What I Ate + Did In NOLA
To describe my recent trip to New Orleans, I did a lot of eating and a lot of walking.
Here's a list of restaurants I ate at and things I did while on my trip:
TO EAT
NOLA
This was one of my favorite restaurants we ate at on our trip. Shrimp & grits is one of my two favorite meals and Emeril's version at NOLA was up there on the list of my all time favorite! (I think the most crucial piece of information about this restaurant is that they put bacon on pretty much everything)!
Red Dog Diner
This diner on Magazine street was one of the places we stopped for brunch during the week. One of my favorite things about New Orleans was that you can get breakfast food most anywhere at any time of day. I got the candied pecan waffle with bacon and hash browns and my parents both got eggs benedict. All our food was awesome and the décor in the restaurant was really cool.
Mr. B's Bistro
If you need a break from seafood and cajun food, this is the place to go in the French Quarter. The truffle butter filet mignon was awesome.
Teddy's
This was a little spot located inside our hotel, The Roosevelt. They had the best rocky road ice cream and made-to-order beignets with chocolate sauce!
Cafe Du Monde
I was afraid this beignet spot wouldn't live up to the hype but Cafe Du Monde had my favorite beignets! We went kind of early so there was no wait which was awesome! The beignets had a pound of powdered sugar on them (just how I like it) and the frozen cafe au lait was perfect to start off the day.
Stanley's
We stopped in this restaurant in Jackson Square to take a break from the heat and grab a snack. I just got french fries but my parents split a shrimp po' boy, which was the best one they said they had on the trip! The decor in the restaurant is really nice and the spot is perfect for listening to music and people watching.
Acme Oyster House
This place always had a long line outside and the concierge at our hotel recommended it to us so we had to try it out. The char grilled oysters were so so good but we weren't really impressed with our entrees. I would just stop in for appetizers and get the oysters, but skip dinner here.
Bourbon House
This restaurant on Bourbon Street is decorated so nice and a sort of oasis from the craziness of Bourbon Street. The barbecue shrimp and grits was so so good, but, sadly, our entrees weren't anything special.
Cafe Beignet
This was the first spot we went to grab a snack after arriving in NOLA. Some say the beignets here are better than at Cafe Du Monde, but I liked the ones at Cafe Du Monde better! The walls were a banana leaf print, though, if you're interested in taking a trendy Instagram picture :)
Meril
We stopped in here for appetizers to take a break from walking around and split a really good flatbread! This is another one of Emeril's restaurants and definitely a spot we would have gone back to for dinner if we had more time.
TO DO
Jackson Square
Jackson Square was one of my favorite spots in the French Quarter. It's right on the water and is where the St. Louis Cathedral is located. The inside of the cathedral is beautiful and it's so fun to walk around and listen to all the musicians and people watch. There are also some great restaurants in this area!
Garden District Architecture Tour
My family and I ended up doing a tour of the Garden District on the Fourth of July, so we were the only ones on the tour which was nice. We went through a cemetery which was more interesting than I expected it to be, but it was nice having a tour guide tell us about the history that I wouldn't have known if we explored on our own. We went on to look at all kinds of historic houses and the homes of celebrities like Sandra Bullock and the Manning family.
Preservation Hall
This is one of the three spots in New Orleans you can listen to jazz music if you're under 21 years old. It was a really fun show and such a cool experience. The venue is very small and has limited seating (and no air conditioning) so it may be worth the extra money for a seat if you don't want to stand for the whole show.
Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World
A few friends recommended this spot to me before going on my trip and it didn't disappoint! The tour includes a brief history of Mardi Gras and then a look around the studios where they create and store the floats. The process they use to make the floats was so interesting and the artists at the warehouse even make props for Disney and the Chick-fil-a cows that go on billboards!
French Quarter Carriage Tour
It's easy to head to Bourbon Street and Jackson Square every time you hit the French Quarter, so taking a carriage ride not only provided some shade but brought us to some new parts of the French Quarter we probably wouldn't have ventured to.
National World War II Museum
This museum is so nice and has so much information. My family and I ended up spending over four hours here and we didn't get to see everything before the museum closed. It's definitely somewhere to to stop while in New Orleans (and the perfect place to escape the heat if you're visiting during the summer).
Have any of you been to New Orleans? What were your favorite things there?
Thanks for reading,
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