Before we get into everything, let me tell you my theory on Yelp ratings: If a place has less than 30 ratings, the accuracy of those ratings is hit-and-miss. If a place has 50+, chances are the place will deliver on it's Yelp score.
FYI... this post was written in the chronological order of our culinary adventure.
Here's what you will find in New Orleans: fried, savory, spicy & INCREDIBLE. We ate at the most amazing places and every single meal, with two exceptions, was nothing short of outstanding.
There are four places that I really want to call to your attention to in this post.
Meals from the Heart Cafe
Maximo's Italian Grill
St. James Cheese Company
Emeril's NOLA
First, an exception:
Cafe Pontalba
3 stars on Yelp based on 70+
546 St. Peter Street (at Chartres Street on Jackson Square)
We came across this place on our first night in town and picked it because it was open. A perfect example of Yelp's accuracy. Was it good? Sure. Was the service impeccable? Not really. Would I recommend it? With all the other options, not a chance. What I will tell you is that it set the bar pretty low, so by comparison every other place we went had nowhere to go but up.
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| Fried Shrimp Po'boy |
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| Creole Pastas & Caesar Salad |
Case in point: The second place we ate that night was IHOP on Canal Street.
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| THEY HAVE CHEESECAKE PANCAKES. |
Meals from the Heart Cafe
4.5 stars on Yelp based on 50+ reviews
1100 St. Peters Street (in the French Market)
Reasons why I loved this place:
1. Awesome owners. We met both Chef Marilyn Doucet and her brother, who own and work the stall/catering business daily and were more than happy to chat with us about their establishment, New Orleans, our trip, how they don't do any advertising but have a steady flow of business from Yelp reviews alone... They were awesome.
2. Incredible food. I mean, this was in the top 3 best meals I had during this trip. As an ultra-bonus, they focus on healthy foods, gluten free, etc. Honestly one of my favorite parts was the steamed veggies... no spices, no sauce. Just vegetables so fresh that steaming was all they needed to be flavorful and incredible.
3. You get to listen to these guys, who play at the Market pretty much daily.
Maximo's Italian Grill
3.5 stars on Yelp based on 30+ reviews
1117 Decatur Street (at Ursulines Ave.)
We came here on a recommendation from our Cocktail tour guide and were not disappointed. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
Give this place a shot... we totally loved it. As our first sit-down dinner that blew me away, the impression is definitely lasting.
St. James Cheese Company
4.5 stars on Yelp based on 115+ reviews
5004 Prytania Street (at Robert)
Hi. My name is Tassia and I'm a cheese-aholic. For this reason, it's no surprise that this place is in my top 4 MUSTs. If you like cheese, or sandwiches with cheese, or soups made out of cheese, or other things with cheese in them, then you simply must make a trip out of the French Quarter and visit this place.
Reasons why I loved this place:
1. Awesome owners. We met both Chef Marilyn Doucet and her brother, who own and work the stall/catering business daily and were more than happy to chat with us about their establishment, New Orleans, our trip, how they don't do any advertising but have a steady flow of business from Yelp reviews alone... They were awesome.
2. Incredible food. I mean, this was in the top 3 best meals I had during this trip. As an ultra-bonus, they focus on healthy foods, gluten free, etc. Honestly one of my favorite parts was the steamed veggies... no spices, no sauce. Just vegetables so fresh that steaming was all they needed to be flavorful and incredible.
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| My crab cake passion po'boy. This is easily a meal for two. |
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| Oh hey there, Mr. Crab Cake. |
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| Crab cake passion salad. With incredible dressing. |
Maximo's Italian Grill
3.5 stars on Yelp based on 30+ reviews
1117 Decatur Street (at Ursulines Ave.)
We came here on a recommendation from our Cocktail tour guide and were not disappointed. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
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| Open Kitchen... love that. |
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| Grilled mozzarella and pesto appetizer |
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| Shrimp Caesar |
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| Crawfish Diablo |
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| Chili-glazed scallops |
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| Spaghetti Pomodoro |
Give this place a shot... we totally loved it. As our first sit-down dinner that blew me away, the impression is definitely lasting.
St. James Cheese Company
4.5 stars on Yelp based on 115+ reviews
5004 Prytania Street (at Robert)
Hi. My name is Tassia and I'm a cheese-aholic. For this reason, it's no surprise that this place is in my top 4 MUSTs. If you like cheese, or sandwiches with cheese, or soups made out of cheese, or other things with cheese in them, then you simply must make a trip out of the French Quarter and visit this place.
