Thursday, October 21, 2021

 New Orleans Food Reviews

 A Tavola - 3/27/2022

$$$ (But 1/2 off pizza happy hour!)

Best bellinis, best bruschetta (with burrata!) Love sitting at the bar. This place is definitely a little extra. Really good Italian. Super-cheap flatbread pizza during Happy Hour.

Antoine's - 8/18/22 

$$$

Excellent dining experience! Definitely not living off its reputation. The service couldn't have been better if they knelt down and tied our shoes. Lovely classic New Orleans food, though a little hit-or-miss on being blah. Bottomless mimosas! Love the classic dining decor. Best gumbo, IMO.

ArabellaCasadiPasta - 1/24/2022

$$

Shared the spaghetti and meatballs, nicely savory. Cute little place. They deliver to Kajun's Pub during Monday Night Trivia. Want to try the cannoli. 

Aroma Indian Cuisine

 $$$

Only had delivery yet, but it was awesome. Excellent curries full of flavor and not too hot.

Baru

$$$

Wonderful tapas dishes and fun drinks. Love the portabella-guac and basically everything. Small, hard chairs and might be a wait.

Bourbon House

$$

Great space, very good food, friendly if so-so service. It's our backup for Saints games when Mahoney's is closed.

Cafe Fleur de Lis 

$$

Generous portions yet incredible food. Got the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict and like to have gone to heaven. Bloody Mary came with skillet-hot bacon. Lots of great-looking options on the menu.

Carousel Bar, Monteleon Hotel

$$$$$

Ridiculously expensive, but the only place we've found that serves a real (and outstanding) Aviation. Great all around, but a hit to the wallet.

Chandelier Bar 

$$$$$

The Chandelier Martini is heaven. It's also $24. The chandelier itself is beautiful and uses the same style (art deco) as ours!

Chookies - many times

$ 

Fresh oysters, nothing beer. Excellent dock fries. Always nice and friendly service.

Commander's Palace

$$$$

The best. Great food with a menu that updates frequently. Great atmosphere, great service, great everything. Yum.

Coppervine - several times

$$$

What fun. Too rainy to sit in the patio, but we'll try it next time. Shared appetizers of burrata and toast (yum), bacon-wrapped dates, other yummy things. Serves 1/4 glass wine so you can make your own flight.

Crescent City Brewhouse 

$$$

New Orleans' take on a German brew house, and we love it. NOLA's first micro-brewery.  Red Stallion rules. Great oysters, though currently silly expensive.

Criollo - 3/11/2022

$$$

Breakfast and lunch, no dinner. The problem is that Brennan's and other places do it just a bit better. Very nice drinks. Excellent Grand Mimosa, but the espresso martini isn't as good as Saint Pat's. The smoked salmon on the New Yorker (bagel & Lox) was great. It was all lovely...but no personality. I think they save all that for the Carousel Bar.

Deanie's Seafood - 3/16/2022 

$$ 

This is an excellent place, but Clara's allergic to 80% of the menu, and neither of us really care about ordering fish. Clara's billini was excellent, and the salads were had were lovely. But seriously, salads? This is where you bring people for fried shrimp and the like, and that's not for us. However, we discovered Happy Hour 3-6 with $5 off oysters and 1/2 wine and beer. Now yer talkin'.

Dominica -11/24/22

 $$$

So, it presents itself as this super-high-class Italian restaurant, but we found the food was just, well, OK. And it very must tasted like New Orleans food, not particularly Italian. Fine service even though we were there on a super-busy night (Thanksgiving). Overpriced for the food. They could make an Aviation.

Double Dealer 

 $$

What a hoot! Speakeasy-style basement bar under the Orpheum.Great French75 and Naked and Famous. Can get a little loud.

El Paso Mexican Grill - 3/25/2022

$$

Rubber stamp American-Mexican place. Watery margaritas. Perfectly ordinary.

Felix's Oyster House - 10/20/2021 

$$$

We ordered beer and oysters and a side of cheese grits. Oysters were well shucked, but not particularly good. Cheese grits were lumpy. They have Hopitoulas on tap.

Galatoire's

 $$$

 It's a NOLA classic for a reason. Manages to be classy and lively at the same time. Oysters Rockefeller for the win.

Golden Wall Chinese

$$

To be fair, we've only done delivery, but we've done it often. Nicely seasoned, good selection. Generous portions. But the noodles are better than other things.

Green Room Kukhnya - 3/31/2022

$$

A total dive with fairy lights and '80s music and wonderful Eastern European food. Dreamy pierogis, roasted eggplant ikra, meaty borsch, Czech beer, blinis, stroganoff -- absolute heaven.

Irene's - 7/29/2023

$$$

They only do dinner, but what lovely food and service and ambiance! Watermelon salad special, the antipasto is more like a charcuterie board.

Juan's Flying Burrito - 11/11/2022

$$ 

Thank goodness we tried the one in the CBD after the uptown store went to the dogs. Good, fresh, delicious Creole-Mexican food. Nice service. Such a nicer space than the uptown one too.

