Where I Go For The Most Authentic Cajun And Creole Food In New Orleans
In New Orleans, you're never farther than a stone's throw away from one of the most memorable meals of your life. That's one of the many reasons I call New Orleans my second home. The first time I visited New Orleans, I planned to stay only a few days, but those days quickly turned into a year. I was completely mesmerized by the music, history, food, and artists that make up the city's inimitable culture. New Orleans is a no-holds-barred haven for creativity, and its cuisine perfectly embodies the free, imaginative spirit that makes it unlike anywhere else in the nation.
Cajun and Creole cuisines were both born in Louisiana, but Creole cuisine is the trendy, metropolitan style hailing from New Orleans. Meanwhile, Cajun country — the Southern area of the state — gave rise to its eponymous cuisine, more rustic and humble than cosmopolitan Creole. Both styles are world-famous for blending cuisines from cultures all over the globe, making them a quintessential representation of America's amalgamated heritage.
You can expect to find both of Louisiana's renowned culinary styles all over NOLA — but beware of impostors. Like any famous city, New Orleans is home to some touristy restaurants serving up kitschy, low-quality takes on Cajun and Creole fare. So in this list, I'll share my five favorite spots in the city for genuine meals made with time-honored recipes, minus all the flash and gimmicks of a tourist trap. These restaurants are icons to locals (and those visitors fortunate enough to experience them) for dishing out textbook examples of the food that gives New Orleans a leading role on the world culinary stage.
Toups' Meatery
Toups' Meatery is the brainchild of chef Issac Toups — a finalist and semi-finalist for the James Beard Best Chef in the South award. Toups was born in Cajun country to a family with roots in the region dating back 300 years. When he opened the restaurant in 2012, he didn't just transfer some old family recipes over to the city and call it a day; he gave the authentic recipes contemporary appeal without ever straying from Cajun's rustic constitution — a seriously impressive feat that earned Toups' Meatery instant classic status in NOLA.
I had been teaching myself to cook classic Cajun recipes for years before I ever stepped foot into Toups' Meatery. Prior to laying eyes on Toups' creations, I hadn't realized how one-dimensional my experience with Cajun food had been. It deserved better. It deserved whatever Isaac Toups was doing to it.
Meals at Toups' Meatery incorporate native produce and game meats, so they never lose their authentic Cajun essence. We're talking dishes like crab fat crawfish pies with Aleppo black pepper crust, fried turkey necks with pepper jelly and boiled peanuts, and Braised pork belly with shishito peppers and black-eyed peas topped with a corn bread crumble. But the menu is always rotating (a sign of an excellent restaurant, if you ask me). I had the best smoked duck — a cornerstone of Cajun cuisine — of my life at Toups'. I never would have thought to find such authentic takes on this kind of cuisine outside of Cajun country, but Toups' makes Cajun right at home in the city.
Parkway Bakery and Tavern
You can't talk about authentic New Orleans food without talking about po'boys. The sandwich was born in the city, getting its iconic name when New Orleans restaurants would stuff French bread with hearty ingredients to feed striking streetcar workers as an act of solidarity. Lately, more and more new-age po'boy shops have been opening up, and they're fine. The sandwiches are good. But a market price po'boy? Come on. What separates a po'boy from any old sandwich is its connection to history — that's why Parkway Bakery and Tavern is my top pick among the best spots for po'boys in the city.
Mid-City's Parkway Bakery first opened back in 1911, and it doesn't feel like much has changed since. The place is decked out with vintage decor that feels intentional over outdated. Unlike the trendy, hipster po'boy shops, Parkway sticks with the classics. I always opt for a half-oyster-half-shrimp (otherwise known as a peacemaker). The crunchy fried seafood against pillow-soft, squishy bread is the texture mash-up of my sandwich dreams. And I always, always take home a rum-soaked bread pudding.
