The Big Easy food guide: Where and what to eat in New Orleans

Behind its colourful architecture lies an exhaustively eclectic range of delicious cuisine. Ed Vanstone finds the best the city has to offer, from haute Creole brunch to finest sazeracs cocktail

Sit up and eat: this French market stall, inside the French Quarter of the city is one of the best to try street food (Paul Brous)

Devour beignets for breakfast at Cafe Du Monde
​800 Decatur Street

It all starts at Cafe Du Monde (cafedumonde.com) with their beignets for breakfast: a deep fried doughut made from choux pastry and dusted with icing sugar. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and established way back in 1862, it's the essential first stop on your New Orleans food pilgrimage. Before you join one of the two lines that snake away from the cafe across Jackson Square – one for take away and one for eating in – head round the back and sneak a look through the windows at the magic in action: two giggling chefs slinging kneaded slabs of dough over their shoulders into the bubbling deep fryer.

Once you've got your takeaway order, eat outside and take in the view of the oldest cathedral in the US (New Orleans CVB)

Make sure to get there before 8am, choose the shorter takeaway line, and wash your your triple threat of powdered sugar covered pastries down with a traditional cafe au lait on one of the square’s benches. Enjoy your view of the magisterial St Louis Cathedral – which is the oldest in the US, dating back to 1720 – and note the permanent slick of clotted sugar below your feet, fresh from the pastry eaters who preceded you.

Grab a po boy to go at Johnny’s Po Boy
511 St. Louis St

Lousiana’s ubiquitous sandwich staple - the Nola po boy - is a fluffy-centred, crispy-crusted baguette overflowing with its fillings. For the authentic experience, opt for deep fried seafood or roast beef, though head to Johnny’s (johnnyspoboy.com) for your hit and you’ll find a menu with over as many as 50 options, including the decadent ‘Johnny’s Special’ – loaded up with beef, grilled ham, and a melange of American and Swiss cheeses.

The po boy is the ubiquitous New Orleans sandwich staple (New Orleans CVB)

Sit down at a classic red-checked table for the old-school diner experience. Or better yet, walk the short distance to the port and chow down from aboard the deck of the Steamboat Natchez as it pootles along the Mississippi.

Brunch in style at Commander’s Palace
1403 Washington Ave

In the beautiful Garden District, famed throughout the city since it opened in 1893, Commander’s Palace (commanderspalace.com) is a thing of legends in the the New Orleans culinary scene. Brunch here – surrounded by helium-filled party balloons and serenaded by roving musical troupes – is a quintessential deep south dining experience. The menu provides a peerless introduction to haute Creole cuisine.

The bread pudding souffle is the (self proclaimed) queen of desserts here (New Orleans CVB)

You're unlikely to go wrong when ordering here, but standout dishes include the shrimp and tasso henican (spicy cured ham), the pecan crusted gulf fish and the self proclaimed ‘Queen of Creole desserts’: bread pudding souffle. Eschew the bloody marys and instead go for a couple of the crescent city coolers: a mix of ginger ale, bitters, freshly squeezed lime and guava rum - the perfect sundowner accompaniment to the blazing Louisiana sun.

Lunch with the Commander’s cousin at Sobou
310 Chartres St

With a terrific wine and cocktail selection, uber cool decor featuring hundreds of yellow-backlit glass bottles, and grub courtesy of Commander’s Palace alumnus Tory McPhail, Sobou (sobounola.com), short for South of Bourbon, has quickly become a French Quarter must visit. Go for the crispy oyster tacos and the cones with fruit and herb salsa mixed with fresh tuna and topped with avocado basil ice cream. Trust me. You won’t regret it. On a weekday lunch, alongside your entree, you can order three rounds of 25 cent martinis. Why only three? “‘Cause that’s enough,” the menu explains. Very true. In a modern techy twist, tables also come equipped with self pour beer and wine taps. Go easy now.

Sip sazeracs at Carousel
214 Royal St

Housed in the Hotel Monteleone and celebrated by Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and many other literary luminaries, the Carousel Bar (hotelmonteleone.com) resembles a giant merry go round transplanted straight from a classic fairground. Grab one of the 25 pews, order a sazerac cocktail – the city’s official drink, created in New Orleans in 1838 – and listen in as locals expound on the hotel’s haunted history. Liberace once tickled the ivories of the bar’s piano, and a constant steam of New Orleans stalwarts fill the live music schedule. Time your visit accordingly. P.s, it is moving, just very slowly. One revolution every 15 minutes, to be precise. So it’s definitely down to the booze – not the ride – if you find yourself stumbling off…

Meet the best hostess in town at Upperline
1413 Upperline St

Renowned and beloved by locals and tourists alike, JoAnn Clevenger has presided over the fine-dining restaurant of Upperline (upperline.com) since opening its doors back in 1983. A former costume designer, Bourbon Street bar owner and proud girl scout, JoAnn flits between tables bedecked in her uniform of red dress, round glasses and girl scout pin, regaling diners with tales from New Orleans’s past and effortlessly performing the role of the consummate hostess.

With her uniform of red dress, round glasses and Girl Scout pin, she's been the hostess of the restaurant since it first opened (New Orleans CVB)

If you’re lucky, she’ll tell you the story of how she invented fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade, and you’ll also have the pleasure of being waited on by her proteges. You can’t visit Louisiana without indulging in a gumbo – and Upperline’s duck andouille take is one of the best around.

Divulge in peerless seafood at Pech
800 Magazine St

Garlanded with James Beard awards for both best chef in the south and best new restaurant in America, Stephen Stryjewski and Donald Link’s Peche restaurant (pecherestaurant.com) dabbles with South American, Spanish and Gulf Coast influences to produce truly superior seafood. Everything here has been carefully sourced from local Louisiana fishermen, cooked over over hardwood coals.

The fish is all locally sourced and portions are more than generously sized

The rustic warehouse-like space is perennially rammed with locals hunched over gargantuan plates, 100 per cent focused on the task at hand. There’s a raw bar, along with small plates and sides, which are, to a dish, absolutely delectable; just make sure you leave room for the main event – and bring a group if you plan to take on the (colossal) grouper.

For more information visit neworleans.com and visittheusa.co.uk. A four night package to New Orleans costs from £1,389 per person with Bon Voyage (bon-voyage.co.uk) including flights with BA from LHR, MAN and GLA, staying at the 5 star Windsor Court Hotel (room only)