LA · Lunch
The 10 best lunch spots in New Orleans.
A good lunch gets two hours of your afternoon back. A bad one costs three and you spend it wishing you'd eaten at your desk. Harry has done the triage: only places that are actually open at lunchtime, ranked by Harry Score.
Lunch in New Orleans is a different meal entirely. The debris po'boy from the place that has existed since your parents were young. The cup of red beans and rice that costs four dollars at the counter of a diner nobody has photographed for Instagram. A city this good at cooking should be your best lunch of the year.
How Harry ranks lunch
A great dinner restaurant is not automatically a great lunch.| Weekday lunch | Open by 12:30 and still open at 2pm on at least three weekdays, going by the listed hours. A dinner room that opens at six doesn't qualify, however good it is. |
|---|---|
| Harry Score 70+ | The same composite as everywhere else, from Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor and critic signals, adjusted for tourist skew. Seventy is the floor. |
| Lunch prices | Top-price-tier rooms, tasting menus, bars and anything Harry rates paying for the scene are left out. Lunch shouldn't cost dinner prices. |
Harry's ten — New Orleans
Ranked by Harry Score.- 01Izzat
french — 407 Iberville St, New Orleans
5.0 across 1.4k Google reviews; fairly priced for what it is.
Smart SpendHarry
93
Worth It
81
- 02Pho Dó
vietnamese — 1612 St Charles Ave, New Orleans
4.9 across 210 Google reviews, and Yelp lands in the same place; priced about right for what you get.
Smart SpendHarry
92
Worth It
81
- 03Salsa
latin-american · mexican — 400 N Broad St, New Orleans
4.5 across 560 Tripadvisor reviews; fairly priced for what it is.
Smart SpendHarry
92
Worth It
81
- 04Magazine Masala Indian Kitchen
indian · south-indian — 3100 Magazine St, New Orleans
5.0 across 148 Yelp reviews, and Google lands in the same place; fairly priced for what it is.
Smart SpendHarry
91
Worth It
81
- 05Nanami Sushi Diner & Onigiri
sushi · japanese — 2901 Magazine St, New Orleans
4.9 across 174 Google reviews; ranked #21 of 2,215 locally on Tripadvisor.
Harry
90
Worth It
80
- 06Salted Pearl (inside St. Roch Market)
2381 St Claude Ave, New Orleans
4.9 across 426 Google reviews, and Yelp lands in the same place; a sensible spend, nothing wasted here.
Harry
90
Worth It
80
- 07Lagos Tacos Ebenezer
mexican — James Street, New Orleans
4.8 across 71 Google reviews, and Tripadvisor lands in the same place; unusually good for what you'll pay.
Great ValueHarry
89
Worth It
82
- 08Cochon Butcher
american — 930 Tchoupitoulas St Ste B, New Orleans
4.5 across 4.8k Yelp reviews, and Tripadvisor lands in the same place; Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide.
Harry
89
Worth It
80
- 09Lost Coyote Restaurant
1614 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans
4.9 across 202 Google reviews; fairly priced for what it is.
Caveat: Only Google has weighed in so far — a single source, so read the score as provisional.
Harry
89
Worth It
80
- 10Olive
middle-eastern — 339 Carondelet St, New Orleans
4.8 across 1.8k Google reviews, and Yelp lands in the same place; ranked #293 of 2,215 locally on Tripadvisor.
Harry
89
Worth It
80
How this list is built Places across New Orleans with a Harry Score of 70 or more that serve weekday lunch: on their listed hours they're open by 12:30 and still open at 2pm on at least three weekdays. Tasting-menu rooms, bars and anything Harry rates paying for the scene are left out. Chains with several branches get one entry. Ranked by Harry Score. No restaurant pays to appear. Scores last recomputed .