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. And the number in parentheses following the name of each restaurant is the number of recommendations each one received.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.New Orleans, LA