An excellent place for lunch and an excellent place for dinner. One of my favorites in the city. It is imperative that you go with an empty stomach because you may be full for days after. The place smells like barbecued meats and makes your mouth water the second you arrive. Equipped with a stellar drink menu, Cochon has cocktails that are not to be missed. My favorite food options include wood-fired oysters with chili garlic butter, the boucherie plate, smoked hamhock, and beef short rib. The restaurant is part of the Donald Link Restaurant group, one of the most distinguished chefs in the New Orleans area, but the head chef goes by the name of Stephen Stryjewski. More of his restaurants will be mentioned later throughout the website. 

Shaya and Domenica are part of a restaurant group called BRG Hospitality. The name has been changed recently due to some reorganization in the company. I will not go further into detail, but Domenica used to be one of the best Italian restaurants in New Orleans. While it is still good, it just a shadow of what it was in its glory days. It is still a beautiful restaurant in one of the Roosevelt, one of the nicest hotels in New Orleans. If you go during Christmas time, the hotel lobby has a beautiful festive display. 

Another Emeril restaurant. This one is located in the French Quarter. While I have not been in some time, it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first meal I ever had in New Orleans when I visited as a junior in high school. The fried chicken is out of this world.

Another phenomenal fish restaurant in the French Quarter where you can’t go wrong with anything you order. All of their dishes fully embody the New Orleans flavor. They also implement a sense of Southern hospitality in their service that often gets overlooked at restaurants these days. While the interior is a little outdated, the food is so damn good, it’s timeless (by no means am I suggesting that they serve expired food). Restaurants should strive to be like GW Fins. Do yourself a favor, and be sure to get the lobster dumplings. 

A restaurant in Uptown with great NOLA flavor. It was close to campus but very pricey for what it is. Easy to get into for that reason. They offer decent happy hour specials for cheap where you can try some of their less expensive items. 

A fancy Indian restaurant on Magazine street. Across the street from Shaya, although I do not know which would be harder to get into today. It is recommended to order tons of small plates and share them with the table. It reminded me of Dishoom in London. Even though I am not the biggest fan of Indian food, the chicken biriyani, and truffle naan are insane. Not to mention, all of the small plates impress.

Clancy’s is the perfect place for a very traditional and fancy New Orleans dining experience. While incredibly famous, it less ostentatious than Commander’s Palace, Brennan’s, or Gallitoire’s. I recommend dressing nice and expecting a hefty check but definitely worth it.

A restaurant can rarely boast an equally delicious brunch and dinner, but Atchafalaya is your girl who can do both. Top notch Southern flavor. For dinner, I recommend the fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, the duck fat sazerac, to wash it all down. I know duck fat sounds unappealing, but it gives the New Orleans drink delicacy an airy taste and smooth sensation. The menu is continually changing, but those mentioned above are must-have staples. They typically offer an exquisite preparation of duck and fried chicken, but as I said, they regularly change.  

A unique New Orleans French restaurant...with a James Beard Award. A rather complex menu with French classics with New Orleans twists, like a pan-fried pork chop with parmesan grits. They also have a turtle bolognese, which is Italian but still full of flavor. Located in the Garden District on Magazine Street, there is lots to do around it. They have exquisite drinks and even better blue crab beignets. 

Definitely not the best restaurant in New Orleans, but if you need a table for a big party last minute with a fun French vibe, there is no better place. Happy hour features 50 cent oysters and double frozen drinks for the price of one. A very solid pregame if the timing is right. 

The OG Donald Link restaurant. Very famous restaurant in New Orleans. I have only been once, but I was a huge fan. I recommend the house-made spaghetti, which is similar to a carbonara and the duck. I need to make it back here.

Easily my favorite of Emeril’s restaurants. A phenomenal steakhouse. I’m not usually a fan of steakhouses because they tend to offer the exact same thing for a ridiculous price; however, this is worth it. They serve hefty Southern portions, cooked to perfection. In addition to the meat, I ordered sweet potato gnocchi as a starter, and it was delicious. 

New French restaurant. The food is okay, nothing too impressive. However, the ambiance is straight out of a Baz Luhrmann movie. Every inch is well decorated. There are also burlesque dancers that strut through the restaurant. Phone usage is encouraged as a way to earn some free social media marketing.

Another phenomenal dining experience within close proximity to Boucherie is this fine establishment. Jacques-Imo’s is an iconic destination, and they will not let you forget it. They do not take reservations unless it is 30 days in advance. Therefore you may have to wait a long time, but few restaurants compete with their homestyle Southern cooking. It’s the type of place where one table sitting next to you may be sporting fancy cocktail attire while on the other side, the people may be dressed in pajamas. Most of the menu is fried, but it does not disappoint.

One of my mom’s favorite restaurants. French Carribean with a NOLA twist. Once again, it is hard to recommend things on the menu because they always change, but the chef, Nina Compton, has earned the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the South. The beautiful restaurant is located in a hotel, similar to Josephine Estelle in the Ace, so the vibe is similar, but the food is very different. Additionally, she was rated one of the top 100 restaurants in America. Compton also just opened a restaurant in the Bywater, which I will go into detail later. 

My favorite place for Italian in New Orleans. Located on the bottom floor of one of the neo-retro Ace Hotel New Orleans, Josephine Estelle rarely disappoints. While it is known for dinner, you can also go for brunch. And on that note, it’s the type of place where you can go for brunch and easily order three plates of pasta and not feel weird about it. Each pasta dish is named after the noodle; therefore, I recommend the canestri (cacio y pepe), bucatini (amatriciana), and mezzi rigatoni (bolognese).

Another seafood restaurant that holds up against the competition. It’s a better date spot and a significant upgrade to Superior Seafood happy hour with better drinks and better oysters. It was further away from campus and more expensive, so we did not go as often, but I highly recommend it, even if you are just going for oysters and drinks. That’s a meal amiright?

A seafood restaurant that is also under the Donald Link Group umbrella. If you enjoy fish, you cannot miss this restaurant. It is tough to get a reservation, but if you do, they serve a drum that is one of the best things that has ever hit my tongue. Not to mention, they also have a crazy seafood tower, excellent drinks, and a killer key lime pie. But please, do not miss the drum!

It is about time New Orleans opened a decent and upscale Spanish restaurant. Spanish cuisine is one of my personal favorites, and after studying abroad in Madrid for a semester, I crave it often. While expensive, Costera offered a highly desired experience for students longing for that Spanish feel and flavor. It opened my senior year, so I only got to go once, but I went with my friends from study abroad, and we ordered just about everything on the menu. It drastically surpassed my expectations when they served pan con tomate with bread that was actually crispy, unlike what you often get in Spain. I recommend the seafood paella, Jamon Iberico, papas bravas, and fried calamari. 

The original Emeril Lagasse restaurant. A New Orleans staple that serves the classics of the cuisine with Emeril’s unique twists. The service is exceptional, and each waiter has their own schtick. More wine bottles surround that restaurant than the average winery. While it is delicious, many of the dishes are overdone and have too many flavor combinations that overpower one another. For example, one of their famous dishes is the stuffed clams. There was so much shit stuffed into that from shrimp to cheese to bread crumbs, and God knows what else that you could not taste the shellfish. The clams were one of my favorite dishes, but I feel that appreciation for the individual ingredients is more respectable. However, the fried chicken was great.