Where Anthony Bourdain Ate in New Orleans

No Reservations sat down here in season 4, episode 5 for root beer braised pork belly, New Orleans barbecue shrimp and andouille gumbo. That was the flagship at full swagger, long before Emeril Lagasse's son E.J. rebuilt the room around a tasting menu and took two Michelin stars in 2025. The barbecue shrimp is still there, which is the clearest line between the two eras.

A Cook's Tour came by in season 2, episode 2, an episode built around avoiding Bourbon Street entirely, and the order was a cup of shaved ice with house syrup and condensed milk poured over the top. Ernest Hansen built the machine that makes this texture in 1939 because he could not stand watching anyone use a hand plane. His granddaughter still runs it.

The Layover stopped in for a single pint during its New Orleans episode, season 2, episode 9, and nothing in the room has been upgraded since. The walls carry beads, coconuts and krewe medallions that go up at Mardi Gras and are never taken down. The crowd mostly lives within six blocks.

The Layover worked the drive-through in season 2, episode 9 and came away with the house special frozen blend off a wall of spinning machines. Louisiana permits this on the reasoning that tape over the straw hole counts as a sealed container, a piece of legal logic worth admiring. Swirling two flavors into one cup is the standard order, not a special request.

The Layover ordered the watermelon cocktail at this Royal Street corner in season 2, episode 9. The bar doubles as the lobby of the guesthouse upstairs, which is how it gets away with calling itself a bed and beverage. On Mondays a barber sets up in the corner and a haircut with a shot runs ten dollars.

On No Reservations season 4, episode 5, the order here was shrimp and white bean soup with collards, cornbread and fried chicken, three years after the storm and on a block still counting what had come back. Everyone on that line is between 16 and 25 and working through the program the restaurant exists to run. Lunch only, Tuesday through Friday, and the room fills with people who work nearby.

The first pass here, No Reservations season 4, episode 5, produced an order that exists on no menu: a fried shrimp po-boy with Swiss cheese and roast beef gravy poured over the whole thing, with an Abita beside it. Bourdain came back three years later for the show's Cajun Country hour, season 7, episode 16, and ate another one. You have to ask for it by describing it.

No Reservations did Jagermeister shots and beer at this Australian bar in season 4, episode 5, which is not the most New Orleans thing on the itinerary but may be the most honest. Australians opened it on Tchoupitoulas in the early 1990s and kept the meat pies, flaky and full of beef and gravy, on the menu. There is usually a blues band in the back room.

The Layover's New Orleans episode, season 2, episode 9, called for a beer at the Maple Leaf with a band already going. Rebirth Brass Band has held Tuesday nights here for more than thirty years, loud enough that the back patio is not an escape from it. The Sunday poetry reading has run since 1979.

No Reservations took the white tablecloth route in season 4, episode 5, with oysters Foch, jumbo lump crab in butter and seared pompano. Foch is the less famous oyster in this kitchen, fried and set on toast under Colbert sauce, and it is the one to order once you have done Rockefeller. Ask a waiter to walk you through the fifteen rooms between courses.

The Layover put a proper boucherie spread on the table in season 2, episode 9: boudin, braised pork cheeks, ham hock with red beans, and the Louisiana cochon itself. A boucherie is the cold-weather south Louisiana habit of breaking down a hog with your neighbors and wasting none of it, which is the entire premise of this kitchen. Donald Link cures his own everything in the back.

A Cook's Tour spent a late night at this Bywater corner in season 2, episode 2, drinking while a band played in the space where a pool table would go. For two decades a Thursday here meant Kermit Ruffins, free red beans and rice, and a barbecue going out back. Ruffins moved the standing gig across town years ago; the low ceiling and the shotgun room have not moved at all.

A Cook's Tour walked in through the working kitchen in season 2, episode 2 and ordered the alligator sausage cheesecake, a fried roast beef po-boy and the fried chicken. The cheesecake reads as a dare and eats as a savory custard, and it has been on the menu since the first week of service. Parties under five cannot reserve, so leave a name and wait next door.

The Layover crossed into Mid-City in season 2, episode 9 for nem nuong cuon, the grilled pork summer rolls, and a bowl of bun bo Hue. The bun bo arrives properly aggressive with lemongrass and chili, which is the argument for ordering it over the pho on a first visit. The family rebuilt this shop here after leaving Saigon in 1975.

The Layover ended up in this windowless shed behind a house on Oak Street in season 2, episode 9, and the order was a Jagermeister shot with a beer back. Red Christmas lights are the only light source and they have never once come down. The room does its real business between two and six in the morning.

No Reservations came through in season 7, episode 16 for fried chicken with red beans and rice, six years after Katrina put water through the original Treme building. Volunteers and cooks from around the country had rebuilt it by then, and Willie Mae Seaton's great-granddaughter was running the kitchen. The crust comes off a wet batter and shatters; get the butter beans as well.

The Layover drove out to Bucktown in season 2, episode 9 for a roast beef po-boy collapsing into its own debris gravy and a stack of onion rings. Bucktown was a lakefront settlement of fishing camps before levee work redrew the shoreline, and the Sicilian families who worked it left this Creole-Italian kitchen behind. Portions are sized for people who spent the morning on a boat.

A Cook's Tour got a muffuletta out of this Royal Street corner grocery in season 2, episode 2, which is precisely what the place is for. Verti Marte solves the Quarter's real food problem, which is not lunch but four in the morning, by simply never closing. Order at the deli counter in the back and carry it down to the river.

The Layover ordered the obvious drink in the obvious room in season 2, episode 9: a Sazerac at the Roosevelt Hotel bar that carries the name. Rye, Peychaud's bitters and an absinthe rinse swirled out before the pour, a formula the city has defended since the 1830s. The African walnut walls and the Paul Ninas murals have been in place since 1938.

No Reservations got a bowl of yakamein in season 7, episode 16: beef and spaghetti noodles in a dark, soy-heavy broth, with a hard-boiled egg and scallions dropped on top. The city calls it Old Sober and treats it as the accepted cure, which is why it lived at second lines and corner stands long before it had a menu. The bowls come loaded.