The Yummiest Specialty Food in New Orleans

Market on Magazine

★★★★☆ 4.4 (13)

"This has been a go-to spot when I'm either out and about on Magazine or working on Magazine Street and realized I need to pick up a bottle(s) of wine or a case of beer. It's super easy and efficient and the liquor and alcohol is the first thing you see. In a pinch? You'll be out within five minutes. More of a walk to business although there is street parking throughout."

Cajun Confections

★★★★★ 5 (2)

"Great place to buy fresh baked goods. I come here every time I am in Houma. They have the best Beignets in the world! I highly recommend this place for coffee, and baked goods. Light powdered sugar for me."

That Cheese Chick

★★★☆☆ 3 (6)

"This place is THAT PLACE!!The ladies met up here for appetizers and we were pleasantly surprised at how cute this place was, how friendly the owner is and how everything was put together. We tasted the different cheeses paired with different things like olives, pepperoni (well I didn't eat the pepperoni) but all the other stuff. I'll let the picture explain...The place was clean, bright and airy.This is definitely a hidden gem!!!"

C’est Bon New Orleans

★★★★☆ 4.4 (34) • $$

"It just dawn on me that my favorite hot sauce, Tabasco is from NOLA. How did I not know this! One of the most famous sauce! Best ever! So I had to go inside! So Tabasco doesn't just make the one type of hot sauce. They have many others. I know they got the green one. But they have 10+ more!This place is so cute..right next to Jackson square. Easy to spot!They even have Tabasco chocolates!I ended up with a few tiny Tabasco sauce to keep in my purse. And I think I just scored the after Christmas Sale too! Got some cute Tabasco Sauce Christmas light covers. Very cute!"

Mawi Tortillerias

★★★★★ 4.6 (94)

"Amazing local Mexican. Best In Metairie. The burrito was amazing. The birria quesadilla tacos were amazing and the chicken quesadilla. This is my go to meal after a night of drinking. Just a local shop cooking up some good food. Hours are limited though."

The Chop Shop

★★★★☆ 4 (6)

"My review is based on our purchase for West Baton Rouge Restaurant Week. I had an event tonight, Chop Shop's special was shrimp fettucine, I figured I could give the family something they'd like and still make it to my event on time. I called ahead and they had it ready for me when I got there. The special included a big ol' pan of fettucine, a big container of green beans, salad, and garlic bread. Everything was delicious and I would eat it all again. But I think the green beans were really the star of the show! Usually, you don't get that excited about green beans. You eat them to be polite, or just because you know you need to eat a vegetable. But these? WOW. They're a little spicy, a little sweet, garlicky, with lots of chunks of ham (or tasso, or something). My husband said he could eat a bowl of their green beans with cornbread and call it a good dinner. We will definitely visit Chop Shop again to try some of their specialty meats and regular menu items. I really hope the green beans are a regular menu item. So, so, so good. Y'all go check 'em out. #wbreats"

Kenner Food Store

★★★★★ 5 (4) • $

"When I'm New Orleans This place is a must! We love coming for the Po-boys, Fried Turkey wings, & the crawfish!"

Robért Fresh Market

★★★☆☆ 3.3 (50) • $$

"Robert is fantastic! I almost feel that it's similar to Whole Foods, minus the attitude, if that makes sense.I happened to be in the neighborhood and I had to pick up some supplies for a co-worker's birthday and Robert had just the stuff. I found some catering trays that were ready to go and a doberge cake that I was able to pick up, without having to order ahead.While this store is fairly small, they have a nice variety of things to choose from and the prices are reasonable."

Dong Phuong

★★★★☆ 4.4 (556) • $$

"I tried cream cheese king cake and a slice of the praline one. I give them both a 7.5/10. The icing is really good. Almost like a whipped cream. Now what I didn't like is the way the filling is sprinkled throughout. Both cakes lacked filling. At first I thought it was just the praline because I only had an individual slice. But nope, I had the whole cream cheese cake and it's just not enough filling inside. Great flavor though."

Jerry Lee's Cajun Foods

★★★★★ 4.7 (50) • $

"Best Boudin in America! I always come in get 2 pds of fresh hot boudin! They live and die by their slogan. "If its not Jerry Lee's than its not boudin" great and friendly staff."

Nur's Kitchen

★★★★★ 4.9 (10)

"I love this place. I've been eating their food since they used to be at the New Orleans farmers market many many years ago. They are Turkish owners and chefs and their recipes are fantastic. Their food is fresh, wholesome, and healthy. It's great value. I don't think they use any preservatives and they also support other local businesses such as Mona 's and our local honey place. I love how they have now settled into this brick and mortar location and expanded the place to offer seating for lunch. They have reusable silverware and a microwave and it's just a lovely spot for a quick afternoon lunch break if you're in the area. And then you can get some food to go and take it home with you for later."

