Tag Archives: nola

Canary Club

My wife and I have wanted to try out this cocktail bar and live music lounge for a while. We finally made it in for an early dinner yesterday.

Quick take-aways: Delicious cocktails and good comfort food.

We really liked the broiled oysters and the french fries, as well as the ice cream sundae. The rest was just okay.

The snails were a bit under-seasoned and lacked that “snap” texture.

We also tried the shrimp and crab cake special. The shrimp were slightly overcooked and the batter on the crab cake needed work (no texture). The salad with fried green tomato was really nice though.

The batter on the fried chicken was too hard, but the meat was cooked nicely. The Voodoo seasoned fries were great.

Their coffee-based dessert cocktails are incredible. They have two, and each one is extremely unique, with one even having carrot juice espresso and tahini in it. Wild. They paired really well with the ice cream sundae.

We will be back for cocktails and live music, for sure. But maybe we’ll stick to the oysters and fries in terms of food.

CANARY CLUB
303 Broome St
New York, NY 10002

Rib Room

Rib Room overall score: 81

Our first dinner in New Orleans during our 2019/2020 New Year trip was here at Rib Room. I was dying to try some prime rib from here ever since I passed by it on the street two years ago. Here’s how it went down.

Flavor: 8

I had the king cut prime rib, which is a gorgeous tomahawk chop that’s roasted to perfection. The cap was delicious, and the eye was cooked evenly throughout, without getting too monotonous in terms of flavors and textures.

This baby came with a hard, pipe-hittin’ horseradish sauce that will known your brain out of your skull if you’re not too careful with how you apply it to your steak. I love that kick! But beware.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9

There’s a good selection of cuts here, even beyond the standard prime rib sizes that you expect to find at a place that specializes in prime rib. They also served grilled rib eyes, strips, filets, etc. Everything is sourced from local producers and purveyors, but I didn’t detect too much dry-aged flavors coming through.

Portion Size & Plating: 9

The portions here are big, and you get a lot for your money on everything from the apps all the way through the entrees.

Price: 9

At $45 for the king cut of prime rib, which comes with a side and a salad, you really can’t go wrong. Coming from NYC it was a nice, refreshing reveal when the bill came.

Bar: 8

The bar here is nice. We hung out for a bit before being seated and enjoyed the beautiful hotel-lobby environs (Omni Royal). The martini I had was a bit too sweet though.

Specials and Other Meats: 8

In addition to an extensive list of chops and roasts, they also offer specials here as well. My wife had the prime rib “manager’s special,” which is a princess cut of prime rib that gets grilled on the sides after roasting. Here is a before and after:

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 7

We tried a few things as starters. Let me get right into them.

Lamb Pastrami Grilled Cheese:

This sounded better than it tasted. I had high hopes, but it came out a bit cold, and not too pastrami-flavored at all.

The cast iron baked cheesy oysters were pretty fantastic. Very unique.

 

The frog legs were massive, and breaded very nicely – fried to a golden, crunchy crisp.

The baked potato and salad came with the prime rib. Both were basic but good.

We skipped dessert and opted for some late night beignets at Cafe du Monde instead.

Seafood Selection: 7

There’s standard steakhouse seafood fare here. I didn’t try any so can’t really rate it.

Service: 8

Service here was good. Our waiter Richenel was really nice, attentive, and made good suggestions. However the restaurant messed up my wife’s order a bit (they brought her out a princess cut of prime rib instead of the manager’s special – firing it on the sides meant it was a bit overcooked from how she ordered). As a result, her steak wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Another thing to note here, they don’t have a prime rib cart service here like at Lawry’s or House of Prime Rib. They have something a bit different: a central carving station on the side of the dining room where you can watch the meat master work if you’d like. I dig it.

Ambiance: 8

This place is gorgeous inside. The hotel spared no expense in decking this place out. High ceilings, dark woods, fancy music.

RIB ROOM
621 St Louis S
New Orleans, LA 70130

St James Cheese Company

This nice sandwich and cheese shop is a fun place to stop in for a quick lunch if you’re in the area. The bloodies are good, and the sandwiches and cheese are nice.

I could’ve used a little more roast beef on this sandwich, and thinner sliced, but the smoked blue cheese sorta made up for it. That was unique. But I think I’m starting to notice a NOLA trend with small amounts of sandwich meat down here. Not a good look!

ST. JAMES CHEESE COMPANY
641 Tchoupitoulas St,
New Orleans, LA 70130

Revolution

I, my wife and some friends ate at this joint for New Year’s Eve dinner before heading to a party in New Orleans. We tried a bunch of shit so I’ll get right to it.

