Last minute NOLA travel tips

[lykaon78]

I got wrangled in to a last minute trip for work this Thursday so I've just made basic accommodations and nothing else. My wife is able to join me so we are turning it in to adults only weekend.

Any must stop places to eat or things to do that I can arrange at the last minute?

 

[Herr Kutz]

What business are you in?

 

[lykaon78]

Insurance

 

[EvilYoda]

It's a great city for food! Anything you're looking for, i.e., fine dining, cajun, seafood? It also has a good number of well-respected cocktail bars.

As for entertainment, there are standards like Maple Leaf Bar, Tipitinas, and all of the jazz/blues spots along Frenchman.

 

[Craig234]

I got wrangled in to a last minute trip for work this Thursday so I've just made basic accommodations and nothing else. My wife is able to join me so we are turning it in to adults only weekend.

Any must stop places to eat or things to do that I can arrange at the last minute?

Two recommendations more than any other: K-Pauls (have brown sauce on something), and bread pudding at the cooking school. Best in the world.

Beignets are overrated. 'Breakfast at Brennan's' is a historic thing and good, but not worth too much bother. If you do go, have Bananas Foster -they invented it and it's the best.

Hurricane is the drink of the town and dangerous.

Commander's Palace is 'go to' nice restaurant and fine but I'd go to K-Paul's first myself. ANd have Red Beans and Rice - a staple well-done anywhere.

 

[JEDI]

I got wrangled in to a last minute trip for work this Thursday so I've just made basic accommodations and nothing else. My wife is able to join me so we are turning it in to adults only weekend.

Any must stop places to eat or things to do that I can arrange at the last minute?

harrahs casino

double decker bus tour- about an hr to tour all of NO

mardi gras world- where they build the floats and they have tours daily:
http://www.mardigrasworld.com/

 

[Darwin333]

Mothers restaurant is an absolute favorite for the locals and you should definitely get a muffaletta from Central Grocery. The D-Day museum is awesome if you are even remotely into that sort of thing, if you do go the USS Tang experience and the 4D theater are amazing.

It would help if you gave us a bit more info on what you enjoy. You like clubbing or bar hopping? Fancy dining or more casual?

 

[Chromagnus]

https://cochonrestaurant.com

This place is one of my favorites, I try to go every time I'm in town. They also have a second restaurant that is attached on the side that they just call Cochon Butcher, it's more of a sandwich place but it is also really good.

If you are going to get beignets skip Cafe du Monde (which is the most famous one) and go for Cafe Beignet, they have a location on Bourbon street in an area that has live music often but I prefer the one a couple blocks down on Royal St because it is much more relaxing.

 

[ElFenix]

rabbit and porcini tagliatelle at domenica:

ham hock at cochon:

andouille croque madame at cavan for brunch:

beignets from morning call:

steak board from doris metropolitan

and no pics but the cioppino at irene's is supposed to be excellent


[all pics stolen from friends of mine]

 

[lykaon78]

It would help if you gave us a bit more info on what you enjoy. You like clubbing or bar hopping? Fancy dining or more casual?

Not big drinkers so no clubbing. Great food and cool sites. I like a little jazz but the wife not so much.

 

[Xstatic1]

If there's one place you gotta go to: Central Grocery for their Muffuletta.

I really enjoyed the beignets at New Orleans Famous Beignets & Coffee, but they closed down last month. Don't go to Cafe du Monde.... they're overrated.

Cochon & Cochon Butcher are the 2 restaurants I wanna try. Next time I visit, I'll just have to deal with the long wait times to be seated (which is why I haven't eaten there yet).

 

[lykaon78]

Doris Metropolitan and Cochon booked. Thanks for the tips!

K-Pauls was booked. Any other suggestions along the cajun/creole theme?

Ruby Red Slippers is across from our hotel - worthwhile?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

NOLA travel tips......







Don't go to NOLA. In fact, go anywhere but NOLA. If you want bars and stupid ugly women that show their tits then go to any bar.. Their food sucks, their drinks sucks. Nothing to be had here....

 

[masterxfob]

i'm going in august, definitely gonna have to check out doris!

 

[Craig234]

Doris Metropolitan and Cochon booked. Thanks for the tips!

K-Pauls was booked. Any other suggestions along the cajun/creole theme?

