There are many ways to judge the area’s Cajun seafood restaurants.

If you’re gauging by chicken and sausage gumbo, The Boiling Point is a pretty good choice for a place to eat a meal.

When I lived and worked in Sulphur, the Beglis Parkway restaurant was in my regular rotation of restaurants I frequented.

Since I neither work nor live in Sulphur anymore, when I visited the restaurant with friends on a recent evening, it was the first time I had been in quite a while.

The crowd was sparse but a quick taste of the gumbo quickly reminded me of how good the food is.

I only got a cup of the gumbo, but it was delicious, albeit on the spicy side (that’s not a bad thing, just fair warning for those with sensitive palates).

As a main course I got crawfish etouffee, while my buddy Steve got a bowl of gumbo.

We both found our meals to be delicious, although both were spicy enough that we downed our drinks and had to take a break from our meals while waiting for the waitress to refill our glasses. (What’s a warning for some is probably an invite to those who believe that Cajun food should be spicy. I fall in the latter.)

Steve also ordered two crawfish pistolettes while his wife, Annette, ordered boiled crawfish.

We gave everything ringing endorsements.

Located a mile north of Interstate 10, The Boiling Point offers a daily lunch buffet and a seafood buffet on Fridays and Saturdays.

The daily buffet changes from day to day, while the seafood buffet offers fried shrimp, fried crabs, stuffed crabs, catfish, catfish bites and usually a gumbo or a stew.

The daily lunch buffet is $8.35, increasing to $9.95 on Fridays, when seafood is brought out. The cost Friday and Saturday evenings is $18.95.

The regular menu features the full range of Cajun food, as well as steaks.

There are also some interesting items on the menu, which I didn’t try, but by their description deserve mention: Texas Toothpicks (strips of jalapeno and onion), Angels on a Wing (fried bacon-wrapped oysters), Angels on Horseback (fried bacon-wrapped shrimp) and hot tamales.

Prices range from the $5 range for a small gumbo, hamburgers, sandwiches and salads to the $17-$20 range for some of the more expensive seafood plates and steaks.

It may have been a while since I’ve been to The Boiling Point, but I’ve already got the menu item chosen for my return: John’s Catfish Divine, which is grilled and topped with crawfish.

Online: www.theboilingpoint.net.

A platter of boiled crawfish. (Johnathan Manning / American Press)

A platter of boiled crawfish. (Johnathan Manning / American Press)