Dakota is the only restaurant on the North Shore that has consistently kept its food, service, surroundings, and wine lists firmly in the top ranks since it opened. That's is more challenging than it would be on the South Shore, particularly in the service department--there being no real community of career waiters across the lake. The clientele that supports restaurants like this--and keeps them on their toes--is also smaller north than south. But Ken Lacour and Chef Kim Kringlie keep their restaurant as fine as almost any in the city.
After working together at Juban's in Baton Rouge, Ken Lacour (local guy) and Kim Kringlie (from North Dakota) partnered to open this restaurant in 1990. They took over what at first glance looks like (but isn't) the restaurant of the motel next door. It was already a handsome space, built out as Pat Gallagher's Winner's Circle. The timing was perfect: the migration of upper-middle-class people to the North Shore had reached boom proportions, and there were few restaurants for their high-end dining. Dakota has the distinction of being the first white-tablecloth restaurant in the New Orleans area to reopen following Hurricane Katrina.
The two main dining rooms are spacious in every dimension. That and the superlative floral arrangements throughout the restaurant give the place a sense of richness, even in the face of a hard, too-modern renovation a few years ago. The servers and front door staff could hardly be more accommodating or intelligent. The background music veers across the breadth of jazz, sometimes becoming a little too avant-garde for the room. The
Although weekdays rarely fill the house, the restaurant does so much private-dining business that it's always a good idea to make a reservation. There's a good lobster special on Friday at dinner. Lunch is a bargain. They recently instituted a very good bar menu with a tapas-like quality; it's a romantic,. quiet venue for a light supper.
| Attitude | 1 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 3 |
| Hipness | 2 |
| Local Color | 1 |
| Service | 2 |
| Value | 1 |
| Wine | 3 |
