Restaurants in New Orleans
IF YOU KNOW | OCT 29, 2020
Nini Nguyen
WHO
Restaurants
WHAT
New Orleans
WHERE
About
Nini Nguyen is a New York based chef instructor, recipe developer and recent contestant on Bravos’ Top Chef All Stars, Season 17. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Chef Nini combines her Vietnamese heritage and NOLA flair into a unique cooking style.As a naturally curious person, Chef Nini’s favorite pastime is roaming through markets in different cities, tasting, smelling and squeezing all the fruits and vegetables she can get her hands on. Since being on Top Chef, Chef Nini Nguyen has kept herself busy by developing recipes, consulting on restaurants, hosting virtual cooking classes and hanging with her dog, Tofu.
PHOTO BY BEN FRANKE
This iconic bakery nestled in East New Orleans is a special place to me. I grew up in this neighborhood where Vietnamese people settled in the 1970s. The bakery is most famous for their Vietnamese French Bread and Banh mi. But recently, their New Orleans style king cakes are harder to get your hands on than a coconut at the Zulu Parade on Mardi Gras day. Things you must try if visiting are their Banh mi thit nuong, pate chaud (best meat pie you will ever have) and at their restaurant ge the Bun Bo Hue.
If you love smokey barbecue and Southeast Asian flavors, you will love this spot. Created by Caitlin Carney & Marcus Jacobs, this cute and slightly wacky spot is the perfect place to have group dinners. They have an amazing wine list and on Mag Mondays, there is a discount on Magnum bottles.
Coquette is the kind of restaurant where you take a date you want to impress or to meet your partner’s parents. Located in a beautiful uptown home, you can enjoy old designs with modern Louisiana cuisine.
When you eat at Jamila’s Cafe, you feel like you are eating in someone’s home. Moncef and his wife Jamila opened this Tunisian restaurant after visiting New Orleans and loving it so much that they decided to build a life here. Moncef runs the front of house and the hospitality is like no other place in the city. Jamila is the force in the kitchen creating delicious traditional Tunisian dishes influenced by South France and Italy.
Commander’s Palace usually makes it on every restaurant list in New Orleans because it is probably the most iconic restaurant here. But the reason I picked this spot is their 25 cent martini lunches. Eat in the courtyard and have a few martinis with a pre fixe meal. Talk about a power lunch.
There are very few places that I have been that make me envious of the chef’s creativity. This is one of them. Every dish that comes out of that kitchen is incredibly thoughtful and mind blowing. Try the tasting menu if you can get a seat, but don’t sleep on getting drinks or their amazing bar snack in the backyard.
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