Less Famous Dishes to Order While in NOLA

Don't Forget to Order…

New Orleans restaurants and chefs are renowned locally and internationally. If you're talented in the kitchen, everything on your menu will be delicious. There are no throwaway dishes. While we all know their most famous dishes, here are dishes only real locals know about and that regulars order. Don't sleep on 'em.

Company Burger:

Turkey Burger

Try and find a better poultry burger in the state. Chef and owner Adam Biderman counters, "I challenge anyone to make a better turkey burger for less than $10." He created his turkey burger to be "interesting to eat, with lots of different flavors" since "regular turkey burgers are usually boring." The patty is completely dark meat in order to keep it juicy. Chef recommends pairing with sweet potato fries and a malted vanilla Steen's milkshake. (Most Famous Dish: Company Burger)

Emeril's Wine Bar:

Wagyu Steak & Lobster Fried Rice

Emeril's original and flagship restaurant is tasting menu only nowadays. Its wine bar is a la carte and offers classics from the restaurant's past decades. EJ Lagasse, Emeril's son and chef patron, creates some new "dishes that [his] kitchen team and [he] like to eat on a day off or after a long service." His fried rice is "inspired by classic Chinese takeout but made with generous pieces of A5 Wagyu and lobster." It slaps. (MFD: Barbecue Shrimp 1990)

Frankie & Johnny's:

Bell Pepper Rings

Everyone goes to F&J's for seafood, but this neighborhood restaurant offers onion rings' Louisiana cousin, also. Bell peppers are chopped into rings then breaded and deep-fried the way only Southerners fry. And, of course, served with America's favorite condiment: ranch dressing. (MFD: Boiled Crawfish)

Guy's Po-Boys:

Grilled Shrimp Po-Boy

This is old-school AF: local Gulf shrimp seasoned with lemon, margarine, and Tony Chachere's and "dressed," always. It's lighter, but it's just as satisfying as its fried equivalent. (MFD: Fried Shrimp Po-Boy)

La Boca:

Provoleta

Everyone's favorite Argentine steakhouse serves another specialty with a cheese inherited from Italy. Provolone cut into cubes and tossed with Italian herbs and chili flakes. The cheese goes into small cast iron pans and under the broiler. Finished on the stove with quality extra virgin olive oil and fresh oregano. Perfect with a Malbec. (MFD: Entraña con or sin la Piel)

Miss Linda, The Yakamein Lady:

Crawfish Mac and Cheese

"It was my great-grandmother's dish that she passed down, really her seasonings, her spices," Chef Linda explains. "The yakamein seasoning, that trademark secret, is in it. We still add the love and the flavor. Only thing I changed is added more cheeses, some she wouldn't have gotten back then. But really it's the seasoning that makes it. We use elbow macaroni instead of spaghetti. A lot of people down here use spaghetti and call it 'macaroni." (MFD: Beef & Shrimp Yakamein)

Mister Mao:

Pani Puri with turmeric potato masala, seasonal fruit, tamarind chutney, and fiery mint water

It's impossible to go to Mister Mao and not order this classic street food. "I wouldn't sleep on it," chef-owner Sophina Uong says. "It's an Indian thing. I think people try our pani puri because they feel safe trying exotic or lesser-known foods in our space." (MFD: Kashmiri Fried Chicken with black salt yogurt and pink pineapple)

Mosca's Restaurant:

Chicken Cacciatore

Lisa Mosca, named after her grandmother (the og Lisa Mosca), co-owns the restaurant with her mother Mary Jo and says not enough people order cacciatore. A classic Italian dish, "Hunter's Chicken" is a whole bird, cut into pieces and sauteed with garlic, white wine, and Italian herbs and seasonings. Mosca's adds tomato sauce and cooks it down until it thickens and coats the chicken. She recommends the dish "dark" because she likes the chicken crispy with a side of bordelaise pasta and some bread to dip in the red gravy. (MFD: Oyster's Mosca.)

Pêche Seafood Grill:

22 oz. Ribeye

Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, extra virgin olive oil on the wood-fire grill. Finished with a little more sea salt and an even better olive oil. Easily the best steak at a non-steakhouse restaurant. When it opened, Pêche won the James Beard awards for Best Chef: South and for Best New Restaurant in the entire country. This dish has been on the menu since the opening day and stayed on it. (MFD: Whole Grilled Gulf Fish with Salsa Verde, usually Red Fish)

Saint-Germain:

Aged Butter

Chef/owner Trey Smith explains it as "a pretty simple but time-consuming process." Culture is added to cream, which is then stored at the appropriate temperature to become cultured cream. The cream is mixed until it separates into butter and buttermilk. The butter is washed and stored in buckets with a layer of salt and cheesecloth on top then aged in a cold, cellar-like temperature for several months. Whether it's with bread service or part of a dish, this butter is creamy and also nutty…reminiscent of aged Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. (MFD: Any protein —seafood or poultry— on the robata grill)

Toups Meatery:

Raw, Shaved Broccoli Caesar Salad

A classic Caesar salad made healthier with broccoli and kicked up several notches with Chef Isaac Toups's Cajun style of seasoning. Co-owner Amanda Toups says her husband and partner's Caesar dressing "has so much garlic, you could kill someone." (MFD: Double Cut Pork Chop, Dirty Rice, Cane Syrup Gastrique)

Turkey and the Wolf:

Collard Green Melt

In Mason Hereford's own words: "The sandwich I recommend to first time diners…rich, toasty, melty, double-decker lovechild of a pot of slow-cooked collards and a Reuben. Greens cooked for hours in vinegar, spices, butter, garlic. Russian dressing studded with spicy pickled cherry peppers, coleslaw, and Swiss cheese. The peppers add bursts of heat and acidity to the tangy sauce. We took a page from Dan Stein's book and use coleslaw instead of kraut. Three slices of toasted, seeded rye bread… sorta like a club sandwich. The middle slice, 'the soaker slice' as we refer to it, sops up the pot likker from the collard greens on top of it." (MFD: Fried Bologna Sandwich.)