All posts by Johnny Prime

American, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Mother’s Restaurant

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This southern food restaurant is a staple in NOLA. On my last trip to the “Big Easy” I was finally able to try it.

They’re known for their po’ bouys, so I had to try the Famous Ferdi special: a po’ boy packed with baked ham, roast beef, debris and gravy, served dressed.

Absolutely incredible, and I think this was the best bite of the 2025 trip.

The waitress came over and gave us this plate of collared greens, shrimp etouffee and green beans. Someone had ordered it and left, or they made an extra by mistake.

This didn’t look like much, but it was absolutely amazing! Definitely need to come back here next visit.

MOTHER’S RESTAURANT
401 Poydras St
New Orleans, LA 70130

New Orleans, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Hot Benny’s

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Not much to say about this little coffee spot near the casino in NOLA, but the coffee was great, the beignets were supposedly better than Cafe Du Monde, and they served an amazing bloody!

HOT BENNY’S
364 Canal St
New Orleans, LA 70130

American, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Gumbo Shop

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We stopped into this joint for a quick bite. I tried the special gumbo of the day, which was called the Cajun gumbo. It consisted of chicken, andouille sausage, crawfish and shrimp. It was really tasty!

GUMBO SHOP
630 St Peter
New Orleans, LA 70116

New Orleans, Pizza

Pizza Delicious

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This slice joint in NOLA is serving up some great NYC style pies. I only took a photo of this spicy slice, but the other varieties were good as well. Apologies this was cut into four so that we could share.

PIZZA DELICIOUS
617 Piety
New Orleans, LA 70117

German, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Bratz Y’all

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We stumbled upon this little German biergarten while waiting for a pizza joint to open.

We wandered back and found a rooster roaming among the tables.

We stayed for a drink, but wished that we had tried more than just one of the brats.

BRATZ Y’ALL
617-B Piety
New Orleans, LA 70117

American, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Willie’s Chicken Shack

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If you spend any amount of time in NOLA, you will come across a Willie’s Chicken Shack. They’re everywhere! And they’re delicious.

We scored some fried chicken late night before passing out for the night. It was worth every greasy, salty, delicious bite.

WILLIE’S CHICKEN SHACK
428 Canal St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Big Wong

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First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

I’ve been meaning to try this spot for a while, and then recently a friend told me that their rice rolls with homemade crullers inside are great. I had to give them a try.

They were awesome! These had dry shrimp on them, which packed a lot of flavor. We also had the regular roast pork rice rolls. Tough to choose a favorite.

We figured, while we were here, we may as well try some other stuff. The roast pig was a huge portion for $11, and it was incredible.

The roast duck over rice for $8.50 was a pretty good deal, despite the duck being mostly skin and fat (I don’t mind too much).

We also had this heaping bowl of tripe and wonton noodle soup.

The broth lacked flavor, but the insane portion size of noodles, tons of tasty tripe, and I think six wontons made up for that.

Two people over-stuffed for around $55 all-in, with enough leftovers for another full meal for two. Great deal. I will definitely be back here.

BIG WONG
67 Mott St.
New York, NY 10013

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Balvanera

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Balvanera is an Argentine wine bar and steak-focused restaurant. We went with another couple, so we were able to try a bunch of stuff.

We started with four small plates:

Octopus

Roasted Beets

Blood Sausage

Burrata & Squash

All of these were really great, but I think we all sort of agreed that the octopus was the best, with the blood sausage either close behind or tied. Really great flavors on this stuff. The blood sausage had none of that grainy, irony, gamey flavor that you sometimes get with low quality or overcooked blood sausage. It had a sticky sweetness to it that was hard to describe. The octopus was so incredibly tender, and the Romesco sauce was killer.

We went with the 25oz, 28-day, dry-aged rib eye for our main course ($120).

This was cooked to a perfect medium rare, but it lacked a little bit of that dry-aged flavor. It was present mostly around the edges and along the bone. But that didn’t matter, because the flavor was so great. This is a solid 8/10 steak, potentially bordering on 9/10 if the aged flavor bumps up on future visits (definitely going back).

For dessert, we did a chocolate tart and flan. Both of these were pretty nice, but I think next time I will focus more on the small plates in the savory department instead of the sweet stuff.

BALVANERA
152 Stanton St
New York, NY 10002

American, Burgers, East Village

Virginia’s

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My wife and I stopped into Virginia’s during their weekend happy hour to try the famous burger.

I have to say, it was pretty good. They cooked it to a nice medium / medium rare.

For $30 it came with fries and a glass or wine or beer.

The fries were super crispy and well seasoned.

The shrimp cocktail was juicy and flavorful.

And the drinks were pretty good prices as well. $10 wine, $5 pickle back, $4 high life.

I would definitely go back to try more.

VIRGINIA’S
200 E 3rd St.
New York, NY 10009

Eastern European, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Oti

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

Oti is a small Romanian restaurant with a great outdoor space on Clinton Street in the lower east side. My wife and I popped in here for a quick meal. The menu consists of mainly small plates and wine. Here’s what we had:

Farmers Board

This is a nice charcuterie style board with meats, cheeses and dips. At $25 this wasn’t too bad. Great bread too.

Broken Burrata

Pretty self explanatory. This was really delicious.

Bone Marrow Toast

I didn’t get much bone marrow flavor on this, but there was something pickled and sweet on top that threw my taste buds for a loop. This was tasty and had melted cheese on it. It was good despite not following through on the marrow aspect.

Stuffed Pepper

This was probably the best (and biggest) dish we tried. Inside was a nice mixture of spiced meats, rice and cheese. I would definitely get this again. Save some bread to drag through that delicious sauce too.

Meesh

These meatball / kebab style thingies were really nice. That sauce on top was a mustard of sorts. I would definitely get this one again too.

Pickled Grapes

Our waitress suggested these over the pickled Jimmy Nardello peppers to cut the fat and compliment the Meesh. They were SUPER sour. Eating them together with the Meesh was the best way to have them. In hindsight, I wish we had gone with the peppers instead.

OTI
40 Clinton St.
New York, NY 10002