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Pasta from Compère Lapin.
Denny Culbert/Compère Lapin

14 First-Rate Restaurants Near the New Orleans Convention Center

Explore the Warehouse District to find some of the city’s best sandwiches, seafood, and Caribbean fusion

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Pasta from Compère Lapin.
| Denny Culbert/Compère Lapin

The Warehouse District area surrounding the New Orleans Convention Center has changed drastically over the last few years, thanks to a half-billion dollar construction project adding more green space to Convention Center Boulevard. What hasn’t changed is the wealth of great food nearby, including some of the city's best sandwiches, seafood, and Caribbean-Creole fusion. Here are some super options that are walkable from the Convention Center and nearby hotels (all well under a mile), to help you stay fueled and happy.

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The food at this tropical oasis in the CBD is fresh, tasty, vegan-friendly, and full of the kind of nutrients that can be a game changer after a big night out. Its menu includes plenty of plant-based food (like vegan ceviche with mushrooms, beans, cucumber, aji limo, red onion, choclo, sweet potato, avocado and cancha) but the cafe will satisfy anyone in a party of meat eaters too with items like Brazilian chicken salad.

Sofia NOLA

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This Italian spot on Julia delivers fine pasta and specialties from around the boot, including steak Florentine, wood-fired pizzas, and a range of oven-roasted vegetables. Sofia, an homage to a true Italian dish, Sophia Loren, is an airy, stylish space brimming with eye-popping art.

Pizza, shrimp scampi, kale salad, and squid
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Pêche Seafood Grill

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Peche is to be trusted, still popular after nearly a decade in part due to its consistent quality delivery. The Donald Link group restaurant has a wood-burning oven, great raw bar selection, and expertly done seafood, with a diverse enough menu to satisfy most palates. The crab claws, “fish sticks,” duck pasta, and whole grilled fish are crowd-pleasers, and specials are always a winner.

Peche, a trusty standby
Peche
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Gianna Restaurant

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From Donald Link’s resataurant group, Gianna is a temple of rustic Southern Italian cuisine. Chef Jared Heider presides over a menu rich with house-cured meats, locally farmed produce, Gulf seafood, and of course, pasta. The bar is focused on Italian wines and cocktail bases of Vermouth, Apertivo, and Amari. Open for lunch and dinner daily with brunch on weekends, the price point is about the same as Link’s other restaurants.

Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Meril is a more casual option from Emeril’s stable of restaurants, with a super happy hour featuring substantial flatbread pizzas that will certainly tide a body over. It’s huge, so it’s good for the inevitable group lunches and dinners that keep growing and growing, with great service to boot. Highlights include dishes like yellowfin tuna wraps with jalapeno, meatballs, hand-rolled gnudi, and the best dang turkey necks you’ve ever had.

Inside Meril
Meril
Brasted

Vyoone’s

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Though French-inspired, this Warehouse District restaurant is New Orleans through and through — in ambiance, hospitality, and food and drink. Chic and charming with hanging lights strung throughout a cushy patio, Vyoone Segue Lewis has created something special here, welcoming for date night and hugely popular with large groups. On the menu, highlights include the escargot, French onion soup, white bean cassoulet, crab cakes, and the soft shell entree with maque choux and crawfish cream sauce if available.

Annunciation

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This elegant Warehouse District gem is a contemporary Creole stunner, seamlessly combining Louisiana classics with French-inspired techniques and Southern American ingredients. Try the excellent gumbo or turtle soup, the ravioli starter, and soft shell crab Monica or grilled pork chop for dinner. Annunciation is romantic and cozy; a lovely option for an intimate meal.

Compère Lapin

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Compère Lapin is the debut restaurant from famed chef Nina Compton and it remains one of New Orleans’s most original restaurants, serving food that blends Caribbean flavors with French technique and a whole lot of creativity. While the menu changes often, Compere is known for a mix of small plates that might include dirty rice arancini served with sour orange mojo, crispy pig ears, and conch fritters; entrees like her famed curried goat and spiced chicken with Jollof rice and chow chow, and unbeatable cocktails.

