The plates that define New Orleans: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define New Orleans. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Gumbo is the city's defining one-pot dish: a dark French roux base loaded with the holy trinity (onion, celery, bell pepper), seafood or chicken-and-andouille, finished with file or okra, served over rice.
Where: Commander's Palace, Brigtsen's, Liuzza's by the Track, Mandina's Restaurant
Price: $8 to $14 a cup, $16 to $26 a bowl
The New Orleans sandwich, an airy Leidenheimer French loaf split, packed with fried shrimp, oysters, roast beef debris or hot sausage, dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickle and mayonnaise.
Where: Domilise's Po-Boys, Parkway Bakery and Tavern, Killer Poboys at Erin Rose, Liuzza's by the Track, Mother's Restaurant
Price: $11 to $17
A round, sesame-seeded Sicilian loaf split and packed with mortadella, salami, ham, provolone, mozzarella and the canonical olive salad: chopped giardiniera, olives, garlic, olive oil and herbs.
Where: Central Grocery and Deli, Cochon Butcher, Mother's Restaurant, Killer Poboys at Erin Rose
Price: $11 (half) to $24 (whole)
Square French Creole doughnuts, fried in oil until puffed and golden, served piled three to a plate under a heavy dusting of powdered sugar, with chicory cafe au lait alongside.
Where: Cafe du Monde, Cafe Beignet on Royal Street
Price: $4 to $6 for three
Louisiana's one-pot rice dish, the holy trinity sweated with andouille and chicken or shrimp, rice toasted in the fat, simmered in stock until the liquid is gone and the rice carries the smoke.
Where: Coop's Place, Brigtsen's, Mother's Restaurant, Commander's Palace
Price: $12 to $22
Six oysters on the half shell, baked with a brilliant green sauce of butter, parsley, green herbs and absinthe, finished with breadcrumbs and salt. Named for the wealth of John D Rockefeller.
Where: Antoine's, Arnaud's, Galatoire's, Acme Oyster House
Price: $22 to $34 for half a dozen
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.
Where: Liuzza's by the Track, Mother's Restaurant, Cochon
Price: $22 to $32 a plate
A ring-shaped braided brioche, glazed and sugared in purple, green and gold (the Mardi Gras colours), with a small plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever gets the baby buys the next cake.
Where: Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery, Bywater Bakery, Haydel's Bakery
Price: $25 to $50 a cake
Louisiana red kidney beans simmered with the holy trinity, andouille and a ham bone for hours until creamy, served over white rice. The traditional Monday wash-day dish.
Where: Mother's Restaurant, Coop's Place, Liuzza's by the Track, Willie Mae's Scotch House
Price: $10 to $16
Gumbo is the city's defining one-pot dish: a dark French roux base loaded with the holy trinity (onion, celery, bell pepper), seafood or chicken-and-andouille, finished with file or okra, served over rice.
History: Gumbo descends from West African okra stews (the word gumbo itself comes from a Bantu word for okra), Choctaw file (powdered sassafras leaves) and the French roux. It coalesced into its modern form in 18th-century colonial Louisiana, where enslaved African cooks and French cooks worked in the same kitchens. By the 1830s it was on every New Orleans Creole menu, in seafood, chicken-andouille, and Lenten z'herbes (greens) variations. The Choctaw influence (file) and the African influence (okra) are still visible in the alternate thickening choices. Gumbo is rarely thickened with both. It is always served over rice, not noodles.
Where to try it: Commander's Palace, Brigtsen's, Liuzza's by the Track, Mandina's Restaurant
Watch out for: Shellfish, Gluten
The New Orleans sandwich, an airy Leidenheimer French loaf split, packed with fried shrimp, oysters, roast beef debris or hot sausage, dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickle and mayonnaise.
History: The po-boy was invented in 1929 by Bennie and Clovis Martin, former streetcar conductors who ran a French Market sandwich shop. When the Carmen Strike paralysed the streetcars, the Martin brothers fed striking conductors free sandwiches on a special long French loaf they had Leidenheimer Bakery develop. They called the workers poor boys; the sandwich kept the name. By 1940 the po-boy had spread to every counter in the city. The two canonical forms (fried seafood and roast beef debris) emerged by the 1950s. Dressed means lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayo. Domilise's, Parkway, Mahony's and Liuzza's are the modern cathedrals.
Where to try it: Domilise's Po-Boys, Parkway Bakery and Tavern, Killer Poboys at Erin Rose, Liuzza's by the Track, Mother's Restaurant
Watch out for: Gluten, Shellfish
A round, sesame-seeded Sicilian loaf split and packed with mortadella, salami, ham, provolone, mozzarella and the canonical olive salad: chopped giardiniera, olives, garlic, olive oil and herbs.
History: The muffuletta was invented at Central Grocery on Decatur Street in 1906 by Sicilian-American Salvatore Lupo, who wanted to serve Sicilian dock workers a lunch they could eat one-handed at the counter. The round seeded loaf comes from the Sicilian muffuletta bread tradition. The olive salad is the dish; the meat is supporting cast. The sandwich travels well and tastes better at room temperature after the olive salad has soaked the bread. Central Grocery still cuts whole and half muffulettas at the original 923 Decatur counter; Cochon Butcher in the Warehouse District makes a chef's-take version with the same instinct.