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| Brie de Meaux and Ham Sandwich |
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| Gruyere and caramelized onions on toasted multigrain with broccoli cheddar soup |
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| Nothing goes better with cheese than specialty meats. |
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| For those of you who want to do a little cheese-related shopping, you can make that happen here as well. |
Since you're in the area, you should also drop by Bittersweet Confections at 725 Magazine for some homemade truffles:
4.5 stars on Yelp based on 140+ reviews
536 Frenchman Street (at Chartres)
First, it must be said that this is the only restaurant/bar/lounge we found that was NON-SMOKING (a very nice break for my lungs!). No cover and decent music... my mom disliked that they tweaked the mics to sound more old-timey; I found it to be charming. We both agreed that the food was incredible.
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| Feta Fries |
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| Lobster Egg Rolls w/ sweet chile-lime sauce |
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| Butternut Squash Ravioli w/ Sage-Brown Butter |
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| Mac N Cheese w/creamy aged cheddar sauce |
Emeril's NOLA
4 stars on Yelp based on 480+ reviews
534 St. Louis (at Chartres St.)
How could you go to New Orleans and not visit one of Emeril's three restaurants? (FYI, the other two are Delmonico and Emeril's New Orleans). This place is arguably the most laidback of the bunch, but that doesn't mean that food or service are lacking. On the contrary, I really enjoyed watching our waiter walk around the early teenaged boy at the table next to us. He has aspirations of being a chef and got to meet the chef-on-duty and tour the inner workings of the joint. Talk about service.
I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you that the food here is fantastic, but just in case: the food here is fantastic.
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| Veggie Pizza |
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| Miss Hay's Stuffed Chicken Wings w/Homemade Hoisin Sauce (I don't know what they were stuffed with. Most likely crack cocaine based on the cravings I'm having for them.) |
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| Even the knives here are fancy! |
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| Buttermilk friend chicken with bourbon mashed potatoes and sauteed sugar snap peas. I got the country ham cream gravy on the side because I wasn't sure I'd like it. Fact: I LOVED IT. |
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| Garlic Crusted Drum (fish) with patatas bravas |
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| Barbecued gulf shrimp with rosemary biscuit (appetizer) |
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| Cheddar Grits. My mom literally licked the bowl on this one. |
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| These are your food tour guides. |
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| Flourless chocolate cake. Note the birthday candle :) |
Oceana Grill
3.5 stars on Yelp based on 250+ reviews
739 Conti (at Bourbon)
The only reason we went here is because one of our tour guides told us that they had better oysters than Acme. Truth time: I've never had oysters and don't have eating them on my bucket list. My secondhand account of my dad slurping down 6 oysters is that they were awesome. (I will attest that the sauce they were doused in was tasty.)
Here's what I had:
Yes, you read that right. And in case you don't believe me, here's the dissected version with the crab cake inside:
We hit up the Sisters three different times: once on our Cocktail Tour, once for the bar and once for the Jazz Brunch.
**A quick note about the evening bartender: he was awesome. He kind of reminded me of Droopy Dog with a Southern accent.
Decent jazz and nice and warm on a 35' day. I would recommend this place, but probably wouldn't go to the brunch again.
Tony Moran's Restaurant
2 stars on Yelp based on 9 reviews
240 Bourbon (at Bienville)
This is a perfect example of my theory on Yelp. Most of the reviews are over a year old and there are so few that you can't really judge based on that alone. Well, my friends, I'm here to tell you that this was one of the better meals we ate in the Big Easy. Like Cafe Pontalba, we stumbled in here because it was one of the few places still open for food (11:40pm) and I'm so glad we did. Another example of completely exquisite service matched with some seriously nommy food.
My mom also had a side of spaghetti with marinara... Usually I hate when she orders that because it's such a cheap thing to make at home compared to what they charge at a restaurant. I can personally attest that this spaghetti was worth spah-getting.
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| Chargrilled oysters |
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| Seared ahi steak stuffed with crab cake and topped with crawfish |
It's basically the seafood equivalent of a turducken. Sadly, it wasn't quite as magical as I'd expected. All the parts were good individually, but together they seemed to lose something (much as I imagine a turducken does). The idea just set the bar too high to actually deliver on it's promise of otherworldly taste bud-destroying amazingness. Plus, that's an insane amount of protein for one person to eat.
A quick note about the server... he was kind of out there. It's only because of the Foursquare tips that I knew about the special, and when I asked him about it he said he didn't tell us the specials because he "felt like we had our minds made up about pasta primavera." This is after my mom and I spent a good few minutes with him at the table saying things like, "ya... sure, I guess I could eat that." He was a polite but quirky guy.
