Top 10 NOLA Cajun Restaurants
New Orleans is best known for its Cajun and Creole cuisines. Across the city, you can find a wide range of dishes, including boudin and gumbo, crawfish étouffée, Gulf seafood, and hearty meat dishes rooted in southern Louisiana traditions.
Whether you want a traditional neighborhood restaurant or a more modern take on Cajun cooking, these 10 restaurants offer many ways to enjoy bayou flavor.
1. Copeland's of New Orleans
Multiple Locations
Copeland's of New Orleans was established in 1983 and has designed its menu around Cajun and Creole comfort food. You can choose from a wide range of dishes, including crawfish étouffée, blackened redfish, crawfish fettuccine, and the restaurant's jambalaya with chicken and andouille sausage. If there is room on your bill for a dessert, don't overlook their signature cheesecake. They offer weekday lunch specials, a daily happy hour, and a Sunday brunch buffet.
2. Jacques-Imo's Cafe
8324 Oak St., (504) 861-0886
Jacques-Imo's is known for its unusual take on Cajun cuisine on Oak Street. Dishes include the famous shrimp and alligator sausage cheesecake, duck and andouille gumbo, blackened redfish, and a wide variety of seafood. The vibrant dining rooms, with their bright colors, and the laid-back atmosphere make the dining experience as pleasant as the food itself. When dining with a small group, tables are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so it's best to arrive early to avoid a long wait.
3. Cochon
930 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 588-2123
Chef Donald Link and his business partner, Chef Stephen Stryjewski, offer the tastes of Cajun Country at Cochon's Warehouse District location. The restaurant prepares its dishes with pork, seafood, and vegetables from local suppliers, drawing on the traditional cooking Chef Link grew up with in southern Louisiana. Dishes include boudin, wood-fired oysters, gumbo, and other pork-heavy specialties, all of which reflect the restaurant's straightforward approach to Cajun cooking. The restaurant's renovated warehouse site gives the traditional flavors a more modern atmosphere.
4. Bobby Hebert's Cajun Cannon
4101 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 324-6841
Named after Bobby Hebert, the former quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, the restaurant offers two popular forms of Louisiana cuisine: sports food and Cajun food. Its full menu includes seafood gumbo, boudin balls, po-boys, crab cakes, Cajun pastas, and several redfish dishes. With sports memorabilia and televisions throughout, it is a good choice if you want to watch a Saints or LSU game while eating Louisiana seafood.
5. New Orleans Creole Cookery
510 Toulouse St., (504) 372-6022
New Orleans Creole Cookery's French Quarter branch serves a wide variety of traditional Louisiana dishes, including Cajun and Creole dishes such as chicken and sausage gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, shrimp Creole, and chargrilled oysters. Guests can eat inside the restaurant, at the oyster bar, or in the more private courtyard. Consider ordering the Taste of New Orleans sampler if you are having a hard time deciding.
6. Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar
509 Canal St., (504) 323-2109
Creole House, in the oldest building on Canal Street, offers Cajun- and Creole-style comfort food from breakfast until late at night. The menu features boudin boulettes, fried alligator, Gulf shrimp and grits, jambalaya pasta, and Canal Street redfish served with Cajun garlic sauce and Gulf shrimp. Oyster lovers can have the oysters either raw or chargrilled. Because the restaurant is right on the edge of the French Quarter, it is a convenient spot for tourists visiting the downtown area.
7. Delacroix
1 Poydras St., (504) 655-9002
Delacroix, situated at Spanish Plaza on the Mississippi Riverfront and named after the town in St. Bernard Parish, is based on the region's fishing customs and provides a more sophisticated version of the traditional Louisiana fish camp experience, what with its menu focusing on local seafood. It offers a variety of dishes, including boudin, grilled redfish with spicy crab butter, Louisiana shrimp Creole, and fried catfish with turtle sauce. The river views make the atmosphere as attractive as the seafood.
8. Restaurant Rebirth
857 Fulton St., (504) 522-6863
Restaurant Rebirth serves farm-to-table Cajun and Creole cuisine and is managed by Chef Ricky Cheramie, who is from South Louisiana. Cheramie brings Cajun traditions into a more modern dining experience at his Warehouse District restaurant. The menu includes country gumbo made with chicken, andouille, and tasso, as well as seafood, pork, and seasonal dishes that use Louisiana ingredients. The restaurant also grows its own sugar cane for products such as the vinaigrette and glaze that accompany its double-cut pork chops.
9. Mulate's
201 Julia St., (504) 522-1492
For years, Mulate's has celebrated the food, music, and culture of South Louisiana in the Warehouse District. Their menu features traditional Cajun dishes including gumbo, red beans and rice, fried alligator and frog legs, seafood platters, and grilled catfish served with shrimp étouffée. Live Cajun and zydeco music also contributes to their southern atmosphere, making the restaurant as much about the experience as it is about the food. If customers are seeking a traditional introduction to Cajun cuisine in the city, then Mulate's is one of New Orleans' most well-known restaurants.
10. Galliano
200 Julia St., (504) 218-5753
Galliano provides home-style cooking from the Bayou Lafourche region of South Louisiana to the Warehouse District. Executive Chef Ricky Cheramie gives traditional Cajun flavors a modern twist with menu items such as alligator Creole, seafood jambalaya, shrimp and grits, and pork chop LaPlace stuffed with andouille. The Swamp Pasta takes it a step further by incorporating Gulf shrimp, andouille sausage, and fried alligator. The restaurant also has an oyster bar and a craft cocktail menu as part of its modern approach to Cajun food.
