Guide to Food in New Orleans
When planning our New Orleans trip, I asked several people for suggestions and the first thing everyone mentioned was the food. They all said, “you’re going to have so much good food to choose from!” The only thing I really knew about New Orleans was to make sure we to make sure we mad a stop at Cafe Du Monde. Other then that I didn’t know too much about the food. My husband’s only requirement was that he wanted to get gumbo at some point in the trip.
Other suggestions we had were to get southern fried chicken, check out a restaurant called The Ruby Slipper, and get oysters. I’m not a fan of oysters usually, but according to multiple people they are amazing in New Orleans, who knew?
Here’s our guide to all the food we ate in New Orleans!
We made it to New Orleans around 11 am, by the time we made it to our hotel we were ready to eat lunch and head out to explore. Commerce restaurant was a short walk from our hotel and was rated highly on Yelp. It’s a small little diner where you order at the counter, almost reminiscent of a lunch counter in school. The daily special was friend chicken, potatoes and vegetable. It was under $10 and what they didn’t mention on the sign was that it also came with a salad and bread. SO MUCH FOOD for the price. My husband ordered a shrimp PO-boy and it was all delicious. It was almost too much food, but it was all delicious. If we didn’t to make sure we experienced as much as we could during our weekend we would have gone back for another meal.
This place was on our way to meet our ghost tour and we weren’t super hungry, so we just wanted a quick snack. The first place we tried to go to barely looked open and definitely didn’t seem to be serving food, so we tried this place. Honestly, we ran in because multiple people had recommended “Willie’s” as a must try place and said the chicken was superb. Sadly, we realized this was not the Willie’s they were talking about. This one is a chain that we later found out had just opened around New Orleans. I think they knew what they were doing when they choose the name. The chicken wasn’t bad, they even have their own “special sauce,” but we just got some chicken fingers and went on our way. It’s not somewhere I would go back to again or recommend to anyone else. Do yourself a favor and stick to local restaurants.
I think everyone has heard of Café Du Monde whether you’ve been to New Orleans or not. It’s famous for their beignets. We headed there after we finished the Ghost tour for a night cap before heading back to the hotel. It’s located right on the edge of the French Quarter by Jackson Square and next to the Mississippi River. It’s all outdoor seating and serves beignets and coffee. The beignets were delicious little pillows of perfectly fried doughnut dough covered with and excessive amount of powdered sugar. One important thing to know before going is that the Café is cash only. We didn’t know until after we ordered and luckily, we had cash on us. It’s a must do activity when visiting New Orleans. It’s also open 24 hours so there’s no excuse for not fitting it into your trip!
This was our night for gumbo and oysters. We found this place on Yelp (it’s really my go to for finding places to eat and it hasn’t let me down yet) and it was right in the waking area between our hotel and the French Quarter. We had friends arrive from New Jersey after being reschedule due to the Nor’easter going through the north east. They met us for dinner and the four of had a New Orleans feast. We ordered the char-grilled Oysters, they came with butter, Parmesan, and garlic on top. They’re also serves with delicious garlic bread in the center. They lived up to everyone hyping them up because they were delicious! We also ordered the Bayou Platter Sampler, it comes with red beans, jambalaya, and etouffee. Matt changed his mind and didn’t get gumbo this night, so it was still on the list to get before leaving. All the food here was good. It’s a small place with an oyster bar for quick seating. I believe they also have upstairs seating. There’s tons of places to get oysters in New Orleans so I have no idea how this place ranks in comparison, because it’s the only place we got oysters on this trip, but I can say it was delicious and I don’t think you will be disappointed.
