Dozen And A Half Most Interesting Restaurants Of 2016

[title type="h3"]Dozen And A Half Most Interesting Restaurants Of 2016[/title] It's time for the list of the best restaurants of the past year. Having compiled one of these every year since 1978, I long ago ran out of gimmicks by which to compare, let's say, mirlitons with oysters. Doing that can generate a single list that purports to be the hot center of the New Orleans restaurant scene. The rationale for this one was harder than usual to compile. It may be challenging to wrap your mind around it. Your comments about the content and the format are welcome at tom@nomenu.com. Here are the criteria. To make the list, a restaurant must serve very good food. What constitutes "very good?" I look for restaurants where I have eaten well in recent times. But I must also be in receipt of similarly glowing reports from my readers and radio listeners. The above whittled down my list of all 1520 restaurants currently open to thirty-seven. The next pass looked for original points of interest. What's "original" or "interest"? I am attracted by novelty like the next guy, but I also find long-running menus and recipes intriguing. The same is true of downscale, casual restaurants whose goodness exceeds the goodness usually found in inexpensive neighborgood eateries. Since nobody dines exclusively in five-star places, it seems essential to include lowball establishments that delight everybody. [caption id="attachment_43093" align="alignright" width="360"] The big ballroom at Tomas Bistro.[/caption] Since there's a margin of error in any summation like this one, it makes no sense to rank the dozen and a half restaurants beyond go or no-go. Instead, I list them in reverse alphabetical order. Because we are excising the center of the roast here, I have left out restaurants on the North Shore, which live in a world of their own. Finally: why a list of eighteen instead of ten, fifteen or twenty? Because this list is pared so keenly that if I left another restaurant off, it would lack something important. Besides, food comes by the dozen. And the list at that point is just right. Let's go. Trinity. French Quarter: 1117 Decatur St. 504-325-5789. One of the big restaurant stories of 2016 concerned a rebirth of serious dining along Decatur Street in the French Market. Trinity is in the former Maximo's, and kept it's interesting counder, where you can watch all the food being cooked just a few feet away. The cooking is as original and delectable as the setup is interesting. Tomas Bistro. Warehouse District & Center City: 755 Tchoupitoulas. 504-527-0942. This beautiful French-Creole cafe was built out of a former industrial warehouse by Tommy Andrade, one of the local masters of grand dining. The main dining room is romantic. Tomas Bistro does a lot of top-end catering jobs. Station 6. West End & Bucktown: 105 Metairie-Hammond Hwy. . The name refers to the enormous pumping station that carries drainage water into Lake Pontchartrain. The outfall canal for this is adjacent to the restaurant. No view, but the place distinguishes itself for a list of seafood that goes well beyond the old West End style. `The chefs and owners are the former team behind the original Vega Tapas Cafe. [caption id="attachment_49330" align="alignright" width="480"] Hummus with lamb ragout.[/caption] Shaya. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4213 Magazine St. 504-891-4213. Surely the wildest new-restaurant phenomenon in many years, Shaya is the cooperative venture into Israeli cooking with John Besh and Alon Shaya, the latter of whom was born in Israel. (He's also the chef at Domenica, which explains the lushness of the pita bread.) Restaurant Rebirth. Warehouse District & Center City: 857 Fulton St. 504-522-6863. The concept is brilliant. This small bistro in the Warehouse District massages recipes that were once popular, using modern ingredients and cooking techniques. The result is a Creole-Cajun palette of flavors that are at the same time original and familiar. R'evolution. French Quarter: 777 Bienville (in the Royal Sonesta Hotel). 504-553-2277. The cooperative project of Chef John Folse and Rick Tramonto, here is a grand hotel dining room, as handsome in its many dining rooms as its food is complex and served with more ceremony than we see much of these days. Ordering requires a lot of thought, but the rewards are not hard to find. [caption id="attachment_37981" align="alignright" width="238"] Quail at the Pelican Club.