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Soupa konja from Dakar NOLA, the 2024 James Beard Award winner for Best New Restaurant.
Josh Brasted/Eater

A Guide to New Orleans’s James Beard Award-Winning Restaurants

These winning restaurants set a high bar for New Orleans dining

by Beth D'Addono Updated
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Soupa konja from Dakar NOLA, the 2024 James Beard Award winner for Best New Restaurant.
| Josh Brasted/Eater
by Beth D'Addono Updated

Winning a James Beard award is considered by most chefs to be the hospitality industry’s equivalent to an actor earning a coveted Oscar. This map highlights 24 restaurants, bakeries, and bars that have snagged the culinary prize. In some cases, the chef responsible for the award has moved on, but the accolade remains.

There are also winners that don’t fit into the traditional restaurant mold: The America’s Classics category rewards family-owned businesses whose gold standard for excellence prevails over generations. Here are New Orleans’s James Beard Award-winning restaurants.

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Dong Phuong Restaurant and Bakery

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Opened by the Tran family in New Orleans East in 1982, Dong Phuong Restaurant and Bakery was named an America’s Classic in 2018. One of the city’s first Vietnamese restaurants, Dong Phuong is known as much for pho and banh mi sandwiches as for its crackling-crust pistolettes favored for po-boys at so many sandwich shops around the city. The bakery is also a popular favorite during carnival for king cakes.

14207 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA 70129
(504) 254-0214
(504) 254-0214
Savory pastries piled in a takeout container. Bill Addison/Eater

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Willie Mae's Scotch House

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Willie Mae’s Scotch House has been a bastion of batter-fried chicken close to the Treme since 1957. In 2005, owner Willie Mae Seaton was honored as an America’s Classic by the James Beard Foundation. Her great-granddaughter Kerry Seaton Stewart is now overseeing restaurant operations and expanded with a location in the Venice section of of L.A. in 2022. The original New Orleans restaurant is currently closed due to a fire in 2023, but owners are working to reopen it while simultaneously planning a new location downtown.

2401 Saint Ann St (Tonti Street), New Orleans, LA 70119
(504) 822-9503
(504) 822-9503
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

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Dooky Chase Restaurant

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The late chef Leah Chase earned two James Beard Awards for her restaurant Dooky Chase: Lifetime Achievement (2016) and Who’s Who in F&B (2010). With roots in Treme back to 1939, the restaurant resonates as deeply with New Orleans culture and civil rights history as it does with family recipes of gumbo, red beans, and shrimp creole. Her grandson chef Dook Chase and his wife, Gretchen opened Chapter IV in 2023, in homage to his grandmother’s fierce spirit.

2301 Orleans Ave (at N Miro St), New Orleans, LA 70119
(504) 821-0600
(504) 821-0600
A view of a bowl of Creole gumbo and a bread basket on a table with a white tablecloth and red striped chairs. Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Jewel of the South

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Chris Hannah’s name was synonymous with Arnaud’s French 75 bar for 14 years, culminating in a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program in 2017. He opened Jewel of the South, an elegant French Quarter cocktail den with a fine-dining menu from Philip Whitmarsh, two years later in 2019. It pays homage to the original bar of the same name — a bar that was supposedly the birthplace of the brandy crusta, a version of which Jewel has become known for since opening. It won Outstanding Bar at the James Beard Awards in 2024.

1026 Saint Louis St, New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 265-8816
(504) 265-8816
A Brandy crusta from Jewel of the South. 
Denny Culbert/Jewel of the South

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Bayona

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For more than 40 years, chef Susan Spicer has helped shape the local dining scene, pioneering new possibilities in the New Orleans kitchen. She opened as a partner in Bayona in 1990, earning the Best Chef, South award for her global approach to challenging the long-held definition of New Orleans cuisine in 1993. In May 2010, Spicer was inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Her influence on Bayona is ever present, although she’s most often found cooking on the line at her Mid-City gem, Rosedale.

