Head-on Gulf shrimp simmered in a peppery butter-Worcestershire-lemon sauce, served bubbling with French bread to mop the sauce. No barbecue involved, despite the name.
BBQ shrimp was invented at Pascal's Manale on Napoleon Avenue around 1954 by Jake Radosta, who wanted a dish for the bar that needed only a saute pan. The sauce is the dish: a lot of butter, a lot of black pepper, Worcestershire, lemon, garlic. The shrimp stay in their shells and the diner peels them at the table, then mops the sauce with French bread. Liuzza's by the Track later took the sauce and put it in a po-boy in the 1990s, inventing the BBQ shrimp po-boy. Both versions are the same sauce. Pascal's Manale still serves the original at 1838 Napoleon Avenue.
3 editor picks for BBQ shrimp in New Orleans, ranked by editorial score. All New Orleans signature dishes · BBQ shrimp across every city.
Cochon ★ 4.6
warehouse-district · 930 Tchoupitoulas St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Cochon in New Orleans is Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski's James Beard winning Cajun room on Tchoupitoulas, an ode to whole-hog cookery in a converted Warehouse District building.
Liuzza's by the Track ★ 4.5
faubourg-st-john · 1518 N Lopez St, New Orleans, LA 70119
Liuzza's by the Track in New Orleans is the Bayou St John lunch counter near the Fair Grounds that invented the BBQ shrimp po-boy, still the room's anchor dish today.
Mother's Restaurant ★ 4.2
central-business-district · 401 Poydras St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Mother's in New Orleans is the 1938 CBD lunch counter at Poydras and Tchoupitoulas, home of the Ferdi Special po-boy with ham, roast beef and debris served from a cafeteria line.