Top Gourmet Cuisine in New Orleans and other New Orleans, LA Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Jaques-Imo's

Ultimately a great restaurant must be about the food, but when great food meets a unique and hip atmosphere, the restaurant is truly unique. This is the case with Jacque-Imo's. Located in the Audubon Park area, far away from Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, this restaurant draws patrons from those who really want to learn something about New Orlean's cuisine. The typical run-down narrow store front look of New Orlean's gives way to a dimly lit and lively bar with a retro style decore and piped new age rock music. The bar is complete and the wine list adequate for a seasoned California wine consumer. Good good wines are served both by the glass and bottle at reasonable prices. We were walk-ins without reservations, so I bought my wife an iced cranberry nectar and a glass of Ravenswood Zinfandel for myself, and then we hung out in the bar for awhile watching the mostly younger crowd and listening to rock music. When our time came to be seated, we were led through the stainless steel surfaced kitchen to the back dining area. Special corn bread cakes are served with every meal. I ordered a glass of a dry white wine, and two appetizers. One appetizer was a more or less traditional beef and sausage gumbo while the other was a wonderfully light crab cheeze cake.

Favorite Dish: Jacque's wife Amelia served us on this busy night. My wife had a breaded venison, and I had a firm white fish called escarol. On the side, I had beets and corn, while my wife had vegetables. What makes this restaurant so great is the excellence by which food is prepared, as well as the unusual hip atmosphere. The price for our food was less than Brennan's, where we ate the night before. Owner-chef Jacques Leonardi provides personal attention to his patrons. This was the best dining experience we had in the Big Easy.

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Theme: American
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$21-30  » Currency Converter
Phone: (504) 861-0886
Address: 8324 Oak St
Directions: Uptown: Go all the way down St Charles until it ends at Carrollton. Go right there, until you get to Oak. Take a left on Oak and it will be on your left, less than a mile down.
Website: www.jacquesimocafe.com

Restaurant Name: Verti Mart

Our hotel recommended Verti Mart, which was just around the corner, for breakfast. We ordered hot sandwiches that included eggs and cheeze, along with coffee and bottled juice, and walked the couple of blocks down to the Mississippi River front to walk the dog and eat. Benches along the river were empty and the sun was bright. We had so much good food in the sandwich that I had to leave nearly half behind. So, having eaten "fast food", we trashed the remains and took the dog for a walk. The Verti Mart is open 24 hours, has a considerable menu and provides free delivery in the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. This is one of the least expensive places to eat in these neighborhoods.

Favorite Dish: The menu is very large, and I can't say from one experience which food is best. But, the seafood sandwiches have to be great! The food is prepared well and packaged for convenient take out. Credit cards are accepted at the market, but cash is required for food delivered.

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Theme: Grocery Store/Market
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: 504-525-4767
Address: 1201 Royal St.
Directions: Corner of Royal and Ursaline, I believe. Very close to our hotel, the Villa Convento.
Other Contact: Fax orders: 566-0948

Restaurant Name: Magazine Po Boy

Sometimes Po Boys are compared to Subway sandwiches and other such concoctions served in a French Bun. Except for the fact that the Po Boy could be improved by being served in a Sour Dough French bun, the ingredients and flavor of a Po Boy is generally exceptional wherever one goes in New Orleans. However, the number of places to eat thins down a bit within the Garden District. Luckily for us, we were able to walk the dog past the beautiful masions and then stroll into the Magazine Po Boy. The outside tables and inside tables with open windows are a pleasant place to gaze again at the old masions. Maffettas are also served.

Favorite Dish: I had a maffetta which was quite adequate, and sipped a root beer. But, the menu really is very complete in this place. Your bill has to be paid for in cash, but an ATM is also in the building.

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Theme: Local
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: 2368 Magazine Street
Directions: In the Garden District of NO

Restaurant Name: Red Fish Grill

The Red Fish Grill is an institution and one of several Brennan family restaurants. The noisy cosmopolitan brick and concrete atmosphere is obviously backed by deep pockets, and the waiters are carefully selected and trained. Tommy was my waiter, and he can be reached at tommy0819@yahoo.com if you want additional information about the restaurant. Needless to say, his service was excellent. A small loaf of sour dough bread in a paper bag was brought with the water, so I became nervous that we might face an attempt to mimic my home state style of California. If they were, it was a mistake because the bread wasn't up to the standards of sour dough back home. I ordered glass of Estancia Pinot Noir, as I recall, and Tommy's appearance improved our outlook for the meal as a whole. My wife nursed a cranberry nectar soda. We shared an order of crab cakes, and I ate 6 raw oysters on the half shell. Both of these appetizers were excellent (although I found Jacque-Imo's carb cheese cake eaten the next night more exceptionally crafted. See tip on this restaurant). For dessert, I drank a cup of coffee with the tradition NO chicory, and my wife and I shared a chocolate bread pudding. The bread pudding is typical of the market style approach that the Brennan's restaurants take to their cuisine. While generally excellent, it was perhaps more sweet than chocolaty, the type of chocolate confection that most tourists visiting the quarter would prefer. Thus, if Red Fish Grill has any weakenesses, it's the tendency to market style menu development, a tendency to please the average customer at the expense of the more descriminating food fiend such as myself. As a person raised near the Napa Valley wine region and familiar to the best of San Francisco, I can say that New Orleans indeed challenged my sense of culinary appreciation, and I would not hesitate to dine at Red Fish again.