430 Dauphine St (btwn St. Louis and Conti), New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 525-4455
(504) 525-4455

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Arnaud's

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Arnaud’s ritzy wood-paneled French 75 Bar earned an Outstanding Bar Program award in 2017 while head bartender Chris Hannah was commanding the ship. Hannah continues to garner nominations after leaving Arnaud’s in 2018 to open Jewel of the South and the Cuban bar Manolito. His efforts put French 75 on the map for craft, creative cocktails, a program that remains dazzling.

813 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 523-5433
(504) 523-5433
A person in a white chef’s coat using a long spoon to stir a cocktail placed on a bar.
The French 75.
French 75

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Galatoire's

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Friday lunch has been a tradition at Galatoire’s on Bourbon Street for generations since 1905. It’s a party notable for high fashion, flowing champagne, and decadent excess. Some of the best waiters in the city serve platters of trout meuniere, shrimp remoulade, and stuffed eggplant. The restaurant was named Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2005.

209 Bourbon St (at Iberville St), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 525-2021
(504) 525-2021
Friday lunch at Galatoire's
Friday lunch at Galatoire’s.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Domenica

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When chef Alon Shaya won his James Beard award for Best Chef, South in 2015, he was executive chef at Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel, an Italian restaurant from BRG Hospitality. Valeriano Chiella, a native of Campania in southern Italy, started with the company in 2014 as a line cook, working his way up to executive chef in 2021. The daily half-price pizza happy hours from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. are wildly popular.

123 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 648-6020
(504) 648-6020
An aerial view of a wooden table set with pizza, white plates of food, and cocktails.
An Italian spread at Domenica.
Domenica

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August

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Restaurant August earned chef and owner John Besh a James Beard Award for Best Chef, South in 2006 (Besh later faced sexual harassment allegations against his restaurant group in 2017). Its reputation for fine French Creole dining, pristine service, and romantic vibe remains without peer. Louisiana-born chef Corey Thomas took over the kitchen as executive chef in 2022.

301 Tchoupitoulas St (Gravier St), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 299-9777
(504) 299-9777

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Willa Jean

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Chef Kelly Fields earned the prestigious James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Pastry Chef award in 2019 for her restaurant Willa Jean. She sold the restaurant in 2021 and moved to Provincetown, home of natural beauty, coastal gastronomy, and vibrant queer culture. But Willa Jean’s biscuit situation — those shrimp and grits, that fried chicken sammie — is chef Kelly all the way.

611 Okeefe Ave (Girod St), New Orleans, LA 70113
(504) 509-7334
(504) 509-7334
A white dish of creamy sauce with a biscuit resting on top.
Biscuits at Willa Jean.
Willa Jean

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Compère Lapin

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Chef Nina Compton could have gone anywhere to further her meteoric career. But the St. Lucia native threw her toque into the New Orleans ring in 2012 after she was runner up and fan-favorite in BRAVO’s Top Chef Season 11: New Orleans. She and her husband and partner Larry Miller moved to New Orleans from Miami in 2015, the same year she opened Compère Lapin in the Central Business District. She was named Best Chef, South in 2018 and opened BABS (Bywater American Bistro) in her Bywater neighborhood that same year.

535 Tchoupitoulas St (at Lafayette St), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 599-2119
(504) 599-2119
Bill Addison/Eater

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Herbsaint

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Herbsaint, a flagship of the Donald Link Restaurant Group since it opened in 2000, earned Link a Best Chef, South award in 2007. Link is known for supporting his chefs and partners as they grow in the company, which he did for chef de cuisine Rebecca Wilcomb, who earned the Best Chef, South award in 2017 before partnering on another Link endeavor, Gianna. Although Wilcomb has moved on, the gracious Herbsaint on St. Charles Avenue remains a beacon of modern, seasonal Creole fare from chef de cuisine Tyler Spreen.

