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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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pricebar

Meauxbar

French.
French Quarter: 942 N. Rampart. 504-569-9979. Map.
Dinner Tuesday-Saturday. Sunday brunch.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Someday the Rampart Street edge of the French Quarter will catch up with the rest of the storied zone, and be lined with chic restaurants like this one. For the nonce, Meauxbar is a gem in the otherwise rough setting. It's the preserve of Quarterites and the other clued-in people, of which there are enough to keep the dining room nearly full most of the time. Its menu of French bistro food is as good as its low-profile allure.

WHY IT'S GOOD
The menu is an assemblage of classic French bistro dishes, interspersed here and there with French-tinged essays from the bayou country. Although the menus seems familiar, a longer reading of it reveals many more ingredients than is typical for a restaurant this small. That, and the equally wide range of the kitchen's methodology makes for very stimulating dining. And there's an imaginative, fresh list of specials on top of all that.

BACKSTORY
Chef Matthew Guidry (whose family roots go back to the town of Meaux in Cajun country) and partner James Conte opened Meauxbar in 2003, after running a French restaurant in Sag Harbor, New York for a few years.

DINING ROOM
The exterior of the building is rather stark, which creates a pleasant surprise when you step through the door. The dining room's clean lines, careful lighting, and walls full of fascinating photographs make it completely charming. The antique-style bar and the colorful fabrics draped from the ceiling--contrasting with the earth tones everywhere else--complete the visual comforts.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Onion soup gratinée
Roasted beet salad with pear, pecans, goat cheese
Salad Lyonnaise (frisée, bacon, poached egg, warm bacon vinaigrette)
Steak tartare
Oyster salad, creamy Pernod dressing
Mussels and fries with red curry broth
Caramelized onion tart with goat cheese
Ginger crawfish dumplings
Flounder en papillote
Trout Grenobloise (lemon caper beurre noisette)
Bouillabaisse
Cornmeal crusted catfish and chips rémoulade
Crab cakes rémoulade with hearts of palm
Pan-fried frog legs Provençal
Duck confit
Chicken grand-mère
New York strip with fries and tarragon butter
Double-cut pork chop au poivre
Sliced steak salad
Hamburger and fries
Spaghetti bolognese
Beet ricotta ravioli, ginger-sage beurre noisette
Creme brulee.

FOR BEST RESULTS
The service staff gives reliable recommendations, tinged with their personal taste: refer to that. Parking is not easy in that part of the Quarter when anything is going on at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The dining room would feel a little better if the tables were set on the diagonal instead of square. The suggestion in the name that this is more bar than restaurant is misleading.

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
The funny thing about clubby restaurants is that in most cases the service staff figures that if you know about the place at all, then you must be a regular. So they treat you that way. This is a much more welcoming restaurant than you will expect on your first visit. The waiters are unambiguously opinionated about the food they serve, and since the menu is as large as it is, one would do well to follow their advice. Someday New Orleans will have too many French bistros.

We don't seem to have arrived at that point yet. But if we ever do, this place will be one of the survivors, serving as it does some of the most interesting variations on that style, with just enough Louisiana flavors to make it distinctive. If you know anyone who lives in the French Quarter, there's a very strong possibility that you will encounter him dining here.

This review was updated with new information on 7/16/2010.

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