Recommended by a friend: Pêche.
Quick trip to New Orleans for a meeting and needed a spot for dinner the night before. I got a reservation at the last minute….so the stars were aligned and it was also within walking distance from my hotel! This is one of several restaurants owned by the Link Group which also includes Herbsaint and Cochon, among others. Looking at the list and the chefs involved, most of whom have had James Beard’s awards of some type in the past, I felt it would be hard to go wrong here. I wasn’t disappointed.
I started with the seafood gumbo which was classic with a dark and rich roux….more along the cajun line than creole. It was very good but my next choice was even better…..the crab claws. They were typical blue crab claws but were presented with pickled chilies which added a bit of spiciness to the dish but what really made the dish was the sweet and heavenly sauce they arrived in. Truly outstanding! Another dish that had me wishing it was polite to drink from a bowl.
My main was one of the daily fish specials, the grilled cobia. Before I describe the dish let me just say….outstanding! It was grilled on a wood fired grill and arrived plated on red rice with bacon and crispy okra all topped with a slightly spicy and tart lime vinaigrette. A truly marvelous concoction of fish and unique flavors. The wine choice…a dry and tart rosé from Provence.
Finished the meal with a classic key lime pie and a sauterne. The sauterne was a bit more bold that the usual…think a vin santo, but in retrospect considering the sweetness of the pie, a better choice would have been a port or other fortified wine. The sauterne just didn’t hold up it’s end of the bargain.
Service was excellent and the space is large if a bit loud.
It was, like many restaurants in New Orleans, carved out of an old warehouse and rumor has it Jefferson Davis was embalmed upstairs!
