I should add that I've never had bad service at Casamento's. That place is easily one of my favorite restaurants in the world. Every single person that I've taken to Casamento's has absolutely loved it. For the price of an entree at a high-end New Orleans restaurant, you can eat until you're absolutely stuffed.
And, I should have added that I'm not being dismissive of modern New Orleans restaurants. I just disagree that the older restaurants are "catering" to the perception of what New Orleans cuisine is. They've been around for over a century - they're the standard bearers of classic New Orleans dishes - and don't believe that those older restaurants should be dismissed. They've been around for so long because they're timeless and the dishes that they make are, similarly, timeless.
The thing about New Orleans that makes it so unique, in my experience, is the absolute bounty of seafood there. (Which, of course, made me so absolutely F**KING mad about the Deepwater Horizon incident - BP should have not been allowed to settle that claim; BP and Transocean and all responsible parties should have been required to annually contribute to a relief fund for DECADES to alleviate and remedy ongoing problems from the spill. Sorry for the rant.) Where else in the US can you get such plentiful oysters, shrimp, crawfish, blue crabs, soft shell crabs when in season, Speckled Trout (which makes delicious sushi when pristine - I just had this for the first time last month here in LA) and Redfish, at absolutely and comparatively cheap prices?
Most of the older restaurants feature seafood extensively, and seafood is the foundation of so many classic dishes. They also serve a bounty of seafood - there's no skimping.
I also can't even begin to count how many overstuffed King Shrimp Po-Boys I had from the Louisiana Seafood Exchange off of Jefferson. When I lived in River Ridge, I ate there weekly. My buddies and I would buy a case of beer, and each of us would get one overstuffed King Po-Boy (or, as my friend Tom used to get, the "football", i.e. fried seafood in a whole loaf of muffaletta bread). I think when I lived there, a King (IIRC, a 12 inch Po-Boy) was $7.95 or $8.95. Whole "whale" sized soft shell crabs were $4 bucks at the market. Beautiful whole white shrimp (16-20 head on) from Lake Ponchartrain during season were $5 bucks a pound. A whole bag of oysters (over 140 oysters when I counted them because I shucked every single one) was $20 in 1995. I was selling them for a 75 cents a piece in Northern California before I moved to New Orleans. I've never seen prices like that anywhere before, or since.
New Orleans is one of the best food cities I've had the privilege of living in. But, I strongly believe that, if you go to New Orleans, and decide not to eat at at least a few of the classic restaurants, whether it's a Po-Boy shop, classic Creole restaurant, oyster restaurant, barbecue shrimp restaurant, etc., you're really missing one of the most unique experiences. (And, yes, I include Commander's Palace among these restaurants. The turtle soup with sherry is a truly classic dish in my opinion. And, I've always had a good meal there.) Come to think of it, I was invited to eat there with some of the most prominent New Orleans attorneys and judges there - they, all locals, chose to eat there of all of the restaurants in New Orleans at that time (1998). They could have gone to any restaurant in New Orleans, including the Windsor Court, Tujague's, Galatoire's, Antoine's, Arnaud's, Dominique's (then at a hotel in the Quarter), Bayona, Brigtsen's, Upperline, etc., but they chose Commander's.
(Sorry for the length of my posts.)