Everywhere to Get Lunch in New Orleans

Some places are fast and casual, perfect for a workday bite, while others invite you to sit a little longer and enjoy the atmosphere. What ties them together is consistency and character.

These are the lunch spots people rely on, whether they’re locals on a tight schedule or visitors looking for something memorable. Here are the places that deliver good food, fair portions, and an experience that feels true to New Orleans without overcomplicating things.

Lunch in New Orleans is special: Some of the city’s best flavors can be had during a midday meal, classic po’ boys packed with fried seafood, corner spots serving rich gumbo, and neighborhood restaurants turning out fresh Vietnamese or Creole dishes. Some places are fast and casual, perfect for a workday bite, while others invite you to sit a little longer and enjoy the atmosphere.

What ties them together is consistency and character. These are the lunch spots people rely on, whether they’re locals on a tight schedule or visitors looking for something memorable.

Here are the places that deliver good food, fair portions, and an experience that feels true to New Orleans without overcomplicating things.

Frady's One Stop Food Store

Off-beat decor, longtime characters, and classic New Orleans eats define this Bywater corner spot. Known for po’ boys, muffulettas, and daily lunch plates like red beans and rice, jambalaya and catfish, and more, it’s a longtime essential for a mid-day meal.

No seating inside, but the sidewalk tables make for great people-watching.

Tan Dinh Restaurant

Head over to Gretna for flavorful Vietnamese classics and a few surprises.

The menu is massive, but when you finally decide on your order, the food will come out fast. Lemongrass chicken wings, pho, and vermicelli bowls are favorites, as is the goat curry.

But don’t sleep on the frog legs, served crisp and tender with vibrant lime, salt, and pepper. With plenty of seating and a lively atmosphere, Tân Định is a great place to go with a group and share, family style.

Cochon Butcher

It’s hard to go wrong at this Cochon annex, where Link Group shows off its incredible charcuterie skills and even more incredible sandwiches.

The muffuletta is one of the best in town, but it’s hard to go wrong with anything from a Cubano to a serving of boudin.

Li'l Dizzy's Cafe

Stepping into Li’l Dizzy’s at lunchtime is likely to brighten your day, when you’re met with a bustling dining room, friendly owners, and happy customers.

Choose from fried catfish and chicken, gumbo and red beans, and po’ boys, all high quality and affordable.

Galatoire's

This Bourbon Street landmark is famous for its Friday lunch, where the drinks are strong and the menu is bursting with classics — oysters Rockefeller, eggs Sardou, Galatoire Goute, pompano with crabmeat.

Show up early to snag a table (and bring a jacket, gentlemen).

Lilly's Cafe

This LGD staple is where numerous locals go to get their lunchtime pho fill.

Many consider the broth here to be the best in town, but the menu is also home to numerous Vietnamese classics that won’t break the bank.

Turkey And The Wolf

This nationally acclaimed sandwich spot in the LGD might be New Orleans’s best lunch destination to open in the past decade.

Distinctive eats like hogshead cheese tacos, a fried bologna sandwich, specials, and perhaps best of all, the collard green melt — slow-cooked collards, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and cherry pepper dressing served hot on rye — make this an essential lunch visit for locals and tourists alike. Just be prepared for a line, and try the Mountain Dew-tinged frozen margarita if it’s that kind of day.

Stein's Market and Deli

A majority of Stein’s customers know their order before they go in, lest they get skipped over in line. There’s not much seating at this sandwich icon — a few more tables are outside on Magazine — but most people grab and go anyways, eager to savor a Rachel, Reuben, and any of the other fantastic sandwiches in the privacy of their own home (or car).

Chicken’s Kitchen

Chicken’s Kitchen is worth the drive across the river to Harvey for its soul food plate lunches. There might be a line, but it moves quickly, especially if you have your order ready.

Pick your meat and sides and you’ll be walking out (or sitting down) with a hefty, satisfying meal in no time, all for under $20. The menu rotates daily, featuring mains like smothered pork chops, fried chicken, turkey necks, and pepper balls.

The sides often steal the show, from the red beans and rice to the five-star mac and cheese.

Dooky Chase Restaurant

The buffet at this Treme landmark is legendary and one of the best ways to experience the late Leah Chase’s iconic restaurant.

Try it all at once — gumbo, fried chicken, fried catfish, greens, lima beans — or order from the menu, which also includes salads, po’ boys, shrimp Clemenceau, and stuffed shrimp.

Cafe Reconcile

Cafe Reconcile serves up the some of the very best versions of Louisiana comfort food for lunch in New Orleans, like red beans and rice with smoked sausage, fried chicken, or fried catfish; smothered turkey necks; and shrimp po’ boys. Daily specials are a highlight, like the paneed pork loin on Tuesday and the white beans with shrimp on Thursday.

