Oysters three ways: Hurricane Bays on the half shell, Baked Bluepoints with Andouille and panko crust and crisp-fried Maryland. Braised lamb shank: with goat cheese grits, sauteed wild mushrooms and rosemary demi-glace. The beer: Louisiana-brewed Turbodog.

There was nothing on Shango’s menu I wouldn’t have loved to eat, and it was heartbreaking to have to make a choice. Pan-fried lump crabcakes ($8 appetizer), a fried oyster po-boy ($12), blackened ahi tuna steak ($19), “mac and cheese” penne with smoked gouda and goat cheese ($16)—everything sounded so good we just wanted to sit and savor the menu for a minute.

So, to drown the pain of choosing, my guest ordered an Abita Turbodog ($4)—Abita being a Louisiana brewery—and I had a glass of the current shiraz selection, an Australian wine adorably called “Woop Woop” ($7/glass), which had, as promised, a delightful hint of sweetness under the dark top notes. Our friendly and attentive waitress revealed that they had regular seminars for the staff on everything they served, so that she could comment intelligently on the various features of each selection, and could settle our bet as to the correct pronunciation of one of the selections on the dessert wines menu. Bouteille Call is indeed pronounced just as you’d think it might be.

But, the food: on to the food. It was time to make a choice. We started off with a cup of the “award-winning chicken and sausage gumbo” ($4) for me, which was piping hot, medium-spicy, delectably smoky and superlative, and for my guest a salad ($8) of sublime sauteed wild mushrooms, baby spinach, a warm Andouille sausage dressing and a delicious hint of truffle oil. We devoured these offerings despite our knowledge that dinner was yet to come, because they were too delicious to resist.

We also ordered that night’s appetizer special, which was Oysters Three Ways—three raw, three baked Maryland oysters with an andouille and panko-crumb stuffing, and a little cup of battered and fried oysters. The cocktail sauce was exceptionally zingy—Jim Guarino, Shango’s owner/executive chef, explained that it had chipotle in it, for a unique touch. He also mentioned that even something so seemingly simple as fried oysters was prepared with a particular attention to detail: Over a year ago he switched to a non-trans-fat frying oil out of his long-held belief that it is better to “charge a little more and give a better product” than to focus on keeping your prices low and give a mediocre product. He makes everything from scratch, according to this philosophy, and it shows. There was nothing mediocre here: Even the cornbread served along with the appetizers was homemade, light and fluffy and just a little crunchy on top, and the plain old raw oysters were sublime, delicately flavored and as fresh as you could wish.

The menu’s entrees varied in price from $10 for a portabella and garlic spinach po-boy, up to $22 for that night’s special, a braised lamb shank with goat-cheese grits. My guest is a big fan of lamb, so he had to try the special. It did not disappoint: The meat was so tender it melted in the mouth, and the flavors of lamb and goat cheese complimented one another perfectly. There was a bed of sauteed wild mushrooms similar to the ones from the salad, earlier: delectable, dark-flavored, and just superb. “It’s a good time of year for braising,” Guarino said cheerfully, of the lamb special. He likes to rotate specials, not only with the seasons but also to keep the staff on their toes, which seems to have worked well: He reveals that he has a very low turn-over, and the staff worked together with a happy seamlessness.

“We’ve been in this location for, wow, going on 13 years,” says Guarino. They spent a decade as the Coffee Bean Cafe, and gradually switched over to the New Orleans-style bistro they are now. He loves the University Heights neighborhood and, while the street construction has been something of a hassle now and then, is enthused at the results. He has striven hard for the casual, non-trendy atmosphere that allows people “all dressed-up en route to a show” to sit at the next table over from “college kids in jeans grabbing a couple of po-boys”: the emphasis is on the food, not the hoity-toity fine dining. Everyone should be comfortable here, and everyone is, because it’s all about the food.

Guarino likes to work with local vendors as well to get the best in what the area has to offer—they’d just had a tea seminar with Trudy from Tru-Teas on Elmwood, for example, so that the staff could knowledgeably serve her exquisite teas, and they get their coffees from Premier.

Now, I could not leave a New Orleans-style restaurant without trying a blackened catfish po-boy ($12). The po-boys here come with these perfect chewy-crispy sweet potato fries drizzled with honey, and even though I was full to bursting by now I could not stop eating them. The po-boy itself was delicious—the catfish light and flaky, just spicy enough without overwhelming the other flavors; the bread toothsome and delicious. Even the coleslaw served alongside was anything but run-of-the-mill: It was “Creole mustard slaw,” finely shredded and tangy like nothing I’d ever had.

By now we were about ready to order a wheelbarrow with snow tires to get us out of there, but the waitress mentioned that the bananas Foster was not to be missed, and she was right. We split one, and it was huge and sublime—delicate vanilla ice cream in a frosted bowl topped with warm caramel-rum-sauteed bananas with real whipped cream over the top. We couldn’t possibly eat it all, but we made a valiant attempt. The other dessert offerings sounded equally tempting—bread pudding, pecan pie, “one perfect cheese”—as did their selection of dessert wines and port. I think the only solution is to come back another night to catch up on all the things we didn’t have room for. Mmm, maybe another couple of nights.