Side Trips from New Orleans Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Side Trips from New Orleans - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Side Trips from New Orleans - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
This 19th-century inn with crisp white linens and old brick fireplaces serves French and Cajun dishes to a well-dressed crowd. Among the specialties are Gulf fish Acadian and grilled duck breast. This is a favorite spot for special occasions among Lafayette residents—and with good reason.
This low-key and unassuming restaurant turns into a St. Francisville hot spot on Friday and Saturday nights. During the day, locals and tourists flock to "the Mag" for sandwiches, pizza, steaks, and Southern and Mexican dishes. At night, go for cocktails or dinner; on Friday evening there's a live band.
Locals praise the seafood at this busy spot, and rightly so: the food is consistently good, fresh, and served in large portions. The fried seafood platter—shrimp, oysters, crawfish tails, catfish, and stuffed crab served with onion rings, hush puppies, and a choice of salad or various coleslaws—is your best bet.
An authentic interior (one wall is covered with bullfighting posters) creates just the right mood for chef Kris Allen's wide array of sophisticated small plates and one of the best wine lists in the area. The bacon-wrapped dates, the lamb sliders, and the foie gras are especially delicious.
Overlooking Bayou Amy, Pat's is the real deal, with heaping platters of seafood. On a cool night, get a table on the porch overlooking the bayou and go for the shrimp dinner, which presents the local favorite no fewer than eight different ways. The Atchafalaya Club, which is the area hot spot for Cajun dancing on Saturday and Sunday nights, is next door. Accommodations are also available at Pat's Edgewater Inn, located on the same stretch.
This was the site of Abita's original brewery until 1994, when the company found a much needed larger space up the road. Today, the Abita Brew Pub is a lovely setting for indoor and outdoor meals chosen from a surprisingly lengthy menu of traditional comfort food and regional favorites including pasta, salads, burgers, and entrées like jambalaya, barbecue ribs, and pecan-crusted catfish. These dishes all go well with the beer—a full selection of Abita is on tap, including seasonal brews and a few guest additions.
This small shop and restaurant serves some of the tastiest seafood gumbo around River Road (and there's plenty of competition). Try a dash of hot sauce and a sprinkle of filé, or sample the alligator burgers; finish with a scoop of rich, dense bread pudding. The shop carries fresh and frozen catfish, crawfish, alligator, and turtle meat harvested from the nearby swamps. You can buy seafood packed to travel.
This small and simply furnished restaurant has been serving oysters in the same location since 1869. Seafood platters feature seasonal catches. Steaks, pastas, and regional specialties like boudin balls and po'boys round out the menu.
This upscale bistro with a lush courtyard and walls adorned with art is about three miles from the Louisiana State University campus. Tempting main courses, including seafood, beef, and pork dishes, as well as roasted duck and quail, highlight the menu. The Hallelujah Crab (soft-shell stuffed with seafood and topped with "creolaise" sauce) is a specialty, and Juban's own mango tea is delicious. The warm bread pudding makes a memorable end to meals here.
From roughly December through June, when Louisiana crawfish are in season, local families pack in to partake in the outrageous abundance. Order from the menu—including crawfish, oysters, and a few sides like sausage links and boiled potatoes, plus cold beer—in the simple, stripped-down dining room filled with big tables. Or roll up to the drive-through window and pick up supplies for your own crawfish picnic.
Order your authentic Cajun cooking at the counter of this butcher shop and lunchroom, then eat in or take away. The daily specials will always stick to your ribs. Boudin, sausage, cracklings, and stuffed chicken are just a few of the items available for takeout.
In this cypress house decorated with swamp trees and a large stuffed alligator at the entrance, people gather over red-and-white-check tablecloths to chow down on some local classics: crawfish and alligator sausage cheesecake, Cajun duckling, or any of the kitchen's four distinctive gumbos. Grilled seafood provides some lighter options. At breakfast, try the house rendition of eggs Benedict, made here with boudin patties, poached eggs, and crawfish étouffée over a biscuit. There's live Cajun music (and usually dancing) nightly.
Cross the Vermilion River on a vintage drawbridge and continue down a winding country road to find this classic Cajun "seafood patio," a no-frills dining room serving immense quantities of boiled crawfish, shrimp, and crabs. There's a full menu of fried and grilled items—and cold beer. Richard's opens at 5 pm and fills up almost immediately, so expect a wait.
A broad, clubby dining room invites lingering over some of the best Italian cuisine in town. Local ingredients find their way into hearty Italian dishes, such as eggplant Parmesan and cedar plank redfish. There's also a romantic bar section just off the main dining areas. The restaurant is a few minutes east from downtown along Interstate 10.
If you want a truly authentic Cajun experience, eat at T-Bob's. It's like dining in someone's home—one that's filled with Cajun memorabilia. Boiled seafood is served year-round. Fresh crawfish is cooked to order, and homemade sauce is provided for dipping.
A stylish contemporary restaurant as chic as the crowd it attracts delivers fresh and innovative sushi and Japanese cuisine. Entrées include a sumo rib eye, Chilean sea bass, and various tempura dishes. For a nightcap, go next door to the lounge—managed by the same owners—which has an L.A. vibe.
On the roof of the Shaw Center for the Arts, the sleek, modern dining room of this Japanese restaurant commands one of the best views in town, with tables overlooking the busy Mississippi River (an open-air patio is available, too). In addition to the usual sushi-bar fare, the chefs here prepare creative Louisiana-style variations: try the panko-crusted alligator roll or the soft shell crab, for instance. Weekday happy-hour specials draw a young and chatty crowd.
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