The Best Restaurants in the Garden District, New Orleans

If it’s tubular tastes that you seek, Dat Dog is here to delight your every desire. Yes, the classic Vienna beef with ketchup is on the menu, but it’s wildly outshined by the dozens of other elaborate combinations. Go all-in on an alligator dog with dat sauce and nana’s slaw. Set your tongue ablaze with a spicy duck sausage or Vaucresson hot sausage topped with Creole mustard and sport peppers. And the crawfish etouffee fries? Don’t even get us started.

Click your heels three times, and you’ll end up at the Ruby Slipper Cafe on the edge of the Garden District. Wake up, and rally at this boozy brunch spot, with a little vodka in your iced coffee or a little OJ in your mimosa. Go ahead, and order another round while you snack on pig candy bacon bites – your bananas foster pain perdu and crawfish & grits benedict will help you sober up.

This is no run-of-the-mill sandwich joint. As quirky and colorful as a Mardi Gras parade, Turkey and the Wolf has had a James Beard Award within its grasp multiple times. Some call it wacky, some call it wonderful, we just call the inventive menu absolutely delicious. Where else can you find a collard-green melt with cherry pepper dressing, a fried bologna sandwich topped with potato chips, or a hog’s head cheese taco with hot sauce?

Bridging breakfast and lunch, District Donuts, Sliders and Brew is our preferred way to meal-plan. Vietnamese iced coffee and a savory kolache with bacon, egg and cheese make even a Monday morning taste good. You’ll get through any long day with a to-go box of cinnamon rolls and glazed donuts. Keep your appetite in check for the rest of the day, with a box of pork belly or chicken sliders and waffle fries drowned in homemade cheese sauce.

Southern cooking staples are elevated and elaborated at Gris-Gris. Who knew a BLT was missing fried oysters and sugarcane vinegar? How have shrimp platters survived without being dipped in Cajun caviar ranch? Gris-Gris answers your questions with a single bite, letting its stone-ground grits, hand-pulled chicken and Louisiana popcorn rice do the talking. You’ll only ask, “how could this get any better?”, to which the brunch menu will reply, “with a crawfish omelet and blueberry bourbon pain perdu”.

Oddly enough, the New Orleans barbeque shrimp that made Pascal’s Manale famous over the last century is actually not barbequed at all. Instead, these crustaceans are cooked in a peppery butter sauce, though you won’t mind the misnomer when they’re melting in your mouth. Elsewhere on the menu, you’ll find classic Italian and Louisiana dishes with delicious variations. A mix of cocktail sauce and remoulade create the best crab dip you’ve ever tasted, while a frutta del mare marries seafood to a plate of pasta blanketed in marinara sauce.

Mexican food rarely finds its way on the typical NOLA menu, and, yet, Superior Grill’s success proves that the Crescent City needed a little south-of-the-border flair and flavor. Scan through the traditional tacos, and you’ll find a handful of locally influenced items like thick crawfish con queso and uptown enchiladas stuffed with shrimp, crawfish and spinach. The usual suspects like chimichangas, street tacos and nachos are all up for grabs if you’re fancying something familiar.

If you’re one to seek out the hole-in-the-wall haunts, you’ll be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind experience at Cafe Abyssinia. As the first, and one of the extremely few, Ethiopian restaurants in the city, Cafe Abyssinia invites you to dine family-style. Silverware is swapped for injera, a spongy bread that doubles as a utensil. Nibble on savory sambusa, pastries filled with beef and veggies, and dip your injera into a spiced butter sauce as you experience new flavors with new friends.

Topping the long list of must-eats in New Orleans is the famous po’ boy, a local dish made classically and creatively at Mahony’s Po-boys & Seafood. Take your pick of fried shrimp, fried oyster or fried catfish slathered in mayo, sprinkled with lettuce and topped with tomatoes. Already a po’ boy pro? Mahony’s has a few twists for you to try, such as the poor-boy with french fries and roast beef debris or the root-beer-glazed Chisesi’s ham and cheese.

Newbies to NOLA, take note: you’ve never truly experienced the city until you’ve attended a backyard boil. BOIL Seafood House invites you to sink into a bucket of crawfish, Gulf shrimp, andouille sausage, potatoes, crawfish, crab and corn – and, then, order up a plate of oysters, crawfish beignets and voodoo rice, for good measure. As unpretentious as a bottle of Abita beer, BOIL will have you making friends with the table beside you, swapping stories and sharing appetizers.