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Diners' Choice: Innovative restaurants in New Orleans / Louisiana

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OpenTable
Updated February 05, 2025

Looking for the best restaurants that are fit for foodies in New Orleans / Louisiana? You’re in the right place. Each month, OpenTable analyzes nearly 2 million global diner reviews from the past four months. We sort the results by location and category to help you discover new favorite restaurants. It's a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review. We listen...and deliver the results for all to benefit. Enjoy!


A photo of Mayas restaurant
4.8
4.8 (622)
$30 and under
Latin American
Garden District
About the restaurant
Mayas Restaurant is a captivating Latin dining experience with exciting social rhythms. We feature the cuisines of multiple countries of Latin American, but rather than simply transferring dishes we pay compliment to the ingredients that are natural to Latin America. Our food is prepared from scratch using classic and modern techniques but always remembering the aromas and flavors of our mother's and grandmother's kitchen. We invite you to choose your own escapade by selecting from our Plantains, Ceviches, Empanadas, Curries, Steaks, and Small Plates for a multi-course dining experience.
Top review
MichaelVIP
Dined on Feb 6, 2025
Always a treat. The shrimp and crab ceviche is outstanding. It is more like a shrimp and crab salad with sliced guac than a traditional citrus based ceviche.
A photo of Cafe Reconcile restaurant
4.8
4.8 (27)
$30 and under
Southern
Lower Garden District
About the restaurant
Our innovative Workforce Development Program is designed as a positive youth development space that supports the career exploration and job readiness opportunities of young people 16-24 years old. Interns earn industry credentials, explore career and educational pathways that suit their individual abilities, and experience real-world, on the job training.

Led by a skilled team of industry professionals with shared lived-experience and incorporating a cadre of community-based partners, we work to build bright futures with and alongside our young people.

Café Reconcile is a destination lunch spot for a wide cross-section of New Orleanians as well as visitors from all across the country. Focusing on the kind of “soul food” for which New Orleans is known, the restaurant has earned high praise from local and national critics.

When guests dine in the cafe, funds go directly back into our Workforce Training Program ensuring Interns and Alumni have essential supports.


Top review
NancyVIP
Dined 3 days ago
Excellent food..great service…truly a wonderful program
A photo of Jewel of the South restaurant
4.8
4.8 (82)
$31 to $50
Contemporary British
French Quarter
About the restaurant
Borrowing its name from an influential 1850s-vintage bar in the Central Business District, this pub-like tavern (with courtyard) occupies an old brick Creole cottage in the French Quarter, where well-known local bartender Chris Hannah serves up cocktails both classic and contemporary. London-born chef Philip Whitmarsh runs the kitchen.
Accolades include James Beard, World 50 Best, Art of Hospitality, Best Bar South (North America).

Top review
CathyVIP
Dined 2 days ago
The cocktails were delicious. The food was very unique, the Boudin Noir was outstanding. Service was attentive and professional.
A photo of Maypop restaurant
4.6
4.6 (1375)
$31 to $50
Southeast Asian
Central Business District
About the restaurant
Welcome to Maypop! - the sister establishment to the award winning Mid-City restaurant MOPHO. Located two blocks from the Super Dome and only one block from Poydras street, it features Southeast Asian inspired southern cuisine and focuses on hand made pastas and house charcuterie paired with Gulf seafood, local produce and hand ground curries. Enjoy our refreshing cocktails that are as innovative and creative as our cuisine, and our well curated wine list paired to our eclectic dishes.
Executive Chef Michael Gulotta was named a 2016 Best New Chef by Food and Wine Magazine and Maypop was named a 2017 best new restaurant by New Orleans magazine as well as a 2017 peoples choice best new restaurant by Gambit Magazine.

Parties of 5+ guests will be charged an automatic 20% gratuity.

Top review
Jamie
Dined 6 days ago
Consistently interesting, awesome food. This place is the best. Don’t miss the octopus!
A photo of Yo Nashi restaurant
4.6
4.6 (470)
$50 and over
Japanese
Central Business District
About the restaurant
Yō Nashi is a New Orleans omakase restaurant. Utilizing local ingredients and flavor with Japanese technique and presentation, Chef Jose creates a dining experience that invokes a sense of transportation while simultaneously being rooted in the city where he presides.

Our daily omakase menu is created around the best seasonal ingredients available. Please provide any allergies or dietary restrictions with your reservation so that we may be able to ensure your best possible experience.

