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

Lüke

French.
CBD: 333 St. Charles Ave. 504-378-2840. Map.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner continuously, seven days.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Lüke is the most eccentric of Chef John Besh's group of six restaurants, and one of the most unusual restaurants in New Orleans. It's patterned on the bistros of France, particularly those in the Alsace region. It also recalls certain restaurants from a century ago in New Orleans, notably the old German restaurant Kolb's. The menu is a mix of local dishes and Alsatian ones. Functioning as the all-day restaurant of the Hilton Hotel on St. Charles Avenue, it serves three meals a day, all day long, seven days a week. It draws a young adult crowd from the many nearby office towers.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Luke's menu is charming, because everything on it seems to have come from another era. It operates like an old restaurant, too, making in-house even items that are quite difficult--a wide array of charcuterie, for example. Chilled fresh seafood is a major specialty, with enough varieties that one can make a very satisfying meal from it. Even the oysters come from several different places.

BACKSTORY
Chef John Besh channeled his past to open Lüke, his second restaurant. (His flagship is Restaurant August.) He worked in France for some time, and before that was in the kitchen of a German restaurant in his hometown of Slidell. He pronounces the name "luh-keh," but he's the only one who does. The restaurant is named for his son, who says his name conventionally. The restaurant is in the historic and unique former Masonic Temple Building, and has been a number of restaurants over the years--most recently Cobalt, which died when Katrina came.

DINING ROOM
Lüke is divided in two by a passage into the lobby of the hotel. The front room is the more distinctive, with a big, dark-wood bar, high ceilings and furnishings that look ancient but were really built out in 2006. A point of interest is the belt-driven set of ceiling fans, along the lines of the ones at the old Kolb's. The rear dining room surrounds an open kitchen, with tile floors and a less frenetic pace. Tables are unclothed, the napkins are dish towels, and wine is served in tumbler.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Plateau de fruits de mer (a selection of raw oysters and chilled cooked lobster, shrimp, mussels, etc.)
Corn and crab bisque.
Seafood gumbo.
Assiette de charcuterie (an assortment of pates, rilletes, hogshead cheese, sausages, and garnishes, all made in house).
Terrine of foie gras.
Salad of chicory, bacon, and yard egg.
Roasted beet salad with blue cheese.
Crabmeat maison salad.
Pig's foot croustillant (off the bones, sizzled till crispy).
Boudin noir.
Alsatian onion tarte.
Daily specials, particularly veal cheeks (Sun.), cochon de lait (Tues.), brisket (Thurs.)
Mussels and fries.
Stuffed shrimp with orange hollandaise.
Crabmeat ravioli.
Choucroute garni (sauerkraut with sausages and pork shank).
Vanilla scented duck.
Hamburger.
Bread pudding.
Gateau Basque (apples and vanilla cake).

Breakfast:
Grillades and grits.
Omelettes.
Fried chicken and waffles.

FOR BEST RESULTS
Begin with either the cold seafood platters or the boards of charcuterie, either of which can feed the whole table. And with one of the cocktail variations of the French pastis--the absinthe-inspired beverages.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Regular wine glasses and real napkins would not make as quirky a statement, but they would be better. The cast-iron bowls in which many dishes are served are hard to eat from.

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 10/16/2009.