[/caption] Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504. Chef Richard Hughes has kept a low profile since he opened the Pelican Club in 1990. But the word gets out anyway about the high-value menu of specials, and the blending of more cuisines than most whole neighborhoods have. Patois. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 6078 Laurel. 504-895-9441. In a neighborhood with many excellent contemporary bistros, Patois has a level of sophistication that makes it fascinating, even while side-stepping the overly-creative cooking common in restaurants like this. Mr. B's Bistro. French Quarter: 201 Royal. 504-523-2078. Mr. B's set the standard for the gourmet Creole bistro thirty-something years ago. For sheer deliciousness, few restaurants match it. Adding to the allure: most of its best dishes are local classics. Nobody makes better barbecue shrimp, chicken-andouille gumbo, bread pudding, or grilled fish. [caption id="attachment_52830" align="alignright" width="480"] Dining room at Josephine Estelle[/caption] Josephine Estelle. CBD: 600 Carondelet St. 504-930-3070. The hip new Ace Hotel hosts two (or maybe three) restaurants. This one uses an unlikely grand former furniture showroom. The cooking is an offbeat isotope of Italian, most enjoyable for dishes found in Rome sooner than in Naples or Sicily. The environment, service, open kitchen and the other customers all pull a different kind of dining together. Franklin. Marigny: 2600 Dauphine. 504-267-0640. What with all the comings and goings of restaurants in the Marigny and Bywater, this one is the best. Many small rooms front a large bar and a kitchen with high skills when it comes to being innovative. El Pavo Real. Uptown 4: Riverbend, Carrollton & Broadmoor: 4401 S. Broad St.. 504-266-2022. The best Mexican restaurant in the area these days, with the most elaborate cooking in that cuisine hereabouts. Make sure a dish with molé oOccurs somewhere in your menu. There are more complex dishes after that. The name means "peacock." [caption id="attachment_51303" align="alignright" width="480"] Dining room of El Gato Negro in the Warehouse District.[/caption] El Gato Negro. Lakeview: 300 Harrison Ave. 504-488-0107. The Black Cat's Lakeview location is better than the other two, but all are many steps ahead of the Tex-Mex menus elsewhere. Compere Lapin. CBD: 535 Tchoupitoulas. 504-599-2119. Cajun, Caribbean, Southern, and Creole cooking styles vie for your attention as the kitchen works with what seems at first to be an abbreviated menu. Add the specials and the oysters, and find there is more than meets the eye. The name means "Br'er Rabbit." [caption id="attachment_49487" align="alignright" width="480"] Fruit puree islands with chocolate seas.[/caption] Commander's Palace. Uptown 1: Garden District & Environs: 1403 Washington Ave. 504-899-8221. Commander's has led the local gourmet restaurant world for so long that its primacy is almost a given. On its good nights, it can serve the best dinner you've ever had. But now and there are inconsistencies that cause many a new customer into wondering what the big deal is. Brennan's. French Quarter: 417 Royal. 504-525-9711. No restaurant renewal has cost more to install or done with better taste. Meanwhile, Chef Slade Rushing took the old menu apart and made it into a selection gratifying in the extreme. Most amazing: the new Brennan's is less expensive than the old, and by quite a margin. [caption id="attachment_45599" align="alignright" width="320"] Brennan's executive chef Slade Rushing.[/caption] Arnaud's. French Quarter: 813 Bienville. 504-523-5433. Arnaud's has never been better. A menu workover about a year ago filled a few gaps, as well of ditching a number of dated dishes (the pompano baked in pastry, for example). The dining rooms are the most beautiful among the grand dame French Quarter restaurants. Service has also improved through the agency of younger waiters. Angeline. French Quarter: 1032 Chartres St. 504-308-3106. Chef Alex Harrell came here after his opening stint at Sylvain. The cooking style is somewhere between Southern and Creole--just casual enough to appeal to diners interested in enjoyable eats in an uncomplicated setup. The building was formerly the home of Stella! [divider type=""]