New Orleans - Full Food/Drink Recap
Food So Good It Called For An Entire Post
This post is half for the reader either living vicariously through us or more likely, visiting New Orleans at some point in the future and looking for recommendations, and half for me being able to relive the wonderous discoveries of New Orleans’ culinary offerings.
We’ll start with rankings and brief recaps of our top recommendations for each meal of the day and then cover two unique experiences that I haven’t mentioned yet (Cocktail class and Shrimp Boil).
If you don’t like to read about and see pictures of awesome food/drink, then this post is not for you. Go stare at a wall or something instead.
Breakfast/Coffee
Let’s be honest, this is going to be very specific to where you’re staying. Like I mentioned in previous posts, we stayed in the Garden District, one block off of Magazine Street (one of the two main streets in the area that have restaurants/shops).
We were fortunate enough to have not 1, not 2, but 3 excellent choices for coffee and breakfast within easy walking distance of our place.
Whether it was just coffee, something small like a beignet, or something bigger like a mouthwatering sausage/egg/cheese on butterbiscuit (← fun fact that’s our wifi password lol), these three places had us covered.
District - this was undoubtedly our favorite spot. Gourmet donuts, kolaches, and pastries…breakfast sandwiches, biscuits/gravy, and breakfast tacos. They even have “Brunch Wings (maple & lemon glaze, pork breakfast sausage crumbles)” - that’s not even fair! They also had sweet apparel (although we didn’t indulge because Hunny’s space is comically limited) and excellent service (manager dude helped me on my ~coffee journey~). Turns out I’m an iced-latte-almond-milk-no-sweetener-once-or-twice-a-week kind of guy, and I rarely finish it.
Molly’s Rise and Shine - I have a complicated relationship with Molly’s for such an unnecessary reason. It’s very cool inside - TGI Friday’s style but inspired by an 80s kid’s nostalgia with just a dash of hallucinogens - and the food was outstanding. I ordered the chicken sandwich which featured an endless river of melting butter. It was so beautiful and should immediately be put in a museum somewhere. Sydney got the carrot yogurt, which let’s be honest…is a super weird move, but she claims was good.
Molly’s museum-worthy chicken sammich ^^link to video^^ My problem with Molly’s is that I wanted more and they wouldn’t give it to me. They have a sign hanging on the wall directly behind the register advertising their Detroit style pizza. I wanted to try this delicious looking pizza so I asked about it and they said it was a COVID special and got so popular that they had to stop offering it. Yes, you heard that right - the pizza sold so well that instead of trying to figure out how to service the demand, they just stopped making it, but conveniently left the sign up. I won’t “permission to rant” but instead borrow a Sydney-ism and simply say “horrible business model.”
PJ’s Coffee - This is a chain but I didn’t know that at first and thought it was a nice mom and pop shop where the owners set up a little corner for their 7-8ish year old daughter to sell pecans/merch and learn the value of a dollar so that one day she could take over the business (awe). I didn’t buy anything though because in this economy?… kid’s gotta learn. Kidding - I actually thought I’d be back with Sydney but then learned it was a chain and always went to District instead. Coffee was good though, and good luck to the kid I guess.
Cafe Du Monde - Out of all the places mentioned in this blog, Cafe Du Monde is likely the most well known and was by far the most recommended place to us before we arrived in New Orleans. It has been an iconic New Orleans café known for café au laits, chicory coffee, and beignets since 1862. There are a few locations but the main one is located in the French Quarter (not walking distance from our place). Sydney and I went once, got our café au laits (bleh) and beignets (amaze) and sat on the steps alongside Decatur Street overlooking Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral while the jazz band on the corner blasted When the Saints Go Marching In. It was a very New Orleans moment (even if it was a bit touristy).
Brunch/Lunch
Many of these places could double as dinner but we went for brunch/lunch so I’m including them here (ranked):
Shaya - This place was probably the biggest shock (for me). Greek isn’t typically my favorite, and this was a pretty normal looking menu but I was so wrong. Every single thing was delectable. They have an oven in the back corner where they make fresh pita and just unload it on every table. Pita, after pita, after pita, after pita…I thought I was onset for the Hunger Games (think about it). Seriously though, you could go here, order 1 hummus with endless pita, and you’d leave completely satisfied and very full. Highly, highly recommend and Sydney says reservations would be needed.
