Descending on NOLA - Oct 8-12

[kris Schaumburg]

Stay away from Krystal on Bourbon...

You been T-bagged.

A couple notables that I don't think have been mentioned.

Luke and Borgne are two of Besh's lower end places that both have lunch specials. For the money, it is seriously difficult to beat the deal you get on a lunch special at either one of those.

High end dinner in the quarter, one of the most overlooked places is pelican club. it is ridiculously good.

[swamprooter]

Headed there at 12:00 for "educational" spring break with family.. thanks for tips also

[Duck$$$]

Coops Place on Decatur Street for great food with a funky vibe. It's a dive for sure, a bar with great food. Rabbit gumbo and fried chicken. Try the sampler platter. Server I had didn't care if we dined with them or not, so don't expect great service from my experience.

[jasonmcc]

Irene's on St Philip, one of my favorites, great food, great service!!

Herb Saint

http://jacques-imos.com/ Go on Thursday night, then slip next door to the Maple Leaf for a great New Orleans music venue!!

Check out the Carousel Bar in the Monteleone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel_P ... %26_Lounge Cool history and always a good more refined Jazz band playing !!

Dont miss Frenchmen St., check out Blue Nile or La Maison; just to name a couple great music venues in the Marigny. If you like good live music Frenchmen is the spot!!

Adolphos is a great old Italian place located on Frenchmen as well; or get you something at Port o Call!!

Agree with most of that except carousel bar and port o call is heavily over rated. If you do venture to Frenchmen good eats would be "Maurepas" and "Satsuma" then go grab a bottle of wine and some tapas while hanging with the locals and live music at "Bacchanal"

Stay away from anything labeled "Besh"... new places in the quarter that are high end and good are Revolution and Doris Metropolitan.

[BAY KINGFISHER]

How can a greasy Port O Call hamburger be overrated ..lol......I guess the whole appeal to the Carousel Bar and the Hotel Monteleone is the history that surrounds the place.(Note:Faulkner, Hemingway, Williams all bellied up here; just to name a few) Im not saying its the place to homestead while visiting the Big Easy; but for folks like me who enjoy mixing in a little history with my recreation I would not say the place is overrated. Jason, I do like the two recommendations in the Bywater. I also have heard that Mariza is hard to beat as well!!

[kris Schaumburg]

Irene's on St Philip, one of my favorites, great food, great service!!

Herb Saint

http://jacques-imos.com/ Go on Thursday night, then slip next door to the Maple Leaf for a great New Orleans music venue!!

Check out the Carousel Bar in the Monteleone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel_P ... %26_Lounge Cool history and always a good more refined Jazz band playing !!

Dont miss Frenchmen St., check out Blue Nile or La Maison; just to name a couple great music venues in the Marigny. If you like good live music Frenchmen is the spot!!

Adolphos is a great old Italian place located on Frenchmen as well; or get you something at Port o Call!!

Agree with most of that except carousel bar and port o call is heavily over rated. If you do venture to Frenchmen good eats would be "Maurepas" and "Satsuma" then go grab a bottle of wine and some tapas while hanging with the locals and live music at "Bacchanal"

Stay away from anything labeled "Besh"... new places in the quarter that are high end and good are Revolution and Doris Metropolitan.

man I have to disagree with the besh diss. I wouldn't pay to eat at August. I've eaten there and enjoyed it but for the $$$ I could do two nice dinners most places. But man Borgne or Luke both have daily lunch specials, at great prices, and are turning out good food. I get to eat everywhere usually without footing the bill, so its easy to be unbiased. Revolution is legit.

if you want to have a drink somewhere historic, go to Antoine's. I wouldn't ever recommend paying for antoines food. I would pay for their atmosphere though.

[jasonmcc]

How can a greasy Port O Call hamburger be overrated ..lol......I guess the whole appeal to the Carousel Bar and the Hotel Monteleone is the history that surrounds the place.(Note:Faulkner, Hemingway, Williams all bellied up here; just to name a few) Im not saying its the place to homestead while visiting the Big Easy; but for folks like me who enjoy mixing in a little history with my recreation I would not say the place is overrated. Jason, I do like the two recommendations in the Bywater. I also have heard that Mariza is hard to beat as well!!

Man Port O call on a sunday is packed with ppl lined up to get a burger. Its almost as bad as mothers for lunch...almost. I just think there are much better places to grab a burger but its food and not everyone is gonna like the same thing. It gets packed so evidently someone likes it! I can understand the Hotel Monteleone and this history thing. If thats your thing then def check it out...and then go to Lafittes and then find a nice speak easy in the marigny. I went to mariza a few months back and it was really good. The decor is very cool with exposed brick and HUGE wooden beams. I liked the decor more then the food but still great food! Its below an apartment complex that a friend lives in and he eats there often. He loves it.

[jasonmcc]

Irene's on St Philip, one of my favorites, great food, great service!!

