The Resy Hit List: Where In New Orleans You’ll Want to Eat in July 2025

Still arguably the defining restaurant of New Orleans, in spirit, cuisine, and history. Over seven decades, the late Leah Chase built an iconic gathering place for the city, nourishing with spectacular renditions of Creole classics like shrimp Clemenceau, crawfish etouffee, and gumbo z’herbes. Today, the next generation upholds Chase’s legacy with the same attention to detail and emphasis on warm hospitality, along with a renewed dedication to fine dining and maintaining the iconic restaurant’s relevance today.

Vyoone Segue Lewis’s Warehouse District restaurant has been wooing couples, endearing out-of-towners, and anchoring celebrations for large groups with its French-Creole fare and warm ambiance since 2018. The menu serves up the kind of gratifying dishes that could come straight out of a French home cook’s kitchen: excellent French onion soup, head-on New Orleans barbecue shrimp, rich escargot with bone marrow, and delicate duck l’orange with mushroom bread pudding. Visit during the spring season and find out if the soft-shell crab maque choux awaits on the other side of the marvelous white string-lit outdoor hallway.

Saint-Germain is the little engine that could – a scrappy enterprise dreamed up by three friends with minimal investment, a small budget, and wildly ambitious goals. It has emerged as one of the very best restaurants in town, recognized nationally for a 10-course tasting menu that physically moves diners throughout its eclectic, romantic Bywater space. Chefs Trey Smith and Blake Aguillard channel modern Parisian bistros while infusing every course with remarkable creativity, using ingredients like white asparagus, guineafowl, lima beans, and geoduck. It is world-class dining in a kitschy, relaxed atmosphere. If the tasting menu is too much of a commitment (and splurge), the wine garden is worth visiting Thursday through Monday nights.

Former Sylvain chef Martha Wiggins is doing remarkable things at this longtime Central City lunch destination, even beyond its feel-good mission of serving the community as a job-training program for teens and young adults. It’s also one of the best places in town to try lesser-known New Orleans specialties like shrimp and white beans, smothered turkey necks, and fried catfish. It stands out among its peers for its joyful, inviting atmosphere, attentive service, and large portions, but above all else the food is exceptionally well-executed. It’s a dignified representation of local cuisine that would make the city’s culinary forebears proud.

Find more info here. 

Opened at the end of 2023, this is not just the city’s most ambitious seafood market, meant to serve as a dedicated space for bycatch. It’s also a casual neighborhood restaurant, where a pair of talented chefs are serving New Orleans favorites with a sustainable twist. In addition to seafood gumbo, po’ boys, crudos, and boiled shellfish, customers can choose any fish in the case – maybe tilefish, sheepshead, porgy, or almaco jack — to have grilled, blackened, fried, or on a sandwich. The hope is that people will try something new, learn something new, and then seek it out. Fresh off a James Beard Award nomination, it’s a great time to visit.

After 15 years as a mainstay of Donald Link’s restaurant empire, Pêche still radiates warmth and graceful energy from the moment you walk in. The oyster bar off the entrance remains a good sign of what’s to come: fresh Gulf seafood prepared in elegant but approachable ways —  the kind of food you could eat weekly and never be disappointed. Current chef Nicole Cabrera Mills infuses ever more global flavors into dishes that still wouldn’t be out of place at a lavish cookout, like catfish with pickled greens in a chile broth; jumbo shrimp with purple rice; and fried oysters with pickled papaya and kimchi. That dynamism keeps us as interested as we ever were.

Informed by years of research, months of travel across the Indian subcontinent, and a deep reverence for the cuisine, Tyler Stuart and Merritt Coscia opened Plume Algiers after years of pop-ups, in large part due to demand from their Algiers Point neighbors. That’s just the kind of relationship the couple has with their customers — close, appreciative, and thoughtful. Try dishes not found on typical Indian restaurant menus in the U.S. — like Bengali-style fried fish, Indo-Chinese stir-fried rice dumplings, Kashmiri lamb meatballs, and appam — in a quaint, homey setting that you’ll want to return to regularly.  

This Magazine Street Chinese restaurant has a devout fan base that’s ever eager to line up for a table at — or before — 5 p.m., so plan your visit accordingly. (Pro tip: weeknights.) Shirley and Tang Lee, the original proprietors of Royal China in Metairie, have reasonably made Orleans Parish grateful for their move into the city. The menu of delicate dim sum; comforting soups; slick noodle dishes, and fiery Cantonese specialties is large but focused compared to Royal China, making every option a winner. The refreshed space has touches both modern and familiar, with comforting navy and gold highlights, glowing Chinese lanterns, and nostalgic fish tanks – a bonus for the many families with kids who dine there.

No reservations. More info here.

This ambitious neighborhood restaurant is making waves in the Marigny, while marking the return of an acclaimed local chef. Rebecca Wilcomb won a James Beard Award while at Donald Link restaurant Herbsaint, prior to moving over to the kitchen at Gianna. Evviva also taps Marcus Jacobs, the former chef of Marjie’s Grill and Seafood Sally’s, bringing a funkiness to the menu of polished Italian specialties. There’s a promise of seasonal salads (like crab and peaches), delicate crudo and anchovy bread, and fresh pasta dishes married with unexpected ingredients like chicken liver and ham. The happy hour is killer, a wise offering for this elegant but humble corner cafe, with $7 martinis and snacks like wagyu beef tartare.

