The June Hit List: Cafe Amelie, Yakuza House, Baru, and More

After a year-long meteoric rise in his miniscule first solo spot, in October chef Huy Pham moved on to roomier digs nearby. The menu of temaki, dressed nigiri, and Japanese-style sandwiches has expanded while adding donburi bowls and noodles. Standouts include creamy Ora king salmon sashimi with shiso furikake, and seared hotate (scallop) dressed with lush foie gras, unagi sauce and a frizzle of fried leeks that lands on the palate in a swirl of flavors and textures.

With $600 and a craving not for crawfish but, rather, for the lobster rolls of his Connecticut home-town, 18 months ago Tulane student Joel Griffin launched a business from a dive bar. Ravenous Instagram stalkers drove Griffin from near-daily pop-ups to a free-standing food truck that now roves the region, pushing warm butter-poached lobster crammed into griddled split-top New England-style hotdog buns and a creamy clam chowder the recent grad cooks up daily. For summer he recently rolled out a cold Maine-style version (aka with mayonnaise) of the toothsome roll. 

Keep up with Joel’s Lobster Rolls here.

Following a heartbreaking and unexpected closure last spring, Café Amelie re-opened next door a month later in an enhanced and expanded interior space while still retaining the verdant, shaded courtyard for which it has been beloved for decades. This remains your recovery destination after a night carousing in the Quarter. An order of Cochon Poutine (fried fingerling potato and mozzarella poutine, topped with slow-smoked pork) tossed back with About Last Night (horseradish infused vodka, Slap Ya Mama Creole seasoning, and pickled everything) should clear things up. Or not. Either way, you win.

Wear your party dress. This confection of a destination restaurant in The Southern Hotel is a cause for celebration. A dreamy garden mural scrolls across the robin’s egg blue walls, tucking its way into the alcoves behind the recessed tables to form blissful cocoons. Banquette seating covered in azure blue ultra-suede invites lingering; gaze through the picture windows upon a verdant park of moss-draped oaks while sipping proper cocktails from elegant coupees. The menu staples include a pan-seared fillet of Gulf flounder with a crisp buttery edge finished with a classic sauce Grenobloise rich with capers, parsley, and lemon. It soars atop garlicy Brabant potatoes and a topping of jumbo lump crabmeat and toasted brioche croutons. May it be ever so.

Call (985) 400-5663 for more info.

Forty minutes and a world away from downtown New Orleans, the moonlight-and-magnolias vision of the South resides at this historic estate … without devolving into being cheesy. The menu is straight-up Creole with no real surprises, but the fried gulf fish meunière topped with toasted almonds or pecans in a deeply browned butter, and a luscious seafood au gratin brimming with shrimp, crawfish, and jumbo lump crabmeat, will tug those who recall such old-school throwbacks into dreamy reminiscence. Too many mint juleps? Ditch your wheels and stay the night. The spot also offers a bed and breakfast.

Newly opened within the area’s second oldest sushi joint, this 17-seat spot offers two two-hour seatings per night, each roving through numerous courses including rarely-seen-in-these-parts, a chilled, quivering, umani-rich chawanmushi custard, followed by razor thin slices of kanpachi dressed with ponzu, or silken swirls of uni braced in crisp nori and adorned with flecks of gold leaf. Chef Seiji hands off up his delicacies with great humor and fanfare. It’s dinner and a show.

He loves his mama, but he loves his grandma, too. Larry Morrow is on a roll. The stylish restaurateur behind Morrow’s, Treehouse, and Monday (opened last year for his mother, Lenora Chong), recently unveiled Sun Chong, so named for his grandmother, who heads the kitchen with her daughter. The sleek space vibrates to a background of hip hop music while the menu pulsates with flavor-packed Korean specialties laced with Creole spice. Check out the bulgogi po’boy, heaped with slices garlicky ribeye. The Sun Chong fried chicken is marinated then fried until the crust is shatter-crisp before is tossed with gochujang. Raise a glass to colorful cocktails by Macy Ezidore that complement the vibrant food. The Seoul Margarita with hibiscus and lime can take the heat.

Reservations can be made by calling 504-355-0022.

The sultry mural behind banquette seating and a pair of colorful, edgy chandeliers providing moody illumination set the tone for this tidy contemporary space that recently left the pop-up scene to settle downtown. The new restaurant is a family endeavor in partnership with Glenn Mahiya. First generation Thai immigrants Waraphon and Thongchai Chittrakul run the kitchen and their son Warakorn “Tom” Intavichai runs the front of the house with a friendly demeanor and engaging service.

Fragrant curried duck is roasted until the meat is silken and fatty, then fried until the skin is crisp. It takes the starring role in a complex curry; in a stir-fry with ribbons of Thai basil; and in a tom yum friend rice. Seven salads, including one with green papaya and another with nearly transparent slices of beef, keep things cool for the summer. For dessert, the ube-macapuno cake (purple yam with sweet coconut strings) is served with Thai tea or coconut ice cream. Cocktails are fresh and run toward complex fruity and sour flavors that complement the food, think spicy pineapple Margarita or grapefruit martini.

Keep up with Dahla on Facebook.

Edgar Caro was the first chef in town to open a spot showcasing Latin Caribbean flavors—a genre now popular here—and 16 years later Caro remains a visionary for highlighting one of the lesser-celebrated roots that underpin New Orleans’ Creole cuisine. Armed with his grandmother’s cookbooks from his native Cartagena, Columbia, he dazzles diners with flaky empanadas, dry-fried fish, tapas,  fierce jerk chicken, and hefty hunks of grilled meats that remain evergreen. Upstairs, his Crudo+Bar is hot for light bites and craft cocktails with live music.

Opened in 2017 by college chums, chef Edgar Caro and restaurateur Antonio Mata, in celebration of their shared Latin American heritage, this cozy steakhouse with a mid-century vibe delves into cuts uncommon to most American diners. Beefy, flavorful picanha, a top sirloin cut, is grilled over oak coals to char and render crisp its signature fat cap. Whole Gulf fish stuffed with lemon and thyme is rendered vaguely smoky when cooked over wood. Whole white chunks of the fish fall from the carcass ready for a swipe through a bracing chimichurri. Complex in both flavor and texture is a salad of sweet grilled romaine finished with crackles of chicken skin chicharron, basil migas, shaved Parmigiano, fresh tomato, and buttery torn croutons.