New Orleans cooking has never been static. The city has always absorbed outside influences and made them its own. These kitchens represent the current generation doing exactly that, taking Gulf ingredients and Creole foundations somewhere genuinely new.
Compere Lapin – 535 Tchoupitoulas St., Warehouse District
Chef Nina Compton opened Compère Lapin in 2015 inside the Old No. 77 Hotel, drawing on her childhood in St. Lucia, her classical French training at the CIA, and the Gulf ingredients of her adopted city. The name comes from the mischievous rabbit of Caribbean and Creole folktales she read growing up, and the menu carries that same sense of play: bold spice, unexpected pairings, and flavors that feel simultaneously foreign and deeply rooted in Louisiana.
The curried goat with sweet potato gnocchi has been on the menu since day one, and the kitchen goes through 300 pounds of goat a week to keep up. Conch croquettes, jerk pork belly with plantain crema, and coconut French toast with pecan rum sauce round out a menu that earned Compton theJames Beard Award for Best Chef: South in 2018. Eater named it one of the all-time 38 most influential American restaurants. Open nightly for dinner from 5:30 p.m.
Saint-Germain – St. Claude Ave., Bywater
From the outside, Saint-Germain reads as a wine bar. There’s a sign advertising natural wines and a garden patio, and the front bar is open for walk-ins. Behind it, through a set of doors, chefs Blake Aguillard and Trey Smith run one of the most quietly serious tasting menu operations in the country: ten courses, 30 guests a night, reservation only, no menu revealed in advance.
The kitchen’s signature moves are fermentation, aging, and preservation applied to seasonal Louisiana ingredients. Michelin inspectors called out the in-house cultured butter smeared on a griddled cornbread cake as “outrageously satisfying,” along with a warm cheese soufflé bolstered by brûléed sugar. Food & Wine named Aguillard and Smith to its Best New Chefs list in 2021. Note: the kitchen cannot accommodate vegetarian, dairy, gluten, or fin fish restrictions. Reserve well in advance.
Mister Mao – 4501 Tchoupitoulas St., Uptown
Cambodian-American chef Sophina Uong fled war-torn Cambodia as a toddler, grew up in Long Beach, cooked her way through some of the Bay Area’s most acclaimed kitchens, and opened Mister Mao in July 2021 in the Uptown barge board cottage that used to house Dick & Jenny’s. She calls it a “tropical roadhouse” serving “inauthentic” global cuisine, which is the most honest description of any restaurant currently open in New Orleans.
The menu pulls from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Mexico, and the American South, sometimes within the same dish. Pakistani chicken karahi, Khmer grapefruit and mango salad, pani puri with strawberry and fiery mint water, Kashmiri fried chicken: none of it pretends to be strictly traditional, and all of it is aggressively flavorful. Bon Appétit named it one of America’s 50 best new restaurants in 2022. Open Thursday through Monday for dinner.
