Brigtsen's

For years, this has been one of my family's favorite restaurants. In fact, it may be my entire family's number 1 in New Orleans. We first came to this adorable converted shotgun almost 5 years ago, on a trip to check out Tulane. My dad had heard from his friends who were from here that it was no doubt the place to go. When I first entered this warm and cozy restaurant I knew it was our style. Great (fancy) food, with a relaxed atmosphere, and friendly service, not something you find everyday back home in Vegas.

Their menu is pretty consistent, which would probably get old if I went there more than once a year. But my annual meal at Brigtsens is always divine. This year I unfortunately was extremely sick on the night of my graduation, when we came to Brigtsens and could barely taste my food. But I did take lots of photographs as usual, and each dish got rave reviews from everyone at the table.

I ordered the seafood platter seen above. As you can see, there were a million things to try on that tiny little plate. Even with my stuffy nose I did manage to still taste the incredible jalapeno and crawfish corn bread and stuffed crab. The plate also came along with baked oysters, redfish topped with crawfish tails, and coleslaw topped with shrimp. Not to mention the crawfish garnish. This is definitely a great dish to get if you're not from here and want to try a little bit of everything... or if like me, you just love seafood and have food ADD. My parents got their usual tuna steak with incredible mashed potatoes and sauteed veggies and Eric got the speckled trout topped with hollandaise. Everyone was mesmerized by the flavors and aroma of their food, except me of course who spent most of my time trying to discreetly blow my nose in one of the nicest restaurants in the city.

There is one thing that is disappointing about Brigtsen's though, the Pecan Pie. Ordinarily I would think it's good, not great, but still a yummy after dinner sweet, but my expectations were set too high when I heard it was featured on a Food Network TV show called Best Thing I Ever Had. This disappoints me greatly because it is literally steps away from the BEST pecan pie in the city, Camellia Grill of course! There pie is tastier to start off, but they really drive it home when they butter it and put it on the grill, which is really the only way to order it (and a la mode of course). Brennan's does have a close second, that is served hot and nice and gooey as well, but I actually like Camellia Grill's food better than the infamous Brennan's.... but that's a story for another time.

So the next time you want to treat yourself to a fancy, romantic dinner at a friendly place go uptown to Brigtsen's and then get dessert down the street!