Get these trending New Orleans restaurants on your radar now

Get these trending New Orleans restaurants on your radar nowPhoto: House of Blues Restaurant & Bar/Yelp
Hoodline
Published on November 14, 2019

Unsure where New Orleans's insiders are eating and drinking? It's easy to spot lines out the door, but some underlying trends are harder to see.

We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to uncover which local businesses have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.

To find out who made the list, we first looked at New Orleans businesses on Yelp by category and counted how many reviews each received. Rather than compare them based on number of reviews alone, we calculated a percentage increase in reviews over the past month and tracked businesses that consistently increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.

Read on to see which spots are riding a trend, right now.

House Of Blues Restaurant & Bar

Photo: House of Blues Restaurant & Bar/Yelp

Open since August 2017, this well-established Southern and New American spot, which offers burgers and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.

Citywide, New American spots saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, but House of Blues Restaurant & Bar saw a 9.6% increase, maintaining a sound four-star rating throughout. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis House of Blues Restaurant & Bar's review count increased by more than 320%.

Located at 225 Decatur St. in the French Quarter, House of Blues Restaurant & Bar offers a menu of BBQ Brisket Nachos as an appetizer among the items. Then check out the shrimp and grits, as well as the jambalaya. (See the full menu here.)

House of Blues Restaurant & Bar is open from 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon–11 p.m. on Sunday.

Emeril's New Orleans

Photo: Jerry C./Yelp

Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Lower Garden District's Emeril's New Orleans, the popular New American and Cajun/Creole spot, which offers seafood and more, has been getting a lot more foot traffic lately.

While Emeril's New Orleans stayed on par with the median 1.5% increase in new reviews businesses categorized as "Cajun/Creole" on Yelp over the past month, maintaining a sound four-star rating, the number of visitors to Emeril's New Orleans more than doubled over the same time frame, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.

There's more that's trending on New Orleans's Cajun/Creole scene: Eiffel Society has seen a 4.1% increase in reviews.

Open at 800 Tchoupitoulas St. since July 2005, Emeril's New Orleans offers Gulf shrimp-stuffed clams and duck wings for appetizers among the menu items. Also try the lobster fettuccine. (See the full menu here.)

Emeril's New Orleans is open from 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5–10 p.m. on weekdays and 5–10 p.m. on weekends. According to SafeGraph, foot traffic is heaviest at 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays. If you’re planning your visit, you may want to try its slower periods on Sundays.

Tout De Suite Cafe

PHOTO: Arly P./YELP

Algeirs Point's Tout De Suite Cafe is also making waves. Open since April 2010 at 347 Verret St., the well-established breakfast and brunch spot, which offers coffee, tea and more, has seen a 1.7% increase in new reviews over the last month — matching that of all businesses tagged "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp — but the number of visitors to Tout De Suite Cafe more than doubled over the same time frame, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.

There's more than one hot spot trending in New Orleans's breakfast and brunch category: Ruby Slipper Cafe has seen an 8.9% increase in reviews.

Tout De Suite Cafe offers such signature breakfast dishes as Atchafalaya, a Louisiana crawfish etouffee and biscuits and gravy. Also from the menu listings, sample the Croque Monsieur, made with smokey ham and parmigiano reggiano. (View the full menu here.) Over the past month, it's maintained a convincing 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.

Tout De Suite Cafe is open from 7 a.m.–3 p.m. on Tuesday-Sunday. (It's closed on Monday.) According to SafeGraph, it usually gets busy at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays, with a slowdown on Thursdays.

BOIL Seafood House

Photo: Megan K./Yelp

East Riverside's BOIL Seafood House is the city's buzziest seafood spot by the numbers.

The well-established seafood spot, which opened at 3340 Magazine St. in April 2018, increased its new review count by 7.7% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.5% for the Yelp category "Seafood." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.7 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.

It's not the only trending outlier in the seafood category: Mahony's Po-Boys & Seafood has seen a 6.6% increase in reviews and The Governor Seafood & Oyster Bar has seen a 5.5% bump.

BOIL Seafood House offers pick-your-own-catch, such as crab or crawfish from among the menu listings, plus your flavor, like Cajun or garlic butter. and heat, such as low to extra high. Also try the New Orleans charbroiled oysters. (Check here for the full menu.)

BOIL Seafood House is open from 3 –10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Sunday.


This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.