If you have performed any of the following Google searches, you are in the right place:

• New Orleans Restaurants French Quarter
• Famous New Orleans Restaurants
• New Orleans Restaurants Near Me
• Best Restaurants in New Orleans 2019
• Top Cajun Restaurants in New Orleans
• Best Local Restaurants in New Orleans
• Where do the locals eat in New Orleans?
• Must Eat New Orleans 2019
• New Orleans Food Guide

Of the restaurants I went to, these are my nine favorites.  I would consider eight value restaurant, to ensure you get the most of you value or budget travel vacation.

1. Tout de Suite Cafe in Algiers village
2. Maypop
3. Commander’s Palace
4. Bennachin, French Quarter
5. Carmo
6. Dooky Chase’s
7. Willie Mae’s Scotch House New Orleans
8. The Gumbo Shop
9. Deanie’s Seafood
10. Daisy Dukes

Here are the details.

Tout de Suite

Tout de Suite Cafe is situated in the cheerful village of Algiers Point, just minutes from downtown and right across the Mississippi River.

The locals go here and many tourists have no idea about it since it is located in a village away from the tourist districts. You can take the ferry for only $2 each way.

April, the owner and chef, will make sure your dietary needs or allergies won’t be an issue in her restaurant.

This was my go-to breakfast place, convenient to where I stayed, and was excited to try many of April’s creations.

This is one of the best brunch spot(s) in the entire city.

One morning April made me “the Katrina,” huevos rancheros, two layers of corn tortillas with black beans, anchovies, salsa, avocado, potatoes and bacon on the side.

Later on, she added boudin into the dish, and whoa, was that savory!

She also made me a dynamite salad with organic greens, carrots, avocado, cucumber, dried cranberries, red onion, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, almonds, chicken, & the homemade vinaigrette.

Tout de Suite Cafe offers excellent value, food, service and atmosphere.

I recommend you go there and experience it firsthand!

Maypop Restaurant

Just thinking about Maypop makes me smile and wish I could eat there every evening.

This restaurant pops!

Chef Michael Gulotta does a fantastic job of fusing various flavors and styles together.

The wonderful staff took the time to not only make sure they accommodated my allergy, they came up with unique items and combinations of different dishes to create worry-free meals for me.

They made me a dairy-free amuse, black rice cracker with grapefruit marmalade topped with coconut wasabi foam.

Out of kindness, they gave me a strawberry granita to have with my peanut butter sorbet. Their dessert flavors change regularly. I had coconut sorbet another day.

One night I went during happy hour and had:

• Beet-cured lemonfish with horseradish roasted beets,
• crispy sweet potato tots,
• ravigote sauce,
• spicy marinated cucumber sesame and thai chili puffed rice
• with a coconut sorbet to finish it all off.

Another night I went after the New Orleans Saints playoff game  and had:

• Hand pulled noodles with blue crab and pork sausage,
• spicy mapo sauce,
• and le’s tofu.

Happy hour provides tremendous value where you can order multiple items for the usual price of one entrée.

This restaurant is a fine one, and the cost of dinner on this innovative menu won’t disappoint you.

Maypop is a phenomenal choice, and the setting is beautiful.

Commander’s Palace

I do not want to mislead you into thinking this is a value meal because it is not.

But, if you are celebrating a big occasion like I did for my friend Patrick’s 30th birthday, I wholeheartedly endorse going here.

The way to make this as much of a value meal as you can is to order from the three-course price fixed menu.

I know dropping $40 on dinner is far from ideal for me and many others; you get the most bang for your buck doing the three-course menu route.

You get a $8-10 salad, $35-40 entrée, and $5-10 dessert all for the price of that.

Why not get an amazing salad and dessert to go along with your entrée?

That’s getting value out of a non-value situation. But by going here, you know your meal is going to be a treat.

There is something to be said for going into a meal knowing the atmosphere and taste will blow you away.

As an appetizer, I ordered the winter citrus & strawberry salad.

Local strawberries, ruby grapefruit, red navel & tangelo citrus with bitter greens, spiced pecans and kaffir-lime limoncello vinaigrette.

As an entrée, I had the seared diver scallops over risotto with roasted root vegetables, Louisiana satsuma caramel, shellfish oil (non-dairy sauce) and crispy kale.

Finally, for dessert, I had the strawberry elderflower sorbet.

They even made me their signature drink that isn’t currently on the menu (they knew after I raved to them about their food, that Grasshopper Greg would be vlogging and blogging about them).

The drink is the Crescent City Cooler.

I don’t drink often, but if I know it will be an absolute treat, I’ll have it.

It comprises:

• 1.5 oz. Cruzan guava rum
• .5 oz. simple syrup
• .75 oz. lime juice (reserve wedge for garnish)
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• Ginger ale.

If you will have a drink, have it at Commander’s Palace.

All I can say is what a night!

Bennachin Restaurant

The origins of the recipes come from Gambia and Cameroon.

Katrina, my server, helped make my experience exceptional. She told me those working in the kitchen barely use dairy for meal prep, but she made sure there would be zero in my dish. 

I had the specialty and in-house favorite, the Jama Jama Ni Makonde meal.

The dish consists of black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes, sauteed spinach, coconut rice, plantains and a non-dairy roll.

It is a hidden gem in the French Quarter, and easily one of my favorites in the city.

Upon heading there, I questioned a few locals about the restaurant.

While a few had not heard of it, the ones who did told me it is one of their favorite restaurants. After being fortunate to taste the African cuisine of the city, I understand where they are coming from!

