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Chef Anh Luu Dishes on Her Dramatic ‘Queer Eye’ Experience

2024-03-22T12:17:24-05:00

Chef Anh and the Fab Five. | Ilana Panich-Linsman/Netflix

A transformative dinner, a deleted séance scene, and a reckoning with grief in Netflix’s New Orleans season

The final scene of chef Anh Luu’s Season 8 Queer Eye episode isn’t your typical Netflix send-off. As the closing credits roll, she’s hot off hosting a 40-person dinner of scallion- and peanut-topped baked oysters, sour mustard green soup, and ginger caramelized chicken at New Orleans’s Bywater Brew Pub, where she’s served as executive chef for almost three years. At her day job, Luu cooks Viet-Cajun pub fare; her big seller is her braised beef and herb-stuffed phorrito. But this dinner is different: It’s her chance to recreate the Vietnamese dishes that her mother, who passed away in 2017, cooked throughout her childhood.

Fast forward to the present day — almost two years later — and life looks different for Luu. Not long after the show was filmed, she left her job at the Bywater and embarked on a career as a freelance chef. She runs her Vietnamese street food pop-up, Xanh, around the city; does restaurant consulting; teaches cooking classes to local high schoolers; and leads private in-home dinners. After so many years in the restaurant industry — before moving back to her hometown of New Orleans in 2019, she owned Portland restaurant Tapalaya, where she earned a 2016 Eater Young Gun semifinalist nod — the change has helped her find a better work-life balance.

Cooking for Xanh has also, in many ways, been a sort of culmination to the Queer Eye episode’s emotional arc, which saw Luu reckon with her unresolved grief and attempt to heal her rocky relationship with her father, who remarried shortly after her mother’s death without telling her. As part of her Queer Eye transformation, Luu gets a house redo from Bobby, bangs from Jonathan, a sharp new chef’s coat from Tan, and help with recipe development from Antoni. In her segment with Karamo, the emotional high point of the episode, she confronts her father over FaceTime.

Luu is one of three characters from New Orleans’s food world to be featured on Queer Eye: legendary jazz clarinetist Doreen Ketchens, owner of Miss Doreen’s Sweet Shop, and Dan Stein of Stein’s Deli also star in recent seasons. Here, she tells Eater New Orleans about the ways that her Queer Eye experience — including a dramatic deleted scene — has impacted her family relationships, her career, and her connection with her own cooking.

Ilana Panich-Linsman/Netflix

Luu before the finale dinner, toasting rice paper.

Eater: I know that when your Queer Eye episode ended, you were still executive chef of the Bywater Brew Pub. But these days you’re a freelance chef, running your pop-up Xanh all over New Orleans. What made you decide to take that leap?

Anh Luu: I’ve been a bit burnt out on the restaurant industry for a while. I started the job at the Brew Pub pretty burnt out, because I had sold Tapalaya in Portland in September 2019. My experience on the show definitely nudged me to go with my gut feeling that I simply can’t work in a restaurant day-to-day anymore. It was causing me stress and anxiety — not being able to control my emotions was a big thing I was battling at the time. There was a day after the show was filmed where it was really busy, during Mardi Gras, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is not how I imagined this happy, busy time in my life.” It wasn’t serving me to be there anymore. Like with any job, things get repetitive and mind-numbing.

I wanted to be cooking food that mattered to me. If you look at my pop-up on Instagram, all my menus are different — I hardly ever repeat items. And it’s not for them; it’s for me. I want to have a different connection with food than I did when I was working in industry. The show made me rediscover that, because it was a lot about cooking the food that my mom cooked. The dinner at the end of the show — that was the first time that I got to do a dinner like that. I’ve always talked about it, because my mom passed away in 2017, so it’s been about six years now. It was an eye-opener to have the show facilitate something like that for me. They came in and paid for all the decorations; they redecorated the restaurant. It was really, really cool.

That closeness you felt with your mom in hosting the pop-up dinner — has that carried over into the work that you’re doing now?

Oh, definitely. I mean, I call my company a Vietnamese street food company, but it’s really based on my experience as a Vietnamese person in New Orleans. I add a lot of Cajun and Creole flair to my Vietnamese dishes, and I don’t like to make anything too traditional. I don’t want to cook anything that anybody else is cooking. I think about my mom every single time I’m cooking, because it’s based on my flavor memories.

As a freelance chef, you’ve been running Xanh. What else?

