How We Review Restaurants

There's really no organized scheme to our restaurant reviews. We've got certain places that we want to go to, and we go there and eat. The VNO staff eat out for lunch and/or dinner just about every day of the week, including weekends. Lunches vary from a po-boy at a downtown place to something much more grand. Dinners run the gamut from the classiest restaurants in town to fast food with the kids. Our goal is to try to present a cross section of restaurants in the hope that some of them catch your eye.

If you're in the restaurant business, and you'd like us to check out your place, drop us a line, and we'll figure it out.

The Doubloons

Some critics do stars; the T-P does red beans. We do doubloons, mainly because we're Carnival people at heart.

Five Doubloons

It's simple: These restaurants are the best New Orleans has to offer. Even if a restaurant has only one item on the menu, it's possible for that place to receive five doubloons. The restaurant could be a classic that's been in business for decades, or a place that just opened up in the last couple of years.

Four Doubloons

Not quite in the ultimate elite of New Orleans restaurants, but still up there. The number of four-doubloon restaurants in town is one of the things that attracts so many return visitors to the city. Most cities have a few good places to eat, but we have a lot of them.

Three Doubloons

Lots of great food at the three-doubloon level. There may be some quirks to a place that keep it at this level--flaky waiters, inconsistency in the dishes, etc. Many of our "neighborhood" restaurants fall into the three-doubloon level. These places don't stand out as the kind of restaurant you'll have your most memorable New Orleans dining experience, but we love 'em anyway.

Two Doubloons

Two doubloons are your run-of-the-mill places, possibly a chain place. The food is overall undistinguished, and you can most likely do better someplace else.

One Doubloon

You won't see many reviews of one-doubloon restaurants on VNO. This is because we live by the philosophy "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say it." We're not going to get into wars with other folks because we've slammed their restaurant. We also don't waste our time reviewing places that are just plain not worth eating at. The only way you'll find a one-doubloon restaurant in our listings is if we feel that a restaurant we've previously reviewed has slipped to the point where it is no longer worth recommending.

No Doubloons

Either we haven't gotten to that place yet, or it's not worth talking about. If a restaurant you're considering doesn't have a formal review here, drop us a line and ask us about it. We'll tell you what we know one-on-one.

Platonic Dishes and Meals

Some restaurants make the most outstanding example of a dish in all of New Orleans (Shoot, some make the best example in all the world, for that matter!). In his books The New Orleans Underground Gourmet and The New Orleans Restaurant Guide, Dr. Richard Collin coined the term "Platonic" to describe these dishes. The origin of the term was Plato's Republic, because these food items were contributing something extraordinary to the good of the people, etc.

We use the term "Platonic" to mean essentially the same thing, but also as a tribute to Dr. Collin, whose books steered us to just the right places in high school and college for many an important occaision and meal.

If You Disagree With Us

Hey, it's a free 'net. You're entitled to your opinion. If you really take issue with our assessment of a restaurant, please let us know. Maybe we missed something. Maybe we're dealing with a really inconsistent place. In any case, we want to hear about your experiences, please.