The 10 Restaurants That Defined New Orleans Dining This Year

In the year since chef Serigne Mbaye and business partner Effie Richardson opened their brick and mortar, Dakar has struck a resonating note and inspired other chefs and culinarians of African descent to adopt similar formats. Dakar lays bare the culinary contributions that enslaved West African people running the plantation kitchens of the American South contributed to the region’s celebrated gastronomy and its evolution — and does it through a uniquely New Orleans lens.

The elegant, moodily-lit restaurant is the backdrop against which the 30-year-old, two-time James Beard nominated chef presents his takes on the pescatarian foods of Senegambia. A single seating is offered four evenings a week. Between each course, Mbaye joins his guests in the dining room to deliver an emotionally charged experience that comes with the telling of his personal narrative, as well as that of his ancestral Wolof tribe.

Though the subject matter is heavy, the menu of carefully sourced Gulf seafood (shrimp with millet and red pepper jus; shrimp and okra gumbo; seared fish with market vegetables and tamarind jus) and produce is not. Mbaye brings levity and warmth to the experience by serving most dishes family-style, while encouraging the building of community across race, gender, and creed. This is substance for the body and the soul.

Dakar acquired a liquor license this summer, and now offers wine by the glass and signature cocktails. It further underscores how Mbaye understands the value of coming together around a table to consider the past and present.

This was the year Leah Chase’s descendants lovingly took hold of the legacy she left behind upon her death in 2020 at age 96, and made it their own. In doing so they joined other multi-generational New Orleans institutional restaurant families.

Self-taught, Leah Chase always referred to herself as a “cook” while prodding her financial analyst grandson Edgar “Dook” Chase IV, to become classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu in preparation for assuming the helm of her kitchen. The younger Chase has maintained the sanctity of the dishes familiar to contemporary diners — peerless fried chicken and stuffed shrimp (pro tip: get an order of each for the table to share), garlicky shrimp Clemenceau, and deep, rich Creole seafood gumbo — while digging back to the restaurant’s founding in 1941 to reintroduce dishes lost to time and adjusting them to today’s palates.

Braised with citrus and mint, a fork-tender leg quarter of duck is now served with a carrot souffle. Delicate broiled pompano is simply dressed with lemon butter and heaped with crabmeat. A generous slab of Gulf redfish arrives atop buttery Creole succotash.

Under the extended family’s front-of-house guidance, the wine and cocktail programs have advanced exponentially, while the world-class collection of works from Black artists remains beautifully intact.

This year Tara Francolini brought an exciting new genre of New Jersey style hoagies to the Land of the Po’Boy while, driven by social media, also establishing a reputation for selling out and closing before the posted time of 4 p.m.

It’s all about the freshly baked, pillowy, sub rolls the city’s Ayu Bakery turns out to Francolini’s specifications. When a day’s bread supply runs out, the curtain falls, a brilliant no-waste approach.

Francolini’s offers 13 cold, and six hot sandwiches to fans willing to stand in line — and to keep the faith if the bread runs out.

Some hoagies are packed with rare roast beef, prosciutto cotto, mortadella, salami, capicola, prosciutto di Parma, speck, hot and sweet soppressata, and a variety of Italian cheeses. Others are piled high with pan-fried chicken cutlets, pork and beef meatballs, thinly sliced grilled chicken, and crumbled Italian sausage. Others are vegetarian.

To level the field for the in-demand sandwiches, only online orders are accepted on Wednesdays.

Learn more here and check Instagram for the latest.

In a town where Sicilian-influenced Creole-Italian style red gravy coats everything from spaghetti to meatball po’boys, chef Brian Burns has brought a refreshing shift. At Osteria the focus is on the flavors and traditions of northern Italy, where cream sauces (rather than tomato and olive oil) and stuffed, grilled, and braised meats flavored with sage and thyme (rather than basil) join seafood on the menu.

Pastas are housemade, as is evident in the toothsome campanelle with wild mushroom ragu. A grilled rack of lamb is enlivened with a pesto of mint and pistachio; and local oysters arrive wood-fired with rosemary and garlic with a generous side of focaccia for sopping up the juices. And to get the full effect, there’s also a four-course rotating family-style tasting menu offered with full participation for $55.

A destination for drinking, too, Lupo has a strong craft cocktail program, and a 100 percent Italian wine list with by-the-glass and by-the-bottle selections from an extensive list with more than 20 whites and 40 reds.

Commander’s Palace never grows old, never loses its relevance, never disappoints. Under chef Meg Bickford, executive chef since 2020, the ever-changing menu remains true to its Creole underpinnings while allowing for the introduction of new techniques and flavors. Witness a warm salad of duck confit, roasted beets, mustard greens melted with Creole cream cheese, and a finish of satsuma vinaigrette. Shrimp Hennican, a menu stalwart, is still a must-do.

In its 130^th year, the physical space continues to evolve, too, as Ti Adelade Martin and Lally Brennan steward their family’s legacy business. This year saw the launch of a new dining room designed by Anurag Nema. Built around two towering cypress trees with views of the lush courtyard and the low-sweeping boughs of its iconic oak tree, the casually elegant, jewel-toned space merges the familiarity of New Orleans with the grand cafes of Paris, a fitting backdrop for Bickford’s vibrant cuisine.

