Antoine's

I don't advise you read this if you are hungry.

Introduction

Walking around the French Quarter with our food tour guide Matt, he stopped to point out Antoine's restaurant. Our whole group was visibly impressed when he said this was the oldest family run restaurant in America! Opened in 1840, the family had kept this business generation after generation, and as years passed and buildings on the block went up for sale, Antoine's would purchase them, enlarging their operation.

I thought back to a trip to Boston where I ate in the Union Oyster House, the #1 oldest continuous running restaurant in the country (since 1826). We thought it was much more impressive that the same people had ran Antoine's since 1840 - talk about pressure to go into the family business. Tour guide Matt said the food was top notch and expensive, and since the building consisted of so many different rooms from all the purchases over the years, if we dined there, make sure to ask for a tour before you depart.

Always Check the Hours

Well Nate and I instantly loved the idea of seeing and eating at Antoine's. We knew it would be pricey and ended up waiting until our last week in N'awlins aka New Orleans. So on Monday, January 30th, 2023 of our last week, as we started to think of what we would do Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - we remembered Antoine's. We were going back and forth on Tuesday or Wednesday. Thankfully - because we really don't usually do this - we checked their hours. Antoine's is CLOSED Tuesdays and Wednesdays! I guess if we had found out too late we would have saved a lot of money but we really wanted to eat here. We wanted to call and make reservations but the store is also closed from 2-5 and it was currently 4ish.

Getting Ready

At 5:02 I called to make a reservation, which only being two people they let us know they had availability at 6:45. They asked for a name and phone number which I figured was for if we were late and they wanted to reach us, so I gave it to them. So we started to get ready to go, we made sure to look nice as we had seen very dressed up people going in and out before. Good thing we did, because turns out there is a dress code - business casual, and men are not allowed to wear t-shirts, athletic shorts, or flip flops, and collared shirts are required.

We actually found free parking in the French Quarter which we didn't ever dream to be possible! Then I found out the school I teach remotely at during the week, had just called a snow day so now there was no school the next day! We were in high spirits and had 45 minutes before our reservation, so we enjoyed walking around.

Smart or Not?

Before, we had always thought ourselves clever by purchasing beverages or snacks from the market store for good prices. This plan allowed us to save our money by not buying expensive food/drinks at other establishments that charge high. It had worked so well during our time here, and we were about to go to the most expensive restaurant we had ever eaten at, so why not? I will tell you why not. We were not going to fill up on food so that we had an appetite, so we decided to fill up on drinks. Well, I would advise people to be mindful of what kinds of beverages they consume before they have to go and make a bunch of financial decisions in a very expensive place. Although as I write this, if we had been stingier and not ordered certain things we would have lost out on the experience of trying the things we did and we have no regrets........so maybe it was a good thing??

Arrival

So we arrive at Antoine's right at 6:45. The inside is full of people, there are clearly events taking place in some rooms and we have to enter through the bar entrance. We go in and excitedly say, "Reservation for two at 6:45 under Amanda," and the friendly host checks his list and responds, "I don't see a reservation for Amanda."

We are confused, as is the host. He checks again while asking, did you receive your text confirmation? I hadn't - I explained that I was not accustomed to expecting a text confirmation after a reservation, I didn't know to look for one. We were a little worried but stayed very calm to wait and see how this would play out. I was pulling up my phone record and explained I just placed the call at 5:03 and read off their phone number to him which he knew was correct. He told us it would be no problem and not to worry, while this was weird they would make sure we got a table right away. And right away they did! We followed a hostess through the tiny bar area through a doorway which opened into a humongous and open dining room.

This is not my picture (it is from Trip Advisor), as we were busy being dazzled by the atmosphere. Also it was mostly full when we walked in. We walked in right from the point of view from this picture, and to the table for 2 in front of that column in the middle of the room. It is covered with signed pictures of recognizable people who have eaten there.

The Menu

Why tell when I could show? I took a picture (so that I could always remember the dessert we ordered and that was a good move), but you can see what Antoine's offers and for what prices. Although this is not the full menu - you can see that here: https://antoines.com/menu

At first there was so much to look at - the room, how fancy everyone looked, the signed photos on the wall, and the menu had so many fancy sounding things. Our server, Dewayne was bringing us water and bread/butter while we took it all in. Then another server came over, and she said she would be helping Dewayne take care of us. She asked if we would like to hear about the menu and we said yes. She launched into some incredible descriptions of things we hadn't seriously considered and she ended up changing our minds about what to get.

Selections

After hearing about their oysters, and how the Rockefeller oyster recipe had originated in Antoine's and any others we encountered in the French Quarter were knockoffs, we ordered 3 Rockefeller and 3 Charbroiled oysters as an appetizer ($18).

The Rockefellers are the dark ones and the Charbroiled are the speckled ones - they tasted like garlic parmesan almost. Also pictured is the Asparagus bisque.

