You know, the competition is so high in New Orleans that one can say if a restaurant is open, they're good. I'm excluding the Ruby Tuesdays and other similar. Actually, New Orleans is not big on chain restaurants; it's the mom and pop, local kind of thing that predominates. No one has mentioned Emeril LaGasse's restaurant on St. Charles, or Versailles a little farther out. If you take the St. Charles street car out toward Camillia Grill, there's a great Italian restaurant called Vincent's on the way on the right, just past Tulane. And no one has mentioned the gem of them all, Galatoire's. It's on the 2nd block of Bourbon in from Canal--no reservations; you get in line, but believe me, it's worth it. Don't miss Napoleon House, a bar/bistro across Chartres from the Royal Orleans and within a wedge shot of Brennan's--one of the great muffeleta sandwiches and other things. After Katrina they served MREs, muffeletas ready to eat. In my day there was a stereo in one room with vinyl albums full of operas and symphonies and you went up and put on what you dug. Now it's the CDs, and nothing seems sacred. The original muffeleta is at Central Grocery down the block from Cafe du Monde.
Armand's and Antoine's are considered "touristy" by New Orleans people, but I went to Antoine's for a medical school reunion and fell in love with it. I know there're some I'm forgetting. Yeah KPauls, I forgot--in the Quarter. Another, Mandino's, going out Canal and on your left after passing Claiborne--get the turtle soup.
I went through LSU School of Medicine and then trained at Univ of Alabama hospital in Birmingham for three years. One of my striking memories is wanting seafood once my wife and I got to Birmingham. All we could find in 1975 in the phone book was Red Lobster. I swore off seafood in Alabama after that. I know it's different now, but back then I converted to beef for my three years in Birmingham.
Look, the big places are expensive, but you're not going there to save money, right? Believe me, it's worth it. We're lucky this is in New Orleans, the one place in the nation you can party in the French Quarter and then walk to the stadium, then walk back for the after party. I was there for LSU's victory over Oklahoma in 2003 for BCS. I remember walking out on a 2nd floor balcony of a bar on Bourbon after the game; to the right and left as far as I could see up and down Bourbon--heads, no spaces in the street, just heads. This will be one of the great parties.