Mamou opened just over a year ago, but it's already one of the best French restaurants in town. It’s a great place to check out if you’re around Louis Armstrong Park and need a glass of wine and a snack, or just want to hang out at a lively bar. We love the braised celery hearts with beef tongue, gulf fish court bouillon, and risotto—basically anything that leans into the rich and butter-loaded dishes they do really well.

Arnaud’s is a classic New Orleans restaurant located right off Bourbon Street that's been serving up great food and cocktails since 1918. The best time to come here is for their jazz brunch when they do a three-course, prix fixe with dishes like grillades and grits, eggs sardou, and shrimp arnaud. You should also make time for Arnaud’s French 75 Bar for a sazerac or an Old Fashioned.

This Creole restaurant claims they’re haunted, and they even keep a table for their resident ghost. While the whole experience might sound like the plot of a PG-rated Disney movie, this is about as classic of a New Orleans experience as you can get. Drink a cocktail in the dark and moody, second-floor seance lounge or on the patio overlooking Jackson Square, and then settle in at a candle-lit table for some seafood gumbo and redfish with smoke andouille salad.

Saint John is from the same team behind Gris-Gris, one of our favorite restaurants on Magazine Street. This newer spot is another excellent place for Southern and Creole dishes, in a space that feels both old-school and modern New Orleans, thanks to the open kitchen with counter seating and paintings by local artists lining the wall. Come for a date night dinner where you can split dishes like oysters three ways, a rich plate of beef daube, and buttery crawfish tails with fried green tomatoes.

Jewel of the South puts equal emphasis on the food and cocktails, and both are extremely quality, if not a little bit over the top. There are multiple cocktails that cost over $25, and you’ll find a lot of caviar on the menu, along with plates of wagyu short rib. We like it best for a sit-down dinner in the plant-filled courtyard, but it’s just as good for walking in for some drinks and snacks at the bar.

Friday lunch at Galatoire’s is a New Orleans right of passage. To experience it best, you need to sit in the downstairs dining room, which requires getting in line on Bourbon Street before it opens at 11:30am. The servers wear tuxes, everybody is drinking sazeracs and glasses of milk punch, and you can eat old-school classics like shrimp remoulade and gumbo. If you’re looking for a proper “Yes, I’m definitely in New Orleans” way to kick off a weekend, start at Galatoire’s.

​​Sure, you could settle for Waffle House after a night out, but you should go to Palm & Pine instead. They're open until 1am on Friday and Saturday and serve shareable dishes like buttery cornbread with local fig butter and sticky grilled rib tips dripping with a salsa negra glaze. And yes, it’s also a good option when it’s still light out. They do a great Sunday brunch where you can eat some duck fat fried potatoes and actually make out all the cool art on the walls.

Classic spots in the French Quarter tend to turn tables fast, which can make it feel like you're just a part of a large march of tourists. But at Bayona, you can linger in the plant-filled courtyard (that has more cobblestones than a Roman sidestreet) with a couple friends for a while over a bunch of Creole dishes. It feels like your own secret little garden where you can eat duck liver pate, grilled pork chops, and fennel and pepper-crusted lamb loin that’s always cooked perfectly.

If you only have brunch once in New Orleans, it should be at Brennan’s. Even though you might be surrounded by bachelorette parties, this place has been open for more than 70 years, serves top-notch eggs benedict and gumbo, and is known for their excellent service. If morning drinking is something you’re interested in, make sure to try the brandy milk punch.

It’s hard to tell if Cane & Table is a restaurant with great drinks, or a fancy cocktail bar that serves surprisingly good food. Either way, their big back courtyard is the perfect place to escape the chaos of nearby Bourbon Street. They have one of the most diverse cocktail menus in the city and serve a solid mix of rotating small plates and entrees, like green gumbo and a whole roasted fish. Whether you need a place for a big group or somewhere for a date, Cane & Table is the spot.