This restaurant is located on the northern edge of the French Quarter, on what was once the North Rampart of the original city of New Orleans. Because of that, the street it’s on is named North Rampart.
I’ve heard great things about this place and have been wanting to try it for some time. My daughter knew that, so I got a gift certificate for Christmas. It was finally time to get in here!
Their website says their food is based on cuisines of the South. As in Louisiana, and further. Such as the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. We decided on:
THE FOOD!
For lunch today we had a horrible excuse for French fries, so we ordered some hoping to get some good ones. These were everything French fries should be! Hot, crisp, the perfect size, and salted nicely. The banana ketchup they came with had a really strong banana flavor. No thanks. But I am one of those weirdos that likes mayo with their fries, and the roasted garlic mayo was fantastic!
The Turkey Neck Gumbo was delicious. Very dark roux, which I love. It was served with a scoop of potato salad in it, which is really an old school New Orleans way of serving it.
Next was the pork and Wagyu meatballs with the popcorn rice. They said it had a persimmon hot sauce in it. That’s one thing you’ll notice here. Everything had a nice spice to it. Not overly hot, just well seasoned. Very good dish.
The Crab & Conch Gratin was yummy. And so pretty, with the watermelon radish slices and stuff. They really work on presentation here.
My dining partner had the Tamarind Glazed Gulf Shrimp. She didn’t care for it because she said the shrimp had a strange spice on them she didn’t like. Me, having a far more sophisticated palate, loved them! And out of the kindness of my heart I ate every one of them for her!
My duck tamale was fantastic. Served with some extra slices of duck breast, and a wonderful mole sauce.
Finally, the Curry Banana Ice Cream. It was ok, but I couldn’t really taste curry or banana in it. To me it tasted a little coconutty. Only thing we had tonight I wouldn’t order again.
The food here was great and I’d definitely recommend this place, but now for the bad news. Thanks to the pandemic and all the restrictions on restaurants, they’re closing January 1, 2021. I asked our waitress for how long, and she said they didn’t know. They’re just going to, “feel things out”. I hope it’s not for too long.
308 N. Rampart St., New Orleans, LA 70112 Ph: 504-814-6200
Blaine 12-26-2020
BLAINE'S RESTAURANT REPORT 
Sorry to hear your restaurants ate closing. Ours are due to re-open 20 Jan after another long lockdown but equally, they may stay shut. We’ll have to see.
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Potato salad on gumbo? that’s new to me. Interesting! 🙂
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You can hardly find it now. Gumbo’s normally served with rice. As a kid my mom loved this restaurant named Fitzgerald’s. I loved going there because through the cracks and gaps in the hardwood floors you could see the lake below. That’s the first place I remember eating gumbo with a scoop of potato salad in it. This is a good account of that restaurant and area.
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I think rice makes more sense, but it would be interesting to try this combination.
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Oh yeah. Rice definitely makes more sense. But with potato salad it’s a contrast thing. You’ve got basically a hot, preferably spicy soup, with a scoop of COLD potato salad in the middle. So in each spoonful you scoop a little potato salad with some of the gumbo, so when it hits your palate your tastebuds are like, “OH LAWDY WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE”??? Kinda nice to throw them a curve ball now and then. 🙂
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lol You make a very good argument! 🙂
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OMG that all looks delicious.
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It was!
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