FEAST ON THE CITY’S TOP DINING DESTINATIONS
PAT’S OF HENDERSON reopened last year after suffering major damage from hurricanes in 2020. The rebuild offers an elegant new space but the same beloved menu of Louisiana dishes. Start with fried alligator, crab cakes, boiled crab claws or gumbo variations (shrimp and okra, chicken and sausage, crawfish, or seafood brimming with crab, shrimp and crawfish). For dinner, you can’t go wrong with the house’s famous fried seafood platter, stuffed red snapper, or Pat’s family recipe étouffée.
Address: 1500 Siebarth
Hours: 4-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Find them online: patsofhenderson.com
It’s easy to see why MAZEN’S is among the city’s top restaurants. The place feels like a special occasion destination — diners appear rather gussied up — with its spare but charming dining rooms and gracious service. The menu is Louisiana at heart but with Mediterranean influence. Appetizers include broiled oysters, grilled quail, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, beef carpaccio, crawfish bisque or seafood gumbo. Entrées might be steaks, rack of lamb, Veal Oscar and roasted duck. But locals appreciate the daily selection of fresh fish finished in a dozen different ways, including Natchez (with pecans and brown meunière), Rose (with roasted pepper sauce and fried oysters), Biscayne (shrimp, artichoke hearts and jalapeño) and the superlative Aladdin
( jumbo lump crab and a saffron lemon butter sauce).
Address: 217 W. College
Hours: Lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday (hours vary); dinner 5-9 p.m. Monday and 5-10 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday
Find them online: mazens.com
The 2019 merger of the Harlequin and the Villa restaurants resulted in the VILLA HARLEQUIN, set in a charming historic building in downtown. Chef Amanda Cusey oversees the menu that is a loving merger of signatures from both restaurants — Italian steakhouse traditions with French and Creole influences. For customers that translates to dishes such a duo of crab, prosecco and spinach risotto with fried oysters, barbecue shrimp, crab and crawfish arancini, gnocchi with seafood and shellfish cream sauce, tagliatelle with beef tenderloin tips and mushroom cream, veal piccata, steaks and a surf and turf of hanger steak topped with lump crab and crawfish in a spicy white wine cream sauce.
Address: 324 Pujo
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; dinner 5-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
Find them online: thevillaharlequin.com