701 Saint Charles Ave (Girod St.), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 524-4114
(504) 524-4114
Inside Herbsaint. Bill Addison/Eater

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Brigtsen's Restaurant

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Frank Brigtsen is an iconic New Orleans gentleman chef, an inventive Creole cook who apprenticed under chef Paul Prudhomme. He and his wife Marna opened Brigsten’s in 1986 in a homey Victorian cottage in the Riverbend, a remarkable and original restaurant that continues to thrive. The chef’s accolades are too many to mention (he was a Best Chef, South winner in 1998), but his cooking is the real prize.

723 Dante St, New Orleans, LA 70118
(504) 861-7610
(504) 861-7610
Street view of Brigtsen’s Restaurant awning and sign in Uptown New Orleans. Shutterstock

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Peche

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Peche won a double-header of awards in 2014, honored as Best New Restaurant and Best Chef, South for Link Restaurant Group chef and partner Ryan Prewitt. The restaurant’s wood-fired approach to fish and seafood is modeled after restaurants the partners experienced in Uruguay and Spain. The smoky, crispy whole fish of the day is always a winner.

800 Magazine St (Julia), New Orleans, LA 70130
Peche, a trusty standby
Peche.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Emeril's

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Emeril Lagasse has been a trailblazer since he replaced Paul Prudhomme at Commander’s Palace at the tender age of 23. He opened his original Emeril’s restaurant in 1990 in the Warehouse District. That vision paid off, earning him what the Foundation used to call Best Southeast Regional Chef in 1991. (Emeril was also a Who’s Who in Food and Beverage winner in 1989.) His barbecue shrimp — served as a supplement to a tasting menu of rabbit with gulf shrimp and chanterelles, lobster with buttered leeks, and banana cream pie — will always be the gold standard.

800 Tchoupitoulas St (at Julia Street), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 528-9393
(504) 528-9393
Emeril’s.

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Cochon

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Donald Link is a visionary and works with partners who are the same. Stephen Stryjewski, chef and partner of Cochon, Cochon Butcher and Pêche Seafood Grill, earned Best Chef, South at the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards. Attracting and retaining partners and team members who strive for excellence is a Link/Stryjewski hallmark, and it all comes together on Cochon’s menu of fried alligator, oyster and bacon sandwiches, and Louisiana cochon served with braised green beans.

930 Tchoupitoulas St (at Andrew Higgins St), New Orleans, LA 70130
Cochon Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Cure

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Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal of the acclaimed Cure bar and restaurant group, are easily the city’s most influential cocktail entrepreneurs. With the 2009 opening of Cure, they pioneered the hospitality scene along Freret Street, raising the cocktail bar in a city already famous for its watering holes. Known for savory snacks with local flavor, perfect for pairing with its hyper-seasonal craft cocktail menu, Cure earned the 2018 award for Outstanding Bar Program.

4905 Freret St (Upperline St.), New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 302-2357
(504) 302-2357
Inside Cure
Inside Cure.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Gautreau's

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A temple of modern French Creole cuisine since 1982, Gautreau’s earned then-executive chef Sue Zemanick a Best Chef, South award in 2014. Zemanick went on to open her own place, Zasu, where she continues to impress. Chef Rich Mistry, last of Commander’s Palace, and his partner, GM and chef Katie Adams took over the restaurant’s operation last November with the same commitment to excellence in place. Expect French fare with a New Orleanian bend, like foie gras with red currants and duck confit.

1728 Soniat St, New Orleans, LA 70115
504 899 7397
504 899 7397
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Commanders Palace Restaurant

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Commander’s Palace has swept multiple James Beard Award categories, including Outstanding Service in 1993; Outstanding Restaurant in 1996; Best Chef, South in 1999 and 2013; and the Lifetime Achievement Award for matriarch Ella Brennan in 2009. (Owners Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan were included in the foundation’s 2018 cohort of Who’s Who in Food and Beverage, too.) Commander’s has propelled the careers of chefs including Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse — just another reason why the Garden District restaurant continues as a hospitality icon, serving a Bayou-inflected menu of brown butter wild white shrimp, burgundy escargot crustades, and bread pudding soufflé.

