Good Eats in New Orleans? What should not be missed?

Very High End Creole cuisine: Commander's Palace

MY FAVORITE: Higher end Creole & Cajun-French cuisine:  K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen

Beignets and Coffee: Café du Monde

Brunch: Muriel's Jackson Square, Court of Two Sisters or Brennan's Restaurant

Burger: Yo Mama's Bar and Grill

Casual Old Soda Fountain/ Grill: The Camellia Grill

Mid range cajun-french: Jacques-Imo's and NOLA Restaurant

Cocktails and Jazz Music: Davenport Lounge Wed.-Sat. night

Italian: Irene's Cuisine

Café du Monde for coffee and beignets- the perfect Saturday morning, Borgne, Luke Restaurant, SoBou, The Rum House's nachos- the best I've ever had in my life, Lilly's Café for Vietnamese, Cochon Restaurant, Herbsaint, Jaques-Imo's. You can't go wrong with any of those!

Our favorite restaurants were La Petite Grocery for contemporary, Commander's Palace for high-end and historic, Arnaud's Restaurant for fancy and historic, Cochon Butcher for muffulettas, Gumbo Shop for gumbo, and Parkway Bakery & Tavern for po'boys.  Our favorite cocktail places were 21st Amendment Bar at La Louisiane for music and fun cocktails, Bourbon "O" Bar for craft cocktails, and Carousel Bar for historic cocktails and getting to sit at a rotating bar.

The hardest thing will be trying to sample as much as possible in a weekend!  We spent a week in NOLA and didn't get to try as much as we wanted.

I wrote a few articles about New Orleans food and cocktails which you might enjoy looking at to help with your planning.

http://www.katherinebelarmino.com/2015/02/15-traditional-new-orleans-foods.html

http://www.passportsandcocktails.com/2015/07/15-drinks-to-try-in-new-orleans.html

http://www.passportsandcocktails.com/2015/02/new-orleans-best-hotel-bars.html

http://www.katherinebelarmino.com/2015/01/new-orleans-music.html

Quick weekends and NOLA don't work... too many choices!  Get some wormwood at Old Absinthe House for a unique cocktail.  GW Fins is a great restaurant in the French Quarter, but you need to narrow you're search for more specific ideas.  

I'm here right now and have been here for several days eating and drinking and biking my way around the city.  I tend to not do the touristy stuff with the exception of Commander's Palace for a boozy lunch.  If you want to eat ridiculously and with the locals, here is what I recommend:

• Cake Cafe & Bakery for an amazing breakfast or brunch.  Open almost every day and early, I had the biscuits with sausage and gravy one day and the shrimp and grits the other.  Holy moly.  Skip the cupcake--meh.  Adorable place filled with neighborhood people.  MARIGNY
  
• Toast for breakfast or brunch.  I'm sorry to report I had MORE biscuits and gravy and these blew my socks off.  My friend had delicious avocado and poached egg on toast.  UPTOWN.
  
• St Roch Market for one of the best coffees in the city.  And then a great place to stop in first for the night and have a glass of wine and some oysters before moving on for dinner.  It's a bunch of upscale food stalls serving different food with a bar and lots of tables mixed around.  Hip, lively and a great mix of people from the neighborhood.  ST. ROCH
• We had lots of incredible, inexpensive dinners in the back of the MARIGNY bars such as Lost Love Lounge and Siberia.
• Avery's On Tulane was a nice surprise thanks to Yelp as it ended up having the only Po Boy of the few I've had that I could recommend.  We also had awesome gumbo there.  Low key place near TULANE.
• Cochon Butcher for a muffuletta.  I thought theirs was the best.  WAREHOUSE DISTRICT.
  
• Three Muses is a great place for dinner and music.  It's on FRENCHMAN st which has gotten a little cray-cray a la Bourbon St, gut this restaurant remains delicious and a great place to partake of the Frenchman's vibe without being overwhelmed.
  
• Of the prototypical New Orleans creole/cajun places in the Quarter, I like Muriel's Jackson Square the best.
• Willie Mae's Scotch House in TREME for southern food, fried chicken, etc.  THe weekends get crazy, so a weekday might be better.
  
• Sylvain in the QUARTER is a chic, hip foodie Italian restaurant with a lovely backyard.

Have a great time!!!

Jacques-Imo's!!!