We were last at Clancy’s in 2021 and before that in 2017, if you want to compare, but know it remains a favorite spot of ours.  On this trip we had to sit in the room behind the bar probably due to all the holiday reservations.  We always ask for the downstairs main dining room, but everybody can’t sit there.  It was fine for a change.  The room had a window to the bar where you could watch some folks eating but mostly drinking.  This room was much smaller too, so the noise level was better.  In the evening they have a handwritten menu that has some standards but also a few daily options.  I haven’t had anything bad there but their seafood is a star.  They make good drinks too and have excellent service.  It’s on the “old-school” side of things, so expect dressed-up people, but more importantly expect fresh, excellent seafood.  After our heavy lunch, we decided to skip appetizers but if you want one, the fried eggplant is good.

Set -Up

 

Food

After ordering they brought some warm New Orleans-style bread and butter to your table.  It makes a mess with the crust flying everywhere but it is so good.  We enjoyed an excellent martini with it.

 

Clancy’s Jumbo Lump Crabmeat Salad came with a Mandeville sour cream and horseradish dressing.  The giant pile of crab meat was on top of lettuce, radish, carrots, hearts of palm, tomatoes and a deviled egg.  They rotate the dressing on this salad and this one was great.  It was filled with lots of lovely ingredients but mostly it was about all that sweet crabmeat.  It’s big but wonderful.

 

Fried rabbit livers came with a rice-grit cake and a Worcestershire bordelaise sauce.  If you like chicken livers you’d like this one.  They were lightly battered and fried, leaving the livers creamy inside.  They were wonderful, but I do like liver.  I don’t remember and didn’t write down anything about the other parts, just that the liver was lovely with the sauce and coating.

 

Tonight the Fried Gulf Fish with jumbo lump crab and meuniere sauce featured drum fish.  It came with haricot verte, Brabant potatoes and cauliflower.  The potatoes are a regular style in New Orleans where the diced potatoes are blanched and then fried in butter sauce.  These were larger dice than I’ve had and didn’t get the great crispy edge I expected but they had a nice flavor.  The fish was perfectly prepared and excellent mixed with the butter sauce and exquisite crab meat.  It was an excellent plate.

 

Daily Seafood special was sautéed speckled trout with shrimp, crab and Mirliton dressing in a beurre blanc sauce with cauliflower.  It was another excellent plate according to my husband and I affirm from the bite I had.

 

Bananas Foster bread pudding came with Bananas Foster ice cream and Bananas Foster rum caramel sauce.  The pudding was not as moist as some I’ve had but the sauce and ice cream way made up for it.  Delicious and sweet.

 

Coconut cream pie was dusted with toasted coconut on a graham cracker crust.  It was nice but the bread pudding smoked it.