Restaurants in New Orleans
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Café du Monde
Du Monde is overrated, but you're probably gonna go there, so here goes: the coffee is decent and the beignets (square, sugar-coated fritters) are inconsistent. The atmosphere is off-putting: you're a number forced through the wringer, trying to shout over Bob and Fran while they mispronounce 'jambalaya' and a street musician badly mangles John Lennon's 'Imagine.' At least it's open 24 hours.
reviewed
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B
Angeli on Decatur
Great philosophers have long debated one of the most pressing of human questions: what makes a late-night place great? We humbly submit: the food tastes as good sober as when you’re trashed at 3am. Enter Angeli: decked out with hipster art and patrons, the food here is wonderful no matter your state of mind/inebriation/whatever. It serves burger, pasta and pizza fare, but it’s top-of-the-line stuff, especially if you need to layer your tummy after a long night out. Early music sets by solid live acts are a good way to launch your evening, but bring cash – credit cards are not accepted. Good range of vegetarian dishes.
reviewed
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C
Café Maspero
Maspero's is another New Orleans restaurant that oozes atmosphere without trying very hard. Its smoky, brick arches make its street-level eating rooms feel underground. Its large menu touches all the bases of cheap local cuisine: fried catfish sandwiches, red beans and rice, cold Abita on tap delivered to your table by an alert waitstaff.
During peak tourist season out-of-towners are usually lined up on the sidewalk to get in, but during the slow season, many locals sneak back in to reclaim an old haunt. Cash only.
reviewed
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D
Port of Call
The Port of Call burger is, simply put, one of the best we’ve had, anywhere. The meat is unadulterated and, well, meaty, and the burger is enormous – a half pound that easily looks the size, and we mean this, of your face. There are a lot of other menu items, but we can’t get enough of that burger-y heaven, and neither can the locals, who willingly wait outside in long lines for a seat (no reservations).
reviewed
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E
Crescent City Brewhouse
A micro-brewery that produces passable pilsners and wheat beers. The menu features Louisiana standards, with a seafood emphasis: redfish, softshell crabs, crabcakes, steaks and burgers. There's often live music. It's a lively, upbeat place that can take care of an entire family's needs.
reviewed
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F
Dick & Jenny’s
You could easily accuse New Orleans of doing the contemporary Creole thing to death, but Dick and Jenny (a real couple) have breathed life into this overdone genre. Hidden away in what looks like grandma’s shack by the river is a warm dining room packed with artsy accents, laughing locals, families out for a good night and couples on romantic dates. The food is a good example of what can be done when a profound respect for local ingredients meets a talent that goes beyond craft into art; the last time we visited, a roasted duck seemed to melt off the plate onto a bed of pecan risotto. We wanted to sleep a happy nap right there and then, and that’s the essence of D&J’s –…
reviewed
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Café Adelaide
The Brennan family tribute to their endearingly eccentric aunt Adelaide is as funky as you like; try dining in the ‘Turtle Room, ’ where two shelled lovers dance a reptilian pas de deux on the wall. The motto here is the namesake’s own: ‘Eat, drink and carry on, ’ a philosophy realized by haute Creole cuisine cooked, apparently, by a pleasantly insane jester. Examples? Steak with brie mashed potatoes, a truffled crab-claw ‘cake’ and a brilliant take on biscuits and gravy, where the ‘biscuit’ is duck cracklin’ and confit, and the ‘gravy’ is foie gras mustard. It’s all as good as it sounds, and the attached Swizzle Stick is one of downtown’s better…
reviewed
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H
Muriel’s
Good food, sultry atmosphere and location, location, location make Muriel’s hard to pass up. You have your choice of settings: the main dining room evokes the lurid pomp of Storyville, with deep-red walls and chandeliers; in the eclectic bistro, 19th-century art hangs from exposed brick walls; the courtyard bar exemplifies traditional tropical decadence with potted palms and marble-topped cafe tables; while the balcony seating affords an elevated view of Jackson Sq’s motley krewe of musicians, magicians, painters and tarot readers. The kitchen tinkers with the Creole ethos enough to steer clear of stodginess without alienating the average patron. It’s also a good spot for…
reviewed
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I
Café Degas
A full-grown pecan tree thrusts through the floor and ceiling of the enclosed deck that serves as Café Degas’ congenial dining room. This is a rustic and romantic little spot that warms the heart with first-rate, very reasonably priced French fare. The casual atmosphere is accentuated by eccentric, exceedingly polite waiters. Meals that sound familiar on the menu – steak frites au poivre, parmesan-crusted veal medallions, seared duck breast with mushroom spaetzle – are arranged with extraordinary beauty on their plates. You might feel guilty for disturbing art like this, but it’s a crime for which you will be amply rewarded.
reviewed
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Café Amelie
We’ve waxed rhapsodic over the Quarter’s beautiful backyard gardens, but Amelie’s takes the cake. This may be the most romantic dining spot in the city, an alfresco restaurant that’s practically as cute as the movie of the same name, tucked behind an old carriage house and surrounded by high brick walls and lush shade trees. Fresh seafood and local produce are the basis of a modest, ever-changing menu. Lunch is lovely, when you can nibble sandwiches amid the green, but an evening dinner under starlight while feasting on shrimp and mushroom linguine is just as magic.
reviewed
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K
Praline Connection
If you’ve never had soul food before, the PC might blow you away, but connoisseurs of the genre may find this popular tour-group stop middling. The food is pretty good, in a mom’s-kitchen kind of way – standbys are of the meat loaf, fried chicken and fish topped with étouffée school of cooking – but this restaurant hovers in that frustrating space between ‘meh’ and ‘wow.’ The service is cool; besides being friendly, the waiters dress like the Blues Brothers, which we’re always down with.