Nate got the winter dinner special, a first course of Asparagus Bisque and second course of Jalapeno Pepper Jelly Glazed Pork Chop. This special was $52, or $70 if you wanted the wine pairing with it - which we did. I ordered the Pompano Pontchartrain ($46) thanks to the waitress making it sound so good. Pompano is a fish that swims in the Gulf, and while I thought Pontchartrain had to do with the nearby lake, the restaurant claims it is the term they use for crabmeat. So Pompano Pontchartrain is this fish from the gulf served with shredded crab meat on top. I'm starting to feel hungry just thinking about it.

The Meal

Each serving of food delighted us in presentation and taste. We were so excited throughout the entire meal and of course we shared all the dishes (we always try to pick 2 meals that both of us want), so we got to try everything! We ate everything on our plates, stuffed but somehow unable to leave any leftovers.

And the wine! We enjoy taking what we have learned from wine tours in New York and from our time in Italy and being able to appreciate wines more now. We would swirl the wine and look for the "legs" from the wine coming down the glass - and we stared in amazement at the slowest moving legs we had ever seen. We were laughing out loud. The wine was delicious, we tried a red and a white, Nate preferred the white while I preferred the red - but we both agreed that both tasted incredible. And we did not forget to "chew" the wine to get even more out of the flavor!

Dessert?

When asked about dessert, I remarked on how full I was, but Nate mentioned that I had been eyeing a dessert called the Baked Alaska because it sounded so interesting. It took less than a second for me to agree that we would look at the dessert menu. Upon seeing the Baked Alaska would cost us another $24, we took a look at the other options. We noticed the Meringue Glacee had vanilla ice cream, meringue, and hot fudge like the Baked Alaska, it was just missing the pound cake, but it was $11 so we went with that.

The Baked Alaska on the left is what we thought we wanted - we didn't realize how large it was until we saw others order it. On the right is the Meringue Glacee which we ordered.

Well I cannot fathom that anything could have tasted better than this. Nate and I now feel almost cursed with the memory of how incredible the meringue was mixed with the other ingredients. It came with the vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, and also strawberries and what must have been the meringue had a similar consistency as astronaut food would have. The main difference being astronaut food does not taste delicious in my humble opinion, and this meringue was what made the entire dish. We savored every bite in disbelief and scraped every bit we could off the plate with our spoons. At this point we felt any amount we saw on the bill would be well worth it.

The Bill

Well maybe you have already done the math, and all the wine we drank was $18 each. When the bill was dropped off, we had spent $163 exactly. Plus $17 in tax made a total of $180. We had hoped it would be under $200 so we felt accomplished with this. But of course that is before a tip. Before Dewayne walked away, we asked about being able to look around the restaurant before we left and he said he would give us a tour of the place! Well with service as high quality as that, we made sure to tip well, so our final total came in over $200.

The Tour

When everything was settled, Dewayne asked if we were ready to go, and we excitedly got up to follow him. We had been told that Antoine's had expanded into the nearby buildings but what I had imagined was not what we saw. Every room and hallway had framed memorabilia or glass displays with artifacts inside, showing off history of the restaurant and the area. It was like a restaurant museum! They had rooms with different themes, and we enjoyed the hallway filled with pictures of past Mardi Gras kings, even as far back to 1893 (as in the picture).

Next enjoy some videos/images that we took on the tour!

One of the rooms in the restaurant.

Another room in the restaurant.

The wine cellar, behind a dungeon looking door.

On the left shows a picture I took of a newspaper article that was hanging up in the bathroom. The right is a picture of the snail room! We were bewildered that a snail room even existed, but Antoine's was started by a Frenchman so perhaps it has to do with snails being a part of French cuisine?

On the left is just a picture of Nate checking out the cannon they keep in the restaurant! The right is a display of Antoine's menus over the years!

Dewayne showed us around the main dining room to highlight some of the most famous people on the wall. We would be looking around the patrons who were currently eating their dinner, expressing we were sorry to intrude, and they would respond in amazement that they hadn't even noticed the famous people behind them and were glad Dewayne had come by with us to point them out.

Pictures from when the Pope visited and General Patton! I had just learned about Patton in the past month with our visit to WW2 museum so it was cool to see him on the wall!

J Edgar Hoover on the left and Reagan and Clinton on the right. We also were sitting right next to a signed photo of Jimmy Carter at our table.

10/10 Would Recommend

Obviously our pocketbooks took a hit, could we have skimped on the oysters/wine/dessert? Sure. Do we wish we had? Absolutely not. The history aspect of this place exceeded every expectation which was the main draw for us. You would hope if the meal is that expensive, the food and service is worthy of such prices and we can say both undoubtably were. This was something we figured we would spend a ton of money to do once and remember forever, however now we want to return someday just for that dessert so I do believe we will find ourselves in Antoine's again! As always, don't hesitate to reach out with any questions, comments, or advice!