Sammy's Food Service and Deli - New Orleans, LA

Sammy's was a neighborhood restaurant that served their food cafeteria style. It was a pretty nice place but definitely fit the category somewhere between diner and dive.

Service was good if not a bit slow.  They must not make your meal until you order.  I'm not sure if that is not just a laid back NOLA thing because the patrons didn't seem to be in any big rush either.  People were hanging out at their tables forever.

I saw what looked like a Flintstones brontosaurus rib being carried by my table.  I asked one of the people working there.  She said it was a short rib order and seemed to get excited about how good it was.  I believe her.  I'm going to try that next time if they still have it.

They seemed to have a lot of specials.  I ordered the ultimate roast beef po' boy special with  a side of cornbread dressing.  The roast beef was more like roast beef and gravy plus some kind of creamy onion sauce.  No sense in over-thinking it.  It was a really good, calorie intensive sandwich.  I'm writing this as I'm skipping dinner to try and keep my daily caloric intake for the day to a four-digit number.  I got it "dressed" which means with lettuce, tomato and pickle.  Only I ordered it without pickles.  You can see from the photo that someone was clearly messing with me because they put the Godzilla of pickles on my plate anyway.  The po' boy bread was average.

The cornbread dressing was what you would expect if you grew up in the south.  (I didn't) It was kind of like Thanksgiving dressing only with the cornbread base instead of a bread base.  There were some trace cajun flavors in there as well but, I couldn't quite put my finger on them.  It was nice and moist, too.  The Texas cornbread salad they call it is usually pretty dry.  I like the moist version much better.

I'm guessing that they're known for their fried chicken. I'd say 80% of the other patrons including the skinny people were eating the fried chicken.

Overall, I'd say that Sammy's was good.  I'd rate it an 8.3.

Sammy's Food Service and Deli
3000 Elysian Fields Ave
New Orleans, LA 70122
504 947-0675

Café Du Monde - New Orleans, LA

The Café Du Monde is going to be the first place that I go to every time that I visit New Orleans for now on.  It is an absolute "must visit" destination in my opinion.  It is not really a restaurant so much as it is a traditional cafe where coffee is primary on the menu and everything else is optional.

The coffee is smooth, flavorful, rich and has a heavy viscosity.   You feel like you are really getting your money's worth.  From their web site, I learned that the secret to their special coffee formula is that they add chicory.  They learned this trick from the Acadians from Nova Scotia around the Civil War time.  The chicory takes the bitter edge off of coffee and gives it a chocolate flavor.

In the case of Café Du Monde, the baignets are the co-stars of the show.  Baignets are little French doughnut like pastries buried beneath a blanket of powdered sugar.  It is like what you would expect from a cafe in France; you feel like the quality of the pasties is one of a kind.  In the case of France, they are all exceptionally good. 

Café Du Monde is not a triple-D restaurant.   I don't think that it would make sense for Guy to visit here anyway because the menu is very basic.  There is no cooking per se going on here.  It is coffee brewing and doughnut baking.  

The atmosphere is really something extra special.  It is an outdoor cafe right in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  So, you get to experience the beat of New Orleans while you are sipping some really good coffee and licking the powdered sugar off of your fingers. 

I'll give the Café Du Monde a 9.8 out of 10  because the experience is great, the coffee quality is great.  I really enjoyed it.

Café Du Monde
800 Decatur St
New Orleans, LA 70116
(504) 525-4544
www.cafedumonde.com