Mandeville

Uptown 4: Riverbend, Carrollton & Broadmoor

The menus for lunch and dinner seem to come from two very different restaurants. The midday selection is riddled with Asian broth-and-noodles dishes. The evening menu breaks away from all of that. The six small plates and seven large ones could be served in any New Orleans gourmet bistro. You're more likely to figure out the Vietnamese heritage here by looking at the chefs and servers than by reading the menu.

Metairie 3: Houma Blvd To Kenner Line

Among the most-loved restaurants are those whose customers believe that their goodness is known only to themselves. Secret restaurants, we might call them. The regular patrons are reluctant to talk about such restaurants, believing that the restaurant will become impenetrable if everybody in the world starts coming. In actual fact, that almost never happens, but the feeling is still comforting. All of the above applies to Cypress, whose location at the corner of two heavily-traveled arteries should make it better known than it is. But ssshhhh!