Recent years have brought the Caribbean roots of New Orleans cuisine to the forefront, sparked in part by Nina Compton’s Compere Lapin. Charly Pierre has picked up the torch at Fritai, where a mellow, attractive space gives but hints of the most inviting dinners in town. Pierre energetically explores New Orleans tradition in several dishes, but this is a Haitian restaurant at its core. Start with the crispy snapper collar, vegetable akara, and grilled shrimp pikliz, and try an entree with sos pwa, a deeply savory black bean sauce that you’ll want to drink straight from the cup. Order a setup of the Clairinha, and everyone at the table gets a sweet little punch bowl glass in which to enjoy the refreshing clairin-based cocktail.

Spring in New Orleans calls to mind this classic, thanks to a combination of Jazz Fest (which takes place a stone’s throw away), peak season for nearby Esplanade Avenue’s glorious oaks, and the appearance of soft-shell crab dishes on the menu (perhaps panéed over spaghetti with basil Alfredo). Still, this horsetrack-themed joint is best known for three things: the oyster po’boy, fried and slathered with a garlic butter sauce; the Worcestershire-tinged barbecue shrimp po’boy served in a pistolette; and the Creole gumbo, a dark roux-based version featuring sausage and chicken plus sauteed-to-order shrimp freshly added to each bowl. A bloody Mary is a must.

No reservations. Find more info here.

This tropical oasis-meets-tiki bar in the French Quarter is an ideal summer destination, with its ultra-refreshing drinks, hot weather-friendly food, and Havana-inspired surroundings. Entering off Lower Decatur feels like commencing a vacation, an all-at-once romantic, historic, and moody setting for a date or drinks with a group. Try the coctel de camarones and marinated beets to cool off alongside an elaborate Hurricane, one of the best in town, or keep things hot with the grilled octopus and fish rundown. Opened by a powerhouse team of local chefs and bartenders — Neal Bodenheimer, Kirk Estopinal, and Alfredo Nogueira — the beloved spot recently celebrated 10 years.

Since its opening in 2015, Paladar has offered something decidedly different: California-style cuisine with an Italian tilt, using Gulf Coast ingredients. Fresh pastas like squid ink spaghetti with shrimp and crab and corn agnolotti are bright and balanced; the pizzas, especially the mushroom, leek, and fontina, and farm egg, bacon, and collard green, pack a flavorful punch; and the desserts are exceptional. Staff navigate the lively, loud warehouse atmosphere with artful grace, framed by the view of a large open kitchen that periodically dances with flames.

The backyard beckons in this, the home of the funkiest wine party in all New Orleans. Bacchanal can be credited with helping make Bywater a dining destination (though the long-lived Jack Dempsey’s down the street has about a decade headstart). Owners Joaquin Rodas and Adrian Mendez honor Bacchanal’s late founder Chris Rudge in every way, changing little since its opening in 2002 and maintaining its homey spirit. There are several ways to enjoy the near-daily lineup of live music: Grab a bottle of wine and choose cheeses, which the restaurant will plate, and head out back. Order small plates from the back window, like bacon-wrapped dates, papas fritas, mussels, and skirt steak with chimichurri. Or head upstairs for a less crowded setting in the treehouse. All involve good wine, great food, and prime people-watching.

No reservations. More info here.

The impossibly cool scene at this combination restaurant in Bywater is layered: there’s the hip clientele and staff, the quirky but serene atmosphere, and the wildly inventive menu that leans on vegetables and vegan-friendly ingredients while offering some of the best meat and fish dishes in town. There’s a rustic feel to items like the white bean dip sprinkled with fiery peanut salsa macha accompanied by misshapen grilled flatbread, or the fat, hand-ripped squid ink noodles with creamy crab and shrimp. Non-vegans stand by vegan dishes here, too — maybe grilled trumpet mushrooms atop cashew cream grits with pistachio chimichurri. But the wagyu bavette steak with blue cheese pistou competes with any steakhouse, and the pan-seared snapper gives the city’s grande dames a run for their money. Cocktails are outstanding.

Find more info here.

Tucked away on a Mid-City neighborhood corner is this family-run restaurant, Lisa Nelson’s cozy hub for the powerful flavors of Trinidad and Tobago. The doubles alone are worth the trip off the beaten path, warranting a monthly or even weekly visit: Savory and comforting, chickpeas are stewed with curry, cumin, and cilantro and top a fluffy, slightly spongy fried flatbread. The dish is brightened by grated cucumber and a trio of sauces: mango chutney, Scotch bonnet sauce, and the cherished tamarind sauce. The curry chicken and fried fish are more standouts, best accompanied by Caribbean spinach and rice and peas. The Queen, as she’s known, reigns over her busy kitchen while her friendly son greets diners at the door.

Find more info here.