The New Orleans

In ever-lively NOLA, great dining options are brimming. Here are a handful of spots worth visiting. 

LUXE

Supposedly named by Jimmy Buffett, high-low Chemin à la Mer raises Southern Cajun cuisine to a fifth-floor catbird seat overlooking the Mississippi from the Four Seasons New Orleans. Chef Donald Link refines the classics into silk, like his dark but roux-free gumbo. Slurp a plate of Murder Point and Little Moon oysters at the restaurant’s Purple Grackle Bar during happy hour.

HIP

Saint-Germain looks like a modest neighbourhood diner (the Sugar Park Pizza sign is still lit). Its 10-course tasting menu does local-style French to perfection — from starters such as caviar bumps and merguez-stuffed gougères to a closing Saint-André soufflé anointed with molten cheese at table. The brigade often pops out to serve, alongside a joyful team in blues de travail making natty wine-pairing magic (think: herbal Lomas de Llahuen 2021 Pipeño with hay-aged squab).

HISTORIC

Enjoy the world’s best Brandy Crusta (bar co-owner Chris Hannah is the ’tender who resurrected it) and eat robustly at Jewel of the South, a 200-year-old Creole cottage-turned-fancy tavern. Hit Casual Caviar happy hour on Wednesdays or dine on choice dicey bits that chef Philip Whitmarsh turns into delectables from tripe, haggis, and pig-head terrine to wagyu tongue and duck neck.

QUICK

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is reinventing terminal travel cuisine. Serving beloved Creole faves from the Dooky Chase’s canon, Leah’s Kitchen dishes fish and grits for breakfast and such fragrant, hearty fried chicken, cochon de lait sammies and barbecue shrimp that a to-go order invites serious side-eye on the plane. 

REINVENTED

A fresh-faced Canadian from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is leading Emeril’s team into the future. Chef de cuisine Joshua Adamo and patron chef E.J. Lagasse (the son) run a modernist cuisine lab at the Warehouse District flagship. Dad’s famed deep-dishy banana cream pie becomes a topiary of sculpted daubs, leafed with mini-mint and dark chocolate, its pastry pot caching a caramel heart. The forest-green Molteni stoves are museum-quality, and the action in the glass-fronted kitchen is pure theatre. 

↗OYSTER DADDY 
Big, gag-inducing bayou oysters, adieu! At Little Moon Oyster Ranch, Maryland-raised Ryan Anderson cultivates one-bite bivalves so sweet and pure all of NOLA is buzzing. 

↗SOUL FOOD 
Smothered turkey necks and fried catfish, fluffy corn muffins, and smooth scoops of creamy potato salad… Café Reconcile isn’t just about heaping home-style plates. It’s a workforce training program where seasoned industry vets mentor and release youth into the wilds of NOLA hospitality. 

↗SALTYTIP
Order the butter-fried saltines at Miss River. By the dozen. Eat them with everything.

— Charlene Rooke