THE BIG EASY GUIDE TO FINE DINING NEW ORLEANS’ LIST OF BEST RESTAURANTS ARNAUD’S 813 Bienville Street - French Quarter - 504.523.5433 - www.arnauds.com Entrees: $25 & Up - French / Cajun / Creole Cuisine Arnaud's seems to have the lowest profile of all the classic old New Orleans restaurants, but undeservedly so, since it tops them in quality. You need to try at least one venerable, properly New Orleans atmospheric establishment, and that one should be Arnaud's, which is doing some of the best culinary work it has in years. Delicious fish dishes include snapper or trout Pontchartrain (topped with crabmeat). Any filet mignon entree is superb (the meat is often better than what's served in most steakhouses in town), in particular the filet au poivre, while the more daring might want to try the crispy, not gamy, pan-fried sweetbreads. The Bananas Foster are spot on, and one crème brûlée fan said Arnaud's was the best she'd ever had. In addition to the formal (and seriously New Orleans) dining room, there is the more casual jazz bistro, with entertainment at night. – NY Times BAYONA 430 Dauphine Street - French Quarter - 504.525.4455 - www.bayona.com Entrees: $25 & Up - International, French / American Cuisine A dedicated chef-owner who is a local treasure, superior food, and one of the loveliest courtyards in the restaurant scene -- all reasons to eat at Bayona. Be sure to begin with the outstanding cream-of-garlic soup, a perennial favorite. Knockout entrees have included medallions of lamb loin with a lavender-honey aioli and a zinfandel demi-glacé; a perfectly grilled pork chop with a stuffing of fontina cheese, fresh sage, and prosciutto; and yet another lamb dish, this one topped with goat cheese, that may have been the best lamb we've ever tasted. Entrees come with a well-balanced selection of sides such as gnocchi, puréed butternut squash, or fresh sweet corn. A light lunch on Saturdays features three courses of tapas-like plates you can mix and match for $20. – NY Times COMMANDER’S PALACE 1403 Washington Ave. - Uptown - 504.899.8221 - www.commanderspalace.com Entrees: $25 & Up - American, Cajun/Creole Cuisine The much-beloved Commander's is perhaps the symbol of the New Orleans dining scene, and for good reason. The building has been a restaurant for a century, it's at the top of the multibranched Brennan family restaurant tree, and its chefs have gone on to their own fame (Prudhomme and Emeril ring any bells?), plus they mentor their own outstanding local staff to keep the tradition going. Dinner is always good, and it's often superlative, as is the wine list (not to mention lunch and brunch, lower-priced options well worth considering -- if only for the 25¢ martinis!). The current menu reflects chef Tory McPhail's constantly working imagination and his commitment to locally grown and sourced ingredients. To really experience his talents, spring for the seven-course "Chef's Playground" tasting menu. The menu changes frequently, but the fresh seafood and seasonal specialties never disappoint; on our last visit we were bowled over by the Creole mustard-crusted sliced rack of lamb. Your waitperson will tell you to order the bread pudding soufflé. Do so. – Frommer’s DOMENICA 123 Baronne Street - CBD - 504.648.6020 - www.domenicarestaurant.com Entrees: $20-$30 per entrée - Italian Cuisine It would be enough if Domenica were nothing more than a pizza place, because its pizzas are something else: crisp-bottomed examples of the high art that occurs when various iterations of baking, meat curing, sausage craft and dairy heaven cheese come together in the dry heat of a wood-fired oven. It also would be enough if it were only a restaurant that served pasta as cunning as fine pastry or one that roasted goat in cast iron to be served with seasonal vegetables around the custardy, golden yolk of a yard egg. I'd go so far as to say that Domenica would have substantively enriched our appreciation of Italian cuisine if it were just a salumeria, dishing out sheets of house-cured coppa and moist squares of soppressata di Toscana with tumblers of Montepulciano. As it happens, Domenica is all of these things. Chef Alon Shaya’s & partner John Besh’s efforts amount to more than the sum of Domenica's parts. It's the best Italian restaurant in New Orleans at a time when there never has been more competition for the title. – NOLA.com GALATOIRE’S 209 Bourbon Street - French Quarter - 504.525.2021 - www.galatoires.com Entrees: $25 & Up - French, Southern Cuisine If you need a reminder of what early twentieth century fine dining was really all about, we have one word for you: Galatoire’s. Shunning menu trends and protectively maintaining a clubby, timeless atmosphere, Galatoire's has earned bragging rights as the quintessential