Harvey

The generic, forgettable name and the corny menu language ("gumbeaux") disguise some very good neighborhood seafood restaurant. Overloaded platters of fried oysters, shrimp, catfish, and soft-shell crabs are all prepared to order, crisp and hot. And they grill as well as they fry. The three locations have aspects of a neighborhood cafe, with poor boys, beans, gumbo, and specials.

Mandeville

Covington

For me, all Italian food falls into two categories. There's the cooking that blows me away every time I go to Italy, or to a few restaurants in this country. And then there's everything else. I like the food in the latter category, but not nearly as much as I like the former. In New Orleans we only occasionally get the memorable stuff. Even when it appears, it has a way of morphing into Category Due. Del Porto is the only restaurant in the New Orleans area that has managed to keep that amazing, herbal, rustic, robust style of cooking over the long term.