The Absolute Best Beignets In New Orleans

New Orleans is a city steeped in incredibly diverse cultures and history, making it a creative and culinary city like no other. Perhaps the things it's known for the most are jazz and food. While we're no experts on jazz, we're excited to take a look at some of the best places to find beignets in New Orleans, which will inevitably lead us to some other incredible New Orleans-style dishes along the way.

If you aren't familiar with beignets, you're in for a special treat — pun intended. Essentially, they're fried dough treats, made with yeasted dough that's fried to order and then generously topped with powdered sugar. We dare say that there's usually enough powdered sugar on a fresh plate of beignets that you should be prepared to breathe some of it in while you're taking your first bite. Just embrace it. Some people compare beignets to doughnuts, although they're typically less doughy and more pillowy. Others call them fritters, which is a close comparison as well (via What's Cooking America).

But many places have gotten a little more creative with beignets, working with inspired flavors, fillings, dips, and even savory seafood riffs on this traditionally sweet pastry. Here we've taken a look at some great places to find beignets in New Orleans, ranging from the original coffee stands in the French Market to local cafes and upscale restaurants. However you like your beignets, you're sure to find an option here to satisfy your tastes.

In 1870, just eight years after Café Du Monde appeared, Morning Call Coffee Stand opened in the French Market. Like many famous food rivalries (Pat's or Genos? Shake Shack vs. In-N-Out?), locals have strong opinions about which coffee and beignet stand they prefer (via Nola.com). Morning Call Coffee Stand has since left the French Quarter, expanding to several locations across the city over the years, including a picturesque location inside City Park next to the New Orleans Museum of Art and Botanical Gardens — which has since been converted to a Café Du Monde outpost (via Eater). Today, Morning Call Coffee Stand is located in a new development just west of the park on the corner of City Park Avenue and Canal Boulevard. While it may not be located in the original French Market anymore, you probably won't have to battle as many tourists to get a cup of coffee and a stack of beignets.

Beignets are sold by the plate, three each, for $3.50. Café au lait is the recommended drink with your beignets, but Morning Call also offers other coffee drinks, milk, juices, and soft drinks. For those who need a little more than beignets, Morning Call's menu is slightly longer than their competitor's, offering iconic local dishes like jambalaya, gumbo, crawfish étouffée, and muffulettas. We're not here to tell you which one is better, but we'd definitely encourage you to try both famous beignets and decide for yourself.

Loretta's Authentic Pralines has been in business for over 35 years, and was the first praline company in New Orleans to be owned and operated by an African American woman — Ms. Loretta Harrison. If you aren't familiar with pralines, they're a classic Southern confection, essentially made of buttery caramel and pecans (via Southern Living). Loretta's, which makes a selection of classic and flavored pralines, had the ingenious idea of combining the flavors of traditional Southern pralines with irresistible New Orleans beignets, creating the iconic praline beignet. Each beignet is drizzled with a caramel sauce and topped with candied pecans before being topped with the usual pile of confectioner's sugar. It's truly a marriage of two Southern icons.

Of course, Loretta's Authentic Pralines offers so much more than praline beignets. They're also known for their savory beignets that come with a variety of pairings, including barbecue chicken, burger, and crab meat beignets. You could really just make a whole meal out of beignets at Loretta's. There are two Loretta's Authentic Pralines locations in New Orleans, one in the French Market and one on North Rampart street.

With a name like Stuph'd Beignets & Burgers, you should be prepared to come hungry. We were honestly blown away by the incredible range of beignet options, both sweet and savory when we took a look at the menu, and would have a hard time choosing just one or two flavors. Beginning with the sweet beignets menu, you'll find traditional beignets sold in threes, but you might want to be a little more adventurous here. There's also sweet beignets stuffed with apple, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, brownie and walnuts, berries, Oreo, cheesecake, berry cheesecake, and Oreo cheesecake. Specialty flavors come two pieces to an order, so we'd recommend bringing a friend and splitting a few different flavors.

