It doesn't look like it's going to be good, but it is. And has been for a long time, even as it's evolved from a workingman's restaurant into a place that catches a lot of tourists. The visitors could do a lot worse. Here they will get very good platters of the local everyday-dining staples from long ago. Red beans, fried seafood, stuffed peppers, pastas with all kinds of sauces, big salads, and poor boy sandwiches.
Greek-owned, all-day downtown eateries are familiar in most big cities across America, but we have never had many of them here in New Orleans. Mena's is a great example of the genre. Opening in the 1960s at the corner of Iberville and Exchange Alley (where the Country Flame is now), Mena's has served breakfast and lunch to hundreds of thousands of people, a mix of office workers and French Quarter denizens. In the late 1990s Mena's moved a half-block toward the river into the former Messina's Oyster Bar. That expanded the restaurant and made it more comfortable.
One big room with large windows that make some of the tables bright while leaving the rear part of the place a bit darker. The menu is posted on an old-style fluorescent-backlit sign that I think came from the old place. The "palace" part is obviously a joke, but it's worn so thin that the owners don't use it officially anymore, even though longtime locals still do.
Order light. The place is famous for its mountains of food. Expect no fine points.
| Attitude | 1 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 0 |
| Hipness | 0 |
| Local Color | 1 |
| Service | 0 |
| Value | 2 |
| Wine | 0 |
