Galatoire's, New Orleans, Louisiana
French Quarter
New Orleans , Louisiana
Tel: 504 525 2021
www.galatoires.com
Concierge.com's insider take:
For locals, Friday lunch at this sophisticated Creole standby is a weekly tradition; for visitors, it should be a once-in-a-lifetime culinary event. With its windows facing Bourbon Street's seamy club zone, Galatoire's first-floor dining room oozes old-world gentility with tiled floors, lace curtains, and mirrored walls (the better to people-watch, my dear). The menu is classic Creole: impossibly light soufflé potatoes, crackling oysters en brochette layered with bacon, pan-fried fillets of delicate speckled trout drizzled with drawn butter and pristine lump crabmeat. Given the semiformal surroundings—gentlemen's jackets required at dinner, suggested at lunch—you'd expect a stuffy atmosphere, but the crowd here gets borderline rowdy, especially after a few midday cocktails. Arrive early and follow their lead.
Open for lunch and dinner. Closed Mondays.