Canal Street Bistro* (#212, 4/12/2012)
DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU ONLY HAVE A ONE-HOUR LUNCH BREAK! We waited forever for our food for no good reason; he said they had a big group and it’s a small place. Then the guy waiting on us (Ian) was terribly slow. When we had our cards out to pay, he kept taking dishes away, asking if we needed anything else, yeah, how about letting us leave this poor man’s Hotel California?! I had a Cuban sandwich, which was decent (nothing spectacular) and the soup and shrimp and grits were just okay as well. Supposedly they have a Mexican night on Thursdays, so maybe going in the evening will be better, but it didn’t work for me as a lunch stop.
Antoine’s (#211, 4/7/2012)
After 197 restaurants, it was time to try the oldest restaurant in town – Antoine’s, established in 1840, also the oldest family-run restaurant in the U.S. The place has served Franklin Roosevelt, Pope John Paul II, Calvin Coolidge, General Patton, Judy Garland, etc. As far as the old school New Orleans restaurants, this was my best experience. It is very fancy (though I was rather annoyed they let people in wearing t-shirts) and the food was excellent. I had Huitres (oysters) Bienville (which were created there, along with quite a few other well-known dishes) and the grilled chicken breast with a béarnaise sauce over a slice of baked ham. Solid choice, though it looked liked the filet was very tasty as well. I closed with the bread pudding, which kind of sucked, so maybe avoid that and go for the famous Baked Alaska. I’m thinking that based on its history and the quality of my trip there, it could make a case for cracking my Top Ten, even though there were some annoying pesky flies around us the whole time.
Casamento’s (#210, 4/7/2012)
The word on the street was that this place has the best raw oysters, so I had to stop in. It closes at 2, so make sure you plan accordingly. I’m not a big raw oyster guy, but these things looked gigantic. The biggest I have seen (kind of made me ill to watch people eating them). While waiting for my own cooked food, I opted for some of their in-house horse radish and it was outstanding. During my first trip to New Orleans in 1997, I was quite hung over with Scott Flanders and we ate at Felix’s. While waiting for food, we tossed some horse radish on saltine’s and ate them…and nearly died. Crazy hot. Well, Casamento’s is the first place to match that fire, good stuff. For my meal, I had the oyster loaf, which is an oyster sandwich – tons of fried oysters dressed between two pieces of Texas Toast. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but once I smashed it down enough to actually bite into it (and once I added plenty of horse radish), it was outstanding. Overall, I think it lived up to its billing as far as an oyster stop.
The Store* (#209, 4/5/2012)
The Store on Gravier Street in the CBD was a good tip-off – it’s always exciting to come up with a new potential lunch spot in the Superdome neighborhood. However, one key recommendation: Don’t arrive right at noon. There was nowhere to park on the streets (we ended up like six blocks away) and there was a ridiculous line inside the place (apparently I am one of the few who didn’t know about it). It’s a casual place where you order at the counter and they deliver the food to your table. It really didn’t take that long when all was said and done (we were back in the office before 1), but since we were all starving, we were a bit grumpy. I had the pulled pork sandwich ($9). Very good stuff, especially the pressed jalapeno cheddar bread. Might be worth another trip…like at 12:30.
Surrey’s Café and Juice Bar (#208, 4/2/2012)
I usually don’t see a lot of difference in breakfast spots, just give me an omelet and I’m good to go, so not sure why people wait in line forever for some of these places. Having said that, this was the best breakfast stop I’ve had so far – but it was about 11 a.m. on a Monday, so the wait was about three minutes (even though this was great, I still wouldn’t wait in line for more than 20 minutes for it). I had a bacon and cheese omelet with some outstanding wheat toast and my friends all enjoyed their food as well. We also had the added bonus of NFL Hall of Famer Eddie George dropping in (it was the day of the NCAA Championship game). Surrey’s also has an uptown location on Magazine – also very good, high-quality food, but often a long wait – the uptown stop seems to have a bad fly infestation, so if that “bugs” you, maybe try the lower garden version.
