Abbeville is known for great food especially seafood.

This small town has some of the best seafood restaurants in Louisiana.

But over the years I have recently learned that this town has some of the best buffets in Acadiana that have some unexpected surprises.

I just completed a three-month investigative reporting assignment on eating at cheap buffets. It was a tough assignment. I want to share with you what I learned.

Everyone knows where to find great seafood in this town, and we all know where to find good Mexican and Chinese food. But the one thing I never thought I would find is good seafood on Mexican and Chinese buffets.

One thing I found was that these buffets have good shrimp on them.

There are two Chinese buffets in this town that have decent tasting boiled shrimp for less than $8. It is all the shrimp you can eat. The shrimp size is medium.

Not hungry for boiled shrimp, how about fried shrimp? The two Chinese buffets have decent tasting fried shrimp for under $7.

They also have broiled fish, fried fish, and grilled shrimp. One Chinese buffet has fried frog legs on its buffet.

During crawfish season, there is even boiled crawfish on the buffets.

Whoever would have thought that for under $8, a person can walk into a restaurant, eat all of the frog legs, shrimp, crawfish and fish you want?

What surprised me was when I went to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Abbeville and there were fried shrimp and boiled crawfish on the buffet. The shrimp were big and tasted good, while the crawfish were decent. I ate more seafood than I did Mexican.

Which brings up the issue of should seafood be allowed on foreign buffets?

I came to the conclusion that people want them on their Chinese and Mexican buffets.

Maybe there should be a new restaurant rule created in the parish that states only crawfish restaurants should only be able to sell boiled crawfish and Chinese restaurants sell Chinese food and not American seafood.

I do not think we have to worry about that ordinance ever getting passed by the Police Jury or the Abbeville City Council.

In conclusion, the Mexican and Chinese restaurants discovered the best way to get people into their places is to supply good, cheap food and then throw in some fried, boiled or grilled seafood.

Cheap and good is a winning formula in Abbeville.