1427 Washington Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 899-8221
(504) 899-8221
Commander’s Palace restaurant on Washington Avenue, a long, shotgun-style building with wood shingles painted in robin egg’s blue with white trim and lined with a blue and white striped awning. Shutterstock

Dakar NOLA

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The last few years have brought major accolades for Dakar NOLA, chef Serigne Mbaye’s Senegalese tasting menu restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. After first hosting tasting dinner pop-ups around town under the same name, Mbaye and Effie Richardson opened their permanent restaurant in late 2022, receiving a James Beard Award nomination for Emerging Chef that same year and again in 2023. But it was 2024 that brought the biggest win of all when Dakar NOLA was awarded Best New Restaurant. The much-deserved recognition adds an even greater shine to Mbaye’s dazzling cuisine, dishes like soupa konja, shrimp akara, Gulf fish yassa, and jollof.

3814 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 493-9396
(504) 493-9396
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

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Shaya

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Chef Alon Shaya was in the kitchen in 2016 when the restaurant that still carries his name won the award for Best New Restaurant. After parting ways with the restaurant, chef Shaya and his wife Emily founded Pomegranate Hospitality, which includes his Israeli and Mediterranean restaurants Saba and Miss River in New Orleans; Safta in Denver; Silan in the Bahamas; and SAFTA 1964, a pop-up in Las Vegas. Chef Zachary Engel won the 2017 Rising Star Chef of the Year award during his tenure as chef de cuisine at Shaya — these days, the restaurant is under the stewardship of Lebanese-born chef Fariz Choumali, who serves a considered menu of falafel in silky green tahini, gulf shrimp kebabs with Moroccan couscous, and date cinnamon babka king cake.

4213 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-4213
(504) 891-4213
A dish of hummus with pita in the foreground.
Creamy hummus at Shaya.
Shaya

La Petite Grocery

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Chef Justin Devillier earned the 2016 award for Best Chef: South for La Petite Grocery, where he’d taken a job as a line cook in 2004. He and his wife Mia bought the restaurant, set in a historic Creole cottage, in 2010. A few of the chef’s stellar dishes include turtle Bolognese, panéed rabbit, and blue crab beignets. The couple also own Justine in the French Quarter.

4238 Magazine St (General Pershing), New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-3377
(504) 891-3377
Streetview of La Petite Grocery’s yellow building and turquoise door on Magazine Street. Shutterstock

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Hansen's Sno-Bliz

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While it’s not a restaurant, Hansen’s Sno-Bliz was named an America’s Classic in 2014. Ernest and Mary Hansen opened the stand in 1939 after Earnest developed the Sno-Bliz machine which turns ice into the finest snow, all the better to soak up fruity flavors. The business is now run by their granddaughter Ashley Hansen. So go ahead, head Uptown for award-winning silky shaved ice flavored with the likes of honey lavender, cardamom and pink peppermint.

4801 Tchoupitoulas St (at Bordeaux St), New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-9788
(504) 891-9788
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

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Mosca's Restaurant

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Mosca’s (say MOE-scuz) is a family-run Creole Italian roadhouse that sits along a dark stretch of Highway 90 West across the Huey P. Opened for business in 1946, the restaurant’s history includes ties to the late Carlos Marcello, a storied crime boss who was both the landlord and a regular. The guy had good taste in food anyway. The unchanged menu includes garlic-infused specialties like barbecued shrimp, baked oysters and of course the Chicken ala Grande, roasted with tons of fresh garlic, herbs and white wine.  Sounds simple right? You try making it at home. Mosca’s is always better. The restaurant was rightly honored with the America’s Classics award in 1999.

4137 Hwy 90 W, Westwego, Louisiana 70094
(504) 436-8950
(504) 436-8950
Mosca’s Eater NOLA

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Dong Phuong Restaurant and Bakery

14207 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA 70129

Opened by the Tran family in New Orleans East in 1982, Dong Phuong Restaurant and Bakery was named an America’s Classic in 2018. One of the city’s first Vietnamese restaurants, Dong Phuong is known as much for pho and banh mi sandwiches as for its crackling-crust pistolettes favored for po-boys at so many sandwich shops around the city. The bakery is also a popular favorite during carnival for king cakes.