Top review
Sasha
Dined on Feb 4, 2025
This was a great experience for my nieces birthday
A photo of Saj restaurant
4.6
4.6 (325)
$30 and under
Mediterranean
Uptown
About the restaurant
Saj is a modern BYOB Mediterranean restaurant, offering an authentic family style concept that revolves around our freshly baked Saj bread in a fun, cozy atmosphere. Feel free to bring your own drink and we will take it from there.
Top review
Adriano
Dined on Jan 24, 2025
Food and service was awesome. Not our first time, and like before, we enjoyed alot.
A photo of 34 Restaurant & Bar restaurant
4.6
4.6 (167)
$50 and over
Portuguese
Central Business District
About the restaurant
34 is Chef Emeril Lagasse’s first restaurant dedicated to the cuisine of his Portuguese heritage. He was inspired by his late mother, Hilda, who influenced his interest in cooking when he was a child growing up in Fall River, MA. The 245-seat restaurant is adorned in shades of green – Emeril’s signature color – wood accents and ornate Portuguese tiles. A painting of a rooster, a national Portuguese symbol of good luck, greets guests at the entrance. Once inside, a jamon bar with countertop service and tile-clad DJ booth are focal points of the space. The restaurant celebrates not only the food and design of Portugal but also the sounds, with music from local and touring DJs.
Top review
SusanVIP
Dined 2 days ago
The menu is varied, with lots of different size options. Food was delicious. Service was solicitous but a little slow. The restaurant is absolutely beautiful. We were there early, and I appreciated the relative quiet. The hostesses were extraordinarily helpful.
A photo of Tacos del Cartel - New Orleans restaurant
4.5
4.5 (259)
$30 and under
Mexican
Central Business District
About the restaurant
At Tacos del Cartel, tacos, brunch, lunch and dinner are an art form. The menu is a culinary love letter, a symphony of flavors that dance on the taste buds. The culinary rebels in the kitchen experiment with traditional Mexican recipes, infusing them with the boldness of cultures.
Top review
Daisy
Dined 1 day ago
We had a really nice time at the restaurant love the margaritas and the ambience. The only thing that we particularly did not appreciate was the 22% tip at the end we usually tip 20%. We were only four adults and the mandatory tip was 22% Not liking it. 
A photo of Vessel NOLA restaurant
4.2
4.2 (2657)
$30 and under
Seafood
Mid-City / City Park
About the restaurant
Vessel Specializes in Fresh Seafood and New American Cuisine! Renowned Chef Wille Cooper, who trained under Emeril Lagasse & Wolfgang Puck sources fresh local ingredients incorporating many of the traditions New Orleans is famous for. Dinner is served 7 days a week and brunch Sat-Sun! Happy Hour weekdays 4-6 pm (except holidays). Reservations are advised and we welcome walk-ins! Dine inside or outdoors on our gorgeous covered patio! ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST featured VESSEL as one of "8 of the Most Gorgeous Restaurants in Former Churches Worldwide". Paranormal activity lurks at VESSEL as featured on The Travel Channel's hit show "THE DEAD FILES" in the episode "Deadly Vessel" showcasing the spirits that haunt Vessel. Eat, Drink, Congregate! at Vessel at New Orleans' most exciting restaurant/bar, housed in a 1914 historic church in Mid-City, 10 minutes from the French Quarter just off the Canal Street Streetcar.
Top review
Kirsten
Dined 1 day ago
Beautiful restored church! Perfect for a low key quiet date night.
A photo of Public Service restaurant
3.4
3.4 (531)
$30 and under
American
French Quarter
About the restaurant
A dynamic community gathering place, Public Service is a casual-yet-sophisticated restaurant with a menu honoring the Gulf Coast’s hard-working fishermen and farmers. Our chefs prepare contemporary cuisine in an open-display kitchen highlighted by an open-flame rotisserie.

Join us for a relaxing meal with family or friends, a quick bite in our bar or pull up a stool at the open kitchen to experience a meal guided by our chefs. At Public Service, the recipe is simple: combine confident Southern hospitality with a menu that allows the ingredients to speak for themselves.

Click on our virtual tour to step inside Public Service! https://visitingmedia.com/tt8/?ttid=nopsi-hotel-icms#/3d-model/0/1?b11t0=1&a10ph=1&i2d0a=1&j2ck2=1

Top review
Sivan
Dined 1 day ago
Excellent food and service. Thank you! Adding more
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