Recommendations for New Orleans restaurants

Someone wrote:

> I am looking for recommendations to great restaurants in New Orleans.
> I will be there right after New Year's.
>
> Suggestions to expensive and inexpensive restaurants are welcome.
>
> George

Ok, here it goes:

Expensive:      Commander's Palace -- IMHO, pass on it.  Crowded at holiday
                time, and there are enough other places. (Washington and
                Prytania Uptown.)

                Antoine's -- My favorite classic New Orleans resturant.  The
                menu is in French, but the food is New Orleans French-Creole.
                Steaks and Pompano are the popular dishes, but my favorite
                entree is Chicken Rochambeau.  Baked Alaska a must if you're
                going with a party of 6 or more, but it has to be ordered in
                advance.  (St. Louis Street in the French Quarter).

                Galatoire's -- Right on Bourbon Street, but no reservations or
                credit cards taken.  You wait in line and pay cash, but the
                food is great.  The crab dishes are the best here.

                Brennan's -- If Antoine's is too crowded, good second choice.
                (Royal Street, around the corner from Antoine's.)

                Emeril's -- Emeril Lagasse's (former executive chef at
                Commander's) place.  Nouvelle-type cuisine, very ecletic.  Good
                fresh desserts, grilled seafood.  (800 Tchopitoulas in the
                Warehouse District.)

Less
Expensive:      Bruning's or Fitzgerald's at West End on Lake Pontchatrain.
                Both of these are good for fried seafood.

                Tujague's  -- One of the oldest in town, good classic New
                Orleans cooking, not as expensive as the 'expensive' places.
                Table d'hote menu, they always have a filet.  Good coffee.
                (Decatur St. one block down from Jackson Square.)

                Liuzza's -- Good neighborhood resturant.  Pizza, Italian
                dishes, draft beer and root beer served in 20 oz frozen mugs.
                Great onion rings.  (Bienville St. in Mid-City).

                Mandina's -- Another Mid-City neighborhood resturant.  Italian
                dishes are the best.  Good New Orleans cooking. (Canal St. in
                Mid-City.)

                Copeland's -- Owned by and named for Popeye's Fried Chicken
                king Al Copeland.  Good, spicy Creole and Cajun dishes.  If the
                expensive resturants are out of your reach, Copeland's is a
                little easier on the wallet.  Not in the class of an Antoine's
                but still good food.  (St. Charles Avenue uptown)

                Dooky Chase's -- Good 'soul food,' although that isn't really
                fair, since it's sort of a cliche.  Located next to a housing
                project, and has predominantly black clientele, so if that
                bothers you, pass it up.  (This isn't meant to be a racial
                slur but a fact of life.  I wish I had a quarter for the
                number of times people have had Dooky's recommended, only to
                hear them blast the place because of its owners and location.)
                (2301 Orleans Ave.)

Lunch, Pizza
Burgers:        Mama Rosa's -- One of the best pizza places in town, and my
                favorite.  Pizza by the slice, whole, sandwiches and Italian
                entrees.  (616 N. Rampart)

                Mother's -- Arguably the best po-boy place in town, and one
                of my top two.  (The other is Parasol's on Constance and Third,
                but you stand a better chance of finding Mother's.)  Best
                ham po-boy in town, great roast beef.  (Poydras Street across
                from the Lykes building.)

                Port O'Call and Snug Harbor -- my favorite 1/2 pound burger
                places.  These two places owned by the same people, so the
                food is essentially the same.  Burger and baked potato are
                classics.  Snug Harbor is also a very popular jazz club,
                so if you're into jazz, it makes a good night out.

This is a resturant town, so there's tons more I could suggest.  I've limited this list to my favorite places mostly in and around downtown and the French Quarter.  There are lots of ethnic resturants, good Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, etc., so let me know if that interests you also.

I'd strongly recommend that you pick up a copy of GAMBIT, a weekly newspaper that comes out on Mondays.  It has the best entertainment listings in town for live music, plus a pretty extensive resturant listing each week.  I don't know if you can get New Orleans Magazine before your trip, but this is also a good resource for food places.

Hope this helps...

|Edward J. Branley                               [email removed]|
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Frank G. wrote:
>Edward B. wrote:
>
>>
>>Someone wrote:

>>> I am looking for recommendations to great restaurants in New Orleans.
>>> I will be there right after New Year's.

>>Expensive:      Commander's Palace -- IMHO, pass on it.  Crowded at holiday
>>                time, and there are enough other places. (Washington and
>>                Prytania Uptown.)
>Don't pass on it!   Go for lunch.  Lunch at expensive places often costs
>less than dinner; you get the same great food, just in slightly smaller
>portions.  I was there at Christmas 2 years ago, and the lunch-time
>crowd was not any larger than at any other good restaurant, holiday
>season notwithstanding.

Agreed.  It routinely gets listed as one of America's 10 best; make a res. if you fear crowds.  Lunch is not very expensive.

The same family owns Brennan's, Mr. B's Bistro (which I like very much) and a new jointhat's supposed to be fairly inexpensive.

Get a Zagat or other guide.  Why fool around in a paradise like NO?

Oh, and go for oysters and a Dixie beer at Felix's or the Acme, across the street from one another on Iberville.

For fried seafood, we liked Deanie's in the suburban area known as Bucktown.

