Fives — Restaurant in New Orleans

Classy little oyster bar that packs loads of flavor and presentation in a fun and lively atmosphere!

Tables are hard to come by, but we found one open in the corner and settled into it. The green marble horseshoe shaped bar looked like a pretty good option as well.

First things first: Cocktails. My wife ordered the Pimms Cup and I had a Hurricane. I got a sip of her Pimms Cup and it was delicious. My Hurricane was so good it’s got me dreaming about another one. If it wasn’t for those pesky 931 miles between my front door and theirs, I’d be right back down there for another… and another set of oysters… and to taste more of what they have on that quirky and eclectic menu.

The oyster selection was four from the gulf and three from up the Atlantic. We tasted them in pairs so that we could concentrate on the flavors. They were all fresh, distinctive, and first rate. My attitude about adding flavor drops to oysters (including lemon juice) depends on how many oysters I’ve got for experimentation and how good they are to begin with. We slurped them down Au Natural. But they came with a special sauce. We chose to spoon that onto saltine crackers and ate them between oysters as a palate cleanser. I’m not sure what all was in it, (I thought shallots and green peppercorns) but was delicious!

Later we ordered glasses of Albariño and shrimp cocktail. The shrimp came with a classic tomato-horseradish sauce. My wife made a comment on how nice it would be to try the shrimp with the lovely sauce that came with the oysters. (It was just a comment, not a request), but within minutes more shrimp arrived from one of the kitchen staff along with that special sauce ( a lagniappe)…. I do think that the sauce works well with the shrimp. Might need a little cornstarch to make it stick.

The whole evening, it was a pleasure to watch the staff working together as a team and they all seemed to be intent on making sure that everyone was having a good time.

On our first day in New Orleans, we had some excellent cocktails at the Dovetail Bar and met a couple of locals sipping martinis there. They wrote out a list of their favorite places for music, food, and drinks on a bar napkin. They were spot-on with everything that they recommended. Fives was at the top of...

Pricey, but worth every penny.

Situated smack dab in the middle of Jackson Square, this is an unexpected gem of a high-end cocktail bar– with fantastic food to boot– gulf oysters of a quality that will make you reconsider your views on gulf oysters. Instead of those giant flavorless oysters, these are smaller and packed with flavor. But as the review starts withy, you definitely pay for it as each oyster is $4.50-5 each. So for the same as a big mac, you get a single oyster- but oh boy is it a treat and clearly these are sourced very carefully and preciously.

But the stars of the show are the cocktails. Each one well balanced, unique, and even the classics have just that extra little bit of zhuzh to make it worth the trip. Cocktails run $13-18 each, so less than the ~$22 that a similar level of quality would command at a place like Death and Company in NYC these days.

And that's the caliber we're talking about here, so don't come in here expecting to grab a plastic cup of something to chug, this is where you go for a special experience that you are here to savor.

I wouldn't be surprised if this place ends up on some global Best Of lists in the next while.

I expect to continue to be a regular here, and in the immortal words of Fry from Futurama: "Just Shut Up and...

I was in town and looking for osyters. We had been on Bourbon Street all day. I looked up best places to go and this came up. It was 8:00pm so Everywhere we passed on the way had a line out the front including this place. People reading menus on the street and waiting to get in. We following some others into the back of the restaurant and squeezed our way in and actually found a table for four in the back. Because of how crowded it was we found another couple and asked if they wanted to sit with us. so now we are a table of four. We waited. We watched server after server pass by. I got up, went to the round bar, grabbed some menus, silverware and napkins then returned to the table. We sat longer, no one stopped. Lots of people passed by because we're right next to the hallway to the bathroom and kitchen. After about 1/2hour out table including the two we were sitting with ended up getting up and leaving. We never spoke to a restaurant employee, no one ever stopped by to give us water or even welcome us. Worst stop ever. Maybe we did something wrong by squeezing in I don't know. I will never know because no one said...