Atchafalaya - Another winner where everything was delicious - we went here after our tour with Jean Marcel and were starving. Order the chicken and waffle (it’s enormous).
Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar - If you’re looking for oysters in New Orleans, and especially the French Quarter, most people will tell you to go to Acme Oyster House, which has been in operations since 1910. We were told to go to Felix’s right across the street because it has half the line and better oysters. We never went to Acme so I can’t totally validate that, but Felix’s was pretty good. This is where we learned the more literal meaning of “bellying up to the bar”.
La Petite Grocery - We went here with my parents for Sunday brunch (note: they only do brunch on Sundays). The food was very good and we enjoyed reading about the history (a little long to recap here but an interesting read).
Antoine’s Restaurant - New Orleans’ oldest restaurant, relatively fancy, and recommended to us by multiple people. We went with my parents and we all thought it was overrated - plus they made me and my dad take off our hats in order to walk through the dining hall and we were NOT happy about it (rant loading…). Honestly, we shouldn’t have been wearing hats to brunch in the first place but we neglected to check the fanciness ahead of time and we were going to be out in the sun afterwards. The history aspect was cool but something about it being a location of exclusivity and high class going all the way back to the 1840s was a little unsettling (personally) - those walls have seen and heard some things…
Dinner
Jack Rose - Ranking it number 1 - It’s hard to beat Commander’s Palace, and the prices were surprisingly similar, but this meal was flawless. Really cool décor that I can only describe as jungle disco (?), great cocktails, and a superb menu. I got a chicken parm the size of my head. It’s also right next to its sister bar, Hot Tin (description below) which is perfect for a pre and/or post drink.
Commander’s Palace - As I understand it, Commander’s Palace is often considered the best restaurant in New Orleans. It’s been in operations since 1893 and has won countless awards. Unsurprisingly you need a reservation and to adhere to the dress code (my dad and I cooperated this time). It goes without saying everything was delicious but the Crawfish Strudel (shared), Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish (my entrée), and Bread Pudding (shared) were all out of this world. The Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish was the best fish dish (fishdish-fishdish-fishdish) I’ve ever had.
Breaux Bridge Crawfish Strudel
Louisiana crawfish tails, roasted mushrooms, Creole trinity, sundried tomatoes and fontina cheese baked into a flaky French puff pastry with smoky tomato butter.
Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish
Prosecco poached jumbo lump crab over spiced New Roads pecan crusted fish, roasted corn, asparagus, grilled kale and melted leeks with whiskey spiked crushed corn cream.
Creole Bread Pudding Soufflé
"The Queen of Creole Desserts" ~Finished tableside with warm whiskey cream~ (Additional $3.50 & must be ordered 20 minutes in advance).
Saffron NOLA - Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed New Orleans traditional creole/cajun/southern cuisine with Indian? Well if you let a James Beard nominee experiment, you get Saffron NOLA - one of the best meals, the best cocktails, and the best oysters(?) we had in New Orleans. If you’re looking for recommendations, you’ll probably hear Commander’s Palace and Cafe du Monde, and you might even hear Jack Rose, but you likely won’t hear Saffron, and it is undoubtedly worth a visit.
The Chloe - Vibes, vibes, and more vibes. Really cool hotel/bar/restaurant on St. Charles. They have a really shfancy pool/bar in the back in addition to a regular swanky hotel bar. We ate outside in a garden/courtyard setup and once again were crushed by incredible food.
Lilette - We went here for our last supper in New Orleans. I wasn’t really that hungry and we had to drive the next day but Sydney convinced me to do the blind tasting menu with wine pairing (casual). We were seated upstairs with a whole corner to ourselves and while it was was delicious, we have no pictures or videos because we intentionally went no phones and instead spent the whole dinner just reflecting on our last month together - discovering, experiencing, and most of all enjoying this new city together. Lilette was symbolic of our entire trip to New Orleans - we went in blind, had perhaps a little too much food/drink, but we thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.
