Cajun Boys & Our Poboys

Cajun Boys & Our Poboys sits along Highway 52 West in Pelham, Alabama, in a stand-alone building set back a bit from the road near the railroad tracks. The restaurant was opened by the Donovan family, natives of New Orleans who relocated to Alabama more than twenty years ago and eventually decided to bring a taste of home to Shelby County.

According to the restaurant, the goal was straightforward: share the flavors, traditions, and hospitality of the Louisiana bayou with the local community. The recipes draw on family traditions and Gulf Coast cooking the Donovans grew up with, and what started as an idea to recreate the food of home has grown into a neighborhood gathering spot for po’boys, gumbo, and fried seafood.

The menu opens with a long list of appetizers built for sharing, including a Cajun Trio, fried alligator bites, boudin balls, fried crab claws, and grilled shrimp, alongside comfort-leaning options like loaded cheese fries and fried green tomatoes. The New Orleans Favorites section covers the restaurant’s gumbos, among them Grandma Donovan’s Seafood Gumbo and a Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo, plus red beans and rice and jambalaya.

Po’boys are the centerpiece of the menu, served on French bread and available loaded with fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried catfish, hot roast beef, alligator sausage, or a straightforward hamburger version for anyone not in a seafood mood. The kitchen also runs seafood and fish baskets, tacos built around shrimp, catfish, or chicken, and a range of Cajun wings in multiple sizes and sauces.

Sides round out the plates with fries, hushpuppies, coleslaw, and a handful of specialty items, and a kids menu covers chicken fingers, corn dogs, fish baskets, and smaller po’boys for younger diners. Dessert stays close to Louisiana tradition too, with beignets and bread pudding closing out the meal for anyone who saves room.

The restaurant is open every day of the week, with slightly later closing times on Friday and Saturday nights. Reviewers who have made the trip out to the Highway 52 location tend to describe generous portions and advise going hungry, since the plates and combo baskets are built to be shared or to leave with a box of leftovers.

For a Shelby County dining scene where Cajun and Louisiana-style seafood are not exactly common, Cajun Boys & Our Poboys fills a specific niche in Pelham. The family ownership shows up in small touches, from the gumbo named after a grandmother’s recipe to the framed nods toward New Orleans scattered through the dining room, and the restaurant has positioned itself as a bridge between the Donovan family’s Louisiana roots and their adopted home in Alabama.

The building itself is modest, with counter ordering and a laid-back dining room that leans into its New Orleans theme rather than trying to be anything fancier than it is. Sweet tea, soft drinks, and a small selection of smoothies round out the beverage list, and the restaurant handles takeout and delivery in addition to dine-in seating for anyone who wants Cajun food without leaving the house.

Prices land in the moderate range for the area, with appetizers mostly between eleven and twenty-nine dollars depending on portion size, po’boys in the high teens, and gumbo cups and bowls starting under ten dollars. That pricing, combined with the size of the portions, has made it a regular stop for Pelham families looking for something outside the usual rotation of burger and pizza chains along the Highway 52 and Highway 31 corridors.

Because the restaurant is genuinely family run rather than franchised, the menu shifts a little over time as the Donovans introduce specials or adjust recipes, so regulars sometimes find a new appetizer or a seasonal seafood boil option added to the usual lineup. That kind of flexibility is one of the clearer signs that Cajun Boys & Our Poboys operates as an independent kitchen rather than a chain following a fixed corporate menu.