New Orleans - Trip Report [New Orleans, Louisiana]

Spent a week in New Orleans in August. It was hot and muggy but mostly overcast with scattered thunderstorms everyday that broke up the humidity and coming from San Francisco I welcome the heat.
We hit: Saint John, Manolito, Commander’s Palace, Luke (happy hour oysters and cocktails) and Domenica (happy hour pizza and wine), Liuzzas By The track, Parkway Bakery, Domilise’s, Killer Poboys, Superior Seafood and Oyster Bar (happy hour oysters, char grilled oyster and cocktails), Hansen’s Sno-Bliz and Plum Street Snowballs, and Cochon Butcher (sandwiches for plane ride and andouille and boudin for the freezer).

Liuzzas By The Track
Casual spot that does all the classics well, gumbo, poboys, red beans and rice and large frosty mugs of beer - BBQ shrimp poboy is a specialty. I had the half soft shell crab poboy and gumbo. Tasted the BBQ shrimp which had a buttery pepper sauce with a little heat and sweetness. Liuzzas By the Track is a great lunch spot because it is a couple blocks from Cemetery No. 3 and City Park, so you can make a day of it. The New Orleans Museum at City Park was closed for some movie filming but the sculpture garden and surrounding landscape are among the finest I’ve been to. Also Cafe Du Monde has an outpost there for your a low key beignet fix.





Manolito - French Quarter
Charming little non-touristy Cuban spot just 2 blocks from Jackson Square serving a small menu of Cuban cocktails and food. Food was great - cubano, maduros, black beans and rice, etc. Quality cocktails - El Presidente and frozen daiquiri.



Domilise’s Poboy and Hansen’s Sno-Bliz
Domilise’s uses smaller shrimp with a lighter batter tha Parkway. Excellent poboys, I had the half and half catfish/shrimp. Walking distance to Hansen’s.
Hansens is a classic place, opened in 1934 and the walls are covered with old menus, hand drawn flavors etc. Their syrups seem homemade, but like Plum Street Snoballs, unless you go for a natural juice or tart flavor they’re shockingly sweet (kids didn’t seem to mind). I learned my lesson at Plum St. and went with the tart satsuma.





Commander’s Palace
Someone in out party insisted on going here and the food was probably better than I expected. Smoked redfish cake over maque choux that had complex cajun spicing. Lacquered boudin stuffed quail was good and very rich but the sauce was a bit sweet. Good sazerac. Peach coffee cake and fleur de lys creme brulee.





Domenica
Happy hour, half price on all pizzas, beer and wine by the glass. Who would have guessed they make a really excellent clam pie. Prosciutto pie had generous amount of prosciutto, but could have been sliced thinner.


August is a slow month in N.O. and hotels are cheaper, the city is less crowded and they have Coolinary August (basically restaurant month) with set $45/$25 menus for lunch and dinner, so if you can take the humidity and aren’t hurricane wary it is a good time to go.

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Well done sir !

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Just drive/move 20 miles south and you will have plenty of heat - currently 85F in our garden at 6:30pm

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Beautiful photos and report. I visit New Orleans (mostly the French quarter area) and loved the food experience.

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We did 3 nights in the French Quarter and the rest in the CBD and Warehouse District. Was nice to mix it up.

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Love the elegance of commanders love the room overlooking the garden. The service is impeccable. Fun atmosphere.

Yes, its a formal but fun vibe. And traveling by streetcar has to be the most relaxed form of transportation around.

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Muskrat Ramble - Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five (1926) - YouTube

can you feel it?

not sure what it’s gonna take to get a dedicated NOLA category… hope your post helps.

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I agree - there is at least one NOLA local and people seem to travel there regularly. When I searched before my trip it was a hodgepodge of posts, so instead of having say one Parkway post there are scattered mentions. People can still do trip reports if they want but I prefer adding to an existing thread dedicated to a specific restaurant so the info is in one place.

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Thanks! We are headed to New Orleans for a couple nights in September.

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Have fun - feel free to DM me if you have any questions, we did some non-eating fun stuff too!

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Yes snoballs are def a children’s thing, unless you grew up there and are used to the sweetness. When I was a kid my mom would take us to Plum street and we would always get the chocolate with condensed milk. Now I get one of the tart flavors at Hansen’s. I will sometimes get a chocolate with condensed milk for nostalgic purposes. When we take friends there, if they get a sweet flavor they can never finish it.

A girl I grew up with, her daughter was living in NYC and opened a snowball stand there. Adults never really got the treat but their kids always loved it.

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I saw a grown woman at Hansen’s order a LARGE snowball with condensed milk, chocolate and whipped cream - my teeth hurt just looking at it.

there’s some sweet stuff in that city! pralines, man, I get the same feeling in my teeth itching…but i still dive into the shallow end!

what are your top 3 desserts in NOLA?

I’m going with the table side bananas fosters at Commanders, the chocolate baked alaska at Antoines and the white chocolate bread pudding at the jazz and heritage festival!

And a fourth would be the chocolate pecan pie at Galatoires.

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We just checked and sadly found that Cherries Jubilee no longer appears among Galatoire’s desserts.

@BoneAppetite - i would still ask them about it if you’re ever there in person. That’s a winner of a dessert. I once went to Commanders with that bananas foster front of mind (ok, and the turtle soup) and they told me they were out of bananas. One of the captains came by and asked how the dinner was going and i sighed and told him. He sent a colleague out to the store, bought some bananas, and sure enough they made it for us.

The kind of service we have received at galatoires over the years is certainly top notch and don’t give up on your dreams! The chocolate crusted pecan pie there tho is a very reasonable consolation prize.

You might see the cherries jubliee on the menu at brennans or commanders or a spot like that too… hope so!

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No consolation prizes needed when you sit down to souffl’e potatoes and fried eggplant with Sazerac in hand . . . how can disappoint follow when a meal starts thusly . . .

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Thanks for the report. I’ll be reading all the recent NOLA posts for recs. After 4 attempts to get there, we are finally going to make it in November :partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face:

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I am limited with desserts since I have Celiac, but that being said:

Bananas Foster at Brennan’s

I can’t eat it but the chocolate peanut butter doberge at Station 6 is to die for from what everyone I go there with says.

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