3.5 stars on Yelp based on 210+ reviews
613 Royal (at St. Peter)We hit up the Sisters three different times: once on our Cocktail Tour, once for the bar and once for the Jazz Brunch.
**A quick note about the evening bartender: he was awesome. He kind of reminded me of Droopy Dog with a Southern accent.
Seriously, I dare you to go there and tell me I'm wrong. He kept calling my father "Big Daddy" and when my mom asked if he made a good mojito, he dryly responded "oh darlin', everything I make is good, so long as it's a good drink to begin with." Ask him to make you a Bayou Bash... you won't regret it.
Anyway, the brunch. I'm not a huge buffet fan simply because I normally don't eat enough to warrant the fairly high price tag. This place ran us $29 per person and I think we all agreed we would have liked it more if it had been $19 per person instead. It was way too crowded to take pictures, but I will tell you that the brunch boasts 80 different menu items, and everything we ate ranged from "ok" to "WOW".
WOW items: omelet station eggs benedict (the guy manning it was a master at poaching multiple eggs at a time), potato salad, creamed spinach, ribs (says my father), garlic mashed potatoes and catfish roulade.
I will also say that our server at this place was INCREDIBLE. Most places we ate at in New Orleans had great service, but there was something about this guy that was just above and beyond. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it's somewhere between his manner of speaking and ability to name all 80 items on the menu that day.
Decent jazz and nice and warm on a 35' day. I would recommend this place, but probably wouldn't go to the brunch again.
Tony Moran's Restaurant
2 stars on Yelp based on 9 reviews
240 Bourbon (at Bienville)
This is a perfect example of my theory on Yelp. Most of the reviews are over a year old and there are so few that you can't really judge based on that alone. Well, my friends, I'm here to tell you that this was one of the better meals we ate in the Big Easy. Like Cafe Pontalba, we stumbled in here because it was one of the few places still open for food (11:40pm) and I'm so glad we did. Another example of completely exquisite service matched with some seriously nommy food.
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| Caesar salad with a hard boiled egg on a large crouton |
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| Caprese |
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| Penne with crawfish |
3.5 stars on Yelp based on 100+ reviews
301 N. Peters Street (at Bienville)
WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR THIS PLACE WAS! We ate here after 5 solid days of fried/creamy/creole/cajun and as much as I love that kind of food, my stomach needed a break. Enter Felipe's:
This place just felt fresh. It's a Chipotle-style place where they make your food at your direction, but also has a full bar on the other side of the place.
WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR THIS PLACE WAS! We ate here after 5 solid days of fried/creamy/creole/cajun and as much as I love that kind of food, my stomach needed a break. Enter Felipe's:
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| Note: this is when I discovered Camera360 and it's infinite number of camera styles. Please don't hate me for the retro-style and tilt-shift photos :) |
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| Be warned: these puppies are STRONG. |
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| Regular Photo |
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| Instagrammy |
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| Tilt-shift. Just looks freaking adorable. |
Cafe Dumond
4 stars on Yelp based on 2000+ reviews
800 Decatur (at St. Ann on Jackson Square)
There really isn't much to say about this place other than you're a fool not to go at least once (and you can skip the hot chocolate, which I'm 99% certain comes from a Nescafe machine).
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| 2 orders of beignets = 6 beignets |
Surrey
4.5 stars on Yelp based on 300+ reviews
1418 Magazine Street (at Terpischore St.)
The one thing this joint has going for is charm. It's almost as if someone built another house around the house that houses the kitchen (is that enough houses for you?)
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| Condiments hang on the wall... what a novel/smart idea! |
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| The tables are decorated with kitschy retro home decor samples. |
If this review was based on my food alone, I would say skip it. I had a roast veggie po'boy and it was just ok. In truth, I would have rather had a plate-full of the incredible potato salad that came as a side:
My parents' choices were much tastier.
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| Crab melt sandwich |
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| Eggplant flatbread served on foccacia |
Let me tell you something, Garden District hipster in your prarie dress and boots and hair that needs a wash: what a sad way to end our otherwise flawless service experience in New Orleans. I get that there are probably a million other things you'd rather be doing than serving 3 really needy tourists who went way out of the comfort of the French Quarter to visit your establishment, but really? As my grandmother would say, shame on you.
That being said, this place is known for their fresh squeezed juice and the flavor of my $5 12 oz. glass of OJ was superb. THAT being said, we wouldn't return (and I recommend you don't either).
Last thing I'll say about this place: rumor has it (on Yelp) that if they're busy and you've been enjoying your table for too long, they'll give you the boot. Based on this sign, I don't think that's a lie:
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| The friendly Get Out sign |
So, you hungry yet?
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