Pizza Delicious (#207, 3/22/2012)
Pizza Delicious is one of those much-talked about pop-up joints which is only open a couple of times a week (Thursday and Sunday) – apparently, will soon be in a permanent location, but good to hit it up in its start-up phase. It’s an interesting place, with a random gate in a non-descript building in the middle of the Bywater; I’m guessing they don’t get much walk-up business from non-repeat customers. Last night’s menu only offered cheese, margherita, Hawaiian and Kale…Kale? Kale Pizza? This sounds like an awful idea to me. That would be worse than lettuce pizza. Regardless, we went with the Hawaiian and it was pretty good. New York-style pizza with thinner crust. I’m thinking maybe New York pizza has the same benefits of New York bagels and there’s something special in the water, because this pizza wasn’t as good as New York pizza. It was okay, but not going to hurry back. I do regret that I didn’t try the pepperoni rolls; they looked very good, and some garlic knots probably would have been worth a try as well.
Superior Seafood (#206, 3/6/2012)
Located right on the streetcar line, this place has easy access and a strong menu as well as an excellent late-night happy hour. We opened with the Oysters Bienville (not a big fan of oysters? Try piling shrimp, bacon and cheese on them), then I had the shrimp andouille brochettes, which were massive and very good (weird, who would have thought anything wrapped in bacon would be good?). My friend had the Salmon Lafitte, which looked outstanding as well. Some people have been turned off by the prices; I think they expect Superior Grill style prices (name the place St. Charles Seafood and I think people would be fine with prices). I also struggle with the atmosphere a bit for some reason; it doesn’t have any unique New Orleans to it, hard to describe it, but it seems like a sterile restaurant, nothing fun. Finally, fine, Mr. Waiter, it’s called “Brochay,” sorry I didn’t use the proper pronunciation, but you knew what I meant, let it go.
As an edit, I went back on Oct. 6 and it was pretty much awful. The service really sucked – dumbass waiter, who managed to dump some sort of liquid between a bunch of tables, splashing a handful of people – not even a word of apology. The wine was just dropped on the table (white wine, not iced). And the food was not impressive – char-grilled oysters were good, but very small, maybe the season.
Chiba* (#205, 3/5/2012)
Another new place on Oak Street which keeps getting better and better (the street, not Chiba, although maybe Chiba keeps getting better and better as well). Before I say anything about Chiba, I will say that I’m not much of a sushi guy. I’ll eat the rolls and general things like that, but it’s never really been my thing. I always struggle with the size of the “bites.” These seemed even bigger than usual. And I won’t even get into the concept of eating with sticks. We tried the Crescent City Roll (oysters) and the Let The Good Times Roll (shrimp) and they were pretty good. Again, I’m probably not the best judge, but the place had some good atmosphere, despite some of the least comfortable chairs ever. I wonder how some restaurants and bars pick their chairs/tables/stools; fascinating that someone must have sat in them and said, “This bar digging into my back….I like it!”
Borgne* (#204, 2/26/2012)
Located in the Hyatt, it’s a pretty good John Besh restaurant. It is more casual than I expected, but rather pricey at the same time. Solid food and we had a good knowledgeable waiter – though he was right on the edge of talking a bit too much. I had a fired oyster platter which was very good (and healthy, all lathered up in butter). The jalapeno and bacon duck poppers are their most popular appetizer, I thought they were okay. I actually liked the pork empanadas more. Some of the other dishes look interesting, so it may be worth dropping in again, but I won’t be in a big hurry to get back.
Coquette (#203, 2/24/2012)
Had an enjoyable Friday afternoon happy hour at Coquette. A nice range of drink mixers, including jalapeno-infused tequila and bacon-infused bourbon plus very friendly bartenders, so a good time. I went for a good sampling of food at the bar – the collared green ravioli was interesting and good; the oysters were pretty good; the fried Brussels sprouts (confirmed that it is spelled Brussels, plural) were also interesting and worth trying; and the shrimp was by the far the best thing there, excellent. Definitely worth a happy hour stop and sampling a little bit of everything.