Brigtsens

Basically a residential house converted into a restaurant, this place badly needs a bar area, as through the evening there were groups of people milling around the narrow hallway waiting to be seated or indeed to be seen at the erratically manned (actually womanned) reception desk. The dining room is cosy enough with some eccentric paintings, but the food is actually very good.

Fried catfish with mild chilli sauce (15/20) had very nicely cooked fish and a piquant sauce. Pumpkin soup was superb, maybe the best single dish we ate in New Orleans on this trip. It had great intensity and could have come from the kitchens of a serious French restaurant (17/20). Blackened tuna was 15/20, served with the usual over-the-top selection of vegetables that one gets used to in the US (five different vegetables appeared). Both home-made vanilla ice cream (15/20) and banana bread pudding (16/20) were unusually capable desserts in a town where this aspect of the meal often disappoints. Service was friendly and competent.