NOLA visit--restaurant reviews

So, we went into NOLA last week. I had posted on here before requesting recommendations. We got in late Friday night.

Saturday we had family dinner planned at my mom's house, so no eating out Saturday night. We hit up Casamento's for lunch. My wife had the softshell crab loaf, I had a dozen chargrilled oysters, and a shrimp loaf. The softshell crab was delicious, and the oysters were great. The shrimp was good, but I prefer Guy's.

We tried to get a brunch reservation for Atchafalaya on Sunday but they were booked, so we walked over to Surrey's an had breakfast. My wife had the crabmeat omelette which was delicious. I had the Migas, with chorizo and my eggs over easy, It was great. We sat outside, drank coffee and enjoyed ourselves.

Sunday night we hit up Atchafalaya. I have been for brunch before but never for dinner. My wife started with shrimp bisque, which was decent not great. I had some special for a salad that had pears and shaved asiago. It was really good. For appetizers we got the fried green tomatoes and the free form crab ravioli. The fried green tomatoes were good, not great. The crab ravioli was one of the best things we had all week. It was amazing. For entrees, my wife had the stuffed eggplant and I had black drum. Hers was quite tasty. Mine was okay. The fish was a bit underseasoned, ad the accompaniments were kind of thrown on there. We were too stuffed for dessert.

On Monday, we took the kids to the zoo, then swung by plum street snowballs. After dropping the kids, we hit up Peche for dinner. The space is amazing, but it is super loud. It looks like they've added acoustic tile but it is still really, really, loud. My wife started with the crawfish bisque and I had a salad. Both were really good. After that we decided to just order small plates and share. We had spicy ground shrimp and noodles, a ceviche special, garlic butter wood fired grilled shrimp, and crawfish pasta dish. The ceviche, shrimp and crawfish were excellent. The ground shrimp and noodles were good, but not what we were expecting. When I hear ground shrimp and noodle, I had in my head something asian. It was fettucine and red sauce. Like shrimp bolognese. Still a good dish. We got dessert here. The wife had some lemon cheesecake or something and I had a caramel salt cake. Hers was great. Mine was ok. Overall, the restaurant was excellent.

On Tuesday, we took the kids to the insectarium then went to City Park. We grabbed the kids shrimp plates from Casamentos on the way to City Park. That night we hit up Domenica. It was a food experience. Best meal I have had in a while. We started with the Bolzano Pizza, then did the Affetatti Misti. The speck was delicious as was the salami. We had goat cheese and blue cheese with it. I could go there and just order that as a meal for myself. After that we ordered a bunch of small plates to share (there were three of us). We ordered the lamb bolognese, the tagliatelle, the cavatelli, and they had a pork belly pasta special. My favorites were the pork belly and the rabbit tagliatelle. The ladies like the cavatelli the best. We spli some desserts but they weren't memorable to me. The only knock on the restaurant is the decor. It felt a bit mashed together. But it will definitely be in my rotation every time I visit.

On Wednesday, we were doing family stuff, so we hit up Juan's with the kids and our niece and nephew. Got the tuna tacos which were delicious.

Overall, it was a great food experience trip. If I had to rate the three dinners it would be Domenica, Peche, then Atchafalaya, although Atchafalaya's crab ravioli might have been one of the best things we had all week.