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Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 12:39

Restaurants - Creole Homestyle Restaurants

Three Stars
Average check per person $25-$35
 BreakfastNo Breakfast SundayNo Breakfast MondayNo Breakfast TuesdayNo Breakfast WednesdayNo Breakfast ThursdayNo Breakfast FridayNo Breakfast Saturday
LunchNo Lunch SundayNo Lunch MondayLunch TuesdayLunch WednesdayLunch ThursdayLunch FridayLunch Saturday
DinnerDinner SundayDinner MondayDinner TuesdayDinner WednesdayDinner ThursdayDinner FridayDinner Saturday

Olivier's Creole Restaurant

French Quarter: 204 Decatur. 504-525-7734. Map.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
The food Olivier's serves is exactly what either a local or visiting customer might want to eat in a central French Quarter location like this. Fitting comfortably between the neighborhood cafe and gourmet bistro categories, it's solidly local in its ingredients and flavors, with a jazzy feeling in both the environment and the cooking.

WHAT'S GOOD
Chef Armand Olivier has branched his cuisine upward over the years, while keeping the sap flowing from his back-o'-town Creole roots. The menu is more adventuresome than those of most casual Creole restaurants in the French Quarter, and does serious work with the likes of rabbit, duck, and seafood. The style is a bit heavier than in comparable restaurants--in some ways the food here reminds me of K-Paul's--but even that is an authentic New Orleans flavor.

BACKSTORY
Olivier's began as a neighborhood cafe in Gentilly. After the second generation of the family took over, it grabbed an opportunity to open in the French Quarter in a space which, by good luck, was across the street from where the House of Blues would later open. The food Olivier's serves is exactly what either a local or visiting customer might want to eat in a location like that.

DINING ROOM
The two-century-old building gives the main dining room tall ceilings, big windows, and the look of a classic New Orleans cafe. It's more opulent inside than you might guess from the exterior. A renovation in December 2009 made the place sparkle.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
starters
Shrimp cocktail
»Mushroom ragout
New potatoes with caviar
»Louisiana barbecue shrimp
»Gumbo sampler (Creole, file, and okra)

entrées
Great Grandma Jeanne's shrimp Creole
Grandmother Audrey's shrimp scampi
»Mama Cheryl's crawfish étouffée
Crab and salmon cakes
»Crab ravioli
»Creole braised rabbit, oyster dressing
»Roast breast of duck, raspberry-plum port sauce
»Roasted half chicken
»Honey-glazed medallions of pork
»New Orleans trio (blackened redfish, shrimp and andouille jambalaya, crawfish étouffée)
Taster's platter (fried shrimp and fish, crab and salmon cake, Creole gumbo)
Jambalaya with fried catfish
Vegetarian pasta
Ribeye steak

Desserts
»Bread pudding
»Peach cobbler

FOR BEST RESULTS
Get that rabbit. A dinner here without gumbo is like jazz without a trumpet.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The appetizer section is weaker than it should be, and used to be.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

  • Dining Environment +1
  • Consistency +1
  • Service
  • Value +1
  • Attitude +2
  • Wine and Bar +1
  • Hipness +1
  • Local Color +2

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

  • Romantic
  • Good view
  • Good for business meetings
  • Medium private room
  • Open Sunday dinner
  • Open Monday dinner
  • Historic
  • Unusually large servings
  • Good for children
  • Reservations accepted
    •
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Inside NOMenu's Restaurant Reviews

Click on any restaurant in the list at left to go to a full, detailed review. Although over 450 restaurants have current reviews here, almost 1200 restaurants are open in the New Orleans area. It's impossible to cover all of them. I've tried for 38 years, but I keep falling farther behind as the pace of new restaurant openings increases, and the rate at which the old ones change does too. My review strategy is to go into great depth about the restaurants I believe are most essential to the dining scene, and to keep my eyes open for rising stars .

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Among the best locally.

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Excellent and ambitious.

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Recommended.

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Acceptable.

*
Marginal or less.

No Rating
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Cost Ratings. The price bar under the star ratings on the reviews gives an estimate of the cost of a typical meal for the restaurant. The range is plus or minus five dollars from the spot marked on the graphic. This is based on dinner in most places. It includes a typical beverage service, but not tax or tip. Eating habits vary so much from one diner to another that this should not be considered as having mathematical precision.

Review Method. I research and write all the reviews myself, based entirely on meals I personally took in the restaurants. I pay for all review meals from my own pocket. I don't accept free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

Recommended Dishes.The "Essential Menu" section of the review is a selection of the restaurant's menu. Dishes marked with the "»" symbol are especially recommended. I am in the process of expanding this section to include nearly the entire menu, but that's a very large, ongoing project.

I May Be Wrong. I invite you to agree, disagree, or question any of my reviews. This is just my opinion here, and although my reviews are carefully considered and informed by decades of information gathering, I don't pretend that mine is the only possible viewpoint. If you have a different point of view, write me: tom@nomenu.com. Let me know if I may publish your thoughts in the newsletter.

Tastefully yours,
Tom Fitzmorris

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