At this season, NOMenu takes an appreciative look at the matchless seafood of New Orleans. We take a different angle each year. This year's perspective is a countdown of the thirty-three (one for each weekday in Lent) best restaurants for lovers of oysters, pompano, crawfish, speckled trout, and all the other delicacies that make living here anything but a penance.
And now we come to the end of this year's survey, with the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans. . .
Number One
GW Fins
Seafood.
French Quarter: 808 Bienville. 504-581-3467. Map.
Dinner seven nights.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
GW Fins does with seafood what the prime steakhouses do with beef. The kitchen’s main task is finding top-quality finfish and shellfish wherever it is to be found. Surprisingly few restaurants put forth much effort in that direction, making any that do stand out. Fins' co-owner/chef Tenney Flynn's seafood procurement machine brings great surprises to the table every night.
Fish being the elusive ingredient that it is, no good fish house has the same resources every day. GW Fins prints a new menu every day to reflect its discoveries, with a dozen or more species of finfish every day. Half are local, half exotic. That's also true of the cooking style. You can get a great sauteed redfish with crabmeat on top like you can everywhere else, or something completely unique. Occasional special menus bring forth rare items like Australian crabs and exotic tunas. All of this is prepared simply and very well, in portions substantial enough so you can taste the stuff.
An old D.H. Holmes warehouse was rebuilt--without completely removing all the industrial-look stuff--into a sharp, modern space. Space, in fact, is the key word. Lots of it between the tables, floor to ceiling, in the bar, in the bathrooms, everywhere. The wall of windows in front allows a great view of Arnaud’s, across the street.
BEST SEAFOOD DISHES
Menu changes daily, but a few dishes are usually there (if the fish is available):
Seafood gumbo
Lobster dumplings
Smoked, sizzling oysters on the shell
Tuna tartare and sashimi
Horseradish-crusted drum
Short-smoked salmon
Sea scallops with mushroom risotto
Wood-grilled pompano
If a special menu is running, give it priority.
For a more detailed review of this restaurant, click here. To see the entire seafood Restaurant countdown so far, click here.