The Rum House - This is a classic example of what would ordinarily be a mediocre restaurant elsewhere being a fantastic discovery in New Orleans. The Rum House wasn’t recommended to us by anyone but my parents stumbled upon it for lunch one day while Sydney and I were working. It was so good that they took us for there dinner the same night!
Tsunami Sushi - This place closes at 10pm on Fri/Sat and we rolled in at like 9:22pm thinking we could get a full meal in without inconveniencing anyone (it was after our cocktail making class…see below). Not only did they happily seat us, but continued to serve us until nearly 11pm when we left (time flies when you’re having fun I guess?) Also for what it’s worth, there were other people still there when we left so perhaps it’s a regular occurrence, and shocker, the food was outstanding - New Orleans always wins.
Cane and Table - Remember after recapping our Bourbon Street / Frenchman Street day when I said, after hearing When The Saints Go Marching In for the second time at Café Negril, it was time to get some food? Well, this is where we went. We were seated at the bar and immediately struck up a conversation with the couple sitting next to Sydney - this is important because those who know me or also struggle with hearing in loud bars/restaurants know that with this seat configuration, I didn’t stand a chance. Plus, the woman knew a bunch of celebrities so I didn’t see Sydney for the rest of the night. Food was good though.
Hotel Saint Vincent - One of our first dinners and it was pretty good, but as we experienced more throughout the month, we realized this place was probably just average. It’s in a pretty convenient spot if you’re in the Garden District, though.
Mosca’s Italian - Rustic Italian and cash only! Mixed reviews… This place was hyped up as the best Italian in the world and I just didn’t think it was any better than average. It wasn’t bad, but for me, it didn’t live up to the hype (Sydney says I just don’t like Rustic Italian). The meatballs were great - everything else just okay. On the other hand, Sydney loved all of it and she claims she’s 100% Italian (she’s actually only 10-20% at best but she won’t take the test because she’s too scared of the truth).
Drinks
Hot Tin - Jack Rose’s sister bar with a really cool rooftop view of New Orleans. Extra special because we went with my parents.
Delachaise Wine Bar - Super cool wine vibes with over 350 selections. This is a perfect spot for a pre/post dinner drink - especially if the weather is nice.
Ryan’s Irish Pub - Nothing really special here - it’s your typical Irish pub a few blocks off of Bourbon Street, BUT it was perfect for my situation. It’s almost 10:30am and Sydney just booked a psychic reading around the corner for 11am. We had already eaten breakfast and had a reservation later for lunch. I just wanted a place I could comfortably watch sports (which at that time meant golf) and maybe order a snack while I wait out her appointment. Most places weren’t open yet or didn’t have TVs - but Ryan’s was open and had arrangements with surrounding restaurants to deliver food right to the bar. By the time Sydney returned from her reading, I had a bowl of gumbo and made 3 new friends at the bar going through our list of saved places in New Orleans (which, if you know me, you know that’s very much out of character).
Parasol’s - This was our local watering hole, only a block and a half from our place and the block party location during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (covered in previous New Orleans posts). We never had the food although we heard it was good, but Parasol’s served as the ultimate place of convenience - particularly given the open container laws in New Orleans. Sydney once ordered a Moscow Mule while we were walking Kona “just because she could.”
Gris Gris - We went for a quick drink before dinner and never actually ate here but it was really cool inside and the food looked amazing.
Carousel Bar - Such a cool concept and a ton of history here. The bar is made out to be a carousel and is on a circular platform that actually rotates, and there’s live music. However, on a busy night, when you’re 2-3 rows deep, it’s very difficult to actually order a drink - the rotation makes it nearly impossible to make eye contact with the tender, and also difficult for people at the bar to move aside. We unfortunately left empty handed after 15-20 minutes.
Honorable Mention: all the bars we went to on Bourbon and Frenchmen Streets which were recapped in my first New Orleans post (link below).
