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Plate lunches are a common meal option for folks in Acadiana, and Broussard is the best city to get them (at least we think so). While we know many of them to include some Cajun staples, according to Lafayette Travel, the plate lunch actually originated in Hawaii. Served there was a piece of meat with a couple of sides, usually macaroni salad and white rice. Sound familiar?

South Louisiana’s plate lunches are cut from the same cloth. A main dish with two or three sides, sometimes dessert, will make up the meal. This works well for restaurants because they can cook large quantities of a few items and can serve them quickly. For weekday customers, it takes some guesswork out of deciding what to eat for lunch, it’s inexpensive, it’s fast, and it’s filling enough to get you through the rest of the workday.

Broussard is home to the plate lunches that people remember long after eating it. Grab a meatball stew plate from Ton’s Drive-In, where Lafayette Parish’s first drive-thru window was opened. Mrs. Lilly Mae Norbert of Norbert’s Restaurant was featured in Atlanta Magazine in March 2021 because her homestyle cooking was so good that even a dirty bird (WHO DAT) had to admit it. BJ’s Poorboy and Plate Lunches offers up some of the best poorboys, or po-boys, around and meals like catfish courtbouillon or round steak with rice and gravy. Enjoy a crawfish etouffee plate outside under old oak trees at Shade Tree Café. There are more than a dozen plate lunch spots in Broussard, and many of them serve barbecue on the weekends, too.

When it’s time to determine “what sounds good” for lunch, visit restaurants’ websites, social media pages, or give them a call to see what’s cooking today!