New Orleans is undoubtedly a seafood city, but most places do the same type of fish, along with the same preparations—we’re talking about you, fried catfish with some sort of cream sauce and a handful of crawfish tails or crabmeat on top. Even though that’s lovely, GW Fins is where you come for innovative seafood dishes with fish that was probably swimming that morning. Among the most impressive are the options that mimic meat, like bluefin “ribeyes”.

Brennan’s is the fine dining standard in New Orleans. It’s the type of restaurant where you’ll find yourself checking your posture, because you’d hate to slouch, and saying “powder room” instead of bathroom. Servers put on shows when doing tableside bananas foster or crepes fitzgerald (both dishes that Brennan’s actually invented), and are somehow still able to answer any questions you have seamlessly. The menu changes seasonally, and all of it’s excellent.

Mamou is a great place to bring a date, eat steak tartare, and drink a glass of red from Burgundy. Beyond snails, we love the braised celery hearts with beef tongue, gulf fish a la royale, and risotto—basically anything that leans into the rich and butter-loaded dishes they do really well. If you’re around Louis Armstrong Park and need a glass of wine and a snack, hang out at the lively emerald green bar, which is just as fun as the rest of the fuschia-accented dining room.

Palm & Pine used to be our favorite late-night spot in the city (they were open until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays). While it’s no longer the ideal post-bar or live music stop since they close at 11pm, it’s still a great place to eat shareable dishes like buttery cornbread with fermented chili butter and lemongrass fried chicken gumbo. And it might even be better for Sunday brunch anyway, where you can eat some bacon fat fried potatoes and actually make out all the cool art on the walls.

Arnaud’s is a classic New Orleans restaurant located right off Bourbon Street that’s been serving up great food and cocktails since 1918. The best time to come here is for their jazz brunch when they do a three-course, prix fixe with dishes like grillades and grits, eggs sardou, and Shrimp Arnaud. You should also make time for Arnaud’s French 75 Bar for a sazerac or an Old Fashioned.

Friday lunch at Galatoire’s is a New Orleans right of passage. To experience it best, you need to sit in the downstairs dining room, which requires getting in line on Bourbon Street before it opens at 11:30am. The servers wear tuxes, everybody is drinking sazeracs and glasses of milk punch, and you can eat old-school classics like shrimp remoulade and gumbo. If you’re looking for a proper “Yes, I’m definitely in New Orleans” way to kick off a weekend, start at Galatoire’s.

Classic spots in the French Quarter tend to turn tables fast, which can make it feel like you’re just a part of a large march of tourists. But at Bayona, you can linger in the plant-filled courtyard (that has more cobblestones than a Roman sidestreet) with a couple friends for a while over a bunch of Creole dishes. It feels like your own secret little garden where you can eat duck liver pate, veal sweetbreads, and fennel and pepper-crusted lamb loin that’s always cooked perfectly.

It’s hard to tell if Cane & Table is a restaurant with great drinks, or a fancy cocktail bar that serves surprisingly good food. Either way, their big back courtyard is the perfect place to escape the chaos of nearby Bourbon Street. They have one of the most diverse cocktail menus in the city and serve a solid mix of rotating small plates and entrees, like a braised and crispy pork ribeye and a whole roasted fish.

Tableau has a lot going for it. It’s the perfect pre-theater dinner spot before shows at Le Petit Theatre, and it also has one of the best restaurant balconies, overlooking Jackson Square. Brass bands, fortune tellers, visual artists, and St. Louis Cathedral parishioners and clergy—you’ll see them all while digging into the blend of traditional Creole and Cajun Louisiana food. Start with the truffled crab claws and brown butter gnocchi.

There’s a lot to love about an old-timey steakhouse, but Doris is a newer one that can hang with the classics. The menu has flavors (like harissa and soy) you might not find at other temples of beef. And while we adore the bone marrow-seared tenderloin with tempranillo salt, the vegetable and fish dishes are just as good. Particularly, the tomato salad, tuna tartare, and smoky asparagus side that’s served with aioli and parmesan cheese.

Mena’s Palace feels like every diner you see in any movie, play, or show. Waiters spin about to quickly grab tickets, raise trays out of the way, all while the house phone rings constantly in the background. Most guests at Mena’s are regulars who work in the area, and the servers seem to remember them all by name and their orders too. Mena’s still makes their roast beef in-house, slices it as thick as a hardback book cover, and covers it in a thick, garlicky gravy.

You could go to the Westbank for pushcart dim sum, but Dian Xin is the best you’re going to do in the neighborhood. The food here isn’t some consolation prize though. There are great five-spice pork ribs, shrimp chive cakes, and soup dumplings, along with a bunch of rich vegetable dishes like a crepe filled with sesame seed and fried wonton crunches. Bring a friend or two, share everything (including a pot of buckwheat tea), and take something to go.

Broussard’s is the place to experience classic New Orleans cuisine with old-school fine dining service. And it feels like four different restaurants, really, with two dining rooms inside, a buzzing bar area, and a courtyard with what’s said to be the oldest wisteria tree in the French Quarter. Start with the Oysters Broussard, a wild combo of textures and flavors that takes fried oysters and pairs them with salty thick-cut bacon and creamy spinach.

Here’s how you tell if a restaurant in the Quarter is good and not a tourist trap: people working in the area actually eat there. Johnny’s is one of those places. You’re here for po’boys—get a fried catfish, oyster, shrimp, or softshell crab po’boy, dressed, with hot sauce and butter on the bread. It’s a perfect combination: the vinegar from the hot sauce brightens up the fried seafood, and all of it sinks into that soft buttered French bread.

Latitude 29 is a tiki bar and restaurant created by the man often credited with repopularizing tiki bars—and yes, his nickname is Beachbum. The lights are dim but colorful, and there’s lots of Polynesian tiki decor, but you’d never know this by looking from the outside. Rum drinks are obviously the way to go: the buttery Pearl Diver and honey and ginger-spiced Hawaii 504, in particular. The food is way more than your typical tiki bar stuff, too.

Lebanon Grill might just have the quickest service in New Orleans—we ordered, looked up, and our food was there. No matter what you go for, you get assorted pickled peppers, olives, and other vegetables with every plate, and it’s fun to mix those flavors into your meal. We recommend the plate with freshly shaved gyro, salad drizzled with sumac vinaigrette, hummus, and freshly baked pita, along with some Lebanese tea with pine nuts.

If you’ve ever been a part of the chaos on Decatur Street, you know how hard it is to find somewhere normal to eat in the area. We’re talking about a place where you can get a delicious yet reasonably priced meal with a cocktail that has more than two ingredients. Meet Zhang Bistro. The lounge atmosphere with chill music and a colorfully lighted bar really feels a world away. Start with a lychee blossom martini, an order of fresh rolls, and dry red chili chicken.

Sylvain is a semi-upscale neighborhood spot that you’ll wish was around the corner from where you get your mail delivered. Located just off Jackson Square, this place serves some of our favorite all-purpose dishes, like cast-iron cornbread and a truly great fried chicken sandwich. Besides food, Sylvain is equally perfect for a few cocktails on their back patio, in case you’ve already eaten for the fourth time that day and need a break before dinner.