The Resy Hit List: Where In New Orleans You’ll Want to Eat in Oct. 2024
There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
We’ve designed it to be your essential resource for dining in New Orleans: a monthly-updated (and expanded!) guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In New Orleans Not to Miss This Month
- Celebrate with Saba: Autumn holidays are in full swing at Saba starting this month. A proper break-fast for Yom Kippur takes over October 11-12 withduck matzoh ball soup and salmon Malawach, while Sukkot will be celebrated Oct. 12 to 23 with mujadara stuffed squash. And yes, Hanukkah plans are afoot for December. Book here.
- Halloween in the Black Lagoon: Black Lagoon is taking over Anna’s in the Faubourg Marigny from Oct. 9 to Nov. 3. This is the fifth year in a row that the Black Lagoon team list of 35+ extraordinary cocktail bars and cities will be transformed. This year’s pop-up will feature a bewitchingly curated cocktail menu with drinks created by co-founders Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage. Look for winners like Nosferatu’s Rise, Hex Appeal, and a spirit-free Blood Lust. Hayes and Ramage conceived Black Lagoon after a successful pop-up at the cult favorite New Orleans dive bar The Dungeon during Tales of the Cocktail in 2021.
- Saint John Busts a Move: Executive chef Eric Cook has moved his haute Creole Saint John from the French Quarter to the fashionable Warehouse District at 715 St. Charles Avenue after closing the doors on Decatur Street in May. Chef de cuisine Darren Chabert has revealed updated menus featuring many of the restaurant’s previous top-selling dishes, along with an enhanced daily happy hour. Book here without delay.
- Change Has Come to Mahony’s: This month restaurateur Robért LeBlanc (of The Chloe, Celestine, Sylvain.) and the team at The Will and The Way are taking the helm at Mahony’s and reintroducing the beloved po’ boy joint while preserving everything we love about it. Chef Josh Williams will serve classic po’ boys, specialty sandwiches and distinct small plates like muffuletta eggrolls, alongside beverages from a stepped-up bar program from Tristan Ferchl.
New to the Hit List (Oct. 2024)
Peche, Palm & Pine, Luvi.
1. Acamaya Bywater
James Beard Award-nominated chef Ana Castro opened this Mexico City-style restaurant with her sister in early July. The hot and cold seafood-centric menu celebrates the sisters’ native culture through foods both comforting and complex, as does the design by Farouki Farouki. Pro tip: For an offbeat experience, try the bass ceviche with cherries, jicama, and unsweetened chamoy. The most personal dish on the menu is the earthy arroz negro, which is jammed with mussels, squid, and huitlacoche, a fungus grown among corn crops (known also as “corn smut” or Mexican truffle). So central is it to her style that Castro has the highly regional, highly perishable ingredient overnighted from a purveyor on the West Coast. All the serveware and fixtures were collected from Mexico City, creating a transformative experience.
2. St. Pizza Lower Garden District
A hit when it opened in the spring, St. Pizza has blown it off the charts since The New York Times named its pies among the top 22 in the nation just a few weeks ago. Executive chef Crystal Lachney’s style is restrained, with a crisp crust and spare applications of top-notch ingredients like house-made fennel sausage, garlic confit, sweet ricotta, and a finish of fennel pollen. A tight selection of entrees includes excellent renditions of meatballs and spaghetti, and chicken parmesan. The pies are sold through a walk-up window either whole in two sizes, by the slice, or at the tavern where guests enjoy well-crafted cocktails and low-intervention wines.
No reservations. Find more info here.
3. Pêche Downtown
Donald Link, Stephen Stryjewski, Ryan Prewitt and now Nicole Cabrera Mills — recently named one of Food & Wine’s 2024 Best New Chefs — can probably take the credit for re-popularizing the trend of whole fish at the table that returned with staying power ten years ago. People here stare as the fish, often with their heads and tails flopping off opposite ends of the oblong plates upon which they rest, are paraded through the dining room. Preparations and combinations are numerous: baked drum with corn, squash, coconut and cashews; grilled tuna with okra, chile, garlic, and tamarind; whole roasted flounder with lemon-caper beurre blanc; grilled mangrove snapper with Louisiana shallots and criolla sella vinaigrette; roasted redfish with salsa verde. You can’t go wrong.
