New Orleans Food & Spirits

Restaurant Review

Anecdotes & Analysis

Secondary restaurant locations--the ones which usually cause the first-time dining to get lost as he looks for the place--have a way of cooking much better food than you expect. That is certainly true at all three locations of New Orleans Food And Spirits. They are indeed purveyors of very good eating in very casual places. [caption id="attachment_43285" align="alignnone" width="480"] Red beans and rice, just the way I like them at New Orleans Food and Spirits. Get them with blackened catfish.[/caption]

Why It's Essential

The generic, forgettable name and the corny menu language ("gumbeaux") disguise a very good neighborhood seafood restaurant. Overloaded platters of fried oysters, shrimp, catfish, and soft-shell crabs are all prepared to order, crisp and hot. And they grill as well as they fry. The three locations have aspects of a neighborhood cafe, with poor boys, beans, gumbo, and specials. [caption id="attachment_14525" align="alignnone" width="480"] Oyster poor boy.[/caption]

Backstory

The restaurant is the successor to a little neighborhood place in Houma. The Bergeron family expanded well beyond that, for a time even having an outpost in Birmingham. The West Bank NOF&S opened in the early 1990s, and instantly became a packed house. The Bucktown location came next, occupying the building where R&O used to be. It was one of the very few restaurants to survive hurricane Katrina in the West End and Bucktown area. The Covington branch appeared in 2004. [caption id="attachment_43562" align="alignnone" width="480"] Oysters Florentine at NO Food & Spirits.[/caption]

Dining Room

The Harvey restaurant is a pleasant but busy dining room in a suburban style. The Bucktown location of this three-unit seafood specialist is a big, somewhat crowded room whose windows gaze onto the levee. The lake is on the other side of that for postprandial walks. The Covington restaurant is the most scenic, suspended as it is above the Bogue Falaya River.

For Best Results

The portions are very large. Even a salad might push a meal into the Too Much zone if you have an entree. To get Thursday's rightly famous stewed rabbit and white beans, show up early. They always run out. The great sleeper on the menu is the panneed chicken with pasta and two sauces on Wednesdays. Red beans are among the best in town. (Wish they served it with hot sausage.)