The Commons in New Orleans

August 29, 2010 By 1 Comment

The Commons
1010 Common St
New Orleans, LA 70112

Wow so I broke my own cardinal rule and went out to eat without my camera on me. Luckily in this day and age, every cellphone has a camera on it. Sorry for the poor quality pictures! This place is a delicious really unknown restaurant. The sushi quality is decent. The prices are amazing, you can get 6 pieces of any sushi rolls for about $4.50 to $6.50 each. This place has huge space, but I think because its existence is relatively unknown (no website, doesn’t even come up on google maps), not very many customers. It’s walking distance from Tulane hospital which is nice because it saves you the headache of finding parking in the CBD. And ton of waittresses who hang around near your table but not in a creepy,stalkerish manner. Everybody should check out their huge menu (lots of vegetarian options).

sashimi lunch special for $10

crunchy dynamite, philadephia and spicy tuna (all for $15)

very delicious

Commons on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Japanese, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , , ,

Juan's flying burrito in New Orleans

August 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Juan’s Flying Burrito
2018 Magazine St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

http://www.juansflyingburrito.com/

I finally had a taste of Juan’s flying burrito. I’ve been a loyal Felipe’s customer but I thought I should branch out and give the competition a chance. Nope! Although the food is delicious and this location is more convenient for me, the prices are slightly more expensive than Felipes. I think it was the ambiance. Im not a fan of smokey bars where the music is so loud you can’t hear a thing the waittress says.  But great food for lower garden district area~

Super Nachos Grande ground sausage and chicken, with black and pinto beans, melted cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and jalapenos for $8.95.They are not joking when they say “super and grande”. this was a beast of a nachos dish! It was very delectable but could’ve fared without so much sour cream. But they definitely give you a ton of ground sausage and chicken.

Jerk Chicken burrito with cheddar and jack cheesee, black beans, yellow rice, salsa, sour cream and avocado in a lightly grilled tortilla  for $7.50. The chicken was moist and had a grilled adobo flavor to it (DELISH!). It was a huge burrito (I think bigger than Felipes actually).

The Flying Burrito grilled steak, gulf shrimp, and chicken with cheddar and jack cheese, black beans, yellow rice, salsa, sour cream and guacamole rolled in a grilled tortilla for $8.25. Well this burrito sounded great in theory. Unfortunately, you can’t discern the taste of the steak, shrimp or chicken from each other because the huge mess all tastes like lime……what a bummer.

super nacho grande

flying burrito

 

jerk chicken burrito

Juan's Flying Burrito on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Mexican, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , ,

Luke restaurant in New Orleans

August 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Luke restaurant
333 St. Charles Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70130

http://www.lukeneworleans.com/

I love John Besh restaurants! Too bad my wallet doesn’t agree with me. Luke’s is on the more moderate priced range for John Besh restaurants in New Orleans. They also offer a fixed course supper for $23 which was quite a nice deal but because we went on a Sunday, the only option was veal which neither one of us eat.

We did start off our meal with 2 cups of soup, one was seafood gumbo and the other was corn and crab bisque. The gumbo exceeded my expectations because it didn’t have a strong bitter taste like a few other gumbos I’ve experienced, plus it was loaded with sausage. The corn and crab bisque fell below my expectations. I thought it would be creamier but instead it seemed to be heavily based on mushrooms which did not go well with the corn and crab (hardly any).

We also ordered the Jumbo Louisiana Shrimp en cocotte with grits, and entrecote grillee au frites with jumbo lump crabmeat (grilled steak in a butter sauce with french fries). The shrimp was delicious and the grits were amazing! (I think it was old bay seasoning).

The ribeye steak was great (ribeye usually isn’t my favorite because of all the fat trimmings) but this was one terrific with the butter sauce. The spoonful of jumbo lump crabmeat on top was definitely not worth the extra $10 though. And not sure why someone told me these are the best french fries in New Orleans (they reminded me of Wendys fries). But overall, this was an awesome meal.

Lüke on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: American, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

La Divina Gelateria

August 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

La Divina Gelateria
3005 Magazine St.
New Orleans, LA 70115

ambiance

I love that you can go in this place and sample as many flavors as you like! It is a little expensive for what you get, but since this is the only place in New Orleans with decent gelato, you take what you can get (3 scoops for $5.50). We did end up getting some great flavors:
cup 1: watermelon, avocado and melon
cup 2: bourbon pecan, spicy dark chocolate and pistachio

cup 1

cup 2

there are lots of choices to choose from:

and now they offer free toppings

they don’t offer coffee so I tried the cappuccino which was quite good

and I ended my most recent visit with the Bourbon pecan flavor and Pistachio flavor

my most recent visit

La Divina Gelateria on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Dessert, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , ,

Elizabeth's Restaurant in New Orleans

August 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Elizabeth’s restaurant
601 Gallier Street
New Orleans, LA 70117-6217

http://www.elizabeths-restaurant.com/home.html

Had an amazing breakfast here today. Unfortunately, there was a huge lack in cleanliness of the restaurant. Every table had flies hanging around them (really gross when the flies would land near our foods), and some of our silverware had crusted food leftover from previous users. However, the food was delicious. We had the praline bacon which was an juicy mix of sweet brown sugared ground pecans and salty thick bacon slices (definitely makes you schedule your next gym visit earlier). We also tried the boudin balls with really spicy mustard sauce, they were OK. My fellow foodie ordered the crabby eggs which were eggs benedict on crabcakes instead of english muffins with a side of hash browns. I had the stuffed french toast with strawberry cream cheese with a side of cheesy grits. The portions were huge and I had leftovers to take home. I usually can’t eat too much eggs benedict in one sitting because I find the hollandaise sauce to be overkill. The crabcakes were decent. My french toast was amazing! It was toasted french bread with strawberry cream cheese between two slices with powdered sugar on top. Heavenly!!!!!!!