I’m a part-time culinary instructor at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. They have a culinary program for their high school students. I like talking to the kids and seeing what they’re up to, seeing what the kids are like now, and if I can interest them in cooking Vietnamese food. I also do some light restaurant consulting. This Mardi Gras krewe called the Krewe of Red Beans has a headquarters community center in the Bywater that’s just starting to get going. I’m helping the young lady who’s starting a restaurant there; I’m in the Krewe of Mung Beans, which is a sub krewe of all Asian community members. Last summer I was traveling and did some restaurant consulting out there. I’ve done some private, in-home cooking classes, which are super fun. I want to start pushing myself in that direction because it brings me the most joy to have one-on-one time, and teach people how to cook the food they want to cook.

I mean, Queer Eye should just hire you to replace Antoni.

He didn’t do a thing for me — let me tell you [laughs]. He was not my sous chef, that was a TV lie. He did not lift a finger to help me do any prep. I had to work in the middle of this lifestyle makeover and it was my choice, but he did not come after-hours to help. His culinary assistant, Rhonda, who is local — she’s amazing, I still talk to her — she came, and we recruited my talent coordinator Jessie. He came and chopped things for four hours. Somebody who was on Tan’s team, their husband was a chef and was visiting, and he was like, “I’ll help!” This dinner was made by me and some random people, not Antoni.

Was he supposed to help you?

I don’t know! It wasn’t like “Oh, Antoni’s gonna help you” — he just said he wanted to be my sous chef on camera. I didn’t really have any interaction with them off-camera.

Ilana Panich-Linsman/Netflix

Antoni and Anh developed a recipe for vegan “steak” lettuce wraps in their segment.

When I was watching the show, I was like, “How is Anh pulling off this whole dinner while she’s actively being filmed and also hosting the Fab Five in her kitchen?”

I prepped for like five hours the night before the dinner. It was all a very fast whirlwind. I was staying at the Windsor Court and my partner Sam was staying at different hotel because they didn’t want us to see each other. It was a strange time. That day happened so fast because they also filmed me seeing my house for the first time, and then we went straight to the dinner. There was also this tropical storm happening outside. Sam’s car flooded, all this crazy stuff. So I was like, “I look relatively calm,” [laughs]. But it was pretty wild. I was surprised that they asked me to work — they came up with the dinner as my reveal party. It wasn’t like I got to decide everything.

Was there anything about the experience of being on Queer Eye that was unexpected for you?

They cut out the whole scene that I had with Bobby. He didn’t do what he normally does with everybody. He actually scheduled a reading with a medium for me to connect with my mother’s ghost. That was really intense. He brought me to the Fab Five house, and he was like, “So, I’ve scheduled a reading with a medium, are you okay with that?” I was like, “Huh?” We sat down and she came in and they filmed it in one scene. It was very emotional. You know how mediums do the thing where they guess the dead person’s initials, and they say stuff about them that’s true? All of that was happening. The producers told me they only told her my first name and that I had lost someone, they didn’t specify who. If she really only knew that much information about me, she was pretty good.

Wow.

Yeah, she knew my mom’s initials. My mom doesn’t have the same last name as me, because Vietnamese women don’t take the same last name as their husband. Nobody knew my mom’s real last name because when she immigrated to America, the immigration people just assumed that she had my father’s last name. And she didn’t speak any English; it was right after the Vietnam War. All my life, my mom had my dad’s last name printed on all of her documents and driver’s licenses and everything. It was pretty much impossible for this medium to research to find that out. Most of it was pretty chilling, and she knew a lot of stuff that nobody outside of my family would know about my mom.

Afterwards, the showrunner of the whole show — who was somebody that I wasn’t supposed to meet, apparently — she came out and shook my hand and was like, “I really believe your mother was here. We were all in the back watching from the laptops and this door flung open.” There was no weather happening outside — it was a nice day. And this door flew open from the courtyard into the room that they were all sitting in at the height of the reading. I was quite surprised that they cut the whole thing, but I was bawling my eyes out, so I was like, okay, good.

Ilana Panich-Linsman/Netflix

The Queer Eye production team suprised Luu by arranging a FaceTime call with her father.

It surprised me that they arranged that phone call with your dad without confirming with you beforehand. Was that…okay? Like, are you glad that it happened on the show, was it hard?

