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Welcome to MetroGuide.Network's New Orleans DiningGuide, a directory of restaurants and related restaurant information for Metropolitan New Orleans, Louisiana. Use MetroGuide's DiningGuide service to find New Orleans restaurants by location or cuisine.

New Orleans restaurants -- renowned for “lagniappe” as a little something extra -- go out of their way to put the “bons” in bons temps -- French Cajun for good times. Crescent City culinary styles are every bit as distinct as Big Easy architecture and music. Yet categorization can be elusive, with both Acadian (“Cajun”) and Creole frequently blending into a fusion of flavor defying comparison. Cajun sustenance comes from the bayou country of southwest Louisiana, whereas Creole dishes are a cosmopolitan blend from Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. Louisiana cooking as a whole is dominated by multicultural overlap extending back 300 years, heavy on French persuasion from before and after the 1789 revolution. Spicing up the historical mix are underlying influences from Native Americans, and more recently creeping into the melting pot are tastes of Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe and now Asia. Resulting is an entirely new dimension in taste sensation, especially for fresh catch from the wetlands and Gulf of Mexico. Among myriad specialties, New Orleans’ Creole signature dish is gumbo, made with shrimp, crabs, crawdads, or a mix of meat and sausage (often Cajun Andouille), where stock is thickened with Native American file spice, okra and tomato. Jambalaya, a spicy mix of seafood, sausage, spice and rice, is New Orleans’ version of Spain’s paella. Sauce Piquante is a tomato-based stew with turtle, rabbit, or alligator. Entrees featuring crawdads are popular whether presented in high-end enclaves as Crawfish Etouffee, or in earthier quarters as Mudbug Stew. New Orleans has a stellar line-up of icon restaurants and celebrity chefs. It was at the famed Brennan’s where flaming rum spooned over bananas and vanilla ice cream were first concocted to become Bananas Foster. When New Orleans Chef Paul Prudhomme transformed the long-time Cajun favorite of blackened redfish into a world-wide craze (creating Big Easy supply / demand challenges), chefs everywhere took to blackening chicken, veal and just about everything they could stuff into a skillet. However varied the New Orleans dining scene, no visit to the Crescent City could be considered complete without a stop at the riverside Café du Monde, established in 1862 as a French Market coffee stand and open 24/7, except for Christmas and hurricanes. Here chicory-flavored café au lait in serviceable mugs tastes all the richer when accompanied by those little square Creole pastries called beignets, fried to crusty perfection and -- in true lagniappe style -- dusted like snow with powdered sugar.

DiningGuide New Orleans is part of MetroGuide New Orleans, offering guides to events, shopping, hotels, attractions and more for the entire region.

DiningGuide has additional Southern Louisiana restaurant information at DiningGuide Baton Rouge.

New Orleans Dining Search

New Orleans Dining By Location

To perform a quick search for restaurants in the Metropolitan New Orleans area, please select one of the locations below (restaurant listings will be grouped by cuisine / category):

New Orleans Dining By Cuisine

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What .Community Members Are Saying...

“The Best I Ever Had!!!!”
	“We were starving after the 311 concert and ducked in to Mr. Chubby's not knowing a thing about the food. In one word I will tell…” Review Details. Said about: Mr. Chubby's Cheesesteaks, by Member, Cleveland
“Great Service”
	“We ate at O'Henry's with two small children. Our server was so sweet and helpful. She even answered our questions about the city…” Review Details. Said about: O'Henry's Food and Spirits, by "Sandy", Nashville
“Great Garden Distric Restaurant”
	“When I came to New Orleans to volunteer and to visit my daughter, I told my daughter that I wanted to eat someplace nice but not…” Review Details. Said about: Fresco New Orleans Cafe & Pizzeria, by Member, Atlanta
“Would Be Regulars If We Lived In New Orleans”
	“I stopped in late on a Saturday night with three teenage girls in town for a cheerleading competition. Sometimes it's hard to g…” Review Details. Said about: Fat Greg's Pizza & Pasta, by Member, Laurie, Birmingham
“Poboys”
	“They used to be good, but they have gone way down hill! They use frozen soft shell crabs and frozen shrimp, and you can tell the…” Review Details. Said about: Smitty's Seafood, by Member, John, Metairie
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