Gumbo The icon
Dooky Chase's / citywide · $$
Photo: M D
Why it made the list: The dish that holds the whole city in one bowl: a dark roux base thickened with okra or filé, loaded with seafood or chicken and andouille, ladled over rice. Every family has a version, and Dooky Chase's in Treme, the late Leah Chase's Creole temple, is the one to build a pilgrimage around.
The Po'Boy The sandwich
Parkway Bakery & Tavern · $
Photo: Parkway Bakery & Tavern
Why it made the list: New Orleans' great sandwich: fried shrimp or oysters, or slow-roast beef swimming in gravy, piled onto crackly-then-pillowy Leidenheimer French bread and 'dressed' with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo. Parkway Bakery & Tavern in Mid-City has been making the definitive version for over a century.
Beignets & Café au Lait The classic
Café du Monde · $
Photo: Karrie Hongslo
Why it made the list: Square, hole-less French doughnuts fried to order and buried under a snowdrift of powdered sugar, served with chicory café au lait. Café du Monde has been doing exactly this on the edge of the French Market since 1862, open around the clock, and it never gets old.
Char-Grilled Oysters The must
Drago's · $$
Photo: Airick Johnson
Why it made the list: A New Orleans invention: fresh Gulf oysters grilled on the half shell under a bubbling blanket of garlic butter, parmesan and herbs, finished with French bread to mop the shells. Drago's created them and still does the benchmark plate.
The Muffuletta The original
Central Grocery · $
Photo: Amit Gupta
Why it made the list: A Sicilian-New Orleans giant: a round loaf of sesame bread layered with mortadella, salami, ham and provolone, and crowned with the tangy marinated olive salad that makes it. Central Grocery on Decatur Street invented it in 1906, and a quarter of one is a meal.
⭐ Bonus Pick: Turtle Soup & a Sazerac
Two more essentials: sit down for turtle soup at a grand Creole room like Commander's Palace in the Garden District, the haute-Creole institution worth dressing up for, and drink a Sazerac, the official cocktail of New Orleans, at the Sazerac Bar inside the Roosevelt. One is lunch you'll remember for years; the other is the city in a glass.
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