14207 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA 70129
(504) 254-0214
(504) 254-0214
Savory pastries piled in a takeout container. Bill Addison/Eater

Willie Mae's Scotch House

2401 Saint Ann St (Tonti Street), New Orleans, LA 70119

Willie Mae’s Scotch House has been a bastion of batter-fried chicken close to the Treme since 1957. In 2005, owner Willie Mae Seaton was honored as an America’s Classic by the James Beard Foundation. Her great-granddaughter Kerry Seaton Stewart is now overseeing restaurant operations and expanded with a location in the Venice section of of L.A. in 2022. The original New Orleans restaurant is currently closed due to a fire in 2023, but owners are working to reopen it while simultaneously planning a new location downtown.

2401 Saint Ann St (Tonti Street), New Orleans, LA 70119
(504) 822-9503
(504) 822-9503
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

Dooky Chase Restaurant

2301 Orleans Ave (at N Miro St), New Orleans, LA 70119

The late chef Leah Chase earned two James Beard Awards for her restaurant Dooky Chase: Lifetime Achievement (2016) and Who’s Who in F&B (2010). With roots in Treme back to 1939, the restaurant resonates as deeply with New Orleans culture and civil rights history as it does with family recipes of gumbo, red beans, and shrimp creole. Her grandson chef Dook Chase and his wife, Gretchen opened Chapter IV in 2023, in homage to his grandmother’s fierce spirit.

2301 Orleans Ave (at N Miro St), New Orleans, LA 70119
(504) 821-0600
(504) 821-0600
A view of a bowl of Creole gumbo and a bread basket on a table with a white tablecloth and red striped chairs. Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Jewel of the South

1026 Saint Louis St, New Orleans, LA 70112

Chris Hannah’s name was synonymous with Arnaud’s French 75 bar for 14 years, culminating in a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program in 2017. He opened Jewel of the South, an elegant French Quarter cocktail den with a fine-dining menu from Philip Whitmarsh, two years later in 2019. It pays homage to the original bar of the same name — a bar that was supposedly the birthplace of the brandy crusta, a version of which Jewel has become known for since opening. It won Outstanding Bar at the James Beard Awards in 2024.

1026 Saint Louis St, New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 265-8816
(504) 265-8816
A Brandy crusta from Jewel of the South. 
Denny Culbert/Jewel of the South

Bayona

430 Dauphine St (btwn St. Louis and Conti), New Orleans, LA 70112

For more than 40 years, chef Susan Spicer has helped shape the local dining scene, pioneering new possibilities in the New Orleans kitchen. She opened as a partner in Bayona in 1990, earning the Best Chef, South award for her global approach to challenging the long-held definition of New Orleans cuisine in 1993. In May 2010, Spicer was inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Her influence on Bayona is ever present, although she’s most often found cooking on the line at her Mid-City gem, Rosedale.

430 Dauphine St (btwn St. Louis and Conti), New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 525-4455
(504) 525-4455

Arnaud's

813 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112

Arnaud’s ritzy wood-paneled French 75 Bar earned an Outstanding Bar Program award in 2017 while head bartender Chris Hannah was commanding the ship. Hannah continues to garner nominations after leaving Arnaud’s in 2018 to open Jewel of the South and the Cuban bar Manolito. His efforts put French 75 on the map for craft, creative cocktails, a program that remains dazzling.

813 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 523-5433
(504) 523-5433
A person in a white chef’s coat using a long spoon to stir a cocktail placed on a bar.
The French 75.
French 75

Galatoire's

209 Bourbon St (at Iberville St), New Orleans, LA 70130

Friday lunch has been a tradition at Galatoire’s on Bourbon Street for generations since 1905. It’s a party notable for high fashion, flowing champagne, and decadent excess. Some of the best waiters in the city serve platters of trout meuniere, shrimp remoulade, and stuffed eggplant. The restaurant was named Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2005.