Junior's on Harrison - 8/22/22 

$$

Another gem! Best Brussels sprouts ever. Fun Asian fusion in a bright and airy dining setting. Quirky and tasty and so reasonably priced!

LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop

$$

Great place for a sit and a beer. Great decor, fun atmosphere.

Little Korea BBQ

$$

Definitely need a guide to the menu if you're not an expert yourself. Very yummy food, grilling tables are nicely functional, but there's no ambience (My chair wobbled on the concrete.), and they were quite understaffed. Still, nicely authentic food served up quickly.

Lula

$$ 

Excellent Cucumber Collins, fun little menu.

Mama Thai - 3/24/2022

$$

Lightly fried eggplant, so-sweet coconut soup, drunken noodle, all delicious. Definitely walk the Bucktown Marsh Boardwalk next door.

Marjie's Grill - 9/20/22

$$

Fun! Clara found it a little too spicy, but what yummy food! Seasonal Asian-meets-Gulf Coast with excellent okra and veggies and slow-roasted beef and things.

Messina's Runway Cafe (Lakefront Airport) - 3/5/2022

$$

Incredible undiscovered gem. Wonderful food, bottomless drinks, great service, great architecture. Discovered brabant potatoes!

Mopho - 7/21/22 

$$$

A major disappointment. Some fun beers, but in cans. Good-looking menu, but our "bowls" were full of a vague and similar taste for all the ingredients. No vibrancy. No refreshment. We did like the roasted eggplant spring rolls, but spring rolls are good. Kinda ordinary and a little overpriced.

Mr. B's Bistro

$$$

Great ambiance (think British hunting club) and wonderful service. Half the menu is shrimp and the rest is chicken. My "jambalaya pasta" was damn salty, but Mom's Buffalo chicken was yummy. Best bread pudding ever.

Murphy's Seafood

 $$

Inoffensive setting.Bleh food.

Namaste Nola

 $$

Decent Indian food. Small portions. No atmosphere. Service bad.

Oak Oven - 3/28/022

$$

Excellent pasta and pizza, excellent service, fun environment. A little gem of a place on Jefferson Hwy. Super-tasty chicken piccata. 

Orleans Grapevine - 4/20/23

$$$

I love the horseshoe bar and general ambiance, Clara not so much. Fifty wines by the glass, fun food, player piano, great service.

Palace Cafe

$$$

OK New Orleans fare. OK Canal Street ambiance. Not bad, just, OK all around. Highly limited menu. Nice service.

Patrick's Bar Vin

 $$$-ish

Classy and cozy and fun. Great place for a drink and a chat. Ulysses is a great bartender!

Philipe's Taquacria 

$$

Delivery only so far, but yummy tacos!

Pascal's Manale - 9/21/22

$$

Wow, how bad. This place is a legend, the inventor of NOLA BBQ shrimp. Craig's veal whatever looked OK, and Clara and Ruth's spaghetti and meatballs didn't look too bad, but my "stuffed shrimp" was actually a shrimp with some sort of crab something rolled in a ball of bad seasoning and deep fried, and they didn't even take off the shrimp's tail! Yuck. No ambiance.

Pythian Market - 8/4/22

$$

What fun! A food court with restaurant-quality food featuring Indian cuisine, Venezuelan-inspired Latin American street food, poke, chicken and waffles, pizza, Will Mae's, and more with a great bar. Nice bar! 

Royal House Oyster Bar

 $$$

We just had some drinks, but the decor was a hoot, and our bartender was great. Gotta go back and try the food, which looked good.

Royal Sushi - 9/23/22    

$$

Regular blah sushi.

Ruby Slipper

$$

Nice breakfast food with lousy margarita but excellent Bloody Mary and Belini. Several fun things to eat on the menu. Budget friendly.

Ruth's Chris Steak House - 7/29/22

$$$

 The best steak I know of. Basic steakhouse bar. No real options but steak.

Sammy's Deli - 7/19/2022

$

Great little place that serves po'boys, mirliton soup, stuffed crab, chili cheese dogs, and the like, with fun sides and all around $10 a plate. Bring a sweater.

St. James Cheese Co. - 10/6/22

$$

We did the warehouse one. The one uptown is bigger, we were told. Excellent charcuterie board, draft beer, nice service.A real addition to the list.

St. Pat's Irish Coffeehouse - 12/5/2021

$$$

No food. What a lovely little place with a courtyard and a small bar. Great espresso martinis. On Sunday evenings there is music.

Trenasse

$$

We had a lovely Sunday brunch a couple years ago, so we tried it for lunch. Somewhat limited lunch menu, but we both loved what we got: fish tacos and cauliflower steak on pasta. Great service and atmosphere. Multiple oyster presentations.

Tsunami

$$$

OK, we have a sushi place in the CBD now! Great atmosphere, fun menu, and did we luck out on our sushi chef. Loved the Japanese Veggie Roll and whatever it was he made for us last. We'll be back.

Zesty Creole - 7/13/23

$$

Wonderful place to get breakfast.  Basic po'boys and gumbo for everything else. Real belinis!