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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.

starstar
Recommended.

*
Acceptable.

No star
Unacceptable.

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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Gattuso's

Neighborhood Cafe. Sandwiches.
Gretna: 435 Huey P Long Ave.. 504-368-1114. Map.
Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.
Very Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
The Jefferson Parish courthouse creates a lot of business for restaurants. Few eateries in the neighborhood are as busy as Gattuso's. It's good enough that it draws customers from other parts of the West Bank, and well after the courts are closed for the day. The menu appears to contain every dish the owners ever thought of; it's hard to think of a local neighborhood-cafe dish that isn't on the list. The essential specialty, however, is easy to identify: sandwiches, beginning with poor boys and radiating outward in every direction.

WHY IT'S GOOD
The kitchen here is the old-fashioned kind that cooks nearly everything from scratch on site. The roast beef poor boy is a particularly good example of this, but the Italian-inspired dishes are better than you expect. Lapses of taste (i.e., cheese fries flooded with roast beef gravy) abound, but these are no less popular. I am least impressed by the seafood.

BACKSTORY
Gattuso's opened in 2000 in what looks like a former gas station, in Gretna's equivalent of the French Quarter.

DINING ROOM
The garish red building is hard to miss. It's more pleasant inside, with enough windows to make it seem spacious even when the place is packed--as it often is around lunchtime. The staff is friendly and happy. They take their time with the food, and you shouldn't come here in a rush.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Crab and corn bisque
Chili
Chicken-andouille gumbo
Guacamole or salsa with chips
Santa Fe chicken rolls
Beer battered onion rings
Fried calamari
Potato skins
Eggplant sticks
Fried pickles
Muffulettas: standard, seafood, or roast beef versions
Wrap sandwiches: shrimp, club, fried or grilled chicken, chicken or tuna salad, etc.
Reuben sandwich
Corned beef and Swiss on rye
Grilled tuna or chicken sandwich
Club sandwich
Hamburger
Meatball poor boy
Roast beef poor boy
Dirty bird (turkey poor boy with roast beef gravy)
Corned beef poor boy
Spaghetti and meatballs
Eggplant parmesan
Lasagna
Fried seafood platters
Grilled marinated chicken or tuna platter
Baby back ribs

FOR BEST RESULTS
When the courts recess for lunch a large number of people pile in here, sometimes creating a line. You'd be better off in the early evening. If a dish seems unlikely for the restaurant (guacamole, for example), see if there's something else that sounds better.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The fried seafood is less than crisp. The menu needs heavy pruning.

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 8/2/2010.

A list of over 350 full, current reviews is here.