Root
$$$ | Warehouse District
The joke used to be that New Orleans had a thousand restaurants with only one menu. But today you'll find a dizzying array of culinary creativity, and nowhere pushes the boundaries further than Root. They serve, for lack of a better word, "molecular gastronomy" cuisine, the kind of food created by chefs who grew up admiring Mr. Science as much as Julia Child in a fittingly on-trend dining room accented with bright pops of color. The menu changes frequently but expect to find dishes like hot and sour lemonfish with horseradish "snow," sweet tea fried chicken wings, and scallops perfumed with actual Cohiba cigar smoke. A menu with plates of various sizes helps keep the cost in check. Does it always work? No. Is Root always an adventure? Yes.
