just returned from trip to New Orleans
Spent 4 days in the Big Easy. Stella WOW-- is all I can say. the food was great and the dessert tasting was the best. Make your reservations and prepare to enjoy a great meal. Also had good time and great meal at NOLA. Had chef's dinner with wine paring and enjoyed every bit...
Casementos Yummy oyster loaf and dozen raw. Yeah.
Creole Creamery.. find you way here. Great ice cream and so fun to taste the flavors. Mine was olive oil gelato. yummy......
Bacco for brunch.. very nice and enjoyed bloodies and brunch. Just was shocked with skim milk for coffee.. yikes.
Lowlights. Bourbon house. not first choice but staff was without clue and food was blah. Galatoire's first it was not our first choice but some of group had to dine. 8:45 on Sunday night. Busy but the food ... Holiday inn at best. sorry but the reputation can not make up for mundane food.
Glad to see city in recovery. Had not been in two years. Be patience tip liberally and enjoy because the city is coming back... Yeah
tldmblack
Nov 09, 2006 02:20AM
I don't know what your expectations were of Galatoire's. It is devoted to Haute Creole Cuisine - the "roots" food of New Orleans City food, the application of French haute cuisine technique to local ingregedients by the early settlers who coped with what was at hand.
There menu hasn't changed in the decades that I have been dining there. There would be an uprising among New Orleans natives were they to alter that style. Consequently, you won't find olive oil gelato or other trendy experimentations in their dining room.
Many of the excellent new restaurants riff on that fine Creole style to delighful result but don't expect that at Galatoire's. Locals know where to find what we want and when we seek our roots, it's back to Galatoire's or one of the other Grande Dames of Haute Creole.
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"Galatoire's first it was not our first choice but some of group had to dine. 8:45 on Sunday night. Busy but the food ... Holiday inn at best. sorry but the reputation can not make up for mundane food."
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Is this Alan Richman from GQ? Your likening the food at Galatoire's to that of a Holiday Inn is a bit disconcerting. Either you've had really good food at a Holiday Inn, or you just ordered a plain chicken breast and veggies while at Galatoire's. Or, you just may hate classic New Orleans cuisine. Pick any one.
I wish you wouldn't have had such a bad meal, because I consider Galatoire's to be one of the best old-line classic New Orleans restaurants in the city. They've got an unbelievably good fried soft shell crab, a fantastic trout amandine and an outstanding stuffed eggplant dish. The appetizers? I can't leave New Orleans without having a dose of the shrimp or crabmeat maison; some of the freshest boiled shrimp or crabmeat, lightly coated with a well seasoned mayo based sauce. It's on my list as one of the best appetizers in the city.
Before her first experience there, my girlfriend suspected that it was a high end, fancy-pants type of complex cuisine. In reality, the food is all very simple. How can you not enjoy a piece of fresh speckled trout, dusted with flour and pan fried golden brown in butter, then topped with fresh jumbo lump crabmeat? It's good, fresh, simple food at its best. Classic New Orleans food is just that; simple and good. While many criticize the city for its lack of sophistication and progression in the food world, I don't mind a bit. For some reason, I can't get excited about avocado foam or herb "infused" gelatin. But a soft shell crab... now that puts a smile on my face.
-Kevin
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