New Orleans Restaurant Week 2024 is back with 80+ menus that aren't the same old deal (2024)

It may feel like we're already in deep summer, but this week marks the official solstice-centric start of the season. It also signals the return of New Orleans Restaurant Week in its new format.

For years prior, Restaurant Week dining deals came along in September as a final lurch through the city's slow season toward the fall. But organizers have flipped that schedule, and now it arrives in the middle of June. That’s meant to give a boost headed into the thick of the season.

Restaurant Week is underway through June 23, and more than 80 restaurants are taking part (Note that this is different from Coolinary, the longer special menu program that returns in August).

The format for Restaurant Week is different now too. Gone are the limits of a set number of courses for no more than a certain amount of money. Instead, restaurants can chart their value-to-temptation ratio.

Some are quite indulgent, with a $90 four-course menu at Restaurant August, and a four-course dinner at Restaurant R’evolution that, with an optional wine pairing, runs to $110. The middle ground has many high-aiming restaurants making deals (see Avo, three courses for $49; G.W. Fins, three courses for $55; Gautreau’s, two courses with a glass of wine for $50; or La Petite Grocery, three courses from $45).

But this year’s roster is also filled with many different ideas for how to structure Restaurant Week and lure people in.

Below is a round-up of possibilities for how to partake, and some best bets for value, for vegetarian options and for drink pairings when you want to do it up. And you may as well, it's officially summer time in New Orleans after all.

You can find all Restaurant Week menus and details at neworleans.com.

Gumbo party!

Is summer gumbo weather? It is at Gabrielle, which is going big on gumbo for Restaurant Week. This menu ($30) starts with a choice of salads, then gumbo as the main act (with meat, seafood and gluten-free meaty versions), a choice of sides and a drink, including beer and very reasonable add-ons for wine ($3) or a martini ($5). It sounds like a fun way to do a special menu (note that Gabrielle is closed Saturday, June 22, this week).

Meals built for two

The reliably unpredictable Mister Mao is taking a different approach to Restaurant Week brunch. It’s a progression of dishes served family style (lumpia, Brussels sprouts, salad, dumplings, noodles, bread), portioned for two people to share the whole meal for $45. The dinner menu (three-course choices, $40) looks great too, with signatures like the pani puri and fiery Kashmiri fried chicken and cool falooda among the choices.

Similarly, Zea Rotisserie and Bar has configured dinner for two at $60 with a shared appetizer, two salads and two entrees across many choices, with optional add-ons of discounted wine by the bottle and shared co*cktails proportioned in large French press pitchers.

Small plates, big tables

One way to do Restaurant Week is to get a group and try lots of different dishes.

The Spanish restaurant Costera and its nearby Italian sibling Osteria Lupo have each mastered a family-style tasting menu format to do just that. These are structured as four courses with many dishes to share and together give a table-filling tour of their specialties. Each is $65.

This year is the first Restaurant Week for plates, which has similarly configured its menu of small plates into a four-course tasting (the wonderful lamb skewer and tres leches cake included) for $60.

Keep it casual

The historic upscale restaurants Antoine’s, Arnaud’s, Galatoire’s and Tujague’s are all Restaurant Week regulars. But there have also been much more casual spots giving it a go lately.

It doesn’t get much more casual than Blue Oak BBQ, a counter-service barbecue shop. But for this $30 deal, you get either pulled pork nachos or barbecue gumbo, a two-meat plate or a smokehouse burger, and banana pudding or a sundae.

Boswell’s Jamaican Grill is also a quite casual newcomer to the Restaurant Week lineup. It’s going big with a three-course island feast for $40 that includes jerk chicken egg rolls and whole roasted snapper among the options.

The Boudreaux pizza is the eye-popping centerpiece of Katie’s three-course dinner menu ($45). It’s a pizza with a subtle St. Louis influence and bold-faced Louisiana flavor with ropes of cochon de lait in garlic butter sauce. Katie’s also has a three-course lunch and Sunday brunch for $35.

Did you try the “messy Clesi” dish at Jazz Fest this year? I can’t forget it, a delicious combo of crawfish étouffée smothering crawfish dirty rice. It’s part of Clesi’s Seafood’s special menu, three courses for $42.

Lunch in the park

Here are two spots that might be unexpected finds for a Restaurant Week meal in City Park.

If the cool galleries of the New Orleans Museum of Art sound especially appealing on a hot day, consider adding lunch at Ralph Brennan’s casual Café NOMA inside, with a two-course lunch deal for $25 (you can enter the café without museum admission).

Nearby, Filmore in the Oaks is part of the Bayou Oaks golf course at City Park, which has a two-course lunch for $23 with a midday glass of wine included in the price.

Here are more quick picks to cut up the Restaurant Week options:

Drink pairings

Some Restaurant Week menus can become wine dinners (and one can be a beer dinner), with optional pairings and drink deals.

• Antoine’s, at brunch and lunch add bottomless sparkling wine or mimosas for $18 (or $40 for actual Champagne); at dinner, add a co*cktail and wine pairing at dinner for $36.
• Boucherie, wine pairing at dinner for $20.
• Briquette, co*cktail and wine pairing at dinner for $25.
• Copper Vine, wine pairings at dinner and brunch for each $15.
• Crescent City Brewhouse, beer pairings at lunch and dinner for $13.
• Jack Rose, wine pairing at dinner for $38.
• Restaurant R’evolution, wine pairing at dinner for $45.
• Trenasse, at brunch (Saturday and Sunday) add bottomless mimosas for $18.

Vegetarian best bets

• Carmo, three courses $30 (lunch), $45 (dinner).
• Commander’s Palace, prices vary by entrée at brunch, lunch, dinner.
• Brigtsen’s, three courses $56.
• Maypop, three courses $55.
• Shaya, four courses $65.
• Silk Road, three courses $45.

Bargain best bets

• Antoine’s, three-course lunch $25.
• Boucherie, two-course lunch $20.
• Café Degas, two-course lunch $25.
• Copeland’s of New Orleans (Kenner, Elmwood, Harvey), three-course dinner $30.
• Mister Mao, family-style brunch for two $45.
• Nirvana and Taj Mahal (identical menus), two-course lunch $15.
• Zea Rotisserie and Bar (New Orleans), four-course dinner for two $60.