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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

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Among the best locally.

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Excellent and ambitious.

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Worth crossing town for.

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Recommended.

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Acceptable.

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Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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Buddy's Poor Boys

Sandwiches.
Metairie: 1645 Veterans Blvd.. 504-834-6315. Map.
Lunch Monday-Saturday until 3 p.m.
Casual.
Cash only.

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Oh, how we love unassuming little cafes hidden away on side streets. Especially if the food is good and the people pleasant. That's how it is at Buddy's, a tight but cute little dinette with a classic New Orleans neighborhood menu. Plus fried chicken. My hat is off to them for using the spelling "poor boys" in their official name.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Despite the lack of space (or perhaps because of it--small kitchens often make the best food), Buddy's cooks almost everything on its extensive menu of poor boy sandwiches, and its shorter list of platters. Fried chicken is a specialty, but they'll warn you that it'll take twenty minutes to come out. That's okay; it might take that long for a table to open, if you show up in the noon hour.

Buddy's.

BACKSTORY
Buddy's opened in 1987, hidden behind a building that has hosted a string of other restaurants and bars. It's well known to its regulars, and obscure to most of the thousands who pass it on Veterans every day. Its nickname is "the little place behind Jiggers."

DINING ROOM
Buddy's is always packed, because it's so small that even a handful of people fills the dining room. The people behind the counter are a happy bunch, and are willing to make almost anything for you within reason.

Fried chicken at Buddy's.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Poor boy sandwiches.
Daily special platters.
Fried chicken.

FOR BEST RESULTS
If you're in any kind of hurry, call ahead to get the order working before you arrive. A poor boy sandwich here is plenty big enough to split.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Credit card acceptance would be a plus. A sign so new customers could find it would help; the address is not quite accurate.

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

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 1/17/2010.

A list of over 300 full, current reviews is here.