classic Creole restaurant. Here, tradition is revered, and we can't imagine beginning a meal without the goutte or the grand goutte, palate-stimulating samplers of the shrimp rémoulade, crab meat maison and shrimp maison sized to fit your table's head count. Fried oysters and bacon en brochette, sautéed fish lavished with seasoned crab meat and lightly charred lamb chops still reign on the white-linen tablecloths. The downstairs opposing mirror panels embellish the sidewalls, appointed with glittering brass fixtures. The noise level can become rather elevated as the evening wears on, as bittersweet Sazerac and old-fashioned cocktails fuel much of the energy. Waiters continue to offer frank advice on the freshness of the seafood and any other matter you might care to bring up. By the way, be sure to say these two words to your server: “soufflé potatoes.” -- Gayot.com GW FINS 808 Bienville Street - French Quarter - 504.581.3467 - www.gwfins.com Entrees: $25 & Up - Seafood Cuisine An off-Bourbon success story since 2001, GW Fins is nearly a French Quarter institution, which can obscure that it is a Louisiana seafood restaurant unconcerned with adhering to Louisiana seafood mores. The daily changing menu draws on what is available fresh for delivery from around the globe, not just the Gulf, although there’s that too; blue crab pot stickers in pea shoot butter are a relatively new addition to Fins’ list of greatest hits, and parmesan-crusted speckled trout with crisped capers and brown butter was a highlight of a meal in July. Chef Tenney Flynn has been running a tight ship in the tumultuous heart of the Quarter for a long time now. And it is the rare night when you won’t find him or partner Gary Wollerman at their respective posts, ensuring that customers find something nearly as comforting as Fins’ hot biscuits and baked-to-order apple pie: a familiar face. –Frommer’s HERBSAINT 701 Saint Charles Avenue - Warehouse District - 504.524.4114 - www.herbsaint.com Entrees: $25 & Up - French, Southern Soul, American Cuisine Herbsaint would be the locally made pastis found in, among other places, the popular local cocktail, the Sazerac. As a restaurant, it's an alternative to similarly inventive but much higher-priced peers in the Quarter, with thoughtful dishes planned by 2007 James Beard Best Southeast Chef Donald Link. Be sure to try the Herbsaint, tomato, and shrimp bisque -- it always sends us into rhapsodies, and we aren't even soup fans -- and the "small plate" of fried frogs' legs, because when else are you going to? Fresh, beautiful salads can come delectably decorated with seasonal ingredients or lush extras like burrata cheese. Carnivores might weep over the splendor of the meticulous pork-belly preparations, which can be a 3-day process. The desserts are often simple, but usually standouts. – Frommer’s IRENE’S CUISINE 539 St. Phillip Street - French Quarter - 504.529.8811 - www.urbanspoon.com/Irene's Entrees: $15-$25 - Italian Cuisine Irene's is somewhat off the regular tourist dining path, but just follow the garlic scent until you see a long line. In a constantly changing world, waiting for a table at Irene's is something you can count on, even with reservations. But the French Provincial and Creole-Italian food in this dark, cluttered warren of small, somewhat romantic if tight-packed rooms is worth it. Ultrafriendly waiters and Irene herself provide prompt service. The menu is heavier on meats and fish than the house-made pasta; locals know that Thursday is osso buco day, and we've known duck aficionados to pledge undying allegiance to the Duck St. Phillip (in a raspberry-pancetta demi-glace). We were thrilled by the whole fried soft-shell crab atop pasta with a cream sauce of garlic, crawfish, tomatoes, and wads of whole basil leaves. The panned oysters and grilled shrimp appetizer can be magnificent, and don't forget the pollo rosemarino -- five pieces of chicken marinated, partly cooked, marinated again, and then cooked a final time. Desserts, alas, are the usual suspects (repeat after me: crème brûlée, bread pudding, chocolate torte. – Frommer’s K-PAUL’S LOUISIANA KITCHEN 416 Chartres Street - French Quarter - 504.524.7394 - www.kpauls.com Entrees: $25 & Up - Seafood, Cajun/Creole Cuisine Cochon may get all of the press these days, but it will take years — not to mention an incalculable number of televised cooking demonstrations — for that great Cajun restaurant to overtake K-Paul’s when it comes to impact and raw fame. K-Paul’s opening in 1979 triggered the national infatuation with Cajun cuisine and the then-unprecedented celebrity of founder Paul Prudhomme. It is ground zero for much of the confusion surrounding the terms used — namely Cajun and Creole — to describe the food we eat in south Louisiana.