That might be all some people need, but Stuph'd didn't stop with the sweet beignets. There are also afwithn extensive savory beignet menu that includes veggie, hot sausage and cheese, grilled chicken, BBQ Beeph, Philly cheesesteak, grilled shrimp, Surph and Turph, Creole Crawfish, and Creole Queen (which includes crawfish, shrimp, and crab meat — pastry-fried heaven). It probably goes without saying, but you'll need to make several trips to Stuph'd to sample everything they've got to offer. In 2020, the restaurant moved into a new location at 3325 St. Claude Avenue (via Eater), and is currently open Wednesday through Sunday.

It's not just coffee shops and cafes making beignets in New Orleans — plenty of restaurants have gotten in on the beignet game as well. And while Bakery Bar may have started out as cake shop, it's since expanded into a full-service restaurant (with a nice selection of desserts to satisfy anyone with a sweet tooth). If you're looking specifically for beignets, there are currently three different flavors on the menu, including classic beignets, chocolate chip cookie dough filled beignets, and apple pie beignets stuffed with a spiced apple pie filling (add a scoop of gelato to round it out).

But while you're there, consider trying the specialty cake that Bakery Bar was originally created for, the Doberge cake. If you're not familiar with a Doberge cake, don't worry, neither were we. But according to Bakery Bar, it's essentially a traditional New Orleans birthday cake with seven thin layers of cake, a pudding filling between each layer, all frosted with poured fondant icing. Flavors change regularly, and a boozy option is also available by the slice.

Maybe Bourbon Street isn't your scene, and you're looking to enjoy some of the flavors of New Orleans in style. Whether you're a guest of the hotel or not, you'll find beignets, as well as a tidy menu of locally-inspired dishes at Café Normandie and Rosie's on the Roof at the Higgins Hotel. The Higgins Hotel and Conference Center is just a block from the National World War II Museum, and offers admissions packages to the museum as well as a discounted rate for active and retired military families staying at the hotel.

Café Normandie is open for breakfast and lunch, although beignets don't hit the menu until lunchtime. There are both sweet and savory beignet options, with a crab-stuffed beignet appetizer, and a traditional beignet served with chocolate sauce for dessert. Rosie's on the Rooftop opens at 4 p.m., and serves the same crab beignet starters, as well as the dessert beignets with chocolate dipping sauce. The crab beignets run $14 to $16 per order and the dessert beignets run $7 to $8 per order, which is a little higher priced than beignets you'll find at some smaller cafes, but is commensurate with hotel dining prices in general.

Criollo Restaurant gets its name from the Spanish word for "Creole," and is located inside the Hotel Monteleone, alongside the famous Carousel Bar. As the name of the restaurant suggests, the menu blends influences from Creole, French, and Spanish cuisines. But we're here for the beignets, and Criollo offers them two ways.

To start, the restaurant offers blue crab and corn beignets, a delightful addition to the blue crab beignet lineup we've seen already. They're served with Cajun brown butter and remoulade sauce for $18. If you're in the mood for sweet beignets, they've got those too, made just like they do in the French Market and served with a side of praline sauce and fresh strawberries for $10. It's honestly hard to choose, so we'd probably just order both. The restaurant is open from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., but you can also find both beignets on the menu at the Carousel bar, which is open from 11 a.m. to midnight.

Located inside the Royal Sonesta New Orleans Hotel, Restaurant R'evolution is without a doubt a luxurious dining experience. While still in the French Quarter, the dining experience feels worlds away from the tourist-heavy stalls at the French Market — but the chefs haven't forgotten the roots of the food they're serving. They still lean heavily on Cajun and Creole dishes, with some well-appointed upgrades. For example, the Death by Gumbo includes the usual andouille sausage, but also includes oysters and roasted quail along with filé rice. Not to mention the entire caviar menu, with caviars ranging from $85 to $350 per serving. They aren't too proud to serve shrimp and grits, but the dish includes Brick Oven pork belly, roasted fennel, pepper jelly, and hollandaise — a substantial upgrade from the way it's served at some of the local cafes.

With that said, the blue crab beignets seem almost commonplace on the menu, but we're glad they've been included. The dish comes with four rémoulades for dipping and will run you about $20. There currently aren't any sweet beignet options on the menu, but if you've still got room for dessert after an exquisitely rich meal at R'evolution, we'd suggest taking an after-dinner stroll to one of the original beignet stands in the market to satisfy that craving.