Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - New Orleans restaurant recommendations

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I just returned from New Orleans on Sunday night. It was my first trip and it was outstanding. We stayed at the Sheraton on Canal Street, right around the corner from the St. Charles streetcar. Upon arriving on Thurs, Nov 14, we took a cruise on the Natchez since the weather was pretty. We planned on catching the early-bird at Brigtsen's (stop #44 on the streetcar). You must arrive by 6:30, so we made our reservation for 6:15pm to be on the safe side. TAKE the streetcar; cuz the taxi cost us $16.00! You must allow 40+ minutes to get there. The meal was outstanding and the place was packed at 6:30! Friday morning we had a reservation at Brennan's at 8:30am. Again, make a reservation. Our waiter was wonderful about suggesting we share an omelette. It was the best suggestion after the dinner before. For "Friday Lunch" we chose Susan Spicer's Bayona. We had seen the filming of a movie going on earlier in the morning; and suddenly, Gene Hackman came in to Bayona to do Lunch....yes, another gr8 meal. The smoked duck w/pepper jelly on multigrain was delicious as was the flourless chocolate cake. Though we worked out at our hotel gym and walked all over the French Qtr, we skipped out on our reservation at Gabrielles that night and opted for a modest place for a nondescript plate of shrimp creole. (We needed to get ready for Saturday's round of dining). We had a delicious breakfast at Quarter Scene, a local favorite. Dinner was gr8 at Galatoires. We had two delicious crab dishes. Our reservation was for 8:30pm, so make sure you plan your meals or you won't get in. Lastly, on Sunday, we got into some Bloody Marys at Harrah's Casino before going to Commander's Palace for a 1pm reservation. Mimosas followed by three course meal was just unbelievable. The waiter offered us a 'lagniappe'(a little something extra), by bringing a third dessert, their signature bread pudding. Yes, we ate three desserts..then WALKED all the way back to the French Quarter. The dining experience/city sightseeing tour, and cruise on the Mississippi made for a perfectly romantic long weekend. I highly recommend New Orleans.

One last question...I have the November issue of a travel magazine that mentions a restaurant called Gautreau's. Does anyone have an experience there? The author seemed to imply that it was a very local type of place (which is the kind I love to discover when I travel). Thanks!

Wow Liz..are you a real person, or the Eveready Bunny???

Mike, That was funny. No disrespect meant to Liz but to complain about a $16 cab ride and then to tell us that you went to all of these expensive restaurants? I guess we all just got another pointer on how to vacation inexpensively; walk and take public transportation!

I think another tipoff was the "breakfast at Brennan's" comment. I'd rather waste the money on the cab, because it is cheaper!

We went to Irene's Restaurant and it was very nice and the food was great - service was fast and friendly - they have a variety of food that is very well presented. You should be there beforee 5:30pm because they do not take reservations and when we came out there was a line. Price was right and so was the atmosphere.

Hope I caught you before your trip! Try Petunia's in the Quarter - they have fantastic food and it's uhhhhh, different. Enjoy the city!!

Petunia's...what do you mean, different? (But since I need good stories to tell the folks back home...) I'm fairly certain that one trip to New Orleans will not be enough for us!

My advice is not to come here, because once you do, you will never be able to eat back home again and enjoy the meal!

How right you are, Richard! I'd kill for a DuMonde beignet, Mother's Ferdi's Special, K-Paul's jambalya, Jacques-Imo's crabstuffed pork chop, Abita Turbo Dog beer, Central Grocery muffaletta, Mona Lisa pizza, Felix's oysters, Manale's BBQ shrimp, Lucky Dogs and gumbo anywhere! And ANYPLACE Cindy goes instantly turns "different"! ;-D Don't know if that town can take the 4 of us, lady! Is it Friday yet? Kal

Well we leave on Friday and I'm still trying to figure out how to fit 20 different dinners into the weekend! I guess I'll bring pants with elastic waistbands. Sounds like I'm going to need that!

Kelly, those are known in my family as "buffet pants." Sad but true! Enjoy your visit. N.O. has SO many good restaurants that you surely can't go wrong.

Funny I just got an e-mail from my friend who visited here last month. She is still trying to take off the 6 pounds she put on in a 3 day whirlwind eatfest! "now we gota try this, ohh and oh my you really have to try some begneits (3000 cal) and while we are there we may as well stop at Aunt Sally's and pick up a box of Pralines (6000 cal). Oh...ya know we are so close to Central grocery lets split a Mufalata (800 cal). In the morning we can have a mexican omellate at Camillias grill (3000 cal),...lunch BBQ shrimp (20,000 cal) ....etc etc etc. This sound familiar to anyone?

