The 8 Dishes You Can't Miss In New Orleans
No trip to NOLA is complete without these eats.
"In New Orleans, we don't eat to live. We live to eat!" It's hard to get from the airport to your Airbnb without seeing or hearing this message a dozen times. And that's because it couldn't be more true.
Between classic Creole cuisine (fine French and Spanish dishes reimagined by generations of enslaved African-descended cooks using Mississippi Delta ingredients), rustic country cooking from the Cajuns, a spicy local twist on classic soul food, and the culinary stylings of waves of immigrants—Haitian, Irish, Sicilian, and more recently, Vietnamese and Latin American—New Orleans is a town where food is the common thread. It's not only a source of conversation and the centerpiece of every interaction or event, it's history—both past and present.
But for a newbie NOLA eater, it's hard to know where to start. (And you'll soon discover it's a bit of a challenge to know when to stop.) So consider this your bucket list. Dig in to the very best versions of eight iconic plates and the rest of your time in the bayou will be gravy.
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Barbecue Shrimp with Pimiento Cheese Grits at Bayona
No one's quite sure how New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp got its name, because it isn't quite barbecue at all. There's no grill involved and the sauce is hardly the smoky-sweet brown stuff you'd expect from a BBQ. If you can get past the estranged moniker, though, you'll discover that barbecue shrimp is one of Creole cuisine's most delicious indulgences. Shell-on shrimp are poached in Worcestershire-and-spice-infused butter, and, at the quietly elegant French Quarter restaurant Bayona, the rich concoction is served over creamy, delicately spicy pimiento cheese-injected grits. A word to the wise, though: It's only on the lunch menu (though sometimes you can catch similar preparations as dinner specials), so make your meal plans accordingly.
Crawfish and Shrimp Boil at Bevi Seafood Company
Boiled seafood is more than just a menu item in Louisiana: it's a social event. The slow nature of hand-peeling each tender, spicy-sweet crustacean as you pluck it from the steaming pile in front of you lends itself well to talking, joking, and flirting in between bites, so take some friends along for this one. Bevi boils and fries top-quality seafood all year 'round, but if you're lucky enough to visit Louisiana during crawfish season (roughly after Christmas until mid-May or early June) make sure your mixed boil includes these local favorites—plus all the corn and potatoes you can eat, of course. Peeling crawfish isn't so different from peeling shrimp, but your server (or even a neighboring table of locals) will happily give you a quick lesson.
Original Muffuletta at Central Grocery
If you don't like olives, you can skip this checkmark on your list. However, if you're a fan, you've discovered your new favorite sandwich. The muffuletta is a Sicilian contribution to the New Orleans food repertoire. It's a simple enough sandwich: mixed cold cuts like mortadella, ham, and salami get layered with provolone cheese and olive oil between a round, sesame-seeded Italian loaf. But the crowning jewel of this bad boy is the heap of olive salad, a mix of green and black olives, pimientos, and pickled vegetables all ground up into a chunky spread. Store owner Salvatore Lupo invented the muffuletta here at his Decatur Street grocery store in 1906, and though you'll find it on menus all over the city nowadays, the original remains the best.
Gumbo du Jour at Commander's Palace
Perhaps the most famous of all of Louisiana's dishes is gumbo: a thick, smoky, deeply seasoned soup served over rice. You'll find it on nearly every menu in town, and they're all worth trying, but for the most refined version in town, head to Commander's Palace. The gumbo on the menu changes seasonally—and typically daily—to reflect the year-round bounty of Louisiana's farms and bayous.
One of the restaurant's best versions is the springtime gumbo (pictured), made with black pepper-roasted rabbit and Indian Creek oyster mushrooms. Around Thanksgiving, you might find a rich smoked goose and andouille gumbo, and in the summertime, seafood gumbos reign supreme. All are served in opulent style in this historic Garden District mansion, repeatedly named the finest restaurant in the South. Even still, it's an affordable indulgence: a bowl runs $8.50 at lunchtime, or can be ordered as part of a two-course prix fixe menu for about $20.
Rabbit Jambalaya with Fried Chicken at Coop's Place
Jambalaya is a down-home dish best enjoyed in the no-frills pub that is Coop's, a French Quarter greasy spoon that slings some of the most authentic Mama-style Cajun home cooking in the city. This deeply seasoned rice dish is the Louisiana cousin of Spanish paella, and Coop's version is studded with chunks of smoked sausage and tender bites of rabbit. Served alongside a crispy fried chicken quarter and a pile of tart coleslaw, it really is a plate you'd expect to get in someone's home. Except Coop's might be even better than anyone's Mama's.
Crawfish Étouffée at Jacques-Imo's
Étouffée is another classic from the Cajun repertoire. The name comes from a French word that literally means "smothered" or "suffocated," which is an accurate description for how it's cooked: start with seafood and smother it in the Cajun trinity (onions, bell pepper, and celery), plus roux, lots of spices, and some stock. It turns into a thick, rich sauce which is served over fluffy white rice. Simple, yes, but moan-inducing and decadent when done right. And Jacques-Imo's always does it right. Mmm hmm.
Firecracker Shrimp Po' Boy at Parasol's
You cannot leave New Orleans before you indulge in at least one po' boy. This simple sandwich, historically a factory and dockworker's go-to lunch, is arguably as much of a New Orleans icon as the fleur de lis. And the historic Irish Channel pub Parasol's puts together one of the best. If you're not a shrimp or spicy food lover, you can always opt for the roast beef or fried oyster po-boys. Otherwise, the Firecracker Shrimp is a must. The fat, juicy, and thickly-battered shrimp are tossed in a spicy, buttery garlic sauce and served hot on the light-as-air loaf of Leidenheimer bread that distinguishes a po-boy from a sub or sandwich anywhere else in the world. Be sure to order it "dressed" (that means with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo) the way the locals do—they know what they're doing.
Red Beans and Rice at Willie Mae's Scotch House
A bit off the beaten path in the historic Trèmé neighborhood, Willie Mae's Scotch House is world-famous for fried chicken, but also happens to churn out the best red beans and rice in the city. This dish is a humble New Orleans home-cooking classic, traditionally cooked up on Mondays using the ham bone from Sunday supper. Willie Mae's sumptuous version, served daily, is not so different from the way any New Orleans granny would cook it, and that's what makes it so perfect.
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