NOLA

[hdforester]

The wife and I are headed to New Orleans tomorrow for the long weekend. Have not been in several years. Are there any new "must see, must do, must eat at" places? Thanks.

[jc]

Can not go wrong with The Gumbo Shop on St Peters for lunch and Camellia Grill for breakfast on S. Carrollton Ave. Get there early for breakfast.

[lilham]

Breakfast/Brunch at Slim Goodies on Magazine Street or any Dot's Dinner

Supper at Drago's in Fat City. Get the charbroiled Oysters.

[Duck$$$]

I haven't been yet but the rest of my family says the WWII museum is awesome. I'm going next trip.

[farmerc83]

I haven't been yet but the rest of my family says the WWII museum is awesome. I'm going next trip.

Been 3 times and it is very cool. Last few times we've been down, eat at GW Fin's, Mr. B's Bistro, and spent the better part of one day out around the Bulldog on Magazine. It's clean out there, doesn't stink to high heavens, wife likes the shopping and there are some cool restaurants/pubs/bars with outside seating. I suggest riding the trolley out St Charles, finding parking can be a pain.

[gunner]

Breakfast at Mother's

[teul2]

Jacques-Imo's on Oak St, get the Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake app. Thank me later.
Also, about 4 doors down is a BBQ joint I saw last time we were there. Then we see it on the Food Network. I really want to go to this place. Squeal Barbeque.

Wife has to go to Oceana Grill on Conti every time she goes.
Go get a muffelatta from Central Grocery Saturday lunch because they will be closed the rest of the weekend.

Café du Monde of course.

St. James Cheese Company on Prytania St. is an awesome lunch.

Cochon Butcher is another place I have yet to catch open and want to go. It has been on the Food Network a few times.

I haven't been yet but the rest of my family says the WWII museum is awesome. I'm going next trip.

Ditto.

[deltadukman]

Café du Monde of course.

Lound, nasty, and full of sweaty azzed tourists...plus there is always a huge booty line all for some powdered sugared covered fried sweet bread....you can skip this part

Mr. B's is my favorite spot in the quarter, great bartenders and drinks as well as food. The carousel bar across the street is usually a good time and you can spend all evening between these two places and not have to venture out among the crowd.

Mothers/Camilia grill, overpriced, but good food.

Its not "typical new Orleans" but dragos in the bottom of the Hilton is good.

GW fins, Nola, Oceana all have good seafood.

John Besch's restaurant LUKE is good. You can get all kinds of food, and its a neat place, not in the Quarter, but its a welcomed change from "huge @ss beers to go" and strip club hustlers" feeling you get after a couple of days.

[woody]

I've been down there about every 7 weeks for the last year and a half. Usually there for 4-5 days. Depending on how much you want to spend I would suugest:

1. Clancy's (Uptown; rabbit saugage roll appetizer)
2. Galatorie's (On Bourbon; lamb chops and mint jelly)
3. Antoine's (Lunch, softshell crab poboy and $0.25 martinis. Plus, I recommend going on the tour of the restaurant that they offer)
4. Bon Ton Cafe (On Magazine, Red fish Bon Ton is incredible! Bread pudding is great as weel - they do not cool the alcohol out of the bourbon in the sauce)
5. Drago's (Only for the Char-grilled oysters)
6. Mr. B's Bistro (BBQ Shrimp with extra bread to sop-up BBQ sauce, then walk across street to and have a drink at the rotating bar in the Monteleone Hotel)
7. Cochon (get the pigs cheeks and/or gumbo)
8. Cochon Butcher Shop (boudin and great sandwiches in the Wearhouse district. You can also buy vaccum sealed meats to bring back)
9. Bayona
10. Resturant August
11. K Paul's
12. Felix's (same as Acme, just no waiting line. Recommend the turtle soup and raw oysters)

I actually have a list of nola restaurants I would recommend with the type of food and price range. If you PM me your email address I can send it to you if you would like.

[Drakeshead]

Wife has to go to Oceana Grill on Conti every time she goes.

You all must not have watched the episode of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares:

Kitchen Nightmares: Season Finale – Oceana

May 20, 2011 07:11 PM by Lisa Princ

http://cdn.blogs.sheknows.com/realitytv ... -zekes.jpg

Gordon Ramsay and FOX’s Kitchen Nightmares are back tonight for the season finale. This time, Gordon is still in New Orleans and he is dealt one of the worst restaurants we have seen to date – Oceana! What could be that bad about it? Keep reading to find out!


Kitchen Nightmares comes to close tonight in the season finale as Gordon Ramsay is still in New Orleans, but this time he heads to Bourbon Street to the Oceana Grill. The eatery which boasts of seafood and authentic New Orleans cuisine is owned by two brothers, Moe and Rami – both of whom are considered hot heads and get into fights daily. Upon entering the eatery Gordon is immediately confused as he has to go through one room to get to the dining room, but then he meets the brothers and the blame game starts immediately as Rami blames the room confusion on Moe.

Gordon decides to order some crab cakes, blackened duck and New Orleans gumbo from the waitress that he finds out was fired four times because of the “hot headed” brothers. Excited to try the gumbo, Gordon is disgusted and sends it back calling it “dreadful”. Next up are the crab cakes that are soggy and Gordon is sure that they are frozen so he sends them back and prepares to try the duck. The duck is a disappointment as well though as it is tough to cut and chew and he even made the waitress try it in which she agreed.

When the waitress brought the duck back to the chefs, Rami took a taste and could not believe that he, a 400 lb man, could barely cut through it. The head chef, Damon just about had a fit and was relieved when Moe tried it and said it was delicious and he finished the plate! Damon, Moe and the other chefs were having a good time in the back laughing and mocking Gordon Ramsay. Concerned about the laughter in the back, Gordon decided it was time to round them up and get some answers.