209 Bourbon St (at Iberville St), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 525-2021
(504) 525-2021
Friday lunch at Galatoire's
Friday lunch at Galatoire’s.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Domenica

123 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70112

When chef Alon Shaya won his James Beard award for Best Chef, South in 2015, he was executive chef at Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel, an Italian restaurant from BRG Hospitality. Valeriano Chiella, a native of Campania in southern Italy, started with the company in 2014 as a line cook, working his way up to executive chef in 2021. The daily half-price pizza happy hours from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. are wildly popular.

123 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 648-6020
(504) 648-6020
An aerial view of a wooden table set with pizza, white plates of food, and cocktails.
An Italian spread at Domenica.
Domenica

August

301 Tchoupitoulas St (Gravier St), New Orleans, LA 70130

Restaurant August earned chef and owner John Besh a James Beard Award for Best Chef, South in 2006 (Besh later faced sexual harassment allegations against his restaurant group in 2017). Its reputation for fine French Creole dining, pristine service, and romantic vibe remains without peer. Louisiana-born chef Corey Thomas took over the kitchen as executive chef in 2022.

301 Tchoupitoulas St (Gravier St), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 299-9777
(504) 299-9777

Willa Jean

611 Okeefe Ave (Girod St), New Orleans, LA 70113

Chef Kelly Fields earned the prestigious James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Pastry Chef award in 2019 for her restaurant Willa Jean. She sold the restaurant in 2021 and moved to Provincetown, home of natural beauty, coastal gastronomy, and vibrant queer culture. But Willa Jean’s biscuit situation — those shrimp and grits, that fried chicken sammie — is chef Kelly all the way.

611 Okeefe Ave (Girod St), New Orleans, LA 70113
(504) 509-7334
(504) 509-7334
A white dish of creamy sauce with a biscuit resting on top.
Biscuits at Willa Jean.
Willa Jean

Compère Lapin

535 Tchoupitoulas St (at Lafayette St), New Orleans, LA 70130

Chef Nina Compton could have gone anywhere to further her meteoric career. But the St. Lucia native threw her toque into the New Orleans ring in 2012 after she was runner up and fan-favorite in BRAVO’s Top Chef Season 11: New Orleans. She and her husband and partner Larry Miller moved to New Orleans from Miami in 2015, the same year she opened Compère Lapin in the Central Business District. She was named Best Chef, South in 2018 and opened BABS (Bywater American Bistro) in her Bywater neighborhood that same year.

535 Tchoupitoulas St (at Lafayette St), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 599-2119
(504) 599-2119
Bill Addison/Eater

Herbsaint

701 Saint Charles Ave (Girod St.), New Orleans, LA 70130

Herbsaint, a flagship of the Donald Link Restaurant Group since it opened in 2000, earned Link a Best Chef, South award in 2007. Link is known for supporting his chefs and partners as they grow in the company, which he did for chef de cuisine Rebecca Wilcomb, who earned the Best Chef, South award in 2017 before partnering on another Link endeavor, Gianna. Although Wilcomb has moved on, the gracious Herbsaint on St. Charles Avenue remains a beacon of modern, seasonal Creole fare from chef de cuisine Tyler Spreen.

701 Saint Charles Ave (Girod St.), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 524-4114
(504) 524-4114
Inside Herbsaint. Bill Addison/Eater

Brigtsen's Restaurant

723 Dante St, New Orleans, LA 70118

Frank Brigtsen is an iconic New Orleans gentleman chef, an inventive Creole cook who apprenticed under chef Paul Prudhomme. He and his wife Marna opened Brigsten’s in 1986 in a homey Victorian cottage in the Riverbend, a remarkable and original restaurant that continues to thrive. The chef’s accolades are too many to mention (he was a Best Chef, South winner in 1998), but his cooking is the real prize.

