Most of the restaurants worth knowing about in the New Orleans area don’t advertise. They don’t need to. R&O’s has been proof of that since 1980, when Roland and Ora opened a tiny cafe in the back of a Bucktown grocery store and started feeding the neighborhood. The place got so crowded so fast that it moved twice, each time into a bigger room. It’s still packed almost every hour it’s open.
Bucktown sits just over the Orleans Parish line in Metairie, a few minutes from the lake on Metairie Hammond Highway. It looks like a neighborhood spot, because it is one: high ceilings, mounted fish on the walls, tables full of families who’ve been coming here for decades. Nobody’s there for the ambiance.
They’re there because the food is genuinely great and the portions are enormous, and because some of the best sandwiches in the metro area have been coming out of this kitchen for 45 years.
The roast beef po’boy is the reason most people make the trip. The Times-Picayune’s Brett Anderson rated it the best in the city, and regulars have been making that argument on their own for years.
The R&O Special is the one to get: slow-braised roast beef in brown gravy, grilled ham, and melted Swiss cheese piled onto a toasted sesame-seeded roll. The bread breaks every traditional po’boy rule and absolutely improves the sandwich. The gravy soaks into everything, and the whole thing falls apart in the best way possible.
The seafood gumbo runs a close second. It’s well-balanced and loaded, the kind of bowl that tastes like someone’s been tending it all day, because they have.
The shrimp remoulade salad is cold and sharp and cuts right through the richness of everything else on the table.
The menu also covers Italian territory, hand-tossed pizzas and muffulettas with a thick layer of olive salad, and all of it holds up. This is a kitchen that doesn’t have a weak spot.
R&O’s is a family operation and has been since day one, which shows in the way the place runs. Get there when they open or expect a wait. R&O’s is at 216 Metairie Hammond Hwy in Metairie, open Wednesday through Sunday. Call ahead at (504) 831-1248 to confirm current hours before making the drive.
