Heights Eats

(Picture by: natedougherty)

The last restaurant we visited on our trip to new Orleans was Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar on the corner of Iberville and Bourbon Street. It’s one of the most well-known places for oysters in the area, but it definitely has a mom-and-pop diner feel to it. The décor is simple and the employees are really friendly.

The oysters are, not suprisingly, outstanding. Jonathan Swift wrote, “He was a bold man that first eat an oyster,” and Sarah has yet to try one. I love, them, though–I first tried them at Whole Foods a few months ago. Felix’s has other good food besides oysters, however.

For appetizers, we sampled the shrimp remoulade, grilled oysters and raw oysters. The remoulade had a nice horseradish kick to it, and the oysters tasted like oysters “scampi.” They were topped with garlic, butter and breadcrumbs(?) and were tender and not overcooked. The raw oysters were … continue reading

While taking the St. Charles street car in New Orleans to the zoo we passed by VooDoo BBQ, which we had visited on a previous trip. We ended up getting back to the hotel later than expected, and I had some homework I needed to catch up on — so Ben suggested picking up take out from VooDoo, as we remember it being quite good on our last visit.

Ben and I each ordered the graveyard platter, where you can pick 2 of 4 meat selections and 2 sides. I chose the smoked sausage and jerk chicken, and baked beans and potato salad for my sides (pictured above). The smoked sausage was not unlike kielbasa back in Cleveland, but had a much richer smoke flavor and sort of reminded me of kielbasa from the west side market. The jerk chicken was not too hot-spicy but it was very flavorful. My favorite was actually the beans — the sauce was … continue reading

(Photo by: Old Shoe Woman)

Our recent visit to New Orleans included a visit to Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, a national chain with only a small number of locations.

We started our meal with the shrimp and chicken potstickers. They came with a gingery, tangy Asian barbecue sauce that is featured in other parts of the menu as well.

I ordered the beer sampler and was quite happy with most of the beers. While fairly conventional, the Golden Export Lager had an outstanding balance of sweetness and hoppiness and was very drinkable. The Hefeweizen ranked among the best I’ve had (Franziskaner and Paulaner), while the Schwarzbier (Black Lager) was a style that should be brewed more often. The Marzen and Seasonal Red Ale were a bit sweet for my taste, without much counterbalancing hop flavor.

For entrees, Sarah ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad while I ordered the Spinach Salad with goat cheese and Grilled Salmon. My … continue reading

Mother’s is one of the most well-known restaurants in New Orleans, particularly for their Po’ Boys. Sarah and I visited there on our honeymoon, and we definitely had to return on this trip.

Sarah ordered the Ferdi Special (pictured below), a po’ boy with baked ham, roast beef, debris and gravy. Debris is Mother’s term for roast beef scraps that fall off the meat during cooking. It’s juicy and very definitely “melt in your mouth” tender. The creole mustard on the sandwich really pulled everything together. Sarah loved it, and she doesn’t even like ham much.

(Photo: riacle)

I ordered the Shrimp Creole. The peppers, tomatoes and onions in the sauce tasted liked they had been slow-cooked for hours. I added a few dashes of Tabasco, which really brought out the flavors of the dish.

Mother’s even has a kid’s menu. We made the mistake of letting Jonathan choose his own meal, though, and his interest … continue reading

On a recent trip to New Orleans, Ben, J and I had the opportunity to stop by the Central Grocery, the originator of the muffaletta sandwich (pictured below). The sandwich itself is roughly the diameter of a basketball with layers of meat (including salami, ham and mortadella), swiss cheese and an amazing olive relish that includes a lot of veggies. It is quite filling and extremely tasty. We both agreed that the olive relish is really what makes the sandwich so unique and wonderful. We have tried some sandwiches by the same name in Cleveland and have even bought some olive relish claiming to be muffaletta sandwich spread, but we have never tasted anything that came close to the sandwich from the Central Grocery.

We also had to stop by Café du Monde on our way back to our hotel. We ordered beignets (pictured above) and a frozen café au lait. The beignets were crunchy … continue reading

Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar

VooDoo BBQ & Grill

Gordon Biersch Restaurant

Mother’s

New Orleans Muffaletta and Beignets