Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar in New Orleans serves classic dishes of the city inside the oldest existing building on the famed boulevard known as Canal Street, which has been “recently updated for your dining pleasure.” Located within walking distance of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel property, this restaurant “offers Cajun and Creole cuisine, serving up true southern classics and future New Orleans staples to dazzle your taste buds.”
Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar in New Orleans. Restaurant Review.
The style and architecture of the building in which Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar is located is typical New Orleans. Although the structure is not as old as the building in which the restaurant known as Briquette is located, it was built in 1921. The restaurant actually replaced an Arby’s fast food restaurant in late 2015; so it is not a legendary institution of the city.
At the time we were seated at a table, the restaurant was rather full — but we were immediately seated at a table without a reservation.
We started off with the Crab & Corn Bisque, which comprised of cream based sweet corn and blue crab. I am not much of a bisque eater; so I tried a spoonful, which was good. The rest of this bowl was polished off. $10.00.
Served with what was called Texas toast, the Gulf Shrimp Ya-Ya was fresh Gulf shrimp sautéed in Cajun pesto. It was good but not great because the taste overall was disappointingly bland. No one at the table had any interest in sopping up the pesto sauce with the toast points. Some garlic and perhaps some additional Cajun spices would have kicked this dish up a notch or two. $16.50.
The Crawfish Étouffée contained crawfish that were sautéed in a traditional Creole stew and topped with steamed white rice. Four slices of French bread accompanied this dish. $24.00; but fried crawfish tails were added for an additional $7.00, which came to a total of $31.00 before tax and gratuity. This was arguable the best part of the entire meal.
This Alligator Po-Boy was served on authentic New Orleans French bread and was accompanied with seasoned French fries, which were actually rather good. I liked that the sandwich came with pickles, lettuce, and tomato with an unidentifiable sauce. The alligator was lightly fried in a house seasoning blend that was delicious; but some of the pieces of alligator were rather tough and chewy, which ruined its potential to be excellent. $21.50.
The table at which we sat is the second table from the left in the photograph above. The restaurant does have a second floor on which customers can dine.
Final Boarding Call
We were too full to partake in dessert. We also did not drink any alcoholic beverages; but I did partake in a bottle of Abita root beer, whose flavor and effervescence is significantly superior to that of Barq’s root beer, in my opinion.
I would not exactly call the food which I ate at Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar the best food I have ever had with regard to the cuisine for which New Orleans is best known; but I do recommend dining at this restaurant. The food was very good overall — but it was not great; and it was slightly on the pricey side.
Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar
509 Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
United States of America
1-504-323-2109
Operating Hours
Sunday through Thursday: 8:00 in the morning through 10:00 in the evening.
Friday through Saturday: 8:00 in the morning through 11:00 in the evening.
Parking on the street is available.
All photographs ©2023 by Brian Cohen.
