Brett Anderson on the Po' Boys at Liuzza's by the Track

Continuing his search for the city's premiere roast beef po' boys, Times-Pic restaurant critic Brett Anderson stops by Liuzza's by the Track and is less than impressed. He calls it "a po-boy joint whose kitchen has a flair for pot-cooking," but both of the roast beef po' boys the restaurant offers fall short of entering the pantheon of great local offerings.

That's not to say they're not good. Liuzza's by the Track "handles its beef with care," but neither the regular po' boy nor the "Breathtaking Beef" one have any gravy. For Anderson, the presence of gravy "is one of the things — proper po-boy bread is another — that make the roast beef po-boy a uniquely local dish." As such, the (admittedly good) offerings from this Bayou St. John favorite are more like regular, old roast beef sandwiches than anything else.

Also this week, Ian McNulty in the Gambit reviews the Marigny's Mediterranean joint, Fatoush. While Fatoush "serves a lot of hummus and falafel," it's actually a Turkish restaurant, "so diners who approach it like a typical kebab joint are in for a surprise." Located inside the New Orleans Healing Center on St Claude, the restaurant from owner Fatma Aydin and chef Hakki Erce is "a new kind of restaurant for its neighborhood, though it seems in sync with the area's momentum." Oh, and McNulty raves about the food, from the gyros to the moussaka to the dolmas.

And in the blogs: Clark Castle at Po' Boy Livin' Rich reviews Patois, the uptown fine dining spot by chef Aaron Burgau, calling it "always worth the trip." Robert Peyton in New Orleans Mag's Haute Plates blog gives the early word on Borgne, writing that "it's already a place I'd happily take friends from out of town to get oysters and other local seafood."

· Liuzza's by the Track Makes a Roast Beef Po'Boy That's More Like a Sandwich [TP]
· Review: Fatoush [Gambit]
· Review: Patois [PBLR]
· The Borgne Identity [MNO]

[Photo: Off the Broiler]