The Most Famous Restaurants in New Orleans

Dakota Restaurant specializes in contemporary Louisiana cuisine prepared with local, seasonal ingredients. Its comprehensive wine list has earned Wine Spectator’s Best of Award of Excellence every year since 2004. Further, Zagat named the elegant eatery one of its top 25 New Orleans restaurants. Exemplary dishes include a signature lump crabmeat and brie soup, which features on both lunch and dinner menus. So do lamb nachos with Danish bleu cheese, sweet potato and tomato chutney. The dinner menu presents seafood, fish and meat entrees that are substantial as well as creative. Among them are a whole-roasted flounder, a pork porterhouse and a Brazilian-rubbed wagyu shoulder tender. Dakota Restaurant also offers a bar bites menu to indulge smaller appetites.

From the Dickie Brennan Family of restaurants, an institution of the New Orleans dining scene, is Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse. Among countless accolades, Travel + Leisure called the upscale French Quarter spot one of the best steakhouses in the United States. Its menus bring together iconic New Orleans dishes, such as turtle soup and barbecue shrimp, with steakhouse classics like potatoes au gratin and a wedge salad. Impeccable steaks, all aged USDA Mid-Western beef, range from petite filets to 24-ounce porterhouse and cowboy rib-eye. Exceptional service adds to the special-occasion vibe of this famous New Orleans restaurant.

Café Degas in Bayou St. John proclaims itself the “longest running and most Gallic French restaurant in New Orleans.” It fulfills this promise with exquisite and authentically French bistro-style cuisine, along with a charmingly romantic atmosphere. Grab a seat, if you can, on the enclosed porch where a leafy pecan tree shoots through the ceiling. Lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and happy hour menus feature exclusively French cuisine with a few nods to NOLA. Expect garlicky escargots, all manner of oysters, delicate salads and artistic entrees such as pan-seared rack of lamb with lamb merguez sausage. Artisan cheese and pate plates are another highlight, perfect with a selection from Café Degas’ excellent wine list.

As the restaurant that invented New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp in the 1950s, Pascal’s Manale has a solid spot among the most famous restaurants in New Orleans. The Uptown restaurant opened in 1913 and is now in its fourth generation of family ownership. Its Creole-Italian menu has evolved to suit contemporary tastes, but still strongly leans toward beloved classics. Among them are gumbo, stuffed eggplant and veal parmigiana. The restaurant has a popular raw bar specializing in fresh-shucked oysters served in the same manner for more than a century. (A tip: Those oysters are half-price during weekday happy hours.)

A serious contender for the city’s best steakhouse, and certainly one of the most famous restaurants in New Orleans, is Mr. John’s Steakhouse. The Garden District gem specializes in weighty cuts of USDA prime steaks, seared under an 1800-degree broiler. They’re seasoned simply with salt and pepper then liberally doused with butter before being served on a sizzling plate. This dramatic and delicious presentation is Mr. John’s signature, one that fills the dining room with a mouth-watering aroma. Diners enjoy choices from a dozen side dishes, all steakhouse classics. A decadent highlight among them is the Freddie mac and cheese with andouille and crawfish.

Gyu-Kaku, a famous global chain of Japanese barbecue restaurants, opened its first New Orleans venue on December 31, 2018. The restaurant is known for its interactive tabletop grilling experience. Diners order cuts of meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables and grill them to perfection in minutes. Over a dozen cuts of beef are available, including a few offal options and the popular Kobe-style kalbi short rib. Also on the menu are cuts of pork, chicken, duck and seafood along with signature marinades, dipping sauces and toppings. Ample ready-to-eat items are augment the DIY experience. They include pan-Asian appetizers, salads, soups, noodles and rice dishes.

In 2018, the Times-Picayune called GW Fins one of the top 10 best French Quarter restaurants. This, along with other accolades like Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence, proves GW Fins is among one of the most famous restaurants in New Orleans. Chef Tenney Flynn is an acclaimed master of Gulf seafood. He's famous for his light touch that emphasizes the natural flavors of fine fish and seafood, and for strikingly artistic plating. The dinner menu changes nightly, but look for Flynn’s signature scalibut. It’s a dish of halibut and sea scallops served with Royal Red risotto and seasonal vegetables, and a major highlight. The sheepshead tacos are another of Tenney’s celebrated creations.