723 Dante St, New Orleans, LA 70118
(504) 861-7610
(504) 861-7610
Street view of Brigtsen’s Restaurant awning and sign in Uptown New Orleans. Shutterstock

Peche

800 Magazine St (Julia), New Orleans, LA 70130

Peche won a double-header of awards in 2014, honored as Best New Restaurant and Best Chef, South for Link Restaurant Group chef and partner Ryan Prewitt. The restaurant’s wood-fired approach to fish and seafood is modeled after restaurants the partners experienced in Uruguay and Spain. The smoky, crispy whole fish of the day is always a winner.

800 Magazine St (Julia), New Orleans, LA 70130
Peche, a trusty standby
Peche.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Emeril's

800 Tchoupitoulas St (at Julia Street), New Orleans, LA 70130

Emeril Lagasse has been a trailblazer since he replaced Paul Prudhomme at Commander’s Palace at the tender age of 23. He opened his original Emeril’s restaurant in 1990 in the Warehouse District. That vision paid off, earning him what the Foundation used to call Best Southeast Regional Chef in 1991. (Emeril was also a Who’s Who in Food and Beverage winner in 1989.) His barbecue shrimp — served as a supplement to a tasting menu of rabbit with gulf shrimp and chanterelles, lobster with buttered leeks, and banana cream pie — will always be the gold standard.

800 Tchoupitoulas St (at Julia Street), New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 528-9393
(504) 528-9393
Emeril’s.

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Cochon

930 Tchoupitoulas St (at Andrew Higgins St), New Orleans, LA 70130

Donald Link is a visionary and works with partners who are the same. Stephen Stryjewski, chef and partner of Cochon, Cochon Butcher and Pêche Seafood Grill, earned Best Chef, South at the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards. Attracting and retaining partners and team members who strive for excellence is a Link/Stryjewski hallmark, and it all comes together on Cochon’s menu of fried alligator, oyster and bacon sandwiches, and Louisiana cochon served with braised green beans.

930 Tchoupitoulas St (at Andrew Higgins St), New Orleans, LA 70130
Cochon Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Cure

4905 Freret St (Upperline St.), New Orleans, LA 70115

Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal of the acclaimed Cure bar and restaurant group, are easily the city’s most influential cocktail entrepreneurs. With the 2009 opening of Cure, they pioneered the hospitality scene along Freret Street, raising the cocktail bar in a city already famous for its watering holes. Known for savory snacks with local flavor, perfect for pairing with its hyper-seasonal craft cocktail menu, Cure earned the 2018 award for Outstanding Bar Program.

4905 Freret St (Upperline St.), New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 302-2357
(504) 302-2357
Inside Cure
Inside Cure.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Gautreau's

1728 Soniat St, New Orleans, LA 70115

A temple of modern French Creole cuisine since 1982, Gautreau’s earned then-executive chef Sue Zemanick a Best Chef, South award in 2014. Zemanick went on to open her own place, Zasu, where she continues to impress. Chef Rich Mistry, last of Commander’s Palace, and his partner, GM and chef Katie Adams took over the restaurant’s operation last November with the same commitment to excellence in place. Expect French fare with a New Orleanian bend, like foie gras with red currants and duck confit.

1728 Soniat St, New Orleans, LA 70115
504 899 7397
504 899 7397
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Commanders Palace Restaurant

1427 Washington Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130

Commander’s Palace has swept multiple James Beard Award categories, including Outstanding Service in 1993; Outstanding Restaurant in 1996; Best Chef, South in 1999 and 2013; and the Lifetime Achievement Award for matriarch Ella Brennan in 2009. (Owners Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan were included in the foundation’s 2018 cohort of Who’s Who in Food and Beverage, too.) Commander’s has propelled the careers of chefs including Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse — just another reason why the Garden District restaurant continues as a hospitality icon, serving a Bayou-inflected menu of brown butter wild white shrimp, burgundy escargot crustades, and bread pudding soufflé.