4. Cane & Table French Quarter
If Hemingway were to visit the city, we would find him at Neal Bodenheimer (CureCo) and chef-partner Alfredo “Fredo” Nogueira’s moodily lit, atmospheric Cuban tavern. Nogueria showcases culinary traditions authentic to his family’s Caribbean roots. The tropical courtyard is always a sensual experience but is a bit sultry this time of year. The grilled octopus is served with kalamata aioli and sweet pepper slaw. The chupe de mariscos brims with mussels, shrimp, and fish, and the Fish Rundown features fried drum and gobs of crabmeat swimming in an unctuous coconut curry. And don’t forget the drinks: weekday happy hour from 5-7 p.m. offers frozen piña coladas, classic daiquiris, and Argentinian and Mexican white and red wines by the glass.
5. Dakar NOLA Uptown
Chef Serigne Mbaye’s destination for providing overdue recognition to the culinary contributions enslaved Africans made to the foodways of the American South was recently named Best New Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation. Mbaye’s ever-changing seven-course pescatarian tasting menu explores the intersection of his native Senegambian cuisine of West Africa with that of his adopted New Orleans. Each dish arrives with a history lesson explaining its evolution from Africa, through the slave-run kitchens of the South, to where it is today. Though the subject matter is heavy, the menu of carefully sourced Gulf seafood is not. Mbaye brings levity and warmth by serving most dishes family-style. Consider it part dinner party, part history lesson — and a chance to provide substance for both body and soul.
6. Fives Bar French Quarter
Last fall, businessman and designer Jayson Seidman opened this chic raw bar in New Orleans’ most in-demand locale on the ground level of the historic Lower Pontalba building, reimagining it as a mix of contemporary and vintage elements. A wooden horseshoe-shaped bar with a green marble top takes center stage, surrounded by round tables beneath a series of sketches by American artist Gerald Gooch. Executive chef Paul Terrebonne offers a menu of oysters (Gulf and Eastern shore), caviar, and raw seafood, as well as salads, beef tartare, roasted bone marrow, butter-poached lobster rolls, and luscious crème brûlée for dessert.
7. Criollo Restaurant French Quarter
Spanish for “Creole,” Criollo’s culinary focus is on the mish-mash of cultures that came together over centuries to birth a singular cuisine, with, perhaps a lighter touch to historically belt-busting dishes. In addition to the seasonal prix fixe, an à la carte dinner menu brings Muscovy duck breast, and a Niman Ranch double-cut pork chop, and a daily prix fixe lunch. To keep it interesting, a 3-D collaboration with TableMation studios allows for an immersive experience through Le Petite Chef, a subrestaurant of sorts. Plus, Criollo opens into the iconic Carousel Lounge, whose bar this month celebrates 75 years of slowly revolving, while providing views of beautiful Royal Street outside.
8. Smoke & Honey Mid-City
From a long-time pop-up to a recent brick-and-mortar, Vassiliki Ellwood Yiagazis’s Greek and Jewish “soul fool” spot is now a fully-fledged café serving breakfast gyros, bagels, and boreka while steadily adding more dinner dishes to the mix, like the cinnamon-spiced pastitsio, a Greek-style lasagna. Not to miss are the flambeaux (a po’boy-style sandwich of slow-braised lamb leg, whipped feta, onion, and garlic jam) and a soup made with a deeply satisfying chicken bone broth bobbing with matzo balls made with bacon fat. (No kosher here!)
9. Palm & Pine French Quarter
The fierce sense of community that chef-owners Jordan and Amarys Herndon share with other members of the industry first developed when they worked as sous chefs in different restaurants. (After hours they hosted a pop-up, the Old Portage, in the Black Penny bar.) Soon they’ll turn the corner on Palm & Pine’s fifth anniversary. Check out the Soiled Dove pop-up lesbian bar every 3rd Thursday at 10 p.m. And pro tip: Don’t leave without trying the country ham with melon, black garlic Dijon, chow chow, marañones, and smoked cashews. Sounds like overkill but it’s perfection. Ditto the Parisa: Texas-style steak tartare with fermented serranos, Havarti, and egg jam served with potato chips.
