for Larry. Both of their dishes contained battered and fried food, served with fries and cole slaw. They do like fried foods and I guess, because I don't do fried, they need to get their fix from time to time so we will return because I can find a salad from their menu that should work for me.


Though I do think some of the prices were slightly high, they were not outrageous. The most expensive dish was the Shell Beach Platter at $14.99.  The entire bill was under $60 which included a glass of wine and a bottle of beer.

Shell Beach Platter

One thing we did enjoy was reading the Vegetarian Menu, which had two salads, a Surf and a Turf salad, each listed the Vegetarian items, then the add-on items, which were Crawfish, Shrimp and Catfish for the Surf and Bacon, Chicken Breast and Bistro Medallions  for the Turf, which naturally immediately moved these salads from under the Vegetarian heading and into another section of the menu. I will try one of those next time, though I will probably stick to the strict Vegetarian item as I suspect the add ons will be fried.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

If you like mushrooms, which I do, you will like these.

3 Portobello Mushrooms
1 tomato finely chopped
1 tomatillo finely chopped
1 tablespoon of finely chopped sweet onion
1 teaspoon of finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon of finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon of mustard (I use Dijon)
salt & pepper
two tablespoons of grated cheese

ready for the oven

preheat oven to 425 degrees F
mix the chopped tomato, tomatillo, onion, parsley & cilantro with half the cheese
add the salt & pepper and mustard and mix well
remove the stalk from the mushrooms
fill with the mixed veggies
sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the mushrooms
Place mushrooms in a baking tin lined with foil
cook for 15 minutes

ready to eat

that's it!