Cleo’s has long been a destination for vegetarians, service industry folks, and anyone with a penchant for excellent hummus. It serves up some of the best Mediterranean food in the city all day and night in the Canal Street location, which opened in 2018 just around the corner from the original. Even with the addition of a more traditional restaurant location in the French Quarter last year, the Cleo’s on Canal is still high-quality, open 24/7, and connected to a solid convenience store.

This local chain, founded here in 2008, is known for a great brunch, a potent bloody Mary, and creative eggs Benedicts with plenty of Southern flare. Ruby Slipper serves a terrific bananas foster pain perdu, there’s a kids’ menu, and a full range of eye opening cocktails. Open for breakfast and lunch only.

Tempt is the breakfast, lunch and dinner joint in the sassy Saint Hotel, a handsome space facing Canal Street. The menu is kind of funny — everything is “wicked”; “sexy”; or an “aphrodisiac.” The burgers and sandwiches are tasty and the variety — from shrimp and grits to boudin balls and salads — gets the job done.

Handsome gauchos delivering meat on swords, check. All you can eat steak, chicken, lamb and sausages, check. This Brazilian steakhouse, or churrascaria, has been delighting carnivores since 1979, with the New Orleans location of Fogo de Chao opened since 2015. For about $50 it’s all you can devour, along with a sizable salad, grain and veg bar.

Ok, so it’s a chain, but it started here (in Arabi!) and the marinated fried bird is legend. For a budget refuel — two pieces with a side and damn good biscuit — Popeye’s delivers. The lines for the occasionally available chicken sandwich make national news — and check this, the company just launched its own fashion line inspired by Beyonce, a fan with a free chicken for life VIP card.

This conference hotel offers a surprisingly inviting lobby eatery, 55 Fahrenheit, with menu items like charbroiled oysters and redfish tacos. Super happy hour deals from 5 to 7 p.m., daily. From gumbo to crab cakes, red beans and rice to pizza, the menu is a crowd pleaser. For breakfast and lunch, 5fifty5 is the hotel cafe.

Shack Shake brings Danny Meyer’s fast casual homage to the all-American burger to Canal Place and it’s good stuff. Meyer is an epic hospitality figure and this concept, which went public in 2014, as a hot dog cart in Central Park in 2001. SS now sells $455 million in burgers, fries and shakes annually — and Kelly Field is in the house too — her chocolate chip cookies from Willa Jean are for dessert.

It’s a chain, but in this case that means that Morton’s delivers consistent quality in an upscale setting, just about every time you dine. Happy hour is 5 to 6:30 p.m. every day but Saturday, with $7-9 apps (steak tacos, wedge salad bites) and reduced drink prices. The regular menu is a pricier, but the quality is top shelf.

Enter Harrah’s from Canal Street and the one sure thing to expect is good eats. That door is the portal to not one but two great steakhouses, a noodle bar, a few cafes for a quick bite, an Acme Oyster House and a buffet, if that’s your jam. Gordon Biersch, a brew pub with straight ahead American fare and Grand Isle, a wonderful seafood restaurant, are also under the Harrah’s umbrella.