The building has a bright red fleur-de-lis crawfish painted on the side, which is about as subtle as the food inside.
Heard Dat Kitchen sits at the corner of Felicity and Magnolia streets in Central City, in a compact blue building that started as a mostly takeout window in 2015. Chef Jeffery Heard spent eight years running a catering company named after his mother before opening this place, and those years show.
He grew up cooking Creole and soul food the way his mother made it, and the menu here is built entirely around that foundation, with his own creative twists stacked on top. The restaurant is a family operation: his daughter Tia’Nesha and son Jeffrey Jr. both work the kitchen, and on busy days the line snakes outside to the picnic tables.
The Superdome is the dish that made the restaurant’s reputation, and Gambit Magazine’s review described it best: a blackened catfish fillet topped with a thick layer of fluffy mashed potatoes, crowned with golden fried onion rings, the whole thing sitting in a lobster and fennel cream sauce with sweet corn underneath.
It reads like it shouldn’t work. It absolutely works.
The cayenne heat from the blackened fish cuts through the butter in the potatoes, and the onion rings add crunch where the dish would otherwise be all soft. It’s the top seller for good reason, and it’s been that way since the kitchen opened.
The rest of the menu follows the same logic: classic soul food flavors pushed a little further than expected. The Bourbon Street Love is fried chicken over macaroni and cheese, topped with cheddar and Heard’s signature Crawdat cream sauce. The Benson Boogie is blackened fish over grits with fried shrimp on top. The Dat Fries come seasoned with a house blend, drizzled in buttermilk ranch and candied spiced bacon, and they are not a side dish you ignore.
Every plate has a Saints or New Orleans reference in the name, which tells you something about how Heard thinks about what he’s serving. This food is deeply local, and he wants you to know it.
Seating is outdoors at picnic tables, and there’s no restroom on site, so plan accordingly. The kitchen is BYOB. Wait times run long on busy afternoons, but the food arrives hot and the portions are generous enough that you won’t regret the wait. Heard Dat Kitchen is at 2520 Felicity Street. Hours are Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (504) 510-4248. Go hungry.