Cajun Fresh Market

★★★★☆ 4 (14)

"Cajun Fresh Market is located off the 90. It is a total tourist trap, and it got us good. Seeing the signs off the highway, we thought it would be a good idea to pull over for a snack. They had some light produce, a lot of frozen proteins for sale, fried food, snacks. The highlight of my visit was honestly taking a restroom break. It was fairly clean for a unisex restroom at a random market in the middle of nowhere. My boyfriend and I meant to get a small snack but the Smokin' Hot Sampler ($13.99) turned out to be more than we imagined. This includes a pork, shrimp and crawfish boudin and an alligator sausage. We thought boudins were small balls of snacks but it turns out they are basically large sausage size looking took. If you haven't had a boudin, it is basically sausage looking but filled with rice, protein and spices. It was really hard for me to bite into and enjoy these boudins because the casings were quite rubbery. I didn't enjoy the filling either. We both agreed that the alligator sausage was the best thing in the sampler. If we could redo this experience I would pass on all of the boudins, get the alligator sausage on its' own and add some pork or chicken cracklins. Not the best experience, but it served its' purpose as a snack pick up and restroom break on our little road trip."

Nolavore

★★★★★ 5 (3)

"I happen upon this spot the other day, and it's really cute!! They have a great outdoor coffee bar, a shop with pre made foods and a decent little wine selection, they also make baked treats here and sell local made goodies.Why have I never heard is this place?! My coffee was yummy and the owner Anne was sweet."

The Vintage Garden Kitchen

★★★★☆ 4.3 (8) • $

"OMG, how did this place not already have their own business listing on Yelp? For shame! Though I am happy to get a chance to be the first to review Vintage Garden Kitchen on Yelp, because this is an absolute *gem* of a business, and everyone in the world needs to know about it. Yesterday afternoon, I saw a tweet reminding people to place orders before 4pm, because today (Wednesday) is the day they deliver - yes, that's right, deliver! - their jars of amazingly delicious, healthy, vegetarian-friendly, locally sourced, and [insert list of superlatives and synonyms for the word awesome] soup. Straight from their garden, via the kitchen, to your door. Thanks to the reminder on Twitter, I placed my order online yesterday afternoon for four pints of soup: Fiery Shiitake Mushroom and Barley; Moroccan Chickpea Stew; Rustic Vegetable Bean; and Vegan Lentils and Greens. Each pint comes in a re-usable mason jar, and when you collect six of those, you get a free pint of soup with your next order! Brilliant: it's savvy (saves the business money), and green, and convenient. There's so much win here that I'm having a hard time putting it into words. Long story sort: The Vintage Garden Kitchen is an Arc Enterprises Company, meaning that not only do they provide amazing food (AND DELIVER IT TO YOUR DOOR!), but also, in doing so they provide employment for adults with developmental disabilities. (They're one of the businesses run by the nonprofit Arc of Greater New Orleans.) I've seen the garden where they grow all the food that is used to make these amazing soups, and it blows my mind that food this fresh, this nutritious, and this beautifully convenient is available in New Orleans. But wait, it gets better: their food is shockingly affordable. A half pint of, say, Moroccan Chickpea Stew feeds 2 people, and costs $4.99. The minimum order for delivery is $15, so for four pints I paid about $22.00, and it was delivered the very next day. How. Awesome. Is. That. Seriously.They deliver every Wednesday between 10am and 2pm, and orders must be placed before 4pm on Tuesday to ensure delivery. They deliver to 70001, 70005, 70115, 70118, 70119 (yay!), 70124, and 70125. Again, the minimum order for delivery is $15 (so, approximately three pints, or two quarts, blah blah math and stuff). They take credit cards, it's easy to place an order online, and you can also order in two other ways. Either pre-order for pick-up (and you can come get your soups between 8am and 4pm M-F), or if you don't want to pre-order, you can simply stop by during business hours. Walk-ins are welcome, too!So...yeah. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I'm so glad the Vintage Garden Kitchen exists. I highly recommend you give them a try. Then you, too, can write your very own rave review of this freaking awesome local business. Well done, Vintage Garden Kitchen. Well done. And THANKS!"

Tessier Gourmet

★★★★★ 4.8 (12) • $$

"We have purchased entrees and sides here several times. Some of my favorites are the Chicken Parmesan, Grillades, Enchiladas, and Meatloaf. They have cheese great cheese grits and many other tasty sides. Soups, quiche, along with chicken salad and pimento cheese are available too, My top pick is the chicken parm. There's is unique because they don't use the breading. That may sound unusual but it's yummy and cuts way back on the carbs. Most items come in 2 different sizes. One more family size and one more fit 1-2 people. You can also buy a lot of items either fresh or frozen. I do think it's important to note that items are not cheap, if you think of it as creating a meal and figure up how many people you feed, it's not much more than you would spend buying something out that's probably not that good. The owner's son is usually there when we drop by and he usually always helpful and nice! The shop is small but full of their homemade dishes as well as a nice variety of local products from artisans. I really appreciate that they support other locals! Drop in and buy something to try. You may decide the quality and convenience is worth the little extra cost!"

S&H Good Eats Cafe

★★★★★ 4.5 (144) • $

"Found this little place by accident. It looks like a little run down shack that no one would want to eat there. Now for some good news. This place is really really awesome. The food is really amazing and some of the best we have had in a long long time. The prices are amazing. I swear, I thought it was the early 2000. The service was fast and the tables were close together. So this made it feel really homey and family friendly. All I really know is that I will always eat here when in the area."

