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.
Dijon* (#202, 2/14/2012)
I would say this place served me the best piece of chicken that I have ever had. Outstanding! Unfortunately, the oyster appetizer wasn’t very good and neither was the crab en phyllo. Just not a lot of taste. Some sort of spice cake dessert was okay. Also outstanding was the flat bread to start to meal. And the building, an old firehouse, was very cool, but it’s in quite a shady neighborhood, so be careful.
Mahony’s (#201, 2/11/2012)
I was planning to add some new little places during Mardi Gras, but this was the only new addition. Mahony’s is often called the best po-boys in New Orleans. Hard to say, I’m not a huge po-boy fan, don’t like the hard French bread. But I had a jumbo shrimp (fresh) po-boy that was pretty good. The shrimp was awesome, but still….that bread. Also ordered some dirty french fries and wasn’t impressed, don’t think the cooked the fries enough. Overall, a good stop, but if looking for a shrimp po-boy, go to Crabby Jack’s – still the best.
Irene’s (#200, 2/3/2012)
While I complained about the long wait even with reservations, I should have done better research. Apparently, it’s common to wait forever here, so my own fault for not being prepared. Not to mention, I should be better at being patient and just enjoying time and people watching. I have to apologize for being grumpy, I was starving! The Oysters Irene were outstanding and the filet was pretty good. Also added a very good bottle of wine, so that made things solid. It’s worth visiting for sure, but as noted, be prepared to just hang out for quite a while (waited over an hour past the time of our reservation).
Mondo* (#199, 1/27/2012)
Ventured to Lakeview for to drop in on Mondo and chef Susan Spicer, one of the newer “celebrity chefs” of New Orleans. It was…ok. Not sold on it. Again, decent place if you’re in the area, but maybe not worth the special trip. I had some sort of shrimp dish with cauliflower, it was pretty good, not great. The thai shrimp and pork meatballs were a great appetizer, but the pulled pork pupusas needed some more flavor, should have asked for hot sauce.