Brigtsen's Restaurant — Restaurant in New Orleans

Brightsen’s has to be in the top three of my favorite places to dine. Since I travel for a living, I admittedly discriminate when it come to restaurants, and Brightsen’s always fits the bill of outstanding places to eat. If you find yourself in New Orleans, this will be a traditional experience, and a cut even with the most excellent restaurants here. I’ve had the pleasure of dining here twice, the first time being met at the door by Frank Brightsen himself. What a nice, friendly, down-to-earth native who has developed his own artistry into the culinary experience. He follows in the tradition of Paul Prudhomme...rightfully so since Frank spent many years with Paul as an intern, then a night chef, then as an executive chef before finally opening his own restaurant in a quaint old house in 1986. As for the food...WOW. Soft shell crab is THE dish to have; served lightly fried with brown butter and pecans. I’ve had this dish only once, EVER...and it was here. And it was beyond delicious. Probably delectable. Prepared beautifully, served impeccably, consumed with great pleasure. This past Wednesday evening, we dined at Brightsen’s for the second time, first ordering the breaded catfish and remoulade as an appetizer. Simply delicious, and wuite filling, this could have been a meal in itself. The catfish was beautifully flaky and not “fishy,” and the remoulade was a perfect accompaniment...so tasty, and whetted me up for the main course. I next ordered a beef filet served with twice baked potato and roasted vegetables. While the entire plate was quite good, I wished quickly that I had ordered one of the specialties. The steak was cooked perfectly, though the dirty sauce was a bit over salted, and the vegetables unremarkable. The twice baked potato, though, was outstanding...creamy yet fluffy, and seasoned perfectly with a slightly crunchy skin. My colleague enjoyed the grilled ahi, and enjoyed it immensely. The real top off came with desert...pecan pie. Probably THE quintessential definition of how pecan pie should be...buttery, sinfully sweet, with slightly roasty-salty pecans. Frank takes it over the top with a perfectly prepared liquidy caramel sauce lining the desert plate. Be prepared to be rolled out...because the food with desert is nearly too much. cannot finish this without an inclusion regarding the service at Brightsen’s. Each time I have been, I have been greeted with enthusiasm and a cheery conversation, then introduced to nothing less than professional hospitality displayed by the servers and wait staff. It takes someone special to enjoy their work as a server, and ALL of the support staff at Brightsen’s really do want to make sure that your entire experience is enjoyed. A very fine experience indeed. I’ll return again and again...as a required visit while in New Orleans. Thank you, Frank Brightsen for your artistry, your integrity in holding faithful to local sources, your life changing experiences that you share with us lowly eaters, and your delicate hand in...

Brightsen’s was cooking that felt cozy and homey with professional techniques. This was down to earth food with deeply flavored sauces and richly spices. Not everything hit it out of the park, but we enjoyed many items here. We were sat in the hallway which on one hand allowed us to have a quieter and more personally setting and on the other hand had us looking down the barrel to either the stream of people entering or the bathroom.

-Butternut Shrimp Bisque: a thick creamy soup that mixes the squash flavor with a bit of salty umami of shrimp. This cup is all soup no bits of shrimp. Really nice way to start the meal. -Lenten seafood gumbo: each piece of shrimp was the perfect texture. Came with a jumbo oyster as well. Highly recommend. Broth had earthy flavors and was well seasoned. -New Orleans BBQ Shrimp: the sauce alone was so tangy and peppery. Suspect it is a buttery base with Worcester sauce. So so so good. The creole rice fritter was also a nice carb to soak up the sauce. Honestly was just having spoonfuls of the sauce at the end. Highly recommend! Veal sweetbreads: this was a fun, gamey dish with a soft texture that melts in your mouth. The lemon roasted garlic butter nicely paired with the flavors of the sweetbreads. I don’t know if I would order this again, but it was really fun to try. -Broiled Gulf Fish with Crab Crust & Lemon Crab Sauce: I wanted to like this more. I think because of the punchy flavors of the last four dishes, this one didn’t sing as loudly as the others. It was a well cooked fish with basic vegetable and mashed potato side. I would want to try other dishes. -Butterscotch Bread Pudding: pretty good. Solid choice. Hard competition against the other dessert we picked. -Pecan Pie: easily the best dish of the night. This may be my favorite rendition of pecan pie I have ever had and I personally love pecan pie. This pecan pie wasn’t sickly sweet. The pie crust was flakey and had the perfectly baked texture of hard to make pie crust. It seemed like there were two layers of the filling: a thin layer of the thicker sweeter filling and then a second thicker layer of candied pecans clustered together. By not having it all be the sugary pecan pie filling, it elevated the slice and made it more balanced between sweet, salty, and nutty. You must get...

A Chef's Review New Orleans has been a, "bucket list," city of mine for many years, having had the good fortune to experience some of the great restuarants in both Europe and around the globe. U.S. regional cuisine, and Cajun/Creole, have been part of our storied culture, with Louisiana being the hub. On my first night in Brigsten's was my introduction to restuarants I picked to sample the fare of the region. I am glad to report it did not dissapoint. Tucked away in a local neighborhood, I came across a home, reminisient of a friend's restaurant back home, which was relaxing, as the charm of the old home adorned with regional paintings from various periods local histroy, and other articafts spotted the rooms. I selected Brigsten's for the interesting looking menu, featuring appetizers such as, shrimp, with deviled eggs, a spicy remoulade, avacado, and a crisp lettuces, which combined all the elements of creamy, acidity, crispy, along with wonderful flavors. I also ordered the catfish app., which normally I'm not the biggest fan of deep fried catfish, prefering it, bronzed, or blackened. The catfish itself was so flavorful and the way it was deep fried, it almost floated off the plate, it was so light and fluffy. Marvelous!!!! The shrimp bisque that followed, was simply flawless, silky smooth and an absolute delight. The entree that evening was a striped bass, which did have a bit of an iodine taste, which comes from fish, (or shrimp too), ingestiing algae or fish ingesting shrimp, and it not having time to dissapate. Anyway...The rest of the plate was very nicely done and the pecan pie for desert, (a house specialty), was the best I've ever had. The service was super attentive, also, dead-on proper and my server knew exactly what he was doing. The table is re-set with silver after some courses, so it's not cluttered, plus your not guessing which utensil to use. If you're out for dinner and want to have a wonderful meal, with stellar service, in a great setting, I could not recommend Brigsten's as a must go, enough. Bon...