10. Compère Lapin Warehouse District
Chef Nina Compton’s long-standing but never-boring flagship merges her Caribbean upbringing and European culinary training. Named after a folk figure from her native island, Compère Lapin is lauded for its complex, yet approachable flavors. In 2018 she won a Beard Award for Best Chef: South, and last year was a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef. Compton’s husband and business partner, Larry Miller, maps each day’s success by the number of goats coming in the back door and leaving curried. Tender chunks of flavorful goat are stewed down in a curry kissed with cinnamon and then ladled atop soft, rich pillows of sweet potato gnocchi with cashews. Pro tip: Get the goat, but start with the unctuous house-made scialatielli with shrimp and rundown sauce.
11. Odelia Mandeville
This confection of a restaurant, coffee, and wine bar befits its melodious name. Sommelier Blake du Brock runs the front of the house and the bar’s global wine program. Caroline du Brock, a master of dietary science, is responsible for back-of-the-house operations, including the entirely from-scratch, health-focused menu. Standouts include white bean puree served with fresh vegetables or crostini; a salad of shaved brussels sprouts, Parmesan, toasted almonds, and Champagne vinaigrette; and chicken with feta, yogurt honey-roasted carrots, smashed potatoes, and a verdant chimichurri. The plush, vibrant atmosphere at the diminutive, 55-seat jewel was inspired by the couple’s world travels and brought to fruition by Blake’s mother, Kim du Brock, a celebrated interior designer and sometimes host here.
12. Mosquito Supper Club Uptown New Orleans
At MSC, most guests are seated communally, and throughout the evening, a deeply personal bounty pours forth from the kitchen, with most items arriving family-style on platters over five courses. The dinners that chef Melissa Martin hosts are about telling the story of the shrimpers, oyster fishermen, crabbers, and farmers that define her native Cajun cuisine and the life she lived growing up on Bayou Petite Calliou in Chauvin, a place that will soon disappear due to coastal erosion. The seafood-centric menu changes weekly. If fortune has you in her favor, every 20 minutes or so, someone may arrive from the kitchen bearing a platter of enormous, fried soft-shelled shrimp, a delicacy rarely seen in a restaurant setting.
13. VALS Freret
Developed on the site of a 1930s service station, the team behind nearby Cure created Vals as an indoor-outdoor hang, splitting the difference between bar and restaurant. Though the menu is Mexican-centric, cocktails go beyond the workaday Margarita. Look to an assortment of drinks including a frozen Margarita (classic and a daily special), Palomas, Ranch Water, and some originals. Two garage doors open directly into the bar room from a spacious outdoor area. Behind the bar is a 16-table dining room. Chef and partner Fredo Nogueira developed the menu over a year spent traveling Mexico. Look for takes on ceviche, elotes, and tacos, such as crispy beef belly, carnitas, chicken in green mole, and fried fish.
14. Saffron Nola Uptown
A recent finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: South award, chef Arvinder Vilkhu’s menu has been driving double-takes since it opened in 2017. The menu merges the culinary sensibilities of India with those of New Orleans, like Gulf fish and shrimp, oysters, gumbo, and charcuterie with the use of Indian techniques and spices. If a prize were available for beautiful, inventive plating the oyster bed roast would be a sure bet. One dozen fine Gulf specimens arrive on a large pewter platter in the shape of a curving leaf with wells forming the cups within which the oysters are broiled with caramelized onions, garlic, and curry leaves.