Where to try it: Central Grocery and Deli, Cochon Butcher, Mother's Restaurant, Killer Poboys at Erin Rose
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Square French Creole doughnuts, fried in oil until puffed and golden, served piled three to a plate under a heavy dusting of powdered sugar, with chicory cafe au lait alongside.
History: Beignets are the French Creole take on the choux pastry doughnut, brought to New Orleans by French colonists in the 18th century. Cafe du Monde opened as a coffee stand in the French Market in 1862 and built the beignet-and-cafe-au-lait tradition that the city still runs on. After the Civil War cut off coffee imports, New Orleanians stretched their grounds with chicory root, and the chicory-coffee-plus-beignet pairing became canonical. Cafe du Monde's recipe has not changed since 1862. Cafe Beignet on Royal opened in 1990 as the sit-down alternative. The beignet was named Louisiana's official state doughnut in 1986.
Where to try it: Cafe du Monde, Cafe Beignet on Royal Street
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Louisiana's one-pot rice dish, the holy trinity sweated with andouille and chicken or shrimp, rice toasted in the fat, simmered in stock until the liquid is gone and the rice carries the smoke.
History: Jambalaya traces to Spanish paella, brought to Louisiana under Spanish colonial rule (1763 to 1803). The name itself may come from a Provencal word for mishmash. The Creole (red) version, with tomato, evolved in New Orleans Spanish kitchens. The Cajun (brown) version, no tomato, evolved in the country parishes west of New Orleans where tomatoes were less common. Coop's Place on Decatur has run jambalaya since 1983 as one of the canonical Quarter versions. Brigtsen's runs a Frank Brigtsen-style jambalaya in his Riverbend dining room. The dish is a single pot that has to come together at one heat in one moment; you don't add cooked rice.
Where to try it: Coop's Place, Brigtsen's, Mother's Restaurant, Commander's Palace
Watch out for: Shellfish (some versions)
Six oysters on the half shell, baked with a brilliant green sauce of butter, parsley, green herbs and absinthe, finished with breadcrumbs and salt. Named for the wealth of John D Rockefeller.
History: Oysters Rockefeller was invented at Antoine's in 1899 by Jules Alciatore, son of founder Antoine Alciatore. The dish was an Antoine's response to a French escargot shortage; Jules wanted a baked-oyster dish as rich and as expensive-tasting as escargots. The sauce was named for the wealth of John D Rockefeller. The exact original recipe has been kept secret by the Alciatore family for over a century, but it is widely known to NOT contain spinach (a common modern substitution). The canonical version uses butter, parsley, watercress, fennel, scallions and Herbsaint (the New Orleans anise liqueur). Antoine's at 713 St Louis still plates Oysters Rockefeller every night.
Where to try it: Antoine's, Arnaud's, Galatoire's, Acme Oyster House
Watch out for: Shellfish, Dairy
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.
History: 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.
Where to try it: Liuzza's by the Track, Mother's Restaurant, Cochon
Watch out for: Shellfish, Dairy, Gluten
A ring-shaped braided brioche, glazed and sugared in purple, green and gold (the Mardi Gras colours), with a small plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever gets the baby buys the next cake.
History: King cake came to New Orleans via French and Spanish Catholic tradition of celebrating Epiphany (Twelfth Night, January 6) with a galette des rois. The Mardi Gras colours of purple (justice), green (faith) and gold (power) were chosen in 1872 by the Krewe of Rex. The plastic baby inside (representing the Christ Child) was added by McKenzie's Bakery in 1937 to lift the dish. Modern New Orleans now has two giants: traditional cinnamon-braided king cakes from Haydel's, Randazzo's and Manny Randazzo, and a Vietnamese-American king cake from Dong Phuong Bakery in New Orleans East, which won a James Beard award and triggers two-hour lines through Carnival. Bywater Bakery and Brennan's Royal Street do chef-driven versions. The season runs January 6 through Mardi Gras (February 17, 2026).
Where to try it: Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery, Bywater Bakery, Haydel's Bakery
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Louisiana red kidney beans simmered with the holy trinity, andouille and a ham bone for hours until creamy, served over white rice. The traditional Monday wash-day dish.
History: Red beans and rice is the Monday dish in New Orleans, dating to the early 1800s when Monday was wash day and a long-simmering bean pot could cook unattended while the laundry was done. Louis Armstrong signed his letters Red Beans and Ricely Yours. The beans are Louisiana red kidney beans (a specific cultivar, different from Northern red kidneys), the andouille is real andouille (smoke-cured pork, not the milder Cajun andouille). Mother's Restaurant has run red beans and rice on the Monday lunch counter since 1938. Camellia Brand red beans, sold in red mesh bags at New Orleans grocery stores, is the brand the home cooks trust.
Where to try it: Mother's Restaurant, Coop's Place, Liuzza's by the Track, Willie Mae's Scotch House
Peak food season in New Orleans is year-round.
Local dining hours: lunch around 12:30, dinner from 19:30.
service is typically included; small extra is welcome but not expected.
If you only have one meal, eat Gumbo. It is the dish most associated with New Orleans.