"This Friday past, my wife and I met two other couples at Restaurant Cote for 5:30 reservations. It is located in Old Town Slidell, Louisiana in an area with a few other restaurants and bars. We saw that Happy Hour at The Maple Room Bar, which adjoins the restaurant, went from 12 to 6 and decided to get there early. With traffic, we got there at 5 and found the first couple having a rum drink and a beer. We had two glasses of the house Cabernet Sauvignon which were pretty good. The bar had a medium dark wood theme with about 25 or so people in several groups with some having bar food and some just drinking at that time. The third couple came in at 5:30 and we went into Restaurant Cote. They had the same wood theme as the bar with bare wooden tables but, in pictures, there were white tablecloths although it was still early. Our waiter, Billy, brought us menus and another round of drinks. I looked at the online menu the day before and it looked like a nice mix of New Orleans style seafood, sandwiches and burgers and was advertised as upscale which you could infer from the descriptions which did not describe plain ordinary dishes. I found two duck entrees which were not on the online menu. The first one was Old Time Duck but Billy recommended the second which I ordered. He told me it came medium rare and asked if that was ok. I told him that was how I liked it. Three of the others got the fried shrimp basket and the last guy ordered the Sportsman's Plate. It came with a small mixed salad that I ordered with creamy Italian dressing. It was good. My duck came out with a crayfish sauce over one of the best cooked ducks I have had in a long time.It was pink in the center three fourths with crispy skin and the fat underneath cooked to a gel like consistency. Not raw and not burned. The duck breast was sliced in about quarter inch slices. The sauce was excellent and contained crayfish and other pieces that I could not identify. There were also roasted Brussels sprouts cut in half that were also excellent. It is a good thing they gave us hot square rolls with butter or i would have licked the plate. My wife usually eats half the entree and brings the rest home but this time she almost ate all of the shrimp. She asked me if I wanted the rest and I did. I thought they were butterflied but they were just big. And Good. they were fried with a chunky batter with the tails on over a piece of fries bread. My friend's Sportsman's plate looked good and had several different things on it but was not a seafood platter. I didn't ask him how he liked it but it was all gone. His wife was the only one who brought something home but she always does. The service was great. Billy was attentive but not overbearing and the courses came out in good time. I thought the two entrees I tasted were unique and would recommend anyone try this place. With a six hour happy hour next door, try to get there a little early and keep the traffic in mind around rush hour."