This place was ranked high on every list I found. It was also recommended by those that I asked for recommendations. They said we had to go there but warned that the line was always extremely long and to be prepared to wait. I looked it up on our way back from our Bayou tour as an option for lunch and to my surprise they are on an app called no wait that lets you add your name to the list before you get there. We have a few brunch places here in Orlando that use this app also, so I was familiar with it. I wish everyone used it, it’s so easy. Once you have an account you just look for the restaurant and click “get in line.” The app then tells you how many people are in line in front of you and your estimated wait. The number changes in real time as people are seated, so you know exactly how far down the list you are. The wait time was about 45-50 minutes when I signed in, which was perfect since we were still on the bus on our way back and then had to walk to the restaurant.
Once we arrive we only waited about 10 min for our table, so easy! The diner itself is cute with lots of pictures and cute art on the walls. Our server was very friendly and helpful with the menu. Once we ordered it took quite a while for our food to arrive at the table, but I feel that is because they make all the food fresh when ordered. On top of that they are always very busy so it’s understandable that it would take a little extra. I would make sure you have a little extra time to spend at brunch or lunch when planning to dine here.
The food when it arrived was good, I got a hamburger and Matt got a corned beef sandwich. I wouldn’t say the food was extra special, but it was worth the experience and supporting a local establishment. One thing to note is that the Cafe is only open till 2 pm most days.
We at here with family that had arrived in town. They recommended it because they have been to New Orleans’s quite a few times and had eaten here before. My cousin had also been taking nonstop since their arrival about wanting oysters. It’s a small place and instead of adding your name to a list you just get in line outside on the side walk and wait until you get to the door. Luckily because we had a larger group (6 people) they pulled up from the line when a table opened. We waited about 10 minutes overall. This place wasn’t as nice as Mr. Felix’s, but it was OK. We didn’t get oysters this night since we already had them the previous night. Instead we ordered a friend seafood platter and a cup of gumbo. The gumbo wasn’t that good, but the seafood was decent. It was good for the price and being a late-night dinner, but I wouldn’t put it on the must have list.
When our New Jersey friends arrived on Friday from New Jersey, they of course wanted beignets. Our plan was to head to Cafe Du Monde but somewhere along the way we passed a Cafe Beignet and they wanted to just get their beignets there. Cafe Beignet is a chain that are all over New Orleans, I think we passed at least 10 of them just walking around. They are like the Starbucks of beignets. One plus of the cafe is that they take cards, so you don’t have to make sure you have cash. The one we stopped into was cute with black and white tile floors and lots of tables. There were no other people in there when we stopped in, which was so different from Cafe Du Monde which was packed even at 10 pm.
The beignets were right around the same price as Cafe Du Monde around $3.50 for 3 doughnuts. They were good here, but not as fluffy and light as the originals at Cafe Du Monde. If you’re only going to get beignets once during your trip, my recommendation is to skip the chain restaurants and head straight to Cafe Du Monde.
Lucy’s is outside of the French Quarter and closer to the convention center. I noticed it when we waked over to the Rock n Roll expo to pick up packets for the ½ marathon. The name caught my attention and it looked like a cute little restaurant right on the corner of the street block. It was open on two sides so the breeze could pass through the restaurant. I then all but forgot about it the rest of the weekend, until we were looking for a place for a quick lunch after the run on Sunday before we had to head to the airport. My cousin’s girlfriend had searched out a list of a couple options and Lucy’s was on that list. We decided to head there because it wasn’t seafood or Cajun which we had already had plenty of over the last couple days.
We walked in and waited about 5 minutes for a table. The servers and staff were very friendly and the vibe in this restaurant is very relaxed. It’s decorated exactly how you would expect with surfboards and beach decor. The menu didn’t have a ton of choices, but it had a good mix between brunch choices and a mix of sandwiches. I got a very delicious Bacon Brie Chicken sandwich and Matt got the BBQ Pulled Pork Hash from the brunch menu.
It’s not the typical food you go to New Orleans to try, but if you’re looking to take a break from all the sweet treats and Cajun food I highly recommend you check this place out.
If you try any of these places on your next trip make sure to come back and let me know what you thought or if you’ve been to New Orleans and you have additional recommendations of places to eat leave them in the comments below. I’d love to try them on my next visit!
