French.
Uptown: 5908 Magazine. 504-891-8495. Map.
Lunch Friday-Sunday. Dinner Tuesday-Sunday. Sunday brunch.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Martinique is one of the surprisingly few restaurants in New Orleans that serve respectable, interesting food in an outdoor setting. Although the space is distinctly Uptown, the menu plays with the standards of the French bistro, including a few rarites like cassoulet and flatiron steak.
WHY IT'S GOOD
The ingredients are generally of good quality, although more attention could be paid to the fish (a distinctly sub-optimal pompano came my way one night). The chef sticks with the classic formulae for most dishes, but adds a few unique fillips here and there, especially in the presentation department. This has always been one of the two or three best restaurants for mussels. Duck is also a consistent specialy, appearing inseveral forms throughout the menu.
BACKSTORY
Chef Hubert Sandot, a French chef who was born on the island of Martinique, opened this restaurant in the 1990s. The original menu was very much centered on French Caribbean food, with the added twist that he used no dairy products because of a food allergy. After he sold it a decade ago to Cristiano Raffignone--who own a major restaurant in Houma--the menu evolved in the direction of a French bistro, but with local ingredients, especially in teh seafood department. The building is a former store on an old commercial stretch of Magazine Street, with a courtyard where anothe rbuilding once stood.
DINING ROOM
When the weather is good, most diners at Martinique deposit themselves at the tables on the hedge-surrounded courtyard. Although the chairs out there are less than ideally comfortable, the appeal of the alfresco envirnment is hard to beat. Radiant heaters keep the courtyard comfortable even on nights when you might suppose it not to be usable. The two small, somewhat spare rooms indoors contain no two lines that meet at a right angle, which adds to its charm.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Grilled alligator sausage with celeriac remoulade.
Butternut squash bisque
Turtle soup.
Mussels steamed in white wine with bacon, blue cheese and cream.
Spinach gnocchi with squash, prosciutto, and Parmesan in a sage cream sauce.
Escargots with exotic mushrooms and tarragon cream sauce.
Crab cake with remoulade vert.
Pistachio-crusted goat cheese, field greens with pomegranate-molasses vinaigrette.
Roasted beets with watercress amd chive goat cheese.
Crabmeat Cobb salad with spinach, arugula, bacon, avocado, egg, and blue cheese (doesn't look like a Cobb, but very good).
Seared sallops with spinach and Meyer lemon piccata.
Fish specials.
Mussels steamed in Sauvignon Blanc (entree; differemnt from the appetizer).
Cane-syrup-cured duck breast and satsume confit duck leg, with grits.
Coq au vin.
Flatiron steak with ecotic mushrooms and green peppercorns.
Cassoulet of white beans with duck sausage, bacon, andouille and confit of duck.
Creme brulee.
FOR BEST RESULTS
As the weather gets cooler, take advantage of the numerous rib-sticking dishes this place offers--notably the cassoulet and the duck.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Parking for this restaurant and its neighbors (Martinique is in a restaurant row) is excruciatingly difficult. A two-block walk is a given. Be careful of driveways that don't look like driveways.
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 +1
- Service +1
- Value
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar +1
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Courtyard or deck dining
- Romantic
- Medium private room
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Reservations accepted
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
We get so few weeks of tolerable weather for outside dining in New Orleans that we need to use them for all their worth. Martinique has one of the most pleasant courtyards in the city. And while most Uptown restaurants with outdoor seating make do with sidewalks, this garden-like setting stands out.
The kitchen has been getting both more French and more adventuresome in recent times. The most recent menu change was the most drastic I've seen here, resulting in the disappearance of the great frog's legs and the wonderful bouillabaisse. I'd like to see those back.
This review was updated with new information on 10/28/2009.