NOLA Eats

I had a lot of delicious food while I was out in New Orleans. I thought I’d dedicate a blog post just for all the yummy restaurant I ate at while I was there!

Dinner

Restaurant Revolution

Restaurant Revolution has a modern steak house vibe with excellent service and food. We had our own room in the back and 2 people servicing us. Some of my favorites for the night were the crab beignets, death by gumbo, the seared scallops and all of the desserts!

Arnaud’s

Arnaud’s has a classic, old school steak house vibe. The food was great, my favorites were the potato soufflé appetizer and the bananas foster dessert - can someone please recreate the potato soufflés for me? For my entrée I got the filet mignon which was also tasty, but was less unique than the other dishes.

Costera

At Costera the table opted in for the chef’s tasting menu, which was a blind tasting menu, aka dealers choice, and only cost $55! All the dishes that were brought out were FANTASTIC! Some of the highlights were scallops, paella, steak and all the desserts! Costera is an Uber ride away from the French Quarter, but definitely worth it!

Brunch/Lunch

Napoleon House

Napoleon House has a very old school European ambiance and a nice outdoor back patio where we ate. This is a great spot for lunch, we had some very carb heavy, but tasty appetizers including a spinach artichoke dip, cheese platter and bruschetta. However, what was the true winner of the meal was the alligator po’ boy!

Café Amelie

Café Amelie is a cute garden vibe brunch spot in the French Quarter, with some light breakfast/brunch options. We got salads, breakfast sandwiches and short rib with cornmeal pancakes.

Sylvain

Sylvain is also a nice outdoor brunch spot, a bit smaller outside area than Café Amelie. Their menu was a lot more southern based, known for their fried chicken. I loved the cornmeal pancakes, parmesan fries and chicken and waffles.

Cafes

Café du Monde

Café du Monde is a staple beignet spot in New Orleans, so you know I had to stop there! For those of you who do not know what a beignet is, it is a piece of delicious fried dough covered in powdered sugar. Beignets make a great snack for the morning, afternoon or evening. Café du Monde really streamlined the process, I was able to walk up to the window, get my order and grab a seat! A must do if you go to NOLA!

And if for some reason you are unable to make it to Café du Monde while you are in the French Quarter, they also have a location at the airport, right near the security check. You know I got 2 orders on my way home to NY!

Check out some of the NOLA Bars and live jazz venues I visited here

New Orleans Bachelorette

This past weekend I flew to New Orleans for my college friend Jayme’s bachelorette party! It was a ton of fun, but wow did we have a jam packed agenda for just 3 days!

I have been to Nola before on a family vacation, which was quite a different than this trip. This trip we did a lot more eating, drinking and local activities. I’ll share some of the fun adventures in this post and the links here will have more about food and bars!

Hurricane Ida really impacted the tourism in New Orleans. While the infrastructure and electricity were fine in the French Quarter, a lot of the restaurants and bars were still closed or closed early. All the tourist areas were extremely empty as well as the nightlife. Our local friend said this is the most empty she has ever seen the French Quarter.

Day 1

Sunny Day in Jackson Square

Sunny Day in Jackson Square

All the girls and I flew in on Thursday, we had a decent crew of 7 girls. Funny enough I found out the day before that one of the girls was on my flight and we were actually next to each other on the flight - what are the chances?

When we arrived, the first thing we did was go to Starbucks for a much needed iced Chai Latte (I don’t drink coffee). After that we checked into our hotel, the Omni Royal Orleans, we decorated the bride-to-be’s room.

Starving, we went to Napoleon House for some alligator po boys, which were DELICOUS. One of the old man managers walking around came up to us and asked Jayme what her hat spelled, pretending he couldn’t read that it spelled out “Bride.” We couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but then he came back with a glass of champagne for her. How sweet!

After that we were so full, but managed to roll around Jackson Square for some shopping and stumbled upon some jello shots syringes, which was harder to eat than you would think!

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall

We headed to Preservation Hall before dinner for some live jazz music, was AMAZING!!! The band had even played with Eric Clapton. (Fun Fact: I used to play the piano, so was super excited to see some jazz piano playing!)

We then went for a quick drink at French 75, then onto dinner at Restaurant Revolution, which was fantastic!! We had our own private room in the back all to ourselves! The food was delicious, if I wasn’t full before, I definitely was now!
On a random personal note: Our waiter’s name was Daniel and on the way back right outside of the restaurant we saw a MN license plate - if that isn’t a sign about my ex, I don’t know what is… (Monica agreed) What does the sign mean, that is to be determined...

We then hung out on the balcony of Jayme’s room and people watched, which meant listening to people singing really loudly with speakers from blocks away! :P

Day 2

We started off the morning with brunch at a super cute garden café, Café Amelie. After brunch, we walked around the French Quarter, did some shopping and ended up at a wig shop, where a few of the girls tried on some fun wigs! We then found our way to Pat O’Brien’s Courtyard, known for their hurricanes and is a favorite spot for many of the girls.

After this we went to Bacchanal, for some wine and cheese. The concept is very cool, you can choose your own wines and cheese and they make a yummy cheese platter for you! We had the entire upstairs to ourselves!

For dinner we went to Arnaud’s, which had an old school vibe, and some amazing delicious food! my favorite was the potato soufflé!

After this we went to see a jazz burlesque show at the Jazz Playhouse at the Royal Sonesta. Ill be honest, the show was fun, but not as good as the show I saw in NYC. One of the performers gave Jayme her fans and let her do her thing!

We went to Old Absinthe House afterwards, however the city was pretty much dead after that, which was surprising for a Friday night.

Day 3

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We started off the morning with a pole dancing class at Awakenings Pole & Aerial Fitness, which was actually a chair dance, pole dance, spinning on the pole and silks! I loved the silks and want to find a place in the city for silks!

Next we headed to Sylvain for some lunch at another cute garden vibe restaurant. I had the best chicken and cornmeal waffles!

We had a pool party at the hotel and played some bridal games before heading to Costera for dinner.

At Costera, we had a delicious blind chef’s tasting menu - yummy apps, paella, scallops and more!

After dinner we went to The Maison on Frenchmen Street for some awesome live brass band jazz music by the City of Trees Brass Band!

Day 4

One last drink at our final spot!

One last drink at our final spot!

For our final day in Nola, we got bunch with the bride before she flew home. Monica and I were the final two, not flying out until ~6PM, so we decided why not live our best lives and explore.

We didn’t do much touristy stuff the earlier in the week, so we packed it in our last few hours in Nola. We did some souvenir shopping for pralines and ate some beignets from Café du Monde before heading to some bars.

We went to the quintessential touristy bars, the Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone, Lafitte’s for a voodoo daiquiri and Pat O’Brien’s for another hurricane!

What a great trip - CONGRATULATIONS JAYME!!! Can’t wait for the wedding in a few weeks!