Yeah, it was hard. Me and my father’s relationship isn’t fixed, or anything. He ended up moving to Vietnam that same year, and so it became harder for us to communicate regularly. I still message with him on Facebook, and I’ll FaceTime him sometimes. But [the phone call] was really hard because I didn’t know how much they were gonna edit out. They totally edited out all the parts where me and him were arguing in English and Vietnamese. Karamo had to be like, “Excuse me, sir, excuse me sir, we’re not doing that today.” I can’t believe they cut that part out [laughs]. I can’t believe my dad was being so casual about Karamo being there.

That surprised me a little bit too.

Yeah. I’ve gotten some incredible messages from people, a lot of Asians, being like, “Oh my gosh, me too with my dad.” I’ve [gotten] messages from all over the world from people that have experienced what I experienced. So it’s been really touching and kind of healing to connect with others whothat share my pain.

Were there any of the Fab Five that you felt like you connected with most?

Bobby was the one that went out of his way to connect with me, because his husband is also Vietnamese. So, him being married to a Vietnamese man, he knew a lot of the cultural things about me already, which was really nice. He came to the restaurant and ate a couple times outside of the show. Jonathan has been the only one that has reached out to me personally since the show aired. So I feel like Bobby and Jonathan in hindsight are my two faves, my two that I feel are the most genuine. But Jonathan was also very late to everything when we were filming and so the crew was very unhappy with him at times [laughs]. And he did seem kind of self-involved in the moment, but I think he does care. He’s just kinda stretched himself thin, if that makes sense.

Anything else about the show that we haven’t covered?

I mean, I gotta say, even with all the drama that happened with the show, I felt like it was a good thing in my life, and it made a really big impact on the way I view myself and my trajectory, I guess. Being able to envision possibilities is easy with them and the show. Re-watching it now, and peering into who I was two years ago, like — I definitely needed that. I’m like, look at me [laughs]. I’m not that person anymore, and I’m grateful for that experience.

Any exciting plans you’re cooking up at the moment? I read somewhere that you’re working on a crawfish bread for Jazz Fest.

I am! I’m trying to fill the spot that the crawfish bread people left last year because they’re no longer at the festival. I also think that there should definitely be some Viet-Cajun representation at something like Jazz Fest, because it’s been happening in the city for so long now, and I feel like it’s part of the fiber of our city. My crawfish bread is more of a baked bao style. The original crawfish bread is like a crawfish and cheese loaf, it’s very flat. Mine looks like a baked pork bao or something, but it’s crawfish. It’s got lemongrass, lime juice, fish sauce, and shrimp paste in it. And also cheese — because who doesn’t love cheese? I’m a big cheese eater, I love cheesy things. But yeah, I’m gonna make a five-spice spinach version too, which makes it taste like Pernod or Herbsaint or something. It’s really yummy. I’ve done some test batches and sold them at a couple of my pop-ups that I did at the Brew Pub last month and it was a big hit.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

Ilana Panich-Linsman/Netflix

The big finale.

An Ambitious New Restaurant and Lounge Is Opening in the Former Little Gem Saloon

2024-03-21T11:30:33-05:00

The Little Gem Saloon is opening in the CBD. | Little Gem Saloon

Plus, Toups Meatery relaunches its free meal program as Landry declines federal EBT funding, and a South American steakhouse opens downtown

Glenn and Allison Charles, the couple behind bustling Gert Town restaurant Nice Guys Nola, are opening a restaurant, bar, and music lounge in the former Little Gem Saloon space, Nola.com reports. Headquarters, the first-floor restaurant, will serve a Southern-inflected menu of shrimp bread, crawfish etouffée, glazed beignets, and bread pudding, among other dishes, from chef Louis Brown II — upstairs, Red Light District, a sumptuous lounge and event space with a Moulin Rouge theme, will host musical performances and events. It’s a meaningful revival on South Rampart Street, a 20th century commercial and cultural corridor of New Orleans’s Black community and a hub for early jazz — the Little Gem Saloon was one of its cornerstone music venues. “We feel it’s a lot of responsibility, and we want to keep a sense of the history here and share that with people,” Allison Charles told Nola.com. Renovations are already underway.

Toups’ Meatery relaunches free Family Meals

Mid-City’s Toups’ Meatery is relaunching its Family Meal program, which offered free boxed meals to thousands of New Orleanians during the early months of the pandemic, following governor Jeff Landry’s refusal to accept more than $70 million in federal aid for the 2024 Summer EBT program, which would have offered extra grocery money to the families of around 600,000 Louisiana children. Isaac and Amanda Toups announced the relaunch in an Instagram reel. “We never thought we’d be here again, but we are,” Amanda says in the reel. They’re starting with Easter dinner boxes, and crowdsourcing funds at @toupsmeatery on both Cashapp and Venmo; a sign up link to receive a box is linked here.