The welcoming, art-filled setting in Central City also doubles as a highly-regarded job training program for teens and young adults, led by the incomparable Martha Wiggins.

Liuzza's by the Track

This horse tracks-adjacent neighborhood bar got its start in 1936, later evolving into a quintessential lunch restaurant and the unofficial gathering place for Jazz Fest.

It’s best known for the garlic oyster po’ boy and barbecue shrimp po’ boy, both offering slight twists on the classics.

Commander's Palace

This Garden District beauty made famous by renowned restaurateur Ella Brennan has been known for its twenty-five cent lunch martinis since introducing the promotion in the 1990s.

For food, chef Meg Bickford offers an affordable three-course prix-fixe special for $48 (or two courses for half that), featuring the restaurant’s most famous dishes: turtle soup, lacquered quail, and bread pudding soufflé. The courtyard is always a nice daytime setting.

Parkway Bakery & Tavern

This Bayou St.

John po’ boy staple is a favorite among locals and tourists in the know. The fried shrimp is a classic, but it’s the Thanksgiving po’ boy that has locals lining up around the block in November.

Bonus: Excellent Reuben and gumbo.

Toups Meatery

If meat is what you’re after, head to this casual Cajun eatery in Mid City from chef Isaac Toups, where the chef’s lunch (boudin, burger, and a beer) is a feast and the house signatures, like confit chicken thigh and the double cut pork chop with dirty rice, are not to be overlooked. The patio makes for a pleasant lunch setting.

Katie’s Restaurant & Bar

This laid-back, neighborhood joint in Mid City mixes New Orleans classics with Italian comfort fare.

You can never go wrong with house favorites like the crab cakes or crawfish beignets, or choose from the crowd-pleasing assortment of po’boys, pastas, and pizzas,. The food is consistently good, and the daily specials keep things interesting if you visit often.

It’s a friendly, welcoming space where you’ll leave well-fed, and uplifted too.

La Petite Grocery

Justin Devillier’s Magazine Street gem is built for business lunches.

From its elegant storefront to its cozy, dimly lit dining room, La Petite Grocery is a charmer. Don’t miss the turtle Bolognese or blue crab beignets, which were some of the first to pop up on fine dining menus in the city and are now a common small plate.

Casamento's Restaurant

At the narrow, bustling Casamento’s, oyster-shuckers have been holding court since 1919, when this family-owned oyster classic opened.

Besides raw oysters, Casamento’s is best known for its oyster loaf (like a fried oyster po’ boy, but on toasted, thick, white sandwich bread); and its Creole style gumbo, lighter in color and flavor and filled with tomatoes and okra. NOTE: Casamento’s closes annually from Memorial Day through September 19, as tradition dictates.

Pascal's Manale

This birthplace of New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp, Pascal’s Manale opened in 1913. Today, it’s a lunchtime destination for its friendly oyster bar, laid-back attitude, and old-school atmosphere.

The High Hat Cafe

Relaxed, bright, and friendly, High Hat offers a taste of Louisiana cuisine in a relaxed Uptown setting.

Daily lunch specials, po’ boys, and favorites like rich, dark gumbo; fried catfish with cornbread and greens; and pimento mac and cheese rule the day, but the menu also holds some surprises and the bar serves excellent cocktails.

Queen Trini Lisa

The island soul food restaurant from chef Lisa Nelson has solidified its essential status in New Orleans, particularly for a light but satisfying lunch in a pretty, mellow setting. The colorful corner restaurant Trinbagonian specialties like a coco fried fish sandwich, oxtail soup, curry chicken, and Caribbean-style spinach all standouts.

Delicious doubles served with three tangy, fresh sauces are Nelson’s specialties.

• Order delivery from Grubhub
• 4200 D'Hemecourt St, New Orleans, LA 70119, USA
• (504) 345-2058
• Visit website

St. James Cheese Company

This cheese shop has dominated the casual lunch game since opening in 2007 with a menu of sandwiches featuring cheeses from French brie (on a baguette with ham) to Rogue River’s Smokey Blue (with thin sliced roast beef), not to mention a Ploughman’s Lunch of cheeses, paté, chutney, a green salad, and bread. Both locations also offer some of the best entree salads in town.

Domilise's Po-Boys

Domilise’s is a po’ boy institution dating back to 1918, and what many consider the classic po’ boy operation in New Orleans.

It’s an incredibly delicious hole-in-the-wall experience, where you can’t go wrong with a fried shrimp or oyster, dressed.