reviewed
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L
Olivier’s
Olivier’s is run by an African American–Creole family that’s been in the restaurant business for five generations, passing down and refining recipes over the decades. That should make for some of the best Creole dining in town, but we’ve found the food can be hit or miss, although when it does hit, it’s great stuff. Go for the gumbo sampler to get an education in local cuisine before digging into specialties such as Creole rabbit, crab cakes and broiled catfish. Save room for bourbon-pecan pie.
reviewed
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Restaurant August
August’s converted 19th-century tobacco warehouse gets the nod for most aristocratic dining room in New Orleans. Candles flicker soft, warm shades over a meal that will, quite likely, blow your mind. Pied du cochon (stuffed pig trotters) with black truffles, pork belly stuffed with crawfish and blood oranges, and a 10-course, three-hour degustation (tasting) menu that local foodies weep over mean this book’s contents are actually more beautiful than its substantially attractive cover.
reviewed
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Slim Goodie’s Diner
This hip retro diner, all overlaid with some punk-rock sensibility, was among the first restaurants to reopen after Hurricane Katrina, so it deserves a hell of a lot of credit just for that substantial accomplishment. Burgers, shakes, all-American breakfasts and other short-order standards round out the menu; it’s good, if not exactly awe-inspiring stuff. Vegetarians are well treated here, thanks to the presence of items such as latkes and black-bean nachos on the menu.
reviewed
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Martinique Bistro
French cuisine with a squeeze of lime from the island of Martinique. In pleasant twilight, when the doors to the lush courtyard are flung open, the atmosphere at this converted cottage is both exotic and convivial. The cooking has an accomplished simplicity. Hawaiian sunfish glazed with a Tabasco beurre blanc, sesame-crusted salmon fillet drizzled with a cilantro-ginger-soy vinaigrette, curry Gulf shrimp – it all comes together perfectly. Make reservations.
reviewed
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P
Gumbo Shop
For an unabashed tourist trap, Gumbo Shop (a) does pretty good gumbo, and (b) gets a fair amount of respect from locals, although we’ve never seen a local inside here (unless they’re taking orders). The decor is actually quite lovely, all frescoed out with scenes of old New Orleans. We reckon the Shop, like most heavy-turnover food factories (for that is what this is), suffers from inconsistency in the food quality, though it’s never below mediocre.
reviewed
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Q
Liborio Cuban Restaurant
Cuban food is one of those gems of the American culinary scene that is often done better here than in the homeland (thanks, access to nonrationed ingredients). It’s exceedingly easy on the most timid palate: flavorful meat and pork, strong but not spicy, usually served with some variation on rice and beans or sweet plantains. Liborio is a solid performer in the genre; we’d opt for the cheaper sandwiches over the somewhat overpriced mains.
reviewed
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Herbsaint
This may cause a riot, but Herbsaint’s duck and andouille gumbo might be the best restaurant gumbo in town. The rest of the food ain’t too bad either – much modern bistro fare with dibs and dabs of Louisiana influence. Kurobuta pork belly comes with local white-bean sauce, while frog-legs hop off the pan (sorry, couldn’t resist) with a fine herb dusting. Reservations are a good idea if you’re coming for dinner.
reviewed
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Huey's 24/7 Diner
For top-notch breakfast chow anytime of day or night, Huey's your place. It's a tad fancier than a traditional diner, with a huge menu to match. If you aren't up for gut-busting omelette platters, you can drop in for a thick burger or a sandwich. Huey's strays from the concept by including a full bar that never closes, so if you came here to sober up, you can always decide to get drunk again. Not a bad deal.
reviewed
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Clover Grill
Gay greasy spoon? Yup. It's all slightly surreal, given this place otherwise totally resembles a '50s diner, but nothing adds to the Americana like a prima-donna-style argument between an out-of-makeup drag queen and a drunk club kid, all likely set to blaring disco music.
reviewed
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Camellia Grill
The other great thing about this spot, besides its excellent diner burger-chili-Reuben fare, is it’s the sort of place where the black staff look like 50 Cent, the white staff look like the Ramones and they all call each other – and you – ‘baby.’ All the time. Plus, they dress in tux shirts and black bow ties, as if this place couldn’t be any wonderfully weirder.
reviewed
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Mother’s
Despite what you may hear, Mother’s isn’t the best po’boy around, but it did invent the debris po’boy (‘debris’ being the bits of roast beef that fall into the gravy and get all soft and lovely) and serves the justifiably famous Ferdi Special, loaded up with ham, roast beef and debris. Breakfast is brilliantly done and served in ponderously enormous portions.
reviewed
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W
Johnny’s Po-Boys
We don’t generally like to grab our po’boys in the tourist-y Quarter, but we make an exception for Johnny’s. A local favorite since 1950, it’s the only traditional po’boy joint around, all checkered tablecloths, hustle, bustle and good food served by good folks. Breakfast here is simple and delicious.
reviewed
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Domilise's Po-Boys
A dilapidated white shack by the river serving Dixie beer (brewed in Wisconsin!), staffed by folks who've worked here for decades and dressing one of the most legendary po' boys (trad-itional Louisiana submarine sandwich) in the city. It's cash only and prepare to hurry up and wait on weekends.
reviewed
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Y
CC’s Coffee House
Community Coffee has been a staple in most Louisiana homes since 1919. This corner cafe is its French Quarter outpost, and it’s a good spot for perching, caffeine sipping, net surfing and the rest. Its very sweet ice-coffee blends are a treat on hot days.
reviewed