Are These New Orleans' Best Seafood Restaurants?

Hot on the heels of naming his ultimate New Orleans steakhouses last week, and five years out from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Times-Pic critic Brett Anderson is back in action this week with another best-of list, this time concerning seafood. Taking on an extremely difficult task, Anderson manages to narrow down the best seafood restaurants in New Orleans to just fifteen. The deal:  Places counter-service-only can't be included, nor can a restaurant that does great seafood but doesn't consider seafood its focus. With that in mind, there's nothing too unexpected. Here they are:

• Borgne: "Chef Brian Landry does for Louisiana seafood cookery what partner-boss John Besh does for French-Creole more generally at Restaurant August
• Bourbon House: "The oyster bar is a major attraction."
• Casamento's: "New Orleans' premier example of the form" of the "pocket-sized oyster bar."
• Drago's: "The charbroiled oyster came to life at the Metairie original."
• The Galley: "Few neighborhood seafood restaurants, however, execute as wide an array of dishes as excellently and consistently as The Galley."
• GW Fins: "The air-freighted fish is as fresh as the local stuff."
• Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar: "A bustling, blue-collar oyster bar with a menu that covers all the bases."
• Horinoya: "Komei Horimoto's sushi bar, established in 2001, is arguably the steadiest local source for one of the globe's most seafood-centric cuisines."
• Kenner Seafood: "Will likely bring to mind that place where your family always gathered for casual meals of fried shrimp and blackened finfish."
• Middendorf's: Reasons to roadtrip here include a "picturesque view and the best thin-cut fried catfish around."
• Morton's Seafood: "The family-friendly bar and grill on the Tchefuncte River speaks with a distinctly local accent."
• Mr. Ed's: "You can never have too many reliable purveyors for icy cold raw oysters and eggplant casserole made almost entirely of crab."
• Peche: "A wood-burning oven, a raw bar, a boatload of whole finfish."
• Red Fish Grille: "Haute Creole cooking pitched respectfully to the masses."
• Vera's Seafood: A "bric-a-brac design aesthetic favored in Key West" provides "a welcome transporting environment" for Louisiana seafood, despite a stripmall location on the Northshore.