Long Island Restaurants

Big Daddy's

The fare at Big Daddy's in Massapequa Park dances nimbly on the fine line that divides pain from pleasure. It is a kind of freewheeling Cajun and southern cuisine that, even at its most fiery, is always tempered by an underlying sweetness.

It matters not that the restaurant is under new ownership. Chef Vincent Barbuto, who had cooked at Big Daddy's under the restaurant's original owners, is now in charge of the kitchen. He's as good as he's ever been. On weekends, folks wait inordinate lengths of time for a table, knocking back hurricanes at the bar to the beat of blues tunes from the jukebox. The joint is wonderfully tacky, filled with Mardi Gras trinkets and 1950s memorabilia. You'll do best to go early-and hungry. Leave your diet at home.

The list of dishes, posted on a blackboard and described by your server, changes daily. Start with the featured gumbo, a robust and hearty potage.Jalapeno pie is a fragile Cheddar-enhanced custard laced with bits of spicy jalapeno pepper. Barbecue 'gator and andouille features bits of alligator meat and andouille sausage in a spicy barbecue sauce ladled over a big country biscuit.

Try the zig-zag blackened catfish, two enormous spice-blackened fillets topped with mild roast pecan and honey butter, nestled beside a pillow of mashed sweet potatoes. Nappy Brown's pan-fried chicken stars batter-fried boneless cutlets in a Cajun-Italian Bolognese sauce spiked with andouille sausage and chipotle chile peppers.To purists, a good steak almost never needs fancying-up, but the kitchen here doesn't use rule books. Good thing. The Texarkana blackened steak, a 16-ounce boneless rib-eye in a sweet and sour jalapeno barbecue sauce, is nothing short of delicious, accompanied by a mountain of dynamite sweet potato fries. Blackened steak diablo features a dark brown jalapeno gravy, equally delectable.

Desserts, while house-made, are diminished by the use of aerosol whipped cream. Best is a chocolate chip banana bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

You will leave bearing leftovers, and they will see you through the better part of a week.

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Wheelchair Access