Since locals highly frequent Bennachin, some tourists are unaware this jewel exists.

If you go here on your trip, you a guaranteed a phenomenal meal and experience (with value!)!

Carmo Restaurant

Carmo is a tropical restaurant where the chefs create Caribbean, Central and South American, West African, Southeast Asian and the Gulf South flavored dishes. Be sure to try Carmo to experience more on your vacation.

Emma, my waitress, took excellent care of me. Not only does she have a vibrant, upbeat personality, she also went through the menu with me thoroughly to see what those in the kitchen would make dairy-free for me.

Even though the staff is excellent, you will love Emma if you ask to sit at one of her assigned tables. She’s cool.

Perhaps this menu was the most unique and diverse of all the New Orleans restaurants, especially since the flavors multitude of regions previously mentioned inspired the chef to use those ingredients.

I went there twice in my stay in the city because it was so good.

One night I ordered:

• Grilled plantain topped with vegan cheese, house-smoked wild boar, avocado, salsa fresca and the tangy sweet spicy “rico” sauce. Served with organic greens with mango vinaigrette.

• Pão de Queijo brazilian vegan cheese bread made with queijo de minas.
• Esmeralda Salad – Quinoa, black beans, corn, poblano peppers & cilantro. Tossed with chili coconut lime vinaigrette & topped with toasted pumpkin seeds & vegan cheese over organic lettuces.
• Kahlua Chocolate Pecan Cake (dairy free!).

All of that ran me $28 for a four-course meal!

The second night I ordered:

• Creole-seared avocado seasoned with their creole spice & olive oil, then lightly torched. Garnished with red onions, cashews, almonds, ponzu sauce.

• Peruvian Ceviche featuring yellowtail briefly marinated in lime juice with aji limo (red chili) and aji amarillo (yellow chili), passionfruit and caju fruit juices, with sea palm, red onion, choclo (giant corn), sweet potato, avocado, cancha (crunchy corn).

• Salpicão (Brazilian Chicken Salad) with house-smoked chicken, smoked turkey breast and ham with raisins, peas, peppers, cucumbers, shoestring potatoes tossed with house-made dressing. Served on a bed of organic mixed greens. All vegan cheese and meat!
• Gateau.

The value and quality of your meal at this unforgettable New Orleans dining experience will blow you away!

Dooky Chase’s

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant became the meeting place for music and entertainment, civil rights, and culture in New Orleans in the 1940s. 

It was “the place” to discuss civil and economic rights issues in the African-American community in New Orleans and throughout the country.

In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others would join these local leaders for strategy sessions and dialogue while eating meals at the restaurant.

Leah Chase was the cook, known by many African-Americans in the United States as the “Queen of Creole Cuisine.”

Not only did she prepare some of the finest meals of New Orleans, she showcased beautiful pieces of African-American art on the restaurants’ walls.

The restaurant served as the first art gallery for black artists in New Orleans.

Before I get to the taste of the food…*hint* you will be sad after you complete your meal there.

It was a restaurant politicians, musicians, visual artists, and literary hall-of-famers would go to while in the city.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Hank Aaron were a few of the well-known figures to eat there and have pictures framed in the restaurant.

I ordered the Shrimp Clemenceau (a local specialty and favorite) and walked around the restaurant to look at the historic photo gallery.

Willie Mae’s Scotch House

Perfected by the late Willie Mae Seaton, the Food Network, the Travel Channel and Thrillist labeled Willie Mae’s as “America’s Best Fried Chicken.”

I was allergic to the ingredients in the fried chicken, but I had the baked chicken (dark) with butter beans (vegan).

It tasted amazing.

Do not let the customer line to get into the restaurant deter you (it moves fast) from tasting heavenly chicken.

The Gumbo Shop

Woody, my waiter, helped make my experience there excellent.

I had the vegan bread with seafood gumbo…ugh…so good.

And on another day when I was walking through the French Quarter and I needed to eat something in a pinch, I had the chicken andouille gumbo.

Both were phenomenal and you cannot go wrong with either.

It is a nice choice for lunch if you are walking around the French Quarter, and for a big bowl of gumbo, $5-10 ain’t bad!

Deanie’s Seafood

I ordered two pounds of boiled crawfish and I added boiled potatoes and corn on the cob, making it a filling, memorable meal.

Eating crawfish is a unique local Louisiana culinary experience, and you will want to put your phone in your pocket because your hands will get sticky removing their parts!

They have such a fresh seafood menu, and it is yet another New Orleans culinary experience I suggest having!

Cafe Du Monde French Market

Cafe Du Monde is a New Orleans staple. Here, you can find one of New Orleans most famous dishes, beignets. Beignets, sometimes called English fritters, are a pastry made from deep-fried pastry. Beignets are served warmed, topper with a heavy layer of powdered sugar. Cafe Du Monde has been preparing these delicious desserts since opening in 1862. Even better, the Cafe Du Monde is open 24 hours a day, 364 days a year (excluding Christmas). Be sure to visit Cafe Du Monde and order some delicious Beignets and café au lait to embrace a luxurious experience on your next visit to the New Orleans French Quarter.

Daisy Dukes

This restaurant in the New Orleans French Quarter covers your craving for authentic, cajun specials. You’ll find alligator sausage, gumbo, shrimp and more. Plus, if you go for breakfast, you’ll find class french toast with favorites like biscuits and house made gravy. Top it off with a local drink, cocktail or juice depending on the time of day. If you’re looking for an early morning bite, or late night dinner, this is one of the best restaurants in the French Quarters that’s open 24/7!

Happy Eating!