STARTERS: steak tartare, charbroiled oysters, and crispy fried sweetbreads with mushrooms.

Of these, my favorite was the sweetbreads. They were crispy outside, creamy inside, and packed with lots of earthy flavor from the mushrooms. The oysters were great too, and over all the charbroiled oysters in this town are amazing almost everywhere we had them.

ENTREES: lamb chops and game pie.

These were both pretty good. I’d definitely recommend either one if you’re dining here.

SIDE: artichoke gratin.

This dish ate more like a dip, and as such would have benefitted from some bread or chips for dipping.

RESTAURANT REVOLUTION
777 Bienville St
New Orleans, LA 70130

Pho Tau Bay

After two previous visits to New Orleans I was dead-set on finally trying some Vietnamese food. This town has a large Vietnamese community, so I know the food will be good.

My wife and I picked this joint because it was the closest to our hotel that was actually open on New Year’s Day. It had nice ratings to boot. We started with a pair of Vietnamese drip coffees, which were excellent.

Next, we shared a banh mi sandwich – their signature “dac biet” special sandwich.

This was great. Just the right amount of filling, nice fresh French bread that didn’t rip my mouth apart from being too hard or crispy.

Then we had some soup. I had the large “dac biet” special bowl of beef pho. This was great for the price tag. It easily surpassed most of the pho I have access to here in NYC (obviously there are some big exceptions since NYC is finally getting some good Vietnamese food).

My wife had the bun bo hue, which I thought was a bit too pungent and overly fishy for my taste, but it was still good as far as this dish goes. Especially impressive were the noodles. The round, “thick spaghetti” style rice noodles typically used in this soup will often get overcooked and become mushy. Then they break easily when you grab them with chopsticks, which is a pain in the ass. But these were perfect.

Give this place a shot when you’re down here.

PHO TAU BAY
1565 Tulane Ave
New Orleans, LA 70112

NOLA Po’Boys

This little joint is the perfect spot to stagger into for some great drunk eats after hitting Bourbon Street. The po’boy is pretty good, despite not being on the traditional French bread.

This pile of meat really hit the spot though. It’s braised beef in roux gravy, on top of cheese fries. It’s like a NOLA poutine!

NOLA POBOYS
908 Bourbon St,
New Orleans, LA 70116

Maypop

This joint delivered on some nice Asian fusion food down in NOLA. We started with a few bread specials; one stuffed with cheese and one was a spicy sesame biscuit.

There was also a nice amuse, which was a croquette of sorts, topped with a creamy foam.

The fried oyster dish was great, as was the marrow appetizer with lamb shank.

This spicy pork jowl dish was really awesome.

But the star of the show was this cornmeal garganelli in coconut milk alfredo with curried blue crab, spicy tomato red curry, lemongrass sausage, and basil. A possible best of 2020.

I really liked this gulf fish entree as well. Great crisp on the skin!

Dessert may have looked like a log of shit, but it tasted great. Chocolate mousse with toasted marshmallow and graham crumble. S’mores!

MAYPOP
611 O’Keefe Ave,
New Orleans, LA 70113

French Market

We stopped in here for a quick bite and a drink. It was early in the day, so I had a bloody mary.

I wasn’t crazy about it. Something in the mix didn’t sit well, and I didn’t finish it.

The fried green tomatoes app with crawfish remoulade was nice though. Even though it looks like a pile of puke.

FRENCH MARKET
1001 Decatur St,
New Orleans, LA 70116

Cochon Butcher

I stopped by this NOLA joint last time I was down in the Big Easy, but I didn’t try anything. I was too full from eating at Cochon, their sister restaurant, next door. This spot is the more casual, bar-style deli. They offer up some meaty hot and cold sandwiches. On rec from a friend, I tried the muffuletta, which he said was better than Central Grocery. I disagree. There was a noticeable lack of meat, and the olive salad and giardiniera is much better at Central Grocery. Pass on this.

I was also disappointed by the porchetta cheesesteak sandwich. This came served in a strange hybrid between a pita and an English muffin. It also lacked meat.

The saving grace at this joint, and a possible best bite of 2020, was the Pig Mac burger.

This was killer, and I highly recommend this if you make the trip over here.

COCHON BUTCHER
930 Tchoupitoulas St b
New Orleans, LA 70130

Bourbon House

This Bourbon Street joint is serving some decent grub given the chaotic location, namely, the charbroiled oysters.

Those were great. The red bean hummus sounded promising but was pretty underwhelming.

I had a mixed fried seafood platter for my main course, which was nice, and a great way to beat back the remains of a Bourbon Street hangover.

The bread pudding, however, was awesome.

BOURBON HOUSE
144 Bourbon St,
New Orleans, LA 70130