A South American steakhouse lands in Canal Place

Brasa, a South American steakhouse from Antonio Mata and chef Edgar Caro, is now open in the former Morton’s space downtown. Many of the dishes from Brasa’s Metairie location have carried over to the new restaurant, which emphasizes unique cuts of Angus beef and local seafood. Appetizers include short rib mac and cheese and boquerones; entrees feature aged hanger steaks, Wagyu pincanha, smoked chicken, black Angus ribeye, and other hefty meat cuts, served with South American-style sides like carrots and smoked corn.

Here Are the Tastiest Italian Eats in New Orleans

2024-03-20T10:53:44-05:00

Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

A sampling of the area’s best regional Italian, Creole-Italian, and American-Italian cuisine, from the West Bank to the French Quarter

Creole Italian food has a particular slant in New Orleans, informed by a wealth of Gulf seafood and the local creed that more — sauce, cheese, cheese on seafood — is better. The city’s influx of mostly Sicilian immigrants in the late 19th century (an estimated 290,000 settled here) expanded the New Orleans table to embrace that island’s particular type of cuisine. That influence, which at one point transformed the French Market area into “little Palermo,” is still apparent on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, when altars made of pastry, fruit, and bread honor the patron Saint of Sicily.

New Orleans diners can celebrate the city’s Italian roots any day with a visit to one of these restaurants, a wide-ranging sampling of the area’s best regional Italian, Creole-Italian, and American-Italian cuisine, from the West Bank to the French Quarter.

Looking specifically for pizza? Here are the area’s essential pizza joints, and find the area’s best pasta restaurants here.

16 Essential Japanese Restaurants in New Orleans

2024-03-19T10:47:43-05:00

Yakitori on the grill. | Shutterstock

Local spots for yakitori, donburi, and so much more

Japanese cuisine is rich with variety, expanding beyond delicate sashimi and tightly wrapped maki rolls to yakitori (skewered meats); barbecue; katsu (paneed pork or chicken); meticulous, multi-course kaiseki; donburi rice bowls; and so much more. While most Japanese restaurants offer some cooked items, this line-up highlights places where cooked dishes are often the star of the meal — otherwise, here are maps for stellar ramen and sushi around town. Here are 16 essential Japanese restaurants around New Orleans.

Where to Get Boiled Crawfish In and Around New Orleans Right Now

2024-03-18T14:07:04-05:00

A guide to crawfish season in NOLA. | Clesi’s

Bring a sack home or pick ‘em onsite at these New Orleans-area spots boiling fresh, well-spiced crawfish

Let’s talk about the crawfish in the room. Those mudbugs are ex-pen-sive! Abnormally hot temperature, close to half the expected total rainfall and a hard winter freeze strained this year’s crawfish harvest dramatically. According to an LSU analysis, the usual 200 million-pound annual catch is cut by about half. Prices are starting to come down from the $10.99 a pound that marked the beginning of Lent, which is some good news. In mid-March, prices hovered between $5.99 and $8.99 a pound. But the truth is, New Orleanians will cut back on some things, but give up crawfish? Hell no.

Because of the unpredictable season, it’s best to call ahead, especially if you’re planning a boil at home and need a few sacks. These are places that can be counted on to have crawfish whenever they’re open if it’s in season. Neighborhood bars are another place to eat boiled seafood, weekends at Oscar’s in Arabi and Tuesdays at Cosimo’s in the Quarter. The Broadside offers free music and crawfish for sale from Crawfish King every weekend though the end of April, doors at 1 p.m.,, music from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

If we missing somewhere to get boiled crawfish right now, send us a tip.

21 Essential Outdoor Dining Spots in New Orleans

2024-03-14T09:52:12-05:00

Hungry Eyes. | Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

From kid-friendly patios to romantic courtyards, it’s all about ambiance at these al fresco powerhouses

Outdoor dining is a pillar of New Orleans's food and drink scene, given the city’s affinity for lush courtyards, intricate balconies, and welcoming front porches. There’s such an abundance of al fresco options in every New Orleans neighborhood, so let this map serve as a selection of some of the finest. A mix of new and old, backyard party vibes and chic sanctuaries, these are some of New Orleans’s best patios and courtyards for outdoor dining. The criteria? It’s all about food and ambiance, here. For the best outdoor setting for drinks, check out this guide to New Orleans’s best bar patios — and remember, if the weather is iffy, it’s always best to call ahead.

