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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:

starstarstarstarstar
Among the best locally.

starstarstarstar
Excellent and ambitious.

starstarstar
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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Li'l Dizzy's Cafe

Creole. Breakfast.
CBD: 610 Poydras. 504-212-5656. Map.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days.
Esplanade Ridge: 1500 Esplanade Ave., 504-569-8997.
Breakfast and lunch Tuesday-Saturday.
Casual.
AE MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
The successor to Eddie's on Law Street--one of the most famous soul food restaurants of all time--Li'l Dizzy's is a good source of that panoply of New Orleans home cooking, right in the middle of downtown. Eddie Baquet's son Wayne keeps his dad's recipes and Creole style alive, while adding to it and making it more physically accessible.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Li'l Dizzy's menu comes from the roots of Creole cookery. If what you want is red beans, fried chicken, gumbo, fried seafood, greens, and bread pudding, here it is, home style. Like everything else, that cuisine has nudged upscale. So look for fish topped with sauces bearing crabmeat and new dishes, too.

BACKSTORY
Owner Wayne Baquet is the son of Eddie Baquet, and ran his father's iconic restaurant for many years before moving into more accessible neighborhoods. First he was in Carrollton with Zachary's on Oak Street. Then he he returned to the old neighborhood for the first location of Li'l Dizzy's, on Esplanade Avenue in Treme. After a couple of years, the CBD branch opened. The restaurant's logo shows jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, but the restaurant is actually named for a family member.

DINING ROOM
The CBD edition of Li'l Dizzy's is ensconced in what was for over a century half the lobby of the Whitney Bank's grandiose Poydras Street branch. The gigantic Corinthian columns, marble furnishings, gleaming brass, and heavy vault door seem almost overwhelmingly auspicious for any restaurant, let alone one serving home cooking. The Esplanade Avenue restaurant is in an old drugstore, with a neighborhood-cafe atmosphere.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Creole gumbo.
Oyster stuffing bread.
Fried chicken.
Red beans and rice.
Fried seafood.
Poor boy sandwiches.
Trout Bacquet.
Seventh-Ward pork chop.
Bread pudding.
Breakfast: Jambalaya omelette.

FOR BEST RESULTS
Avoid the lunch crowd during the noon hour. If you want fried chicken, insist that it be made to order, and tell them you'd be happy to wait the twenty minutes that takes.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The breakfast biscuits need a revision. Not all the fried dishes are cooked to order at lunch.

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

ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS

This review was updated with new information on 11/10/2009.

A list of all 275 full, current reviews is here.