Mercado

★★★★☆ 3.7 (3)

"Their sandwich counter (El Sandwiche) is incredible!! I've tried several, but their carne asada is my favorite!! Mercado also has an interesting selection of beers."

Robert Fresh Market

★★★☆☆ 2.9 (91) • $$$

"Money orders are $0.99, so cheaper than the post office, however, you have to use your debit card and PIN number. As you would expect, Robert's is a bit overpriced on everything, especially the hot bar, however, I do love their hot bar."

House of Pepper

★★★★★ 4.6 (22) • $$

"Hot Sauce Galore: We are hunters of the hottest hot sauces, and would love to find a bottle that could keep us coming back for more.We stumbled across this shop as we were exploring the French Quarter. It's a tasting bar for all things spicy. They have boxes of tortilla chips in which you can dip into the various hot sauces along the isles to try for your liking. Beware, things can heat up pretty quickly. My husband's forehead started to perspirate after the third tasting.We ended up purchasing the Reaper Hot Sauce [roughly $28 per bottle].Really neat to learn about the differences in hot sauces (i.e., where the peppers were raised, ingredients that attribute to its uniqueness, etc.). The clerks are more than willing to enlighten you with their hot sauce knowledge!"

The Puddin' Shop

★★★★★ 5 (1) • $

"The Puddin' Shop makes the absolute best bread pudding in NOLA. Seriously! It doesn't matter if you're a classic bread pudding fan, or if you like to take a walk on the wild side (hello, chocolate with cayenne sauce!), Nicole has the bread pudding for you. It's Goldilocks-perfect: not too eggy, not too bready, not too dry or too soupy. And the sweet potato with praline sauce? Heaven.Also recommended: cornbread and bagels."

Dorignac's Food Center

★★★★☆ 4 (154) • $$

"This is an amazing local Italian grocery, bakery & deli. It is THE place to shop when you're in NOLA. Family owned & operated since 1947. There are so many amazing things about this place there isn't enough room in this review to list them all, so i'm just going to list my faves. THE only place to go for bone in Veal chops. And if you want them really big & thick, order them from their in-house butcher, anyway you likes here. :)...Hard to find Italian Speciality foods all throughout the store like wagyu salami & fresh MOZ cheese. Excellent deli with sushi! Also, they carry the local yummy shrimp & green papaya salad & yummy shrimp spring rolls from "Cafe Minh" on Canal street in the grab & go section in the deli area. Check them out at:  WWW.cafeminh.com They have the most spectacular florist/roses with all our fave southern flowers in abundance daily. Their in-house bakery is Ginormous! They even carry chocolate Doberge cakes! :)...They have an incredible selection of liquors, wines & champagnes at the best prices. The best place to go for speciality celebratory european wines & champagnes in the larger sizes like the jeroboam, the imperial, the Salmanazar, the Balthazar & the Nebuchadnezzar etc. We did purchase a case of french pink champagne here for a special family gift, as we do not really drink anymore. The reason we stopped is bc many many Yelpers were just liking just the check-ins for liquor stores & alcoholic drinks so we just stopped drinking & posting about liquor.Which for us, turned out to be the greatest thing EVER! We are saving TONS of MONEY and we are so freakin skinny now we are over the MOON baby! Hahaha hahahaha hahaha hahahah. So, come here for the best deals on liquor & the best Italian speciality items. The butcher, the baker, the florist & the deli is also the BOMB. NOLA's best kept secret. Highest Recommendations!"

Chez Nous

★★★★★ 4.7 (17) • $$

"Oh, so you don't want to cook or bake, but you want to give the appearance that you did? AND that you did it well? Head to Chez Nous, cheater.I've only ever had the desserts. Two different bars, actually. They were so good though, so perfectly decadent, that they were worth the sugar and fat content. They were worth the extra exercise class I'd have to endure so that I could work the treats off. (How often does one think THAT?) If the desserts were that good, the rest of the food must also be fantastic.I got the lemon bar and the divine hash bar. There were about six choices including a few other chocolate brownie type creations, a blonde brownie, and a key lime bar. The two I got were a perfect Yin-Yang. Lemon zesty pillow and a dense chocolate brownie with a layer of nuts and chocolate ganache frosting.I eyeballed the sandwich fillings such as pimento cheese and curried chicken salad sitting in little tubs (it was around second lunchtime), and also the crawfish pies, and well, the hummingbird cake. The food looked wonderfully fresh and homemade (literally as the case was) as I wound my way through a each room in the house. I stopped and gawked often, then continued on to the back room with the desserts."

Mid City Market

★★★★★ 4.7 (3) • $$$

"They offer an assortment of dishes daily and everything I've had from there was good (the meals are more goumet style).The parking is a hassle because they share it with 3 or so other businesses but the ladies inside are nice. This is a order To-Go place but the food is fresh and good. The offer precooked/frozen dinners as well. The fried zucchini fries were different and really good. It's a tad pricey but good."