Headed to New Orleans, what are your favorite spots!?!

Alright KKF team. I’m headed to Nola in a few weeks, it’s my second time going and I want to see some new stuff. I just thought I would check in with you guys and see what your favorite bars, restaurants, neighborhoods, or historical spots. I’ll be staying at an air bnb, pretty central in the French quarter. Thanks in advance for the tips!

Mike

Eat:
Emeril’s NOLA: stuffed wings, double cut porkchop
Mothers: Ferdi Special, heavy on debris. Snapper soup when on special
Antoine’s: oysters rockefeller
Pascals: raw oysters
Cafe du monde: beignets & chickory coffee
Willie Mays: fried chicken

Drink:
Pat O’briens: Hurricane
Cats Meow: anything (sing karaoke)
Worlds Smallest Bar (alleyway): Big Ass Beer (you can bring it into the next bar)

Visit:
Aquarium on the waterfront, very nice overall and well appointed aquarium

Take trolley car up through garden district, randomly get off and walk around

Do the voodoo walking tour, WAY more interesting than you’re expecting!

Cochon Butcher for breakfast
Felix's (across street from Acme) for oysters - BBQ and raw
Coop's Place for strong drinks and marinated crab claws and fried chicken (comes with a side of rabbit jambalaya)
Cochon for dinner
Frenchman St for free music and cheap drinks

Yes...to the Charles St trolley car. Get off at Jackson and walk as much of Magazine St as you can.

Enjoy!!

Coutelier Nola if you want to check out some knives.

Charles St Trolley... get off at 3rd st. Parasols, roast beef po boy. (Tracey's is a block away if you want to have another po boy to compare.)

Back on the trolley past the bend in the tracks... hit the Maple Leaf for music.

Cafe Amelie, nice patio for dinner
R Bar
Central Grocery, Muffaletta (if you want to compare, try the warm Muffaletta at Napolean House)

Hard not to have fun with 'go cups...

Man these recommendations are getting me super excited. Definitely loved the muffuletta at napoleons. The watermelon pimms cup is pretty great on a hot day too.

osakajoe said:

Coutelier Nola if you want to check out some knives.

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Thanks for the tip! Can’t wait to check it out.

Po boys - parkway tavern or verti marte
Restaurants - Maypop, Toups, Bacchanal, compare Lapin, ralphs on the park. Camellia grill - it’s a diner but it has some charm, good hangover cure.
Bars - r bar, black penny, bayou beer garden (usually has crawfish on the weekends when in season) Mimi’s in the marginy - excellent food too but it wouldn’t seem like it. And Molly’s at the market. These are just a couple of the places I hang out at.

These are just some ideas I haven’t to seen mentioned yet and some places I think you will find more locals than tourists. There are plenty of old school New Orleans restaurants that are easy to google if you want to check those out. Commanders, Brennan’s, Galatoies to name a couple. And google what’s going on the week your coming, there’s always festivals and whatnot, specially near the quarter in Armstrong park. To check out a different side of New Orleans take the fairy to the West Bank, couple of bars in the area it drops you off and it gets you out of the chaos that can be the French quarter.

Do you guys have any opinions on the best balconies to have a drink at in New Orleans? I just love the look of them and want to relax with a cold beverage in my hand from up high.

Can't find a good massage parlor in that town so I avoid it.

Thread resurrection. We have a trip to New Orleans coming up. Any updated recommendations?

TIA,

In my opinion, New Orleans does the big hotel bar better than anyone else. Carousel Bar and Sazerac bar are favorites. Cure is good for cocktails. Latitude 29 is a tiki destination. Also a fan of old absinthe house.

For food, it’s hard to go wrong with the old stalwarts - Galatoire’s, Commanders, Antoine’s, Emerils, Arnaud’s. But don’t sleep on the new guard either. I’ve been to and like Justine, Herbsaint, August, and La Petit Grocery.

Wow, it's been a minute! I haven't been since before Katrina or since the fat man died and his establishment, K Paul's, shuttered for good, but I hear Herbsaint is still great. That would be near the top of my list. Please report back what you find.

ethompson said:

In my opinion, New Orleans does the big hotel bar better than anyone else. Carousel Bar and Sazerac bar are favorites. Cure is good for cocktails. Latitude 29 is a tiki destination. Also a fan of old absinthe house.

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Agreed. I hadn't thought of it that way, but New Orleans does have some really nice hotel bars doesn't it... I've been to both of your recommendations and liked them too.
The Columns Hotel also has a very nice bar, and is convenient to the Charles streetcar. La Boucherie is good for dinner (French meets southern), and also convenient to the streetcar (and Snake and Jakes is nearby too, if you like local dive bars).

David - highlights from a few year ago (no particular order) - all on the upper end cost wise but worth it IMO ... + agree with the hotel bar thoughts just not where I normally find myself when I'm searching for food as a driver ...

Cochon
Luke
Restaurant R'evolution

Hope you have a great time ... miss that place ..

BMB

Thanks! We're taking our son (he turns 9 the day before we leave), so dive bars are likely out of the picture. Sadly, I will admit. I hit quite a few of them the one other time I have been down there (~20 years ago).

I think we'll probably go for one or two nice dinners while we are there. I'm not into fish, but KKFers have enjoyed a visit to Dardeau at Peche, and even my dad and his brother/ sisters had a great dinner there 4-5 years ago. Anyone know if Dardeau is still there? Maybe Cochon, and definitely their butcher shop; I've been dying for another N.O. muffuletta for 21 years...

R'evolution is high on the list too, based on Montezuma's past posts. And Herbsaint had caught my eye.

We'll be staying in a condo near the universities. so a little to the west of the warehouse district. There is a raw bar over there my wife and son are already talking about going to. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they also grill a mean steak or pork chop

It has been too long since I have been to NO to give recommendations. I don't even know if Acme, the magnificent oyster bar where I once ate three dozen oysters before dinner still exists. If it does, and if you like oysters, go. But eat them standing up. When a table orders oysters, they take a plate out of the fridge. When someone standing at the bar orders oysters, they open them in front of you. At least that's how it was...

One recommendation that probably still holds: make as many reservations as you can before your trip. The high-demand places fill up.

Another: eat some barbecued shrimp. This is shrimp in a sauce containing tons of butter. It's decadent and wonderful. I had it at Mr B's.

Thanks! I'm not sure we can make many reservations before we go, but will likely try to make them as far ahead as possible for the Friday and Saturday night. We tend to go to dinners early due to our son (~5:30 pm), so we are often ahead of the crowds.

Take a cooking class with the New Orleans School of Cooking (demonstration or hands-on). You eat what is cooked plus pitchers of local beer. Also the Copper Monkey, dive bar with good food.

Pretty much everything within the Donald Link restaurant group (peche, Cochon herbsaint butcher etc) is what I recommend. Still to this day a dinner I had at herbsaint around 2012 is the best meal I’ve ever eaten.

Cochon is excellent. Had lunch and dinner there and both visits were memorable. Beignet's at Cafe Du Monde, but go at an odd time as the queues can be horrendous.

Peche and Emeril's NOLA are booked. Peche was a tough pick, since that group has so many restaurants that sound spectacular. I'm not into seafood, and Dardeau is no longer working there, but I went with Peche because my wife and son will enjoy the fish.

Our other dinners will likely be pretty casual. If for no other reason than Friday/ Saturday night dinners are fully booked. I definitely plan on hitting Cochon Butcher for a big lunch one of the days, which will reduce the need for dinner that night.