New Orleans: must eats
Willie Mae’s Scotch House: 5/5 Best damn FRIED CHICKEN you might ever have in your life. No takeout on the weekdays, and the line gets very long very fast so get there well before it opens. Casual atmosphere.
Commander’s Palace: 4.5/5 Luxurious “jazzy” brunch. They serve complimentary garlic bread, and their TURTLE SOUP is supposed to be famous but I didnt.. find anything particularly special about it. Dressy atmosphere.
Gumbo Shop: 4/5 This place is known for their GUMBO. Try their chicken andouille (An-DOO-wee), seafood gumbo, and the creole combo with the etouffee (eh-TOO-fey). You can get small portions of the gumbos to just taste, which is great if you want to try a lot of things but don’t have enough stomach space.
Acme Oyster House: 4/5 Another must try food here is the oysters, but especially the CHARGRILLED OYSTERS and Acme is one of the best places to get it. Grilled with lots of butter drizzled over, the oysters are a bit salty and heavy, but addicting. If the line is long, head across the street to Felix’s Oysters. It also has great oysters but tends to have much shorter lines.
Galatoire’s Restaurant 4/5 This is a high end but with a snobby feel, so make sure to get in line early to write your name down. Something different I’ve seen is their souffle potato fries, which is interesting to try but nothing amazing. But something else you have to eat is just plain delicious FISH! Here, they have a “build your own” fish plate with your choice of side/topping, sauce, fish, and method of preparation. Take the server’s suggestion!
Deanies Seafood 3/5 This may not be the bestest place to have it, but BOILED CRAWFISH is also a popular dish in NoLa. Deanie’s has a cool little thing though — instead of bread, they serve whole cooked potatoes. yumm.
Mother’s Restaurant 4/5 DEBRIS SANDWICH is a sub made with slowly roasted beef in gravy kind of a sauce. The beef melts in your mouth! We got it takeout, so we put the meat in the bread ourselves. Mother’s is right next to Harrah’s so that’s a bonus.
Parkway Bakery & Tavern: 5/5 The long line here is 500% worth the PO BOY (name from calling strikers Poor Boys) that they sell here. Po boys are sandwiches filled with either fried shrimp or fried oysters and omgah this was our choice of the last meal in New Orleans because it was so good.
Lüke: 4/5 New Orleans is all about CREOLE COMFORT FOOD. The cheesiest gritty shrimp & cheese grits was here! A bit expensive, but ambiance, service, and flavor all made it super worth.
Cochon Butcher, Central Grocery: MUFFALETA is a sandwich long and heavily pressed down to form this ultra dense sandwich! Apparently it’s famous and good at the two places listed but it didn’t seem like my cup of tea so I didn’t try!
DESSERTS:
Brennan’s 4.5/5 BANANA FOSTER was originally made at Brennan’s! It’s pretty much just ice cream syrup and banana but they make it so good. Plus, they do a really cool fire presentation for you too! Here, although the atmosphere is lux they don’t judge you for being underdressed which i appreciated!
Café Du Monde 4.5/5 BEIGNETS are lil clumps of dough fried and coated in powdered sugar. Pretty much clump form of funnel cakes, and no one does it better than here, which is also open 24/7 (at one of its few locations in the city). You can also buy their DIY kit that comes in a box!
Sucré 3/5 KING CAKE is a round bundt-ish cake with purple, green, and cold frosting on top and a plastic baby hidden somewhere around the ring. It is eaten as part of the Mardi Gras celebration (or anytime before starting Christmas ish) and whoever has the plastic baby in their slice is the “king” and is to buy the next round of cakes or whatever for their group! It was surprisingly difficult to find in places in the city, but Sucre had a version. They are a chain and they sell their cakes boxed up in other stores as well.
Bacchanal Wine: 4/5 There are way too many bars to go to, but for a more classy and dinner-like but also chill vibe, head over here. It’s a wine terrace with outdoor and indoor seating in a secluded backyard with a live band. You choose your bottle of wine in the back, grab some glasses, take a seat and enjoy the company! They also sell tapas to pair with your wine.
