Compère Lapin takes its name from a mischievous rabbit who outwits bigger animals in Caribbean folk stories, and the restaurant has been telling its own version of that story on Tchoupitoulas Street since 2015.
Nina Compton grew up in Saint Lucia and started cooking at a Sandals resort there before moving to the chain’s flagship in Jamaica. She trained at the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, then worked under Daniel Boulud at Daniel in New York and spent years in Miami kitchens, including a run at Scarpetta that still shows in how she plates a dish. Saint Lucia named her its culinary ambassador in 2014.
New Orleans found her through television. Compton competed on Top Chef when the show filmed its eleventh season here in 2013, finishing as runner-up and fan favorite. She and her husband and business partner, Larry Miller, had been chasing restaurant deals in Miami that kept falling through. Miller found a raw construction site on the ground floor of a building going up as the Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery and met with the owner before Compton had even seen the space.
The building earned its name honestly. It held coffee and tobacco as a warehouse in the 1800s and later operated as a working ship chandlery, and the restaurant kept the exposed brick and heavy timber beams that came with it. Warm woods and low light fill the rest of the room.
The food puts Caribbean cooking and French technique on the same plate using Louisiana ingredients. Curried goat with sweet potato gnocchi and cashews is the dish the restaurant was built on, and GQ named it Comfort Food of the Year in 2016. Conch croquettes come out molten with a pickled pineapple tartar that works as both dip and relief. Seafood pepper pot, broiled shrimp with Calabrian chili butter, crispy pig ears, tuna tartare, and fried chicken fill out a menu that changes with the season.
The bar holds up its end with a Caribbean-leaning program. The signature drink is the Copper Hopper, a tequila-forward tropical cocktail served in a copper bunny mug that nods back to the folklore rabbit. The restaurant’s awards include a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence and recognition from the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
Accolades piled up fast after opening. Eater named Compère Lapin one of America’s 38 best restaurants. Food & Wine put Compton on its Best New Chefs list in 2017, and the James Beard Foundation named her Best Chef: South in 2018. She was a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in the fall of 2025. The restaurant marked ten years in 2025, and Miller has estimated that roughly 70 percent of the dining room is local, which is unusual for a spot this close to the convention center.
Compton has run other kitchens since. Bywater American Bistro opened in 2018 and closed in 2025. Nina’s Creole Cottage opened inside Caesars New Orleans in March 2023 and operates separately.
Service runs seven days. Dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. nightly, closing at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sunday brunch runs 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Compère Lapin sits at 535 Tchoupitoulas Street in the Warehouse District. Reservations go through OpenTable, and the restaurant can be reached at (504) 599-2119. It also handles private dining and sells gift cards online.
Book early, order the curried goat, and ask for the Copper Hopper before dinner arrives.