Don’t miss our other outdoor dining maps, including covered patios for when it rains, date night dining under the stars, and restaurants with heated outdoor dining for cold nights. Did we miss your favorite restaurant patio in New Orleans? Send us a tip.

Bijou Shuts Down in the French Quarter, and More New Orleans Restaurant Closings

2024-03-13T11:03:10-05:00

Tracking restaurant closures around the Crescent City in 2024

March

Bijou

Rampart Street restaurant Bijou has closed in the French Quarter, Nola.com reports. Bijou opened in the fall of 2021, transforming a historic cottage into a luminous, modern bar and dining room with a snug courtyard out back — chef Eason Barksdale debuted with a menu of tom yum chicken, squid ink spaghetti, and tuna tartare. Jeff Bomberger, one of Bijou’s founding partners, told Nola.com that last year’s summer slow season was the worst he’s seen, and that business has been inconsistent recently, leading to the decision to close. He and Bijou’s partners own the Rampart Street building, however, and as they restructure the business, the restaurant may eventually return — if not as Bijou, then as something new.

February

Calliope Beer Works

Oak Street brewpub Calliope Beer Works closed February 24, approximated six months after opening in New Orleans’s Leonidas neighborhood. Owner Richard Szydlo, who launched Calliope in August of 2023 with a small-batch brewing system and a menu of chicken and waffle sandwiches, fried green tomato shrimp remoulade, and other pub fare, told Nola.com that the brewpub faced a number of delays before it was able to open last summer, which caused financial strain that he wasn’t able to surmount. He’s open to transferring the property’s lease to a new business, however.

Mukbang

Vietnamese-Cajun, seafood-centric restaurant Mukbang, which opened on Oak Street in late 2021, has closed. The good news, however, is that owner Kim Nguyen has reopened her former restaurant Magasin Vietnamese Cafe at 4226 Magazine Street in Uptown — she chose to move, she says, because the space was too big and sales were inconsistent. Nguyen’s mother is helping lead the new restaurant. “Mom loves Magazine Street and heard that we are opening up here [so] she decided to get out of retirement and get back in the restaurant again,” Nguyen says. “She is a busybody and could not wait to return.”

Little Korea BBQ

Magazine Street’s Little Korea BBQ, beloved for creative dishes like kimchi volcano fried rice, creamy udon bowls, mozzarella dogs, and fluffy, chocolate-drizzled croiffles, closed in February. According to Nola.com, the restaurant announced the closure via social media (its accounts have since been deleted), expressing “the deepest gratitude to all of you who’ve walked through our doors.” Owner Joyce Park has run the restaurant since 2015, when her parents retired — Little Korean BBQ was previously located on Clairborne Avenue, before it relocated to Magazine.

The Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings in New Orleans This Spring

2024-03-12T11:10:54-05:00

Chef Ana Castro’s upcoming restaurant, Acamaya, will feature mariscos like shrimp, ceviche, and aguachile. | Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

Venezuelan brunch, fresh aguachiles and ceviches, and Portuguese tapas to look forward to

With another Carnival season in the books, New Orleans’s 2024 restaurant openings are kicking into full gear as spring heats up. Get ready for Venezuelan brunch spreads and spit-roasted meats; margaritas paired with hot, pillowy arepas; fresh-from-the-gulf Mexican mariscos; expansions from a local soul food favorite; menus melding French and East Asian flavors; and Portuguese tapas accompanied by a “jamón bar,” among other highlights. Here are New Orleans’s most anticipated restaurant openings this spring, in no particular order.

La Cocinita

Where: 4920 Prytania Street, Uptown

Benoit and Rachel Angulo, proprietors of one of New Orlean’s most popular food trucks, are launching a permanent location of La Cocinita this spring. Expect a bigger-than-ever menu of hot, fresh, pillowy arepas, including vegan options, and a weekend brunch menu of empanadas, breakfast tacos, breakfast bowls, and arepas. La Cocinita’s full bar will serve tropical cocktails, mimosas, margaritas, and mojitos, plus South American wines and beer.