1427 Washington Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 899-8221
(504) 899-8221
Commander’s Palace restaurant on Washington Avenue, a long, shotgun-style building with wood shingles painted in robin egg’s blue with white trim and lined with a blue and white striped awning. Shutterstock

Dakar NOLA

3814 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115

The last few years have brought major accolades for Dakar NOLA, chef Serigne Mbaye’s Senegalese tasting menu restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. After first hosting tasting dinner pop-ups around town under the same name, Mbaye and Effie Richardson opened their permanent restaurant in late 2022, receiving a James Beard Award nomination for Emerging Chef that same year and again in 2023. But it was 2024 that brought the biggest win of all when Dakar NOLA was awarded Best New Restaurant. The much-deserved recognition adds an even greater shine to Mbaye’s dazzling cuisine, dishes like soupa konja, shrimp akara, Gulf fish yassa, and jollof.

3814 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 493-9396
(504) 493-9396
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

Shaya

4213 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115

Chef Alon Shaya was in the kitchen in 2016 when the restaurant that still carries his name won the award for Best New Restaurant. After parting ways with the restaurant, chef Shaya and his wife Emily founded Pomegranate Hospitality, which includes his Israeli and Mediterranean restaurants Saba and Miss River in New Orleans; Safta in Denver; Silan in the Bahamas; and SAFTA 1964, a pop-up in Las Vegas. Chef Zachary Engel won the 2017 Rising Star Chef of the Year award during his tenure as chef de cuisine at Shaya — these days, the restaurant is under the stewardship of Lebanese-born chef Fariz Choumali, who serves a considered menu of falafel in silky green tahini, gulf shrimp kebabs with Moroccan couscous, and date cinnamon babka king cake.

4213 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-4213
(504) 891-4213
A dish of hummus with pita in the foreground.
Creamy hummus at Shaya.
Shaya

La Petite Grocery

4238 Magazine St (General Pershing), New Orleans, LA 70115

Chef Justin Devillier earned the 2016 award for Best Chef: South for La Petite Grocery, where he’d taken a job as a line cook in 2004. He and his wife Mia bought the restaurant, set in a historic Creole cottage, in 2010. A few of the chef’s stellar dishes include turtle Bolognese, panéed rabbit, and blue crab beignets. The couple also own Justine in the French Quarter.

4238 Magazine St (General Pershing), New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-3377
(504) 891-3377
Streetview of La Petite Grocery’s yellow building and turquoise door on Magazine Street. Shutterstock

Hansen's Sno-Bliz

4801 Tchoupitoulas St (at Bordeaux St), New Orleans, LA 70115

While it’s not a restaurant, Hansen’s Sno-Bliz was named an America’s Classic in 2014. Ernest and Mary Hansen opened the stand in 1939 after Earnest developed the Sno-Bliz machine which turns ice into the finest snow, all the better to soak up fruity flavors. The business is now run by their granddaughter Ashley Hansen. So go ahead, head Uptown for award-winning silky shaved ice flavored with the likes of honey lavender, cardamom and pink peppermint.

4801 Tchoupitoulas St (at Bordeaux St), New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-9788
(504) 891-9788
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Mosca's Restaurant

4137 Hwy 90 W, Westwego, Louisiana 70094

Mosca’s (say MOE-scuz) is a family-run Creole Italian roadhouse that sits along a dark stretch of Highway 90 West across the Huey P. Opened for business in 1946, the restaurant’s history includes ties to the late Carlos Marcello, a storied crime boss who was both the landlord and a regular. The guy had good taste in food anyway. The unchanged menu includes garlic-infused specialties like barbecued shrimp, baked oysters and of course the Chicken ala Grande, roasted with tons of fresh garlic, herbs and white wine.  Sounds simple right? You try making it at home. Mosca’s is always better. The restaurant was rightly honored with the America’s Classics award in 1999.

4137 Hwy 90 W, Westwego, Louisiana 70094
(504) 436-8950
(504) 436-8950
Mosca’s Eater NOLA

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