(Updated July 3, 2006)
While I was in New Orleans, my colleagues and I, along with our board members, were able to visit a few restaurants/places in the business district/French Quarter areas. Unfortunately, the Riverwalk area, a highly popular tourist attraction, is still in construction. Approximately, 30% of area businesses have re-opened.
Most restaurants now available to the public opened up earlier this year. I can tell that they are working diligently getting their operations to pre-Katrina levels, while we are here for the conference. They, along with other businesses, are so grateful for the conference attendees. Unfortunately, due to the low number of available staff, the waiting period for food and attending to patrons was quite slooowww.
Obviously, the hotel/restaurant industry is in great need of staff, resources, and support.
It will take some time for the restaurants to get the sufficient number of staff to get these services at a sufficient level again. It's not that I'm complaining my experience in NOLA, but it is so obvious about the extended waiting times.
Another thing. Many restaurants lost approximately 90% of their wine/beverage collections due to the storms and flooding. So, restaurants did not have any wines older than year 2002.
Anyway. Here it goes.
Palace Cafe
Palace Cafe is a great restaurant stand-by when you arrive to NO. This place hosts great French Cajun and Southern cuisine, and the menu is usually outstanding and creative. The duck and rib recipes are quite wonderful. They had a great Duck dish with a sweet blueberry glaze/rub. Surprisingly, the duck was very moist. Accompanying this tender duck were the restaurant's version of baked beans and potatoes, which I should say were quite good! Yum.
The desserts here are good. Two worthy items are the blueberry crisp and the chocolate volcano.
The restaurant is operated by the Brennan family, which has a reputation for great restaurants.
The Rib Room
A colleague got an opportunity for a large group of us to reservations at "The Rib Room". It's a rotisserie type of restaurant located at the Omni Shoreham which is located in the French Quarter on Royal Street. The food is quite good, and the restaurant walls were lined up with dark wood with that august, formal look. I ordered the a 10 to 12 ounce prime rib, and, although my cholesterol level tripled, I finished the whole thing. Egads. My arteries are choking as I write this. The food is typical of New Orleans fare.
Cafe Giovanni
Experience the New Orleans Italian experience at Cafe Giovanni, which hosts a number of very good pasta and seafood dishes. The owner and head chef is the famous Duke LoCicero. Even with the slow service, the dining experience at the restaurant was memorable. I ordered the Duck Classico, which was good in general, but the edges were a little dry. I would recommend the excellent raviolis as appetizer starters. They melted in your mouth.
My mouth is watering over the thought!
Although the New Orleans dining experience has always been a unique and grand event for me whenever I visit the city, I still see the great efforts by these cafes, rotisseries, and restaurants to make diner experience a great occasion. Yes, there are struggles and errors, but the effort, heart, and the enthusiasm by these loyal New Orleans dwellers makes it such an extraordinary affair!
technorati tags: New Orleans; restaurant reviews; French Quarter; restaurants
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