New Orleans Weekend Review

Lunch Saturday: Muffaletta, Zapps and Barqs from Central Grocery overlooking the river.

Flavor: Great as always, although it seems to me they used to have a little more meat. Perhaps it's just faulty memory.


Late afternoon stop at St. James Cheese Co. Got the chocolate plate, which was 5 different cheeses paired with different chocolates. All really good except for the sheep's milk. I hate goat/sheep milk cheese. Just a personal thing. Should have asked if they could exclude it.

Two really nice glasses of wine and a nice hour or so on the Patio with lady politiceaux.


Dinner: Mr. John's.

I can't say enough about the steaks at Mr. John's. The best I've had in the city, no doubt. I got the bone-in ribeye, which is unusual as I'm usually a New York Strip guy but my girlfriend was getting that so I changed to the cowboy cut.

It was really, really good. Perhaps a little salty because of the amount of butter on the plate. The strip though, as I suspected, was the star of the show. Perfect medium rare, great amount of cracked black pepper on the crust.

We had the BBQ Shrimp and Pork Belly appetizers. Both incredibly good. Shrimp had generous amounts of garlic and butter, plenty of spice as God intended. Pork Belly was braised, but crispy. Knock out.

My girlfriend got the spinach salad, which she seemed to really like. I had the turtle soup, not really flavorful and not much meat. I've had a lot better.

For sides with steaks we had garlic mashed potatoes (really, really good) and the crystal hot sauce battered onion rings. I typically don't order onion rings at steakhouses, but these were on point. Thinly sliced (my favorite) and spicy. They were great.

We had a bottle of 2007 Rodney Strong Cabernet with dinner. Good wine, but overpriced. $65 plus tax and tip on the wine was about $90. When I buy it, it's usually for $27 or so plus tax. Hard to justify, but they didn't have my first choice of wine Saturday night.

Dessert was a tiramisu, which was really nice and light. Perfect after a huge meal.

Service was decent I suppose, really packed house though. Service wasn't quite attentive enough for my liking, but not poor enough to keep me from returning.

Pricey, but very good, meal.

After dinner we went to watch Jeremy Davenport at the Ritz-Carlton. We arrived about 11:00. He played one song before taking a break until 11:35. He then played from 11:35-12 and took another extended break, at which time we left. That was pretty disappointing. I really would have liked to have enjoyed about an hour or so of music. I'll have to return.

Brunch Sunday was at Dante's Kitchen. Bloody Mary's were okay, Mimosas contained very little champagne.

The food was quite good, though. She had the eggs benedict, which is made with slices of very good pork loin and honey, I had the debris and poached eggs on a biscuit. Both good, but I preferred hers.

Good brunch, but pricey with the bill being $75 after tip including 2 drinks for each of us (that were pretty lacking). I would certainly return, but that's pretty steep for such a casual brunch.

Great trip, it was much enjoyed.