Shrimp Boil Cabaret
The Shrimp Boil Experience was one of the coolest and most unique things we did while in New Orleans. It’s hosted by Mister Gregory, a professional chef of over 25 years in both New Orleans and San Francisco and de facto shrimp expert - his expertise and reputation have earned him the nickname of “Shrimp Boil King”. He was even hired as a consultant for the opening of the first Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant in San Francisco. Suffice it to say, Mr. Gregory knows his shrimp…
We met at a small bar next to Mr. Gregory’s studio/kitchen where he corralled us and the rest of the group to go over the itinerary for the night and some background on himself and our entertainment. After standing outside for a few minutes, with all the typical sounds and smells of a city, wondering what lay beyond the barely noticeable door in front of us, we finally entered and were immediately filled with the sounds of live acoustic music and the aromas of clearly many delicious foods being cooked. It was a small but intimate space decorated with marine-related décor and fishing nets hanging on the walls and several picnic tables that were completely covered in newspaper (a GREAT sign of what was to come for the night).
We had fish, crab, sausage, and even alligator (which was a first for all of us) with each one separated by an overview and description from Mr. Gregory and then a few songs from the band. Then it came time for the main event - we could see Mr. Gregory working in the back with a pot so big that I can only compare it to a Witch’s Cauldron - full of shrimp, sausage, little corn cobs, and a bunch of sauces and spices. He would come around with massive tongs and just plop down a huge pile of everything right on the table.
The shrimp were HUGE - about the size of my entire hand from fingertip to palm…and they were delicious. My dad and I tried to count how many we had but lost the total somewhere in the 20s and 30s. Then to top it all off, we were served warm peach cobbler and chicory coffee. Everything was incredibly delicious.
Overall, it’s tough to describe because it was such a unique experience but we can’t recommend it enough (assuming you like shrimp). It’s a great change of pace to the typical night out at a restaurant; it’s fun, informative, interactive, and most of all delicious.
DrinkLabNOLA Cocktail Class
Another one of our unique experiences was the Drink Lab cocktail class where we learned how to make the infamous Sazerac, Hurricane, and Ramos Gin Fizz (more commonly known as a French 75). Similar to the Shrimp Boil, we met outside of a bar with not much else around us, wondering if we were in the right place. Eventually we were led through an abandoned restaurant to a dimly lit stairway in the back (sketchy), but at the top was a beautiful private bar with individual work stations already set up.
Our instructors were great - led by a former news anchor and her partner (in both life and work - which was honestly unclear at first but was quickly clarified thanks to Sydney’s incessant questioning of people’s personal lives immediately upon meeting them).
We were also joined by another couple of similar age to us as well as a newly-turned 21-year old and her mom. I don’t think the entire experience is dependent upon who else is in your group, but having a good one can only make it better, and we had a blast with ours. We went through the step-by-step instructions for each drink and learned a fair amount of history for each one (all of which I’ll spare the reader of and instead paste some links below for whoever is interested).
Overall, it was fun and interactive experience and a great way to start a night. My only recommendation is to line up some dinner plans for after the class because you don’t want to be caught flat footed and make a sushi restaurant stay open over an hour after close just for you (again, other people were still there too).
Moving On
Well, that’s the end of our New Orleans journey. I think it comes through in this post and the first two, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The food couldn’t have suited us better and we can’t wait to go back. There was definitely something special about it being our first place and having so many experiences with my parents, but it truly made a lasting impression and set an extremely high bar for our next stops.
A reminder that the blog is chronologically very behind our real-time Nomad Lyfe (we’ve already been to 6 more places after New Orleans). Sydney does a much better job keeping up to date on the IG, but so far New Orleans remains our most unique experience - in other words, I’m not expecting to average 3 posts per destination - there was just so much to cover in New Orleans (see map below as evidence).
Until next time, New Orleans - we’re off to Austin, TX!
Sydney and Greg, I really love this article and my goodness what amazing foods. I picked the pecan crusted gulf fish and the shrimp boil Cabaret. Those would be my choices. Love you both, so happy you’re having such a great time!! Love grandma and grandpa.