Ruby Red Slippers is across from our hotel - worthwhile?

See if K-Paul's has alternatives like takeout. There's a reason it's booked.

 

[Darwin333]

Coquette is another good place. You can try Peche Seafood Grill and I recently ate at Shaya which serves authentic Israeli food and it was awesome. As mentioned previously, Commanders Palace, while quite pricey, is as good as it gets. If you can afford to and can get a reservation for it I highly recommend getting the Chef's table. It's a one in a kind experience to taste some of the very best Creole cuisine and it's a really fun time too.

Edit: I still can't stress how much you should go to Mothers, even just for lunch.

Also Mulate's for cajun food.

 

[Herr Kutz]

I have a couple free penthouse entrance tickets if you want.

 

[CountZero]

I know others said not to go to Cafe Du Monde but I disagree. Maybe it is nostalgia from going there when I lived there as a kid but when I went back to NOLA with my wife last year we both enjoyed going there, so what if it is full of tourists. You are in the French Quarter, the entire place is full of tourists.

 

[Craig234]

I know others said not to go to Cafe Du Monde but I disagree. Maybe it is nostalgia from going there when I lived there as a kid but when I went back to NOLA with my wife last year we both enjoyed going there, so what if it is full of tourists. You are in the French Quarter, the entire place is full of tourists.

If you like it, no problem for you - but my issue isn't the tourists, it's that it just doesn't offer much, so it's 'only' a place the tourist go for no good reason.

But I don't mean to rain on your parade enjoying it. It can be a better place for you.

 

[RossMAN]

We have a NOLA trip coming up, tagged for future reference.

 

[lykaon78]

Brief Recap - thanks for the tips. Hopefully mine help others.

Wednesday night went to Peche and it was good. I'm not a seafood person so overall it was just okay for me. My wife loved it.

Thursday wen to Cochon. Easily the best meal of our trip. I had the Cochon and it was the most interesting pork dish I've ever had. My wife had the brisket with horseradish potato salad and it was great too.

Friday: Had a great ribeye at Doris Metropolitan. Wife's filet was good but not extra-ordinary. Side dishes were meh (asparagus was over cooked and grilled veggies were boring). Service was great.

Saturday: Ate at Coquette while touring the Garden District (1st Avenue for the best houses). Felt like it was fancy for the sake of being fancy. I had a small pork steak with a weird sausage. The wife had Chilean sea bass with pickles. Both had incredibly small portions - we left hungry.

Did stop at Cafe Du Monde on Saturday morning. The 40+ person line moved quickly. If you're in a hurry go to the carryout line - it was about 10 minutes faster than getting seated. Was worth a stop for its tourist value. Thought the beignets were pretty tasty.

WWII Museum is simply just a great museum. We spent 5 hours and could have lingered longer. Coolest part was seeing two WWII veterans meet each other while waiting for one of the movies to start. Their mutual reverence was obvious and the applause from the crowd well deserved.

Bring an ID to Frenchmen Street. We made that mistake. The wife and I are in our late 30s and the only time we were carded all weekend was trying to get in to see a band.

Toured St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery - YMMV on the quality of the tour based on your tour guide (they are required). I was totally bored after 30 minutes and wholly underwhelmed by the voodoo queen's tomb. Nicholas Cage's future tomb was the most interesting. And despite what you have been told, the water table has nothing to do with the above ground tombs.

Avoid Essence weekend. It was crazy. Several uber drivers told us this was the worst weekend for traffic besides Mardi Gras.

 

[Craig234]

Glad you had a good trip - too bad you didn't get to try K-Paul's or the cooking school.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Marked for trip later this summer. Thanks for the recap.

 

[Darwin333]

Really glad you took my advice to check out the D-Day Museum and glad you found it as fascinating as I do. Did you get a chance to do the USS Tang experience, if not you should at least read up on it or check out a Youtube video. It's an epic story of WWII submarines and how the tactics evolved.

 

[lykaon78]

Consider staying at the Renaissance New Orleans Arts Warehouse District Hotel. The price was reasonable and if you don't mind the short walk or quick ubers it is centrally located between the Garden District and French Quarter with some great restaurants around too. We also stayed at the The Saint. It was fine but not better than the Renaissance and was much more expensive. It was write on the edge of the French Quarter.

Both are Marriott properties.