Creole Italian.
Uptown: 1838 Napoleon Ave.. 504-895-4877. Map.
Lunch Monday-Friday. Dinner Monday-Saturday.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Think of it as a neighborhood restaurant which, because of its age and the fact that one of the most famous of local dishes was invented here, has gained a certain venerability. Families of customers have dined here for generations, eating oversize portions of original, lusty, fresh food with as much of a Creole flavor as of the alleged Italian. It's informal to the point that table-hopping is inevitable. Although many visitors come here, it still feels intensely local.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Honestly retro, Manale's plays no games with its food. The barbecue shrimp they created have been bested by others, but the excitement of eating them can't be denied. The many oyster dishes--from raw on the half shell at the bar to the Bienvilles--are as good as any you'll find anywhere. The rest of the menu is full of local classics, sometimes with an Italian flavor, sometimes not. The feeling is loose, but the cooking is tight.
BACKSTORY
Frank Manale opened the restaurant in 1913 as a neighborhood Italian cafe. His nephew Pascal Radosta bought it some years later (hence the unique name). In 1955, a customer asked Radosta about a dish he had in Chicago but couldn't describe well. What Radosta made became known (misleadingly) as barbecue shrimp. It quickly became the restaurant's signature dish, as well as one of the greatest of Creole dishes.
DINING ROOM
Both main dining rooms are informal, and the bar is even more so. A complete renovation after Hurricane Katrina made them brighter and cleaner in design than before. The concrete-floored bar's walls are covered with autographed photos of the famous who've eaten there. It also boasts one of the city's best oyster bars.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Raw oysters.
Oysters Bienville.
Oysters Rockefeller.
Fried calamari.
Stuffed mushrooms with hollandaise.
Oyster combination pan roast.
Turtle soup.
Seafood gumbo.
New Orleans barbecue shrimp.
Grilled fish Orleans (with shrimp and artichokes).
Frutti dil mare (lobster, shrimp, crabmeat and oysters in a red sauce with spaghetti).
Crabmeat and scallops in a cream sauce with bell peppers and pasta.
Chicken bordelaise (garlic butter) with pasta.
Veal gambero (panneed, with peeled barbecue shrimp and sauce).
Veal Marsala.
Veal liver and onions with grits.
Filet mignon.
Sirloin strip.
Bread pudding.
Caramel custard.
FOR BEST RESULTS
Manale's is well-known nationwide, so when the town is full of visitors the place is packed. The steaks are much better than one might imagine, and may in fact be the best entrees here.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Unless you're known to the management, the front end of the restaurant comes across as indifferent. The bathrooms are badly designed, to put it mildly. The menu is riddled with makeshift Italian phrases that should be polished.
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
- Consistency +1
- Service +1
- Value +1
- Attitude -1
- Wine and Bar -1
- Hipness -1
- Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Good view
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Historic
- Oyster bar
- Unusually large servings
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- Reservations accepted
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
New Orleans' oldest Italian restaurant serves the epitome of Creole-Italian cuisine. It's really so hybridized that its best dishes aren't even slightly Italian anymore. In style Manale's feels like a neighborhood cafe, especially at lunch.
Manale's famous dish is widely copied around town. Barbecue shrimp, completely misnamed, aren't grilled or smoked, nor is there a barbecue sauce. They are not the best in town anymore, but they are very good: gigantic heads-on shrimp cooked in a distinctive pepper-butter sauce.
They do terrific things with oysters, veal, and beef. Avoid red-sauce dishes and you'll eat well. Service is a little too casual and the premises are a little scruffy, but all of this feels good. It's one of the real places. Manale's feels like neighborhood cafe, with a certain scruffiness that many Orleanians like in their venerable local eateries.
This review was updated with new information on 1/20/2010.
A list of over 300 full, current reviews is here.