Down home at the Ragin’ Cajun Cafe,...

Down home at the Ragin’ Cajun Cafe, three cooks from Louisiana are dishing out the genuine hospitality and spicy fare of the South. For a taste of the bayou on the beach, it’s a sure thing.

The restaurant looks like another tiled-floored pizza joint among the smattering of shops that carry you up Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach. But the smell of cooking gumbo will draw y’all in.

And once seated, it’s all charm.

The menus are scrawled on the backs of brown paper grocery bags and the utensils are gathered on the tables in clay flower pots. As you eat, the cook bangs his metal spatula against the grill in time with the Cajun music playing overhead.

Stephen Domingue, who opened the place seven months ago with Charlotte Long, a fellow native of Lafayette, La., seems like a man who truly enjoys feeding people.

“Is this your first time here?” Domingue greets his guests, forever casual in a baseball hat and jeans. “I’ll bring y’all a taste.”

Domingue and Long, along with Louisiana cook Mike Borel, use Mama Domingue’s recipes for dishes ranging from crawfish etouffee to jambalaya. And every spice is a secret. Red cayenne pepper is the only one they’ll reveal.

“A lot of people think Cajun food is highly spicy,” Domingue said. “But it’s not.”

Indeed, the food has a pleasant zing to it but not enough to set your mouth on fire. The entrees cost less than $10 and come in hearty portions.

Ragin’ Cajun serves an outstanding stuffed snapper. The tender fish and the stuffing, a creamy shrimp, crab and rice mixture, melts in your mouth.

A delectable catfish is among the fare served as “Catch of the Bayou.”

And Long’s bread pudding, chock full of pineapples and raisins and covered in a rum sauce, is worth saving room for.

Ragin’ Cajun Cafe, 422 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach, Lunch--Tuesday t o Friday , 11 a.m. to 2 p.m ., Dinner--6 p.m. ; Saturday and Sunday, Dinner only 6 p.m. Closed Mondays. (310) 376-7878.