"This longtime institution serves both as a neighborhood bar and one of the greater area’s few options for homey, New Orleans-style cooking. The unapologetically seafood-focused menu has choices like shrimp and crab etouffee, crab and crawfish-stuffed flounder, and multiple varieties of gumbo; it also works crab into hush puppies and shrimp into beignets. Find Mardi Gras-appropriate drinks like hurricanes and Sazeracs, too." - Rebecca Cooper