Best Restaurants in New Orleans (2025)

A civil rights landmark where Leah Chase defined Creole cooking. Expect gumbo, fried chicken, and hospitality that shaped the city’s dining culture. Featured by Eater and Southern Living; praised by The New York Times.

Garden District icon for refined Creole, jazz brunch, and turtle soup. Family-run and locally rooted, it remains a celebratory rite of passage. Frequently recommended by Eater, Food & Wine, and national critics.

Wood-fired Gulf seafood, raw bar favorites, and simple, bright flavors. James Beard Best New Restaurant winner; a constant on Eater’s essential lists and praised by Condé Nast Traveler.

The beloved family restaurant’s downtown outpost brings back that legendary fried chicken—crackly, juicy, unforgettable. Celebrated by national press and noted locally for restoring a New Orleans classic.

Frank Brigtsen’s Riverbend cottage channels modern Creole with warmth and precision. A locals’ favorite and New York Times pick, known for seafood platters, gumbo, and pecan pie.

Twelve-seat tasting menu meets garden wine bar in Bywater. Chefs craft intricate, ever-changing courses; the courtyard leans natural-wine casual. Lauded by Eater and Condé Nast Traveler.

Chef Serigne Mbaye’s Senegalese tasting menu connects West Africa and Louisiana—communal, story-driven, seafood-forward. Winner of the 2024 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant; widely featured by Eater and The New York Times.

The Vilkhu family’s Indian restaurant folds in Gulf seafood and local produce—oyster roast, biryani, and stellar cocktails. James Beard–recognized; recommended by Axios and Eater.

Seasonal, inventive cooking in a handsome Magazine Street corner space. Known for ‘No Menu’ nights and polished hospitality. A frequent Eater essential and a favorite of local critics.

Alon Shaya’s Israeli kitchen turns out wood-fired pita, bright salatim, and Levantine dishes anchored in local produce. Frequently highlighted by The New York Times, Time Out, and Eater.

Family-run Ethiopian with a lively Bayou Road setting, a traditional coffee ceremony, and vegan Monday feasts. Celebrated by Eater and local media for deep, comforting flavors and community focus.

A Mid-City staple near the Fair Grounds famed for frosty goblets and the garlicky barbecue shrimp po’ boy. A classic on Eater’s maps and beloved by locals heading to Jazz Fest.

Inside Acamaya, Ana Castro’s Hotly Anticipated Solo Restaurant in New Orleans | Eater New Orleans

On my visit to New Orleans’s Bywater neighborhood, Ana Castro’s Mexico City–style mariscos spot, Acamaya (3070 Dauphine Street), felt like somewhere you want to return again and again. The hotly anticipated solo debut from Castro — a James Beard Award–nominated former chef of Lengua Madre opened in partnership with her sister Lydia — focuses on hot and cold Mexican mariscos (a culture of its own) with oysters, ceviche, aguachile, seafood cocktail, and fish tostadas alongside sopes, chochoyotes, costras, and carne asada; despite its name (a Spanish word for a crustacean similar to a crawfish) you won’t find crawfish on the menu. The atmosphere is upbeat and vibrant, backed by Uruguayan rap or Argentine rock and friendly staff who advance the meal without overearnestness, while the ethereal interiors, sharp geometric angles, lime wash, matte black tile, carved stone, and Mexico City–sourced cups, flatware, plates and light fixtures articulate the Mexico Castro wants people to know. Menu highlights range from a nearly traditional shrimp aguachile and a bass ceviche with cherries, jicama, and chamoy made without sugar, to Castro’s favorite hamachi tostada with pineapple and tepache and a layered heirloom tomato salad finished with a chapulines vinaigrette; there are Higgins crab claws in salsa verde asada, lightly charred okra atop poppyseed sikil p’aak, a shrimp costra, green adobo shrimp eaten with the shells on, comforting chochoyotes with crab and chanterelles, and more. The star dish for Castro is the arroz negro — a funky, earthy combination of mussels, squid, and huitlacoche she overnight-ships from Los Angeles — which she says makes the effort worthwhile. A glossary on the back of the menu helps introduce diners to unfamiliar ingredients, the restaurant keeps a section for walk-ins, and Castro plans to expand to weekend lunch this fall and open seven days a week early next year. - Clair Lorell