Fortunately, I learned long ago that counting calories is not the best way to enjoy life! Put a delicious dinner in front of me and I can't even remember the word diet! (Besides, there's always next year to get back on the diet wagon) Well, we leave tomorrow and I am very excited. Thanks for all the info!

I don't know if there are enough Hurricanes in the city for the Kal's and us, but one day we'll give it a try! Kelly: Have a great time tomorrow - I sure do envy you since I have 10 loooong months to wait till our next visit!! Post a report when you get back and let us know what you did and if you enjoyed yourself. Back to Petunia's - you need to see it and eat there to appreciate the "difference", I'll leave it up to your curiosity! If you go for breakfast you might want to split an omlet, they're HUGE!!

I'm looking for Petunia's address. Is it in the French Quarter? I will definitely post a report when I get back.

Hi Kelly, the address is 817 St. Louis Street - the website is www.petuniasrestaurant.com. We leave in just over two weeks - so I'll be watching for your reports! Have fun.

Lenore, As we say, Petunia's is on St Louis within "crawling" distance to Bourbon! Have fun in 2 weeks! Cindy, Monsoons @ Port o' Call (and a cheeseburger-baked tater) and Purple Voodoos @ Lafitte's along with Abita Turbo Dog are The Kal's booze of choice. Richard, As a Flight Attendant told us once, "There ARE no calories on vacation!" We vacation by those rules. Unfortunately, they immedaitely find you as soon as you land at your home airport! When we "were younger" we were able to get up early in NOLA and walk from Canal down Bourbon to Esplanade, down to the river then down the Moonwalk all the way to Poydras for an early morn' walk...of course we wound up at DuMonde but any exercise is mo' bettah than no exercise. This past Oct. trip, we rarely saw 11:00 a.m. before the feet hit the floor. Tulane Dan, "buffet pants" appears to be a universal term. Pretty funny how terms get around. Aloha, Kal

Hi Everyone! Well, we had a blast in New Orleans and I really think that I will be making a return visit sooner than I thought! How can one person eat so much is beyond me (or drink so much for that matter)... We landed on Friday afternoon and wandered down Bourbon Street during daylight hours. Lots of interesting fleshy places and bars...We ate lunch in the French Quarter at Deannie's Seafood and had my first po-boy. I was stuffed but somehow managed to squeeze in a beignet from Cafe du Monde a few hours later. After we freshened up a bit after our wanderings around the French Quarter (Royal Street for fun window-shopping, Jackson Square to soak in the sun and look at the scaffolding on the cathedral, Moon Walk along the river, and back down Decatur to Canal...), we headed to Harrah's Casino to play a little before heading back to Bourbon Street and our reservations at Galatoire's. What a wonderful meal. I thought it was very beautiful and great service. We enjoyed it very much. And then with satisfied, full bellies, we ventured into Bourbon's nightlife. I'm not sure how time goes by so quickly, but before we knew it, it was 6am! We managed to get to Cafe du Monde for another beignet before we headed back to the hotel for a little sleep. Saturday...We ate lunch at The Acme Oyster House. Boyfriend was in heaven. He never seems to get oysters at home but was raving about his there. I had some catfish since my belly was a little unhappy with me for drinking so much the night before. Boyfriend took a nap in the afternoon and I rode the streetcar all the way to Audubon Park and Tulane and Loyola's campuses. Very pretty walk around and just the thing to work up an appetite. Unfortunately, friends' reservations at Nola turned out to be one person short and could not squeeze in another person, so we tried to get into Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse but were out of luck. We ended up going to Wollensky and Smith's which is a chain but has pretty darn good steak so I wasn't too unhappy and we saw a major league pitcher who used to pitch for our home team in the bar, so that was cool. We again walked around Bourbon (how does anyone who lives near there sleep?) and managed to make our way to Port of Call for a late night burger. Wow, that's all I can say! Those are the best burgers I have ever tasted! Sunday, we went to the Browns/Saints game and watched an exciting (for us) game. After the game, everyone wanted to celebrate and we ended up at Mr. B's (since we were told that Irene's would be closed) for a quick dinner. Gumbo was good, but we heard that the Gumbo Shop was better from other diners. Not that we have a lot of gumbo experience, so...At the end of another long night on Bourbon, we ended up at Kystall's. I've had worse, but would have loved to end up at Port of Call again! We left early on Monday so we didn't have time to go exploring (and eating), but it was a wonderful trip. Thanks to all of you who gave such great recommendations and we are already planning on returning to sample from the restaurants that we missed on this trip. I am definitely going to ask Santa for a pair of buffet pants for my next trip to Nawlins!