Antoine’s
Classic Creole.
French Quarter: 713 St. Louis. 504-581-4422. Map.
Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. Sunday brunch.
Dressy
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Even when Antoine's was at its worst, about ten years ago, it was an essential restaurant. You'd put up with all the maddening quirks and inconsistencies just to be there--particularly around the holidays. Since the hurricane, Antoine's has polished its act so well it's almost hard to believe. And it has undertaken a program of special menus to attract more locals. Yet it remains Antoine's, an unique dining institution that reaches all the way back to the earliest days of the restaurant as we know it.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Antoine's house specialties are so famous, timeless and numerous that they create a problem. So many of those dishes are now served by so many New Orleans restaurants, down to the neighborhood-cafe level, that some dishes may strike you as ordinary. In some cases, they are. Trout amandine, for example, is probably better at Fury's. But interspersed throughout the menu are inimitable dishes--oysters Foch and Rockefeller, escargots bordelaise, filet mignon Alciatore, chicken Rochambeau, and baked Alaska, to name a few. The restaurant buys top-class raw food stuffs and serves them simply.
BACKSTORY
Antoine's opened in 1840, and from that day to this has been under the management of the same family, now in its fifth generation. It's the oldest continuously-operating restaurant in America. It has always been considered not just a good place to eat, but part of the cultural fabric of New Orleans, particularly at the high-society level. Its history is so colorful and long that it's worth reading about on the restaurant's web site.
Hurricane Katrina put a tremendous stress on the restaurant, coming close to destroying the oldest part of it, and putting its future briefly in question. In the recovery, management of the restaurant unambiguously moved from the Guste family, which has run it since the 1970s, to Yvonne Blount and her son Rick. (All these people are direct descendants of Antoine Alciatore, the founder.) Blount has orchestrated a sweeping restoration--in physical, culinary, and attitudinal ways.
DINING ROOM
Antoine's rambling, antique premises are so interesting that part of the training program for waiters informs them on how to give tours of the place. A thorough stroll around the restaurant's many unusual rooms takes about ten minutes--it's that big, and that packed with memorabilia. The wine cellar may be the single most striking visual in any New Orleans restaurant. The deceptively small, bright front dining room is a charming French-style antique. The main room is a dim, Germanic space whose walls are covered with photos and testimonials. The Hermes Bar--added in 2009, the first bar ever in the restaurant--offers an interesting light menu, including the utterly unique oysters Foch poor boy.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Soufflee potatoes.
Baked oysters Rockefeller, Bienville, or Thermidor (or a combo of the three).
Oysters Foch (on pate-spread bread with a thick brown hollandaise-based sauce).
Escargots Bordelaise (with a sherry brown sauce and garlic) or Bourguignonne (garlic herb butter).
Crabmeat ravigote.
Shrimp remoulade.
Crawfish cardinale.
Crabmeat au gratin.
Salade combinasion (hearts of palm, asparagus, tomatoes, lettuce, blue cheese).
Alligator soup (in the style of turtle soup).
Shrimp or crawfish bisque.
Vichyssoise (summer only).
Grilled pompano with brown butter.
Trout au vin blanc (baked with a thick, gratinee sauce).
Trout amandine or meuniere.
Soft shell crabs Colbert.
Chicken Rochambeau.
New York strip steak with red wine and black pepper sauce.
Filet mignon with marchand de vin sauce.
Lamb chops béarnaise.
Baked Alaska.
Peche Melba.
Bread pudding.
Cherries jubilee.
Cafe brulot (flamed, spiced coffee).
FOR BEST RESULTS
Adjust your expectations. This is a restaurant from the distant past, serving an historic cuisine in an historic way. It is not like the restaurants you are accustomed to, and you must meet them halfway. If you can't do that, this is not the restaurant for you. The people who enjoy Antoine's most are regular customers who have established a rapport with the restaurant, usually through the agency of a regular waiter. That is not essential, but it is a good thing. In recent times a three-course lunch special for around $20 has been available. It's the best way to become acquainted with the place.
If you want baked Alaska (and you do), be sure to order it at the beginning of the meal, with everything else. Do not attempt to dine at Antoine's when the entire place is packed, as on the weeks before Christmas or Mardi Gras.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Since time out of memory, they've overcooked fish here. The Chateaubriand, which carried the highest price tag of any regularly-offered dish in New Orleans, is to be avoided. Get two filets mignon instead. The desserts almost without exception are far too sweet. That's an authentic echo of the past, but it wouldn't be a disaster to adjust that. As much as I like the bar, the high tables and chairs are all wrong. I wish they'd add some sofas.
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 +2
- Consistency +1
- Service +1
- Value
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar +2
- Hipness -2
- Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Live music some nights
- Romantic
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Open Sunday lunch
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Historic
- Reservations honored promptly
This review was updated with new information on 4/9/2010.
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