A large dining room with white and black tile floors, wood tables and chairs, and a long bar with stools lined up in front.
Inside Compere Lapin
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Cochon Restaurant

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Local swine is only the beginning at this James Beard award-winning Southern meets Cajun eatery from chefs Donal Link and Stephen Stryjewski. Cochon also happens to have one of the best chargrilled oysters in town, in this case enhanced with a divine chile garlic butter that lets the flavors of the bivalve sing.

A Look Inside Cochon’s New Dinign Room Expansion
Cochon dining room
Brasted

Cochon Butcher

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Cochon Butcher offers a very different experience than its sister restaurant, with an emphasis on Dawood house-cured meat sandwiches, charcuterie, brats, and sausages in a cool casual setting. Beyond the sandwich counter, there are small plates and daily specials to tempt. Sausage or cheese platters and sandwich trays are available for catering needs.

Corporation Bar & Grill

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If your day has you craving something a bit more gritty, Corporation Bar’s got you covered. This hole-in-the-wall on the corner of S. Peters and Andrew Higgins has all the Louisiana staples: jambalaya, gumbo, muffulettas, red beans and rice, and great po-boys. It’ll have a shorter line than Cochon Butcher, and you may even meet a character or two.

Galliano Restaurant

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Named for a Cajun town down da’ bayou, Galliano dishes raw and char-grilled oysters along with specialties like country-fried steak, fried chicken and shrimp, and Sunday pot roast. Chef/owner Ricky Cheramie, who hails from Bayou Lafourche, serves gumbo and traditional po-boys and of course red beans and rice. Enter from Fulton Street for a taste of real deal Cajun cuisine, seven days a week.

Restaurant Rebirth

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Chef Richy Cheramie’s original spot, Restaurant Rebirth, is a farm-to-table Cajun-Creole restaurant ideal for wowing foodie clients. Soulful bowls of country gumbo, oysters and pasta, and double-cut pork chops are a few tempting options. The blackened redfish on the half shell is outstanding, and if it’s offered, don’t leave without trying the beignet-topped creme brûlée.

Two Chicks Cafe

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This breakfast and lunch spot couldn’t be more convenient — it sits just across the street from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Dishing up sweet and savory crepes, omelets and egg Benedict dishes, pancakes and parfaits, healthy juices, and necessary bloody Marys, Two Chicks is the bomb. The restaurant has a second location in the CBD.

Carmo

The food at this tropical oasis in the CBD is fresh, tasty, vegan-friendly, and full of the kind of nutrients that can be a game changer after a big night out. Its menu includes plenty of plant-based food (like vegan ceviche with mushrooms, beans, cucumber, aji limo, red onion, choclo, sweet potato, avocado and cancha) but the cafe will satisfy anyone in a party of meat eaters too with items like Brazilian chicken salad.

Sofia NOLA

This Italian spot on Julia delivers fine pasta and specialties from around the boot, including steak Florentine, wood-fired pizzas, and a range of oven-roasted vegetables. Sofia, an homage to a true Italian dish, Sophia Loren, is an airy, stylish space brimming with eye-popping art.

Pizza, shrimp scampi, kale salad, and squid
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Pêche Seafood Grill

Peche is to be trusted, still popular after nearly a decade in part due to its consistent quality delivery. The Donald Link group restaurant has a wood-burning oven, great raw bar selection, and expertly done seafood, with a diverse enough menu to satisfy most palates. The crab claws, “fish sticks,” duck pasta, and whole grilled fish are crowd-pleasers, and specials are always a winner.

Peche, a trusty standby
Peche
Brasted

Gianna Restaurant

From Donald Link’s resataurant group, Gianna is a temple of rustic Southern Italian cuisine. Chef Jared Heider presides over a menu rich with house-cured meats, locally farmed produce, Gulf seafood, and of course, pasta. The bar is focused on Italian wines and cocktail bases of Vermouth, Apertivo, and Amari. Open for lunch and dinner daily with brunch on weekends, the price point is about the same as Link’s other restaurants.

Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Meril

Meril is a more casual option from Emeril’s stable of restaurants, with a super happy hour featuring substantial flatbread pizzas that will certainly tide a body over. It’s huge, so it’s good for the inevitable group lunches and dinners that keep growing and growing, with great service to boot. Highlights include dishes like yellowfin tuna wraps with jalapeno, meatballs, hand-rolled gnudi, and the best dang turkey necks you’ve ever had.

Inside Meril
Meril
Brasted

Vyoone’s

Though French-inspired, this Warehouse District restaurant is New Orleans through and through — in ambiance, hospitality, and food and drink. Chic and charming with hanging lights strung throughout a cushy patio, Vyoone Segue Lewis has created something special here, welcoming for date night and hugely popular with large groups. On the menu, highlights include the escargot, French onion soup, white bean cassoulet, crab cakes, and the soft shell entree with maque choux and crawfish cream sauce if available.

Annunciation

This elegant Warehouse District gem is a contemporary Creole stunner, seamlessly combining Louisiana classics with French-inspired techniques and Southern American ingredients. Try the excellent gumbo or turtle soup, the ravioli starter, and soft shell crab Monica or grilled pork chop for dinner. Annunciation is romantic and cozy; a lovely option for an intimate meal.

Compère Lapin

Compère Lapin is the debut restaurant from famed chef Nina Compton and it remains one of New Orleans’s most original restaurants, serving food that blends Caribbean flavors with French technique and a whole lot of creativity. While the menu changes often, Compere is known for a mix of small plates that might include dirty rice arancini served with sour orange mojo, crispy pig ears, and conch fritters; entrees like her famed curried goat and spiced chicken with Jollof rice and chow chow, and unbeatable cocktails.

A large dining room with white and black tile floors, wood tables and chairs, and a long bar with stools lined up in front.
Inside Compere Lapin
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Cochon Restaurant

Local swine is only the beginning at this James Beard award-winning Southern meets Cajun eatery from chefs Donal Link and Stephen Stryjewski. Cochon also happens to have one of the best chargrilled oysters in town, in this case enhanced with a divine chile garlic butter that lets the flavors of the bivalve sing.

A Look Inside Cochon’s New Dinign Room Expansion
Cochon dining room
Brasted

Cochon Butcher

Cochon Butcher offers a very different experience than its sister restaurant, with an emphasis on Dawood house-cured meat sandwiches, charcuterie, brats, and sausages in a cool casual setting. Beyond the sandwich counter, there are small plates and daily specials to tempt. Sausage or cheese platters and sandwich trays are available for catering needs.

Corporation Bar & Grill

If your day has you craving something a bit more gritty, Corporation Bar’s got you covered. This hole-in-the-wall on the corner of S. Peters and Andrew Higgins has all the Louisiana staples: jambalaya, gumbo, muffulettas, red beans and rice, and great po-boys. It’ll have a shorter line than Cochon Butcher, and you may even meet a character or two.

Galliano Restaurant

Named for a Cajun town down da’ bayou, Galliano dishes raw and char-grilled oysters along with specialties like country-fried steak, fried chicken and shrimp, and Sunday pot roast. Chef/owner Ricky Cheramie, who hails from Bayou Lafourche, serves gumbo and traditional po-boys and of course red beans and rice. Enter from Fulton Street for a taste of real deal Cajun cuisine, seven days a week.

Restaurant Rebirth

Chef Richy Cheramie’s original spot, Restaurant Rebirth, is a farm-to-table Cajun-Creole restaurant ideal for wowing foodie clients. Soulful bowls of country gumbo, oysters and pasta, and double-cut pork chops are a few tempting options. The blackened redfish on the half shell is outstanding, and if it’s offered, don’t leave without trying the beignet-topped creme brûlée.

Two Chicks Cafe

This breakfast and lunch spot couldn’t be more convenient — it sits just across the street from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Dishing up sweet and savory crepes, omelets and egg Benedict dishes, pancakes and parfaits, healthy juices, and necessary bloody Marys, Two Chicks is the bomb. The restaurant has a second location in the CBD.

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