Subscribe To The
Five-Star Edition!

Shrimp remoulade.

This review originally appeared in the New Orleans Menu Daily, which brings out a full, up-to-date restaurant review every weekday. Along with local restaurant news, top-ten lists, recipes, and Tom Fitzmorris's Dining Diary. All of it is original and current, illustrated with lots of photos of New Orleans restaurants, chefs, and their food.

The price of a subscription is whatever number of dollars seems right to you. For that amount, you get full access to the daily newsletter online, an e-mail bulletin version every day, and archives of everything published since Hurricane Katrina.

If you're still not convinced, do two things: 1. Know that I'll refund all your money if you're not happy. 2. Take a look at this sample edition. Then. . .

Thank you!

Tastefully yours,
Tom Fitzmorris

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.

starstarstar
pricebar

Liuzza’s

Neighborhood Cafe. Sandwiches. Italian.
Mid-City: 3636 Bienville. 504-482-9120. Map.
Lunch and dinner continuously Tuesday-Saturday.
Very Casual
Cash Only. (ATM on premises.)
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
In Mid-City, a neighborhood blessed with an abundance of neighborhood cafes in the old style, Liuzza's is iconic. The big schooners of frozen root beer and not-so-root beer are a trademark. The menu serves a bit (a large bit, at that) of everything. The conversations could only be heard in New Orleans.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Liuzza's makes terrific poor boy sandwiches, excellent platters of its daily specials, more-than-decent fried seafood and Italian dishes, and even fresh-cut French fries. In other word, everything you'd expect from a restaurant with this look and location.

BACKSTORY
Founded in 1947 by the namesake family--which left the place behind for more modern and less interesting restaurants--Liuzza's changed hands a few times over the decades. For about fifteen years it's safely in the hands of Teresa Galbo, a former waitress who fully understands the dynamics of the neighborhood cafe.

DINING ROOM
The stucco building with rounded windows is a pleasant throwback to another era's neighborhood "Bar & Rest." The bar is on the right, the dining room on the left; both are busy most of the time, the customers very comfortable to this unalloyed expression of New Orleans tastes in everything.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
French fries.
Onion rings.
Fried eggplant.
Stuffed artichoke.
Gumbo.
Fried seafood platters.
Fried chicken.
Roast beef poor boy.
Hot sausage poor boy.
Broiled ham and cheese poor boy.
Red beans and rice with hot sausage.
Eggplant casserole with spaghetti.
Daily specials.
Bread pudding.

FOR BEST RESULTS
Everything here is too big to remain good through the entire eating. Come with friends and split appetizers and entrees.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Liuzza's gets a point for offering fresh-cut fries, but they're too oily.

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 10/7/2009.

A list of over 320 full, current reviews is here.