Origen

Where: 3600 Saint Claude Avenue, Bywater

Julio Machado, the chef behind Uptown restaurant Como Arepas, is bringing a new Venezuelan restaurant to the Bywater neighborhood this spring. Machado has spent years in New Orleans’s restaurant scene, cooking in restaurants like Brasa Churrasqueria, Zocalo, Tacos del Cartel, and the recently-closed Mucho Más. Origen, poised to open in late March, emphasizes brunch: Machado has been teasing spreads of eggs, beans, and rice; stewed meats; arepas; plantains; and tequenos (Venezuelan fried breaded cheese sticks) on Instagram. For dinner, according to What Now New Orleans, expect spit-roasted carne en vara.

Julio Machado

Brunch at Origin.

The Coop

Where: 1030 Derbingy Street, Gretna

James Beard semifinalist Marlon “Chicken” Williams is opening a second outpost of his restaurant, Chicken’s Kitchen, in Gretna. For now, Williams says, the Coop will function as a kind of ghost kitchen, allowing Chicken’s Kitchen to expand its delivery and preorder options and cut down the waiting-in-line factor for customers. He also plans to add fresh-pressed juices, smoothies, and salads to the menu. The Coop may open as soon as May — in the meantime, Williams has already repainted the building a vibrant red.

Acamaya

Where: 3060 Dauphine Street, Bywater

James Beard-nominated chef Ana Castro, who closed her acclaimed Mexican tasting restaurant Lengua Madre in 2023, is embarking on a new venture with Acamaya, her Mexican mariscos restaurant. Expect a more casual atmosphere than Lengua Madre, and fresh-from-the-Gulf seafood: Think aguachiles, ceviches, fish soups, shrimp cocktails, and more. Acamaya will debut in the Bywater neighborhood later this spring.

The Kingsway

Where: 4201 Magazine Street, Uptown

The Vilkhu family — son and daughter Ashwin and Pranita; mother and father Pardeep and Arvinder — is inching toward to the opening of their second restaurant, the Kingsway. Saffron, the family’s flagship, has made waves as a destination for fine-dining Indian cuisine; though the Kingsway will be similarly elegant and upscale, the menu will meld East Asian and French flavors. Renovations are underway at the former Magasin Vietnamese Cafe location.

34 Restaurant and Bar

Where: 710 Baronne Street, Warehouse District

Emeril Lagasse’s “love letter” to his Portuguese heritage, 34 Restaurant and Bar, is slated to open in the Warehouse District this spring. Expect tapas-style shared plates and a “jamón bar”; Lagasse’s son, E.J., is a collaborator. According to New Orleans CityBusiness, the restaurant will occupy part of the ground floor of a massive building for luxury short-term rentals — it’s the latest of three recent Lagasse restaurant openings, a successor to his French restaurant Emeril’s Brasserie and flagship Emeril’s, which he revamped and reopened in fall 2023.

A yet-to-be-named restaurant from Brooks Reitz

Charleston restaurateur Brooks Reitz is expanding to New Orleans with a new restaurant on Esplanade Avenue. Expect a “bar and dining room with an ‘English accent” and a cozy pub feel — but there won’t be bangers and mash on this menu. Reitz plans to lean into New Orleans food culture, weaving together a number of culinary influences and leaning on the example of the French House in Soho, the storied pub where chefs Margot and Fergus Henderson cooked French food in a second-floor dining room in the 1990s. Look for an opening later this spring.

Later this year

Keep an eye out for Étoile, chef Chris DuPont’s NOLA homecoming restaurant headed for Magazine Street; ShaSha Lounge: Social Aid and Pleasure Club, an ambitious NFT project helmed by chef Nina Compton and her partner, Larry Miller; and Rice Vice Sake, a Nashville-based sake bar expanding to New Orleans.

New Orleans’s Essential Seafood Restaurants for a Sit-Down Feast

2024-03-08T11:08:51-06:00

Palm & Pine. | Palm & Pine

These restaurants serve top of the catch day in and day out

This lineup highlights essential New Orleans restaurants serving pristine seafood, with an emphasis on freshness and, for many, sustainability. Many offer daily “Gulf fish” specials or “day’s catch,” choosing the best of what’s wild-caught in local waters. The map includes both seafood houses and a few restaurants that don’t use that label, but consistently feature seafood dishes that hit the highest mark. (And while there are plenty of good seafood take out spots, here we’re highlighting sit-down spots.) Find complementary guides for New Orleans’s best fried seafood, the city’s finest po’ boys, and high-end seafood restaurants worthy of a splurge — below are 12 of New Orleans’s most essential seafood restaurants for a sit-down feast.