Gordon then gathered everyone and questioned Damon about the crab cakes, only to be told they were fresh and not frozen. After a bit of arguing about it, Rami stepped next to Gordon and told him that he did so because he knew the crab cakes were frozen. Eventually Moe admitted that they were frozen and that the duck was cooked once a month and also frozen, thus why it was like shoe leather. As Gordon started to loose it on Damon for lying to him, Damon got in Gordon’s face but Rami quickly pushed him away exclaiming that Gordon was only there to help. Completely annoyed with the lies, Gordon walked out.

Luckily for Oceana, Gordon did return that night for dinner service to see how it was run. The place was busy and dishes were making their way out quickly. But just as quickly as they went out, were as quickly as they would come back. Whenever a dish came back, Damon and Moe did nothing but blame the customers for “bad opinions”. Gordon decided to get to the bottom of things and investigate the food storage – and you would not believe what he found!

Gordon was disgusted when he opened the fridge to find warm food including gumbo, milky crabs, jambalaya and a few other things. Of course, Damon had no logical answers for Chef Ramsay, but the worst was yet to come. The discovery of shrimp that were so old and bad made Gordon vomit from the smell, yes vomit! When he made the others smell them they all knew immediately that they were no good. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did as Gordon then found dead mice in the restaurant!

After getting into yet another heated battle with Damon, who finally decided to take some responsibility for the food disaster, Gordon demanded that the brothers go out to the diners and send them home, shutting down dinner service for the night. Exterminators were then brought in to take care of the critters and the staff was made to clean the place from top to bottom. Moe started screaming and Rami that it was all his fault for not doing his job, but Rami said that Moe never took any responsibility for anything. In any event, they both knew something had to be done.

After the massive cleanup and extermination, Gordon did a small revamp and presented the brothers with a new menu while keeping some of the old favorites on it. It was safe to assume that Damon was let go and the rest of the chef team was given a chance to take some responsibility after Gordon taught them how to create the dishes properly. Then it was time for the relaunch which went fairly well until Moe started worrying too much about the timing of the food and too little about the quality.

Gordon then asked Moe to go out to the dining room and greet the guests. Dishes were moving out smoothly and the diners were enjoying themselves but then Moe decided that he needed a break and went outside. Despite Gordon’s attempts to get him to come back, he did so only after service was over – I suspect he was drinking. When Gordon commended Rami for his efforts, Rami agreed that he was happy and he had a new perspective now.

But Moe then chimed in that he had mixed feelings and when Gordon asked about them, he tried to get Gordon to go have a drink with him, but Gordon declined. On his way out Gordon asked Rami to keep Moe in line, now that Rami had all the tools he needed to keep the place going. The sad part is that Gordon also said to the cameras that he was not sure the place would still be there when he returned next year. I guess we will have to wait for the new season to see what happened to Oceana!

That wraps up this season of Kitchen Nightmares on Fox!

[dhunter2]

Recommend the McDonalds on Canal St. for Brunch. Egg mcMuffins are delicious. nj

[Long Duck Dong]

That is a pretty good list right there. I went to Clancys when I was down there a couple months ago and it is my new favorite restaurant. Gautreaus was good as well.

I've been down there about every 7 weeks for the last year and a half. Usually there for 4-5 days. Depending on how much you want to spend I would suugest:

1. Clancy's (Uptown; rabbit saugage roll appetizer)
2. Galatorie's (On Bourbon; lamb chops and mint jelly)
3. Antoine's (Lunch, softshell crab poboy and $0.25 martinis. Plus, I recommend going on the tour of the restaurant that they offer)
4. Bon Ton Cafe (On Magazine, Red fish Bon Ton is incredible! Bread pudding is great as weel - they do not cool the alcohol out of the bourbon in the sauce)
5. Drago's (Only for the Char-grilled oysters)
6. Mr. B's Bistro (BBQ Shrimp with extra bread to sop-up BBQ sauce, then walk across street to and have a drink at the rotating bar in the Monteleone Hotel)
7. Cochon (get the pigs cheeks and/or gumbo)
8. Cochon Butcher Shop (boudin and great sandwiches in the Wearhouse district. You can also buy vaccum sealed meats to bring back)
9. Bayona
10. Resturant August
11. K Paul's
12. Felix's (same as Acme, just no waiting line. Recommend the turtle soup and raw oysters)

I actually have a list of nola restaurants I would recommend with the type of food and price range. If you PM me your email address I can send it to you if you would like.

[farmerc83]

Dessert at Palace Cafe is cool after the majority of the dinner crowd leaves....creme brulee, bananas foster, white chocolate bread pudding

[TNBayouBengal]

Here's my "don't miss list" whenever I am in New Orleans:

Joey K's on Magazine Street- Awesome food and really affordable (ie- All you can eat catfish for $13.99). My favorite is the Shrimp Magazine pasta. They also have an awesome hamburger steak
Charlies Steakhouse on Dryades- Great steaks. Basic menu, but what else do you need besides steak and potatoes?
Eleven 79 on Annunciation- Wonderful Italian food. I honestly think this place is where old mobsters go to hang out (Joe, the owner, used to hang out with the "Rat Pack"). If you love veal, you gotta stop here.

On the way out, stop at Zuppardo's Grocery in Metairie (on Veteran's Blvd). It's an old school New Orleans grocery store with a great deli (I think they have like a dozen different types of salami) and bakery (be sure to get several loaves of the french bread).

Also, skip Cafe Du Monde for beignets. The Ritz-Carlton's beignets are WAY better, and you don't have to fight the crowd (especially if you get room service).

[mudsucker]

Go to Mandina's on Canal between Carrolton and Jeff Davis. Get the turtle soup.