Chicken’s Kitchen dishes out hefty portions of lovingly prepared New Orleans homestyle cooking at its best. Following the pandemic loss of his construction job, chef Marlon “Chicken” Williams started selling plate lunches from his home. Social media generated a following that led 70 cars to line up for his plate lunches at his kids’ lemonade stand. Soon after, he opened this cafeteria-style lunch operation employing friends and family who dish out fried chicken, smothered turkey necks, jambalaya, and red beans and rice as well as Williams’ own creations like “chimmies,” his play on the chimichanga with fillings like Buffalo chicken and birria-style shredded beef. Guests pick an entrée, one large side, and two small sides for $15 or less.

This is a takeout operation designed to sell out every day. Customers often become friends as they wait in line, and file past large ads for other local businesses, including other home-grown food businesses. Serving as a community billboard to elevate others is part of Williams’ business model. Phone and online orders are not.

No reservations. Learn more here.

Since 1982, Gautreau’s has quietly operated on a tree-lined Uptown block that is otherwise residential. It draws well-heeled patrons, while serving as an incubator to talented chefs who proceed to prominence after making their marks on the Gautreau’s menu.

This year the institution changed hands from Patrick and Rebecca Singley to a group led by Bill Kearney and Jay Adams, who tapped chef Rob Mistry to lead the kitchen. The changes set off an unwarranted rumble. The setting, service and the food remain worthy of celebration. Most staff remains the same. Ministry, formerly of Commander’s Palace, worked with chef Sean Brock at prominent restaurants throughout the country.

Mistry has introduced more Asian, Indian, and Latin American influences  familiar to a worldly clientele. A seared duck breast is glazed with a lemongrass and sherry reduction. Redfish is shingled with translucent slices of potato and briny trout roe served atop smothered cabbage flavored with softly nuanced vadouvan curry.

Despite the city’s French heritage, classic French food is a rarity here. With MaMou, chef Tom Branighan is rectifying this.

With pale butter-colored walls and masses of flowers suspended from the ceiling rafters, Mamou feels cozy and secretive, a place of refuge and welcome in an era of uncertainty. A little over a year in, this diminutive spot with the whimsical Parisian aesthetic could convince you it has been here forever, and Brannigan’s menu just feels nurturring as it roves gently from celeriac remoulade and escargot tartlet, to fish à la Florentine and côte de boeuf.

Sommelier Molly Wismeier’s list of reasonably-priced list of international selections, many offered by the glass, lays a trap for wine lovers, ensuring no one will leave anytime soon.

This year chef Emeril Lagasse passed the toque at his eponymous flagship to his talented son, E.J. Lagasse, following an extensive renovation that brought the space from its dated, if carefully maintained, early 1990s incarnation into one with softer surfaces and a more elegant vibe. Gone is the loud, crowded dining room of the past for one with fewer tables, allowing for a more intensive exploration of two tasting menus per night, with highly engaged service.

The younger Lagasse has kept the menu’s identity rooted in Louisiana cooking, overlaid with bold flavors. The Classics menu explores the restaurant’s signature dishes (oyster stew with Herbsaint cream, foie gras, and Honshimeji mushrooms; and barbecued lobster gumbo) as reimagined by the new guard. The Seasonal tasting menu is, well, seasonal, and changes as such. Recent offerings include blue crab with sea herbs and cucumber, and scorpion fish with corn, collards, and squash.

Call 504-528-9393 for a reservation. 

Like Rumpelstiltskin — only with Cheeto dust-stained fingers — Mason Hereford spins straw into gold. At Turkey & the Wolf he elevated deviled eggs and fried bologna sandwiches into the stratosphere. At Hungry Eyes, he lifts his magic wand to bring fresh relevance to the foods and atmosphere associated with 1980s, a period known for being cheesy, a characteristic Hereford embraces.

Walls hung with stylized Patrick Nagel prints, pink neon that illuminates smoked mirrors, and a soundtrack of Duran Duran and the like, form the backdrop for a beverage list that includes Vespers and Cosmos but is blessedly devoid of pink Zinfandel, although it would fit right in.

Hereford and his spouse Lauren Agudo partnered with Turkey alum chef Phil Cenac, to create a food menu meant to go with too many libations.

The limited menu changes often but may include crab rangoon; Roman-style artichoke hearts smothered under a blanket of artichoke dip, morita chile sauce, and parmesan are just as cheesy as they sound and arrive chargrilled within ceramic oyster shells. An incongruous pairing of smoked catfish, ribbons of squid, and hearts of palm are simmered in Thai green curry. Everything on the menu is, frankly, weird, but as is Hereford’s gift, where others might fail in merging these seemingly disparate things he succeeds.

At a time when we need it, Hungry Eyes gives permission to go over the top and have fun.

Learn more here. Reservations for groups of six or more with a multi-course family-style menu. Inquire at hungryeyesnola@gmail.com.