Going to Nawlins... What to See and Eat?

In My Humble Opinion
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Well… it looks like the wife and I are going to New Orleans next month! She will be attending an educational conference and I’ll be tagging along for fun. We’ll be there from Nov. 28th til Dec. 2nd. Staying at a hotel on St. Charles St., just off of the French Quarter.

She will be busy with conference stuff during the weekdays, but her evenings and the weekend are free. I’m free to do whatever I want the entire time. What do you Nawlins Dopers (and frequent visitors) recommend we see and do? We’re especially interested in finding the good cheap (or not outrageously expensive) stuff to eat. Give us the down low!

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This thread is pretty common and we have had many over the years including recently. I will see if I can find some. New Orleans isn’t really like other cities (at least American ones). The city and its attractions just find you and even invade you. Once you start walking around the French Quarter and downtown areas, it will be perfectly clear what appeals to you whether it is world class food or getting drunk in the streets in the middle of the day. You don’t need an itinerary like you do in other cities. Attractions and awesome things are everywhere so you just start walking.

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You are right… I think i remember a recent thread from someone who just returned from a trip to the city, I’ll do a search.

What I really want is a short primer on what NOT to miss from a culinary perspective. Assuming that we’d never get a chance to come back again, what would be a short list of restaurants/food stalls/ etc. that we absolutely must visit. We have no interest in partying & boozing, but I’d like to try a local microbrew or two if available.

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Here are a few of the most recent ones:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434243&highlight=orleans
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=429339&highlight=orleans
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=418820&highlight=orleans
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=405410&highlight=orleans
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=383913&highlight=orleans

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New Orleans is known as one of the greatest food cities in the world for good reason. The list of great restaurants is endless and it really depends on your preferred style and budget. Many people don’t realize that New Orleans cuisine, creole cuisine, and cajun cuisine are not synonomous even though there is some overlap.

For traditional New Orleans cuisine, you can try the long-term stalworths:

Galatoire’s
Antoines
Acme Oyster House

Those are but a few. The first two are New Orleans formal and destinations restaraunts. The Acme Oyster house has great seafood and isn’t terribly pricey. The Court of Two Sisters serves a famous brunch. Cafe Du Monde is famous for its beinets and coffee and is an inexpsive outing that you will remember forever.

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My favortie New Orleans food memory is when several friends of mine, and myself, went there for Mardi Gras and during the day we went to some sort of ‘Farmer’s Market’ type place and we bought a huge bag of boiled crawdads.
We sat on the bank of the Mississippi and ate those spicy little guys for an hour.

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go to snake and jakes.

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Central Grocery for a mufalata

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Avoid at all costs those dinner cruises up and down the river. The food is absolutely ghastly, and there’s nothing to actually see along the river unless you’re fascinated by refineries and chemical plants, and poor housing still looking damaged from Katrina.

I’m a chemical engineer, and I’m not even interested in seeing that.

You’re better off getting some beignets and coffee from Cafe du Mond, and sit on the levee eating them and watching the river that way.

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The Preservation Hall Jazz Band may be the greatest thing in the universe. They weren’t there when I went but I caught 'em on tour and have a pile of their records going back some forty years. Nothing but that classic ole New Orleans sound played aby a bunch of old men.

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Dorjän, if you are serious about experiencing the range of New Orleans cuisine, can you give us a little bit more information about what you like and want to experience. It really is a world class food city so it is a little like asking what places are good to eat in Paris. The recommendations are going to be way to broad and all over the board to be of much use to a newcomer. How much do you want to spend on an average meal? Do you want to spend the money to go to a world-class restaurant at least once? Do you like seafood? Do you like formal restaurants or just more inexpensive places that you can grab a great meal most of the time?

The answers to the questions above will help clarify the answers a lot. There are just too many choices to make a blind recommendation.

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Shagnasty,

I actually got a ton of good ideas from the threads that you linked!

But to answer your questions:

We normally spend an average of $25-$30 total on a dinner for two, including tip.

We are not planning on hitting any top-tier, world-class restaurants, but that might be an option if we do dinner with her colleagues one evening. So as an option, what would you recommend for a place where the dinner bill for two would be in the $70-80 range?

As far as food, we are both “foodies” and will eat damn near anything. My ONLY hangup is that I do not like shellfish of any type (I know… I know…) But my wife loves it - so a place known for its shellfish but having other types of seafood would be no problem.

For breakfast and lunch, we are interested in those hole-in-the wall, cheap places to grab a good bite to eat. If it’s popular with the locals, thats a good sign. We generally avoid places that cater primarily to tourists. Cafe Du Monde sounds like an excellent place to have breakfast.

If it helps, we’d prefer places in walking distance from the hotel (Marriott on St. Charles).

Trust me I know if New Orleans reputation when it comes to cuisine, so we are not trying to get the full experience in one visit!

Thanks for all of the recommendations so far! I’m definitely planning on checking out the Preservation Hall Jazz band, and I actually would like to take a river tour - just not a dinner one. I would be interesting in getting a first-hand look at Katrina’s impact on the city.

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Ok, your budget is a little tight for the formal places I linked above but New Orleans isn’t that expensive in general especially for what it offers.

A firm suggestion is Mothers which is very authentic and world famous for its New Orleans style cuisine. It isn’t that far from where you are staying although you might need to take a quick cab ride. You should go there and it is not expensive.