Uptown’s Bistro Daisy exudes charm thanks to its setting – a shotgun cottage dating to the Civil War era. It's now an eclectic and inviting space for romantic meals. The bistro-style offerings represent refined New American cuisine with a southern accent. Whenever possible, chef Anton Schulte uses seasonal, local ingredients. The dinner menu changes often, but might feature handmade Louisiana crawfish ravioli, bouillabaisse of fresh Gulf seafood or braised lamb shank over rapini and gnocchi. Regulars rave about the desserts, especially the homemade ice cream with a shortbread cookie.

An iconic steakhouse on the ground floor of the Lafayette Hotel, Desi Vega’s is one of the most famous restaurants in New Orleans. It’s an iconic spot where diners can watch the streetcar run along St. Charles Avenue, or enjoy a pre- or post-diner stroll through the adjacent Lafayette Park. The major draw, though, is incredible steaks and seafood. Desi Vega’s sears its USDA prime, hand-cut and aged steaks at 1800 degrees and tops them with melted butter on a sizzling plate. A signature appetizer is Who Dat Shrimp, bacon-wrapped Gulf shrimp stuffed with crabmeat and served with a sweet Thai chili dipping sauce. Also on the lunch and dinner menus are New Orleans classics like shrimp remoulade and turtle soup, along with steakhouse favorites. Shortly after its opening, New Orleans Magazine called Desi Vega’s one of the best new restaurants of 2013.

For over 25 years, Emeril’s Restaurant has represented its namesake's signature Creole, Cajun and globally influenced cuisine. Emeril's Warehouse District flagship, with chef Douglas Braselman at the helm, presents iconic southern Louisiana fare along with contemporary creations. Among the former are gumbo of the day, barbecue shrimp and house-made andouille and boudin sausages with southern-cooked greens. Leaning toward the latter are sugar cane-lacquered duck and smoked exotic mushrooms with homemade tasso ham. Emeril’s cheese board is a course of its own. It comes with two or four artisan cheeses plus assorted house-made jams, pickles, sourdough and local honeycomb.

Ye Olde College Inn opened in 1933, when “farm-to-table” was simply common sense rather than a trend. The Uptown New Orleans restaurant still sources eggs and seasonal produce from its own farm next door – the largest urban farm in Louisiana. Many dishes on the menu are 1930s originals, among them a breaded veal cutlet. An award-winning fried green tomato shrimp remoulade po-boy is a highlight, competing capably with oyster, shrimp, chicken-fried steak and oysters Havarti-and-bacon po-boys. More substantial entrees include a braised beef brisket, Gulf fish of the day and Carrollton porkchop with braised garden greens and grit cakes.

Crescent City Steak House was established in 1934 and maintains a truly nostalgic vibe. It’s still in its original location and run by the fourth generation of the Vojkovich family. Intimate booth seating and made-from-scratch cuisine amplify its old-school ambiance. Restaurant lore says Crescent City Steak House invented the butter-sizzling steak preparation now ubiquitous across New Orleans steakhouses. Its USDA prime, dry-aged steaks – of course sizzling in butter – come with a choice from over a dozen potato and vegetable side dishes. Steaks are the only entrée category, with options ranging from a bacon-wrapped filet to a whopping porterhouse for three. The appetizer and salad sections of the menu stick with just the classics (for example garlic bread, shrimp cocktail and Caesar salad) as well.

Zagat named Gautreau’s the best restaurant in New Orleans in 2014, but the Uptown charmer remains somewhat enigmatic. Blame its signage-free setting in a leafy residential neighborhood. Here, a century-old former pharmacy transformed into Gautreau’s back in 1982. Current chef Sue Zemanick specializes in seafood. She also reveals French and Mexican influences to her imaginative new American cuisine. Consider the vegetarian empanada with salsa roja appetizer, and entrees of pan-roasted steel head trout with satsuma gastrique, or roasted duck breast with a mole reduction and a sweet pea risotto. Gautreau’s is open Mondays through Saturdays for dinner only.

NOLA locals remember fondly Irene’s original French Quarter spot, which Sicily native Irene DiPietro opened in 1993. The larger, brighter spot on Bienville Street that Irene’s calls home today is equally loved. This is, no doubt, because it’s the venue for DiPiettro’s exceptional hybrid Italian, French and Creole cuisine. Among numerous signature dishes are rosemary chicken, cioppino, escargots and Gulf fish amandine. Irene’s is an ideal spot for a romantic meal or intimate gathering over sophisticated yet unpretentious food. Plus, all meals at Irene’s start with complimentary bruschetta, a thoughtful touch exemplifying Irene’s home-style charm.