When I first took my partner to New Orleans, I made Parkway our first stop. He told me that he didn't fully understand what separates a po'boy from a sub or a hoagie. But after visiting Parkway, eating on the patio at the long cafeteria tables with everyone else that were just as excited to be there as we were, he got the memo. Parkway is a testament to NOLA's working-class roots — it's impossible not to feel the tangible love for the city as soon as you step through its doors.
Clancy's Restaurant
The quintessential New Orleans restaurant is a family-owned, neighborhood spot, and that's exactly what you'll find in Clancy's. It first opened in 1983 by a team of businessmen, but was eventually purchased by an employee, Brad Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth passed away in 2024, but his family keeps the place running. Clancy's treads into upscale territory, but is far from stuffy; rather, it captures NOLA's friendly, casual vibe in a posh atmosphere with deliciously authentic Creole cuisine to boot.
Creole cuisine was born in New Orleans, so there's no short supply of it anywhere you look in the city. But I truly believe that Clancy's — which just so happened to be my first experience with genuine Creole cuisine — does it best, keeping classic recipes fresh and interesting and never seeming to try to lure tourists with anything flashy. Clancy's exists, and always has, to serve the Uptown neighborhood it calls home, and the food shows.
It gets a little crowded at Clancy's, but not in an uncomfortable way — in a way that makes it feel like you're enjoying a meal with good company. When it's time to order, always check the seafood special of the day. If it's soft-shell crab, you have to order it. If it's anything else, you still have to order it. I always get the crab maison salad, too, but you can never go wrong with Clancy's shrimp remoulade. And don't forget to inquire about wine — Clancy's has one of the most impressive wine cellars in New Orleans.
Coop's Place
Dive bar culture and New Orleans go together like a dark roux and gumbo. Coop's Place is like a comfortable, dimly-lit oasis in a sea of loud tourists flashing their Mardi Gras gear in the French Quarter. But unlike most dives (those outside of New Orleans, anyway), it has phenomenal food. It's located on Decatur Street right across from the historic French Market, so it's in the thick of all the action. Still, it feels like a locals-only Ninth Ward spot where the bartender knows everyone by name.
If you're visiting New Orleans for the first time and are looking for one spot to perfectly encapsulate the vibe of NOLA, this is it. I had one of my first meals in the city at Coop's, when I went to New Orleans for the first time for Halloween, like a typical ne'er-do-well tourist. It has a bit of a nostalgic pull for me, but even if I didn't associate Coop's with the trip that made me decide to move to New Orleans, the food and vibe would still have me coming back. You can find pretty much any classic Cajun and Creole dish under the sun here, and they're all done well, with a commitment to tradition — jambalaya, chicken Tchoupitoulas, étouffée, red beans and rice, you name it. I always get a taste plate so I can have a little of all my favorites: gumbo, fried chicken, rabbit and sausage jambalaya, and shrimp Creole.
Seither's Seafood
At the heart of all Cajun and Creole cuisine is one thing: seafood. I tried countless seafood restaurants in the city while living there; mostly random neighborhood spots slinging crawfish that everyone on the block swore was the best in the city. They were all the best — until I tried Seither's.
Seither's Seafood has been a citywide staple since the 2000s, when Jason Seither opened up the restaurant and adjacent seafood market on a whim. He still runs the show, creating staple dishes inspired by his bayou upbringing, but with a little something special to separate Seither's from the sea of seafood restaurants in New Orleans.
Seither's is far off the beaten path, about a 30-minute drive from downtown. I was reluctant to go at first, but my friend assured me it was worth the expensive Uber. After that first trip, I thought it was just any old seafood spot that just so happened to have excellent crawfish, like all the other neighborhood spots. When I went back, I got a seared tuna po'boy and The Volcano (a mountain of tuna, crabmeat salad, shrimp, avocado, and Asian-style sauces) and realized that I was being a little too quick to judge a book by its cover. Go for The Hamper — a platter of boiled seafood with snow crab, blue crab, crawfish, and shrimp — if you're going for the first time. Go on a weekend to catch live music — that's when Seither's really shines as a NOLA mainstay.