Favorite Dish: The Red Fish Grill has a decent wine list, although the choice for by-the-glass customers is too small in my opinion. However, I found as a trend in all the New Orleans restaurants tried, some choice/quality limitation at the middle price bracket and by the glass. In other words, the top end bottles were good and there were not really bad wines on the lists, but the middle was rather predictable and unexciting for the California palate. I was lucky that Estancia Pinot Noir was served by the glass at Red Fish though. For the main plate, I ordered a blackened BBQ red fish, which was prepared the way it should be. The fish was dredged only lightly in the spice mixture so that the blackened exterior didn't become a crusty charcoal, like I've seen it done many times in trendy west coast restaurants. The inner meat of the fish was cooked but was moist and melted in the mouth. My wife had the grilled shrimp, which were prepared according to her preference for mild spices. I can't recall whether I had a green salad or gumbo, but I know that both are good at this restaurant. The total for two was a reasonable $105-, including wine and taxes, but not including tip. Given that we had appetisers, wine, and dessert, in addition to two of the top entres, I think we fared pretty well. So, it's possible to eat at Red Fish for less. Overall this was a near great experience, a great experience on the virtualtourist.com scale.

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Theme: Local
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$21-30  » Currency Converter
Phone: (504) 598-1200
Address: 115 Bourbon Street; New Orleans, LA 70130
Directions: on Bourbon Street near Canal street
Website: http://www.redfishgrill.com/
Other Contact: tommy0819@yahoo.com

Restaurant Name: Angeli

Angeli's serves drinks and has live music from time to time, and it's menu is pretty decent if not authentic to New Orleans. It has a full bar, and like many such restaurants, one can smoke and eat at the same time if they wish. The corner set building is old as the mosaic tile floor sinks to one side, but the waiting staff of bohemian dressed youth are fast and efficient. Timbers and steel hold the second story in place, and despite the raunchy atmosphere, the food is largely vegetarian personalize pizzas, greek gyros, and other items not typical of the French Quarter. We had arrived late, but service was still on. Unfortunately, this was a cash only place at the time of our visit, so expect to use the ATM.

Favorite Dish: I had a chicken and olive pizza while my wife had a gyro. Both were prepared with some culinary skill. The two gin and tonics that I drank were quite agreeable as was music.

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Theme: Eclectic/International
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: 1141 Decatur
Directions: Vecchio Quadrato, corner of Decatur and Gov. Nichols in the Faubourg-Marigny district.

Restaurant Name: Cafe du Monde

The chicory flavored coffee with a beignet is not a healthy way to start the day, but it's tasty enough. People love to mingle at this corner of Jackson Square with their pets tied to the iron railings. A canopy top to this outdoor restaurant will keep heavy rains away. This place was open very quickly after Katrina. To go orders are available at a window. The restaurant is open 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, except for Christmas Day and days when hurricane's sweep through. Just down Decatur street at Grandad's General Store, a Cafe du Monde Company Store, cans of chicory coffee, souvenir coffee mugs, beignet ingredients, and other items can be purchased at a slightly lower price an in fresher stock than the ubiquitous souvenir stands around the French Quarter.

In 1942 Hubert Fernandez purchased Cafe du Monde from Fred Koeniger, who presummably is related to the creator of this tradition that began in 1862. The two story apartment building with balcony covered sidewalks across the street (shown in the photos) from the restaurant had already been owned by the Fernandez family and was the location of the Fernandez Wine Cellar, which is now closed. It is on the south end of this building where the souvenir shop is located.

Favorite Dish: I like the beignets at lot. I know they aren't healthy, but I don't eat this kind of breakfast everyday. The coffee-chicory blend coffee is also a unique and excellent way to start the day. Typically, the coffee is mixed with milk in a 1/2 to 1/2 ratio.

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (504) 581-2914
Address: 800 Decatur Street, New Orleans
Directions: Across from Jackson Square, close to French Market
Website: http://www.cafedumonde.com