Flaming Torch
French Bistro.
Uptown: 737 Octavia. 504-895-0900. Map.
Lunch and dinner seven days. Sunday brunch.
Nice Casual
AE DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
It's no longer enough for a restaurant to present a classic Parisian bistro menu and wait for the customers to expire with delight at the idea of it. The Flaming Torch and its chef Patrick King step up their efforts to the limits of the genre, approaching the excellence of bygone French restaurants like Crozier's and the Eiffel Tower. And they're open every day for both meals--a rarity for an Uptown white-tablecloth establishment.
WHY IT'S GOOD
It's a big menu, cooked with excitement. All the classic dishes of casual French cooking are here. In most cases, they're carried out with more aplomb than in comparable places. There is no better coq au vin or magret of duck. The mussels, steak with a wide variety of sauces and garnishes, and the lamb chops are other standouts. Throughout the menu are unique variations on familiar dishes. Lately, the chef has folded a few old-time New Orleans dishes into the menu--notably barbecue shrimp and steak Diane.
BACKSTORY
Hassan Khaleghi opened the restaurant opened in 2004 and got little attention at first. When high-and-dry Magazine Street became the main New Orleans restaurant row after the hurricane, it was there, serving the big crowds of those times. After a brieff period with an older Fresh chef whose food was less than exciting, Chef Patrick King came in and improved the food enough to make the restaurant popular. There is and never has been any connection with the Flaming Torch of the 1980s--a restaurant that cooked with a blowtorch.
DINING ROOM
The restaurant's entrance is a few feet off Magazine Street, in the middle of the block. This makes the restaurant seem less auspicious and more secretive than it actually is. The downstairs dining room has a clean elegance, low lighting, and (when the room fills up) lively acoustics. The upstairs dining room--used mostly for private parties--is a residential conversion, with tables not quite fitting right into a pretty double parlor. Service staff is young and informal.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Shrimp remoulade.
Oysters a la Madrague (with leeks and spinach).
Shrimp Sazerac.
Drunken escargots.
Mussels Charentaise (with cream, a little egg, and tropical seasonings).
Coquille St. Jacques (sea scallops baked with a Calvados and apple sauce).
Sweetbreads with mushrooms.
Artichoke bottom stuffed with crabmeat remoulade.
Onion soup gratinee.
Salade Nicoise.
Redfish with crabmeat, shrimp, and saffron cream sauce.
Grilled salmon with caper beurre blanc.
Barbecue shrimp.
Magret of duck breast with three-berry sauce.
Coq au vin.
Rack of lamb with currant demi-glace.Sirloin strip steak au poivre.
Steak Diane.
Sirloin strip au poivre.
Veal liver Lyonnaise.
Crepes suzette.
Creme brulee.
FOR BEST RESULTS
Order light. Everything here is served more amply than in comparable restaurants. Don't expect a lot of circumstance; everything here is in the food.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
This place screams out for a bouillabaisse, but it's not here. The most complex of the steak dishes are a bit over the top. More local seafood would be an improvement.
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 +2
- Service +1
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Sidewalk tables
- Romantic
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Early-evening specials
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Unusually large servings
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- Reservations honored promptly
This review was updated with new information on 11/27/2009.
A list of all 275 full, current reviews is here.