Elizabeth's Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: New Orleans, LA, Southern Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Laura's Candies Factory

August 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Laura’s Candies Factory
331 Chartres St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

http://www.laurascandies.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=45

This place is a treat in the Quarter. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find it open because Laura likes to take breaks often and leave the shop closed even tho the hours indicate that it should be open. We were lucky enough to get in today though. Although her prices are inflated (all her treats are priced by weight, about $19/lb), you can sample as many as you can while you’re making your choices. The champagne truffle is really pretty to look at (the pink one) and very creamy inside. The pralines are really delicious! My favorite is the chocolate one.

 

champagne truffle, triple chocolate truffle, pecan truffle

dark chocolate square plus various pralines

Laura's Candies on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Dessert, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Bistro Maison De Ville in New Orleans

August 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Bistro Maison De Ville
727 Toulouse St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

http://www.bistromaisondeville.com/

Thank God for Groupon coupons! We had a coupon for $70 that we paid $35 for. We ordered a grande Martini, 2 appetizers and 2 entrees. Unfortunately, neither one of us was a fan of the martini, it may just have been that both us like flavored drinks.

The appetizers were interesting. The deviled eggs with jumbo lump crabmeat tasted like mayonnaise.

The flash fried calamari was delicious but very sparse batter. The Louisiana cocktail sauce killed it though, it was a marinara sauce but it tasted like lemons.

We ordered the mussels because it was voted the best mussels according to nola.com. They definitely give you  a ton of mussels, but it had a very gritty texture. The mussel flavor was overwhelming even though it was cooked in a butter garlic oil sauce. Maybe it’s because mussels season is over? So we didn’t get the best quality. Not sure, but I have definitely had better mussels in New Orleans.

We also ordered the world’s most expensive fried chicken, 4 pieces for $18. So although we ended up paying $50 for this meal (plus tax and tip), it was definitely not worth $85.

Bistro at Maison de Ville on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: French, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , , , ,

Felipe’s in New Orleans

August 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Felipe’s Taqueria
301 N Peters St.
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 267-4406

http://www.felipesneworleans.com/menu.html

It’s awesome that there are places in New Orleans that you can get a full and delicious meal for $5.50 (super burrito). My favorite is the steak burrito or chorizo burrito, depending on my mood. The steak is hit or miss though, sometimes the meat is fine and sometimes it’s a tug of war between the burrito and your teeth. Chorizo is usually a winner, a little on the salty side but very nice and spicy ground pork. I like to get mine with black beans and the red sauce (not pico de gallo). My fellow foodie had the fried shrimp burrito (it’s battered, not very fresh tho. the shrimp had already been pre-cooked and taken out of the fridge and re-fried on the spot. The shrimp still had veins in it too. The batter was on the sweet side somehow). The shrimp burrito with corn was overkill of sweet. The queso dip is great too, with a beer-base. The problem with the queso dip though is that it hardens right away once it’s off the heater. So be sure to enjoy your queso dip right away after you order it. Although the line is long, d0n’t worry, all the workers move very fast. Just try to avoid really busy meal times like noon and 6 PM.

Felipe's Taqueria on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Mexican, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Green Goddess in New Orleans

August 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Green Goddess
307 Exchange Place
New Orleans, LA 70130

http://www.greengoddessnola.com/

Wow this was an amazing meal for the palette! Very impressed! The ambiance was a cozy little (literally little, I think I counted 4 tables inside + 1 in the back + counter + a few tables outside) nook. The servers were very friendly (i’m pretty sure one of them was one of the owners (Chef Chris). He kept coming up to me asking me for pounds. Very cute.) Luckily we got here at 6:30 and got the last table available indoors (way too hot to eat outside). Because we were in such close quarters with everyone around us, everyone sitting around us became very friendly with us, asking us what we got and telling us about what they ordered.

We ordered the three cheese platter, with so many to choose from it was a tough decision. I was disappointed that they were out of ossau iraty cheese, and randomly replaced it with some Spanish cheese that I was not a fan of. The purple haze had a bit of pizazz to it and the Vento d’Estate was stupendous. They gave us this awesome flat bread to cleanse our palates with. It had a very strong licorice flavor to it.

My friend ordered the tasting menu because G.G. was offering to donate $5 to oil spill relief for every tasting menu ordered. It included the Chilled Persian Cucumber Soup (which was a fresh blend of cucumber and vidalia onion):

Bamboo Rice Cake with Lump Crabmeat (which was amazing! they made the rice crispy and the wasabi sauce came out right through my nostrils):

Tumblin Dice Seared Tuna and Watermelon (what an original idea to combine seared tuna and watermelon! genius! and it was so spicy!):

Quinoa stuffed tomato (which just deflated in your mouth, releasing a tidal wave of sweet tomato soup):

and the golden beet ravioli (which was an interesting combo of crispy beets and chevre cheese):

I had ordered the Louisiana Bangers and Mash and literally I could hear angels sing with my first bite of sausage. The sausage had a little salt which was a great mix with the sugar in the sweet mashed potatoes and cane syrup (which I thought was going to be overkill but I was so wrong):

The sultan’s nest was the perfect ending to this amazing meal. It was light and cold (perfect for a hot summer night) with crispy phyllo:

Definitely returning here hungry for more!

Filed Under: American, New Orleans, LA Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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