15. Vyoone’s Warehouse District
When business at the sprawling, charmless convention center beckons, nearby Vyoone’s offers tranquility from the masses and the madness. Cozy and bright, yet serene, this seated spot serves high-end French fare with an Afro-Creole overlay. By night, the tropical courtyard is lit with masses of twinkling lights, creating a romantic air. Solid starters are the escargots in a white wine beurre blanc served with oven-roasted bone marrow and the onion soup gratinee never disappoints. Most entrees are a study of classics: duck a l’orange, grilled lamb chops, and Coquille St. Jacques. The ubiquitous steak and potatoes keeps it local, topping a six-ounce filet with buttery NOLA-style barbeque shrimp.
16. Yakuza House Metairie
Ask for a table, or ask the high-roller next to you to scoot it over at the bar. After a year-long meteoric rise in his minuscule first solo spot, chef Huy Pham’s roomier digs nearby are top-of-mind with the serious sushi-centric crowd — who seem happy to pay the price. The menu offers temaki, dressed nigiri, Japanese-style sandwiches, donburi bowls, and noodles. Temaki “sets” come in varieties that include “Nibbles,” ”Starving,” and “Hangry.” On a menu full of them, standouts include creamy Ora king salmon sashimi with shiso furikake, and seared hotate (scallop) dressed with luscious foie gras, unagi sauce, and a frizzle of fried leeks that lands on the palate in a swirl of flavors and textures. Looking to impress? This is your spot.
17. Garrison Kitchen and Cocktails Old Metairie
Taking over a long vacant garden center on a prime stretch of land, this three-in-one restaurant presses into service a historic home as the centerpiece of the operation. The buzzy, social cottage dining rooms number among several gathering spaces, both indoor and out, on the sprawling property. Executive chef John Sinclair’s menu straddles the line between comfort food and culinary inventiveness, and even the entrée-sized dishes lend themselves to sharing. Scallop crudo with grilled cantaloupe offers a light, bright start to the sweltering season, but the star of the show is the pork belly, which arrives crispy, chewy, and smoky with grilled Napa cabbage and fennel.
18. Hot Stuff University Area/Uptown
Chef Mason Hereford, New Orleans’ oddball culinary kingmaker, has done it again with Hot Stuff, a Southern meat and three lunch spot on Maple Street. In opening the venture, he partnered with long-time Turkey and the Wolf kitchen employee Nate Barfield, whom he put at the helm. Guests visit a central steam table with cafeteria trays to select from changing daily offerings that may include hamburger steak au poivre, fried chicken or catfish, marinated cucumbers fired up with chili crisp, red beans and rice, miso-enlivened green beans, and a cheese spread made with minced pickles and served with saltines. Pro tip: Arrive early to secure a Mountain Dew cake finished with lemon and lime — they sell out fast. Need a cocktail? They will pour your choice of liquor into a paper cup, and you finish it off from the self-serve soda fountain.
No reservations. Find more info here.
19. LUVI Uptown
Somehow the energy, passion, and pure thrift that brought together this cozy, Technicolor space renders it perfect, only acceptable backdrop for Chef Hao Gong’s exotic, playful Asian hybrid cuisine. Gong’s cooking draws on elements of his Shanghai upbringing, his stints at restaurants around the U.S., and his decade-long career as the head sushi chef at Sake Cafe. Some dishes, such as spicy Sichuan dan dan noodles and Mala Holla (razor thin slices of beef shank in ghost-chile oil) hearken to Asian traditions. Others, like the Monkey Snack—raw salmon, sesame-crusted banana and a spicy-sweet sauce—are his own creations. A new monthly supper club provides all you need for a dinner party at home.
20. Saint-Germain Bywater
Set aside some time for this 10-course stunner of a tasting menu in an intimate setting meant to evoke the experience of dining in someone’s home. The small guest count allows chefs Blake Aguillard and Trey Smith to offer carefully composed, technical dishes that rely on the dry aging of meats, freshly-made washed rind cheeses, and á la minute seafood butchery. The menu changes monthly and features such delicacies as white asparagus, venison, Norwegian king crab, squab, and geoduck. Check the website for frequent vegetarian tasting menu nights. A garden patio wine bar features natural wines, wines with minimal to no added sulfites with a preference for those grown organically or biodynamically. There are also beer, and craft cocktails.
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