20 Superb New Orleans Restaurants That Are Open on Monday Nights
"Acamaya is the stunning new Bywater restaurant from Ana Castro, the James Beard Award-nominated former chef of restaurant Lengua Madre. Castro has moved away from a tasting menu and focuses instead on dishes of hot and cold Mexican mariscos. The menu is a wild ride of adventures, like the bass ceviche with chamoy, cherries, and jicama; the heirloom tomato salad with chapulines (grasshoppers); and the hamachi “al pastor” tostada. A blue corn sope is an earthy vessel for tangy, creamy Higgins crab, the chochoyotes are delicate pillows of rich comfort, and the crispy octopus explodes with flavor from a walnut salsa negra. Still, the star of the show is the arroz negro, a crunchy-creamy dish flavored with huitlacoche (a rare corn fungus Castro imports from L.A.) and topped with mussels and squid. You won’t want to share, or leave — the restaurant’s upbeat but moody atmosphere is a blast." - Beth D'Addono, Clair Lorell