Like I said, New Orleans is different from other American cities (just because it wasn’t an American city for so long). There is tons of great food all over the French Quarter. I don’t think you could be had just by browsing if you have any judgement at all. You can just walk around and find obviously good places. They have their menus posted outside.

Some of the top rated restaurants and the world are in New Orleans although your listed budget won’t allow you to go to those. If you decide you want to splurge, Commander’s Palace has been listed as one of the top restaurants in the U.S. many times. It will be expensive and require nice clothes including a jacket however but it will be a memorable experience forever.

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My favorite places on the low end are Johnny’s Po-Boys (wonderful for breakfast! and they deliver!) and the Acme Oyster House (where our wedding reception was). There’s also Port of Call, which has an amazing burger and a deadly beverage called the Monsoon.

The Gumbo Shop looks touristy, but their food is really good and the prices are right. I wasn’t enthralled with Napoleon House, but I probably ordered the wrong thing.

The Louisiana Pizza Kitchen is a good choice if you like weirdo pizzas. They make really good ones with Cajun-style ingredients like andouille and alligator. It’s definitely in your range.

If you decide to splurge, the best meal of my life was at Bayona. We also ate at the original Emeril’s, and both the food and the service were fantastic, but thanks to the famous chef premium it’s even further out of your range.

It’s hard to think of a bad meal I’ve had in the Quarter, really.

There’s a bar in the Hotel Monteleone called the Carousel that’s a really nice place to have a drink. Get a Sazerac.

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Try Jaques-Imo’s in the Carrolton district. Well known locally, virtually unknown by tourists, outstanding food, long wait to get in.

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We had an exceptional meal at Bayona last time we were there.

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One of the threads Shagnasty linked to was from my trip earlier this year. The Gumbo Shop has fantastic food. At least their creole, I didn’t get to try their cajun. And Deanie’s Seafood is also great, just don’t order the Half Platter unless you are really hungry. And it was recommended by New Orleans natives.

The Jazz Museum was closed on Sundays and Mondays when I was their, their budget didn’t have enough money to hire the necessary workers. :frowning: I doubt that has changed, so if you want to see it, avoid those 2 days.

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Two good calls from upthread:

Gumbo shop is great.

Bayona is great.

Deanie’s for fried seafood. Huge portions, though.

You owe yourself to get a muffaletta at Central Grocery, a big shot cream soda, and a bag of Zapp’s chips and eat it in Jackson Square or on the river levee. This sandwich was the working man’s lunch back in the day when the French Quarter was a blue-collar Italian neighborhood.

My slightly jaded opinion on other thoughts:

I’ve been to Mother’s several times and it just didn’t do anything for me. The service has always been haphazard and the roast beef too vinegary for my tastes. Many other people like it and recommend it, but it’s not a great standard-bearer for New Orleans cuisine, IMHO.

I also wouldn’t go out of my way to go to Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. The pizza is fine, but I prefer Mona Lisa’s on Royal Street in the FQ or Slice on St. Charles between the CBD and Garden District for local fusion pizza. Call ahead to see if Mona Lisa’s survived Katrina - I haven’t been since the storm. Now I’m craving it.

Here are some more thoughts, keeping in mind your price range.

**Dick and Jenny’s ** Uptown on Tchoupitoulas is great. It’s creole-fusion with a modern twist. Better if you have your own car or a rental as the cab fare might push it over your limit. They take credit cards, but do not take reservations.

**Mandina’s ** is a traditional neighborhood place for creole and Italian. 3800 Canal Street - way up Canal in Mid-city. Cash only, no reservations. You can access this restaurant via the Canal Streetcar line. $1.50 per person per ride. If you go, get the turtle soup appetizer (with lots of sherry) and be sure to save room for their bread pudding for dessert or…

Go a bit further into Mid-city to Angelo Brocato’s for gelato. They still use the 100 year-old Sicilian recipes that Angelo brought over with him.

**Camellia Grill ** is a famous old-fashioned diner. Carrollton neighborhood way Uptown. Cash only, no reservations. Great for breakfast.

Coop’s Place on Decatur in the FQ looks like a dive but their rabbit jambalaya is divine.

One is also way Uptown in Carrollton. It’s modern creole fusion. It takes credit cards and probably reservations. The food is great, with the kitchen part of the dining room so you can watch your food being prepared.

Vincent’s is probably one of the best, if not the best, Italian restaurant in town. It’s on St. Charles avenue, also way Uptown in Carrollton (guess where I live). It takes credit cards and reservations.

Non-Nawlins/Non-creole:

Nirvana on Magazine Street is great for Indian. Juan’s Flying Burrito on Magazine Street is fun, cheap, and interesting. Byblos on Magazine Street is great for Greek food.

Avoid La Madeleine - pricy and pretentious. Do not set foot in Bubba Gump’s.

The local brew is any flavor of Abita. You can still find **Dixie ** but it’s kind of like having a PBR in Milwaukee.

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Thanks for everyone’s replies! I’m mapping out the locations to see which are accessible by feet, cab or public transportation. Keep sending your personal fav’s.

I especially like Ivorybill’s muffuletta suggetion and will do that entire scenario (even though I don’t really care for cream soda) :smiley:

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Big Shot is a mostly local company, so if you don’t like cream soda, get one of their other flavors if you can.