Roger

Someone wrote:
>I am looking for recommendations to great restaurants in New Orleans.
>I will be there right after New Year's.
>
>Suggestions to expensive and inexpensive restaurants are welcome.
>
>George

I just posted this not two weeks ago, so apologies to the regulars on this group for having to look at this again, but for the benefit of the requester, here is my summary of the responses I got when I asked this question back in
October:

OK, here is my summary of restuarants in New Orleans.  I realize that this is about a month late, and for that I apologize, but I had so much information to digest that the task became quite daunting. I wanted to do the job right, not something quick and dirty like appending all the responses into one long "summary." Incidentally, I *have* done this, and I have decided to make it available upon request for those of you who wish to see the data in raw form. Just send me a request via e-mail.  I am prevailing upon the good will of those who responded to make their mail public, which I am assuming is OK because I let everyone know beforehand that I was going to summarize.  Anyway, if any of you have an objection to having your e-mail made available to all who ask, let me know and I'll delete your contribution.

Anyway, enough of this fooforaw.  Let's get to it.  To begin, here is a list of folks who were participated.  Some went to extraordinary length providing detailed lists and comments, broken down by expense catagory (cheap, moderate, expensive) and I was quite frankly amazed (and gratified) at the effort they put into it.  Anyway, here they are, in alphabetical order:

            DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

[email removed] (GILMER, TONY)
[email removed] (Christine Spuhler)
[email removed](Dave Coder)
[email removed] (David Emery)
[email removed] (Dan Halbert)
[email removed] (Sandi Piazza)
jmr40@@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Johanna M Reynolds)
[email removed] (Kay Y. Leong)
[email removed]
[email removed] (Michael A Pilla)
[email removed] (Mac Price)
[email removed] (Roger Lustig)
[email removed] (Sharon Flanagan 31870)
[email removed] (Mark Slagle)
[email removed] (Carolyn Todd.)
[email removed] (Bruce Wald)

Here are the recommendations.  First, here are those that received more than one favorable review, plus my summary of the comments I received. The ones preceded with an asterisk are those that appear, in my highly subjective opinion, to be worth trying when I get to New Orleans.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acme Oyster Bar(4) - Good, reasonably priced seafood on Iberville Street in
                     the French Quarter.  Not much atmosphere.

The Bon Ton (2)    - Perhaps a little on the expensive side.  Good service.
                     Reservations required for dinner.

*Brigtsen's. (3)   - Those who mentioned Brigtsen's absolutely raved about it.
                     "Best meal I ever had," etc.  Don't know about prices.
                     One person mentioned they have a jacket-and-tie dress
                     code.

Central Grocery (2) - Somebody sent me a list that he had compiled about New
                      Orleans restaurants and C. Grocery was mentioned 5
                      times.  I figure it must be worth checking out.

*Commander's Palace (10) - This sounds like THE premier restaurant in all of
                          New Orleans: Great service, great food, and come
                          prepared to spend large amounts of money.
                          Jacket-and-tie dress code.  Located in the Garden
                          District.  Hard as hell to get into for dinner. More
                          than one person mentioned that they have a nice
                          Sunday brunch also.

*Copelands  (3) - More good, cheap food, located on St. Charles Avenue.  Highly
                  recommended.

*Dooky Chase  - This one was only mentioned once, but this is a soul food
               restaurant that might be an interesting change of pace after
               Creole and Cajun. Located in perhaps not the best neighborhood
               (Orleans Street north of the French Quarter).  Supposedly has a
               great art collection on the walls.

Galatoire's (3) - Supposedly the only "tourist trap" worth going to.
                  Excellent Cajun food at exhorbitant prices.  No reservations
                  accepted, so get there early.

*K_Pauls (5) - another "tourist trap" that may be worth going to.  No
              reservations accepted.  Very expensive, but worth it.

*Mosca's  - Only got one mention, but I'd like to try it.  I know some
           relatives of the owners.  The cuisine served is called
           "Creole-Italian" which I would be very interested in sampling.

*Mother's (3) - a good place for breakfast and lunch, moderately priced.
               Great po' boys and fried seafood.

*Mr. B's Bistro (3) - Highly recommended by all.  In the French Quarter.
                     Moderately priced.  Some folks can't stop raving about
                     it.

Napoleon House (2) - An old dark bar.  Great sandwiches.  Also gumbo and
                     jambalaya

Olde N'Awlins Cookery (3) - Good.  Expensive.  Chef trained under Paul
                            Prudhomme.

Royal Cafe (2) - Cheap breakfasts, expensive dinners.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the restaurants that received one favorable recommendation apiece:

Antoines
Arnaud's
Cafe DuMonde
Cafe Vieux Carre
Cammelia Grill
Carribean Room
Casamento's
Coffee Pot
Coop's
Court of the Two Sisters.
Crescent City Brewhouse
Dante's
Eddies
Felix's
Globe
Gumbo Shop
La Madaleine
La Marquise
La Provence
Mama Rosa's
Miss Ruby's
Molly's
Morning Call Coffee Stand
Old Coffee House
Patout's
Petunias
Que Sera
Ralph and Cacoo's
Ruby Red's
Snug Harbor
Tipitina's
Uglesich's
Visko's

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And finally, here are the New Orleans restaurants that received negative reviews.  Please note that I did not read a single "bad food" review on any of these.  The main reasons were that they were either "over-rated", "over- priced" or "a tourist trap."  In other words, not a good value for money spent.  Also note that some of these got good reviews as well:

Antione's
Brennan's
Court Of 2 Sisters
Galatoire's
K_Paul's
Le Brasseriele
Olde Nawlins Cookery
Original Joe's
The Pearl

I will be in New Orleans the first part of December for about 12 days.  I intend to note exactly where I eat and what quality the food is.   When I get back, I will try to remember to write up a review for each place and get it to the net, perhaps around the first of the year, or maybe before, if I feel particularly industrious.  Until then.

-kevin
[email removed]

PS - Again, let me say that I have all the responses I have received on the matter appended into one big file (about 50K).  If any are interested in seeing it, send me your e-mail address and I'll see to it you get a copy. Also, if anyone could recommend an anonymous ftp site that would be good to post it to, I would upload it there, as well.

Thank you all for your indulgence.