New Orleans for first-time visitors

Best restaurants

New Orleans eats on its own schedule. The kitchens that matter here are rarely the ones photographed for the airline magazines; they are the neighborhood rooms on Canal, Broad, Frenchmen and Rampart, where the cooking answers to regulars first and travelers second. This list stays close to that instinct: twelve restaurants mapped across Mid-City, the Marigny, the Quarter and Gentilly, chosen for the specific thing each one does well and the specific hours it keeps. You will find a breakfast counter that opens at 06:30, a hot dog window that runs to 03:00 on Fridays, a French Quarter dining room that has been serving since long before any of us arrived, and a nonprofit kitchen on Broad that trains young cooks while it feeds you. Read for the hours and the addresses. The rest is opinion, offered honestly, and meant to keep you out of the tourist traps that cluster three blocks off Bourbon.