Herb Saint

http://jacques-imos.com/ Go on Thursday night, then slip next door to the Maple Leaf for a great New Orleans music venue!!

Check out the Carousel Bar in the Monteleone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel_P ... %26_Lounge Cool history and always a good more refined Jazz band playing !!

Dont miss Frenchmen St., check out Blue Nile or La Maison; just to name a couple great music venues in the Marigny. If you like good live music Frenchmen is the spot!!

Adolphos is a great old Italian place located on Frenchmen as well; or get you something at Port o Call!!

Agree with most of that except carousel bar and port o call is heavily over rated. If you do venture to Frenchmen good eats would be "Maurepas" and "Satsuma" then go grab a bottle of wine and some tapas while hanging with the locals and live music at "Bacchanal"

Stay away from anything labeled "Besh"... new places in the quarter that are high end and good are Revolution and Doris Metropolitan.

man I have to disagree with the besh diss. I wouldn't pay to eat at August. I've eaten there and enjoyed it but for the $$$ I could do two nice dinners most places. But man Borgne or Luke both have daily lunch specials, at great prices, and are turning out good food. I get to eat everywhere usually without footing the bill, so its easy to be unbiased. Revolution is legit.

if you want to have a drink somewhere historic, go to Antoine's. I wouldn't ever recommend paying for antoines food. I would pay for their atmosphere though.

I've ate at August twice and I just didnt dislike it I hated it. One of the times the bill was over 400 for 2 people. Im lucky in that because of my job I eat out 2-3 times a week on company dollar. I use to live in the Civic lofts right when Borgne opened. i walked over a few times but other then the Oyster columns that was about all I can say for it. Besh steak house is not even in the top 10 steak houses in Nola. Luke is good with good lunch specials. It will always be backed because its high end and in the middle of the CBD. Nice and convenient will always get you steady business there. The thing that I would say is walk into August on any night...walk up to every table and say "where are you from?" I'd say 90% are from out of town. Now do the same at Couquette, lillette, or even in the quarter at Revolution, Eat, Stella or Doris and you'll get a much higher "locals" presence. This is not by coincidence. While I dont like any of the Besh restaurants I do think hes a great person. What he does at Luke for the Marines every year is stand up!

[kb7722]

I have eaten at Lukes about 5 times over the past six months for lunch. The food is not bad but for the price and it being a John Besh restaurant I expected more. The prices are good on the lunch specials, but other than that and you just don't get your money's worth. I ordered the etouffee. It came in a very small shallow bowl with three large shrimp on top. For $24 at least give me a reasonable portion. I would not have gone back after the first time if I had been paying the bill.

I went to Borgne last Saturday night because my wife has not been to a Besh restaurant. I will say this experience was slightly better than my experiences at Luke. If you want Louisiana seafood (not fried), Borgne is not bad.

We also went out for lunch on Saturday and tried Boucherie. This is in Carrollton near Oak Street. We split three small plates and had the krispy cream bread pudding for desert. Every thing was packed with great flavors. The dishes were unique in that you are not going to be able to find them any where else. I thought the krispy cream bread pudding was going to be a gimmick, but it was very tasty.

http://boucherie-nola.com/

I hope to try Cochon Butcher at some point. Anybody tried it?

[kris Schaumburg]

I'd say 90% are from out of town. Now do the same at Couquette, lillette, or even in the quarter at Revolution, Eat, Stella or Doris and you'll get a much higher "locals" presence.

if that is your barometer for good places, then Clancy's is the best in the city ( Actually it is)

[BAY KINGFISHER]

Ive been wanting to try August, but will probably pass now ( even though Im a fan of Besh) I really want to try Stella, have heard real good things about the place. What's the word on Domenica in the Roosevelt? Oh, and by the way Im really jealous of all the folks that get to eat at these great places on someone else's dime!!

[kb7722]

.... Oh, and by the way Im really jealous of all the folks that get to eat at these great places on someone else's dime!!

So is my wife.

[deltadukman]

I haven't eaten at Cochon the restaurant, yet, but I've bought some andouille and boudin from them and was impressed. Ate a lunch sandwich at the butcher shop as well. It was good for what it was.

[southdeltan]

Coops Place on Decatur Street for great food with a funky vibe. It's a dive for sure, a bar with great food. Rabbit gumbo and fried chicken. Try the sampler platter. Server I had didn't care if we dined with them or not, so don't expect great service from my experience.

Coop's is known for it's bad service. They call their servers "snarky" whatever that means. The food is great and inexpensive. My wife and I go there at least once each trip. We actually have never had bad service but that's usually what people complain about.

Great fried chicken. They have rabbit and sausage jambalaya (not gumbo) which is top notch. Their fried oysters are great and the serving sizes have always been large.

[Bill Collector]

Here are two places that you would never walk into unless someone told you to. Mona Lisa's on Royal St has one of the best lasagnas I have ever had and they have great seafood pizza. Fiorellas on French Market Place has the best fried chicken I have ever ate.