Desire Oyster Bar

This restaurant was amazing! It’s a casual spot conveniently located on Bourbon Street. The food was great and reasonably priced (for good seafood). Service was fast! Keke was our waitress and she was great. The crab cakes are so delicious! The best I’ve ever had!!! The other people I was with had jambalaya and shrimp and grits and they were happy with their food too. I will definitely be back!

Went to New Orleans for Jazzfest and stumbled upon this restaurant while exploring Bourbon Street. It was early afternoon when we went so it wasn’t too crowded. We were seated on the inside of the restaurant, but it’s an opened space so we could see right out into Bourbon St. It was a great table to people watch! We ordered 4 dozens of oysters and I followed it with a cup of red beans and rice. Delicious! I would definitely return to this restaurant the next time I’m in New Orleans.

Although this oyster bar/​restaurant has the name «desire» in it, the oysters here left much to be desired. My boyfriend and I stopped by upon coming across the $ 1 oysters sign outside. Now having had $ 1 oysters before, we didn’t come with the highest expectations but at least thought the experience would be satisfying.
We ordered a dozen oysters plus a glass of champagne on the side. The oysters arrived to us looking very… grimy. Each oyster we picked up left remnants of dirt and shells all over our hands meaning they weren’t cleaned very well. We tried dunking our oysters in the ice water we got to get rid of some of the dirt but then that just took away all the flavor. Not that these oysters were very flavorful to begin with.
Our waitress was very nice and we felt bad having to ask her if she could take them back to the kitchen for a rinsing. After they were rinsed, we tried to enjoy them but just couldn’t as mediocre oysters ran under water doesn’t taste much better than mediocre oysters with dirt on them. We ended up leaving without finishing our dozen. At least the champagne was good and bubbly.

We came here to eat a «second dinner» after the food at Mr. B’s was so damn terrible we couldn’t eat it.
It’s a nice, casual, open little oyster bar. We ordered a dozen raw and they came out glistening, fresh, and HUGE! Easily some of the largest Gulf oysters we’ve ever seen.
The service here is what was the real let down. The waitress was very short with all of her tables, including us. She slammed the drinks on the table, slammed the oysters on the table, acted like my boyfriend was a bother when he stopped her for a second to ask her a question, and never came back to check on us to see if we would like anything else from the menu or another drink. In fact, she didn’t turn on the nice behavior until it was time to drop off the bill. Then it was all «honey» this and «sweetie» that. Ummm… she picked the wrong couple to pull that stuff on, because we are cynics from a city ourselves.
I will say that in spite of everything, this is one of the better places in n NOLA for raw oysters. Come for the food and relaxed atmosphere, but don’t expect much outside of that.

This was the last place we ate before leaving town to end our vacation, and we don’t regret it. It was awesome. We had raw and grilled oysters. The grilled came covered in garlic butter which wasn’t my favorite, but my wife liked it.
The raw oysters though we’re excellent. They were by far the largest oysters we had all week as well as the tastiest.
On top of that, the waitstaff was really nice and helpful. It’s also a great place to people watch on Bourbon Street.
We were there at 5pm on Saturday and didn’t have any wait.

Must try bread pudding! Tried oyster at 3 different places. Desire is the best! Oyster on the shell!!! I could eat that all day long…

Desire is a great place for a nice meal for a couple. At the same time, it’s not as fancy (read ‘up-​tight’) as some restaurants on the street can be, and while we were there, there were a couple of bachelorette groups having a super time. We started with raw oysters, which were great, and followed that up with crawfish étouffée — this was the first time I’d ever had crawfish, and the dish was great — extremely flavorful and full of crawfish tails. However the stand-​out of the meal was the bread pudding — really, do NOT miss this! It comes warm and moist in a pool of whiskey sauce — this sauce is the bomb — there’s enough of it to repeatedly drench your bread pudding and that’s exactly what you should do! Poems will one day be written about this bread pudding — that’s how good it is!
To sum up, Desire is a good place for a food pit-​stop on the raucous Bourbon street. It still maintains the energy of the street outside, while allowing you to have a good meal and good conversations.

Let me just say, the food is OFF THE HOOK! I was in ‘NAWLINS for a week and I must’ve dined here 4 times because the food was that good. Price was not bad, either. Bf and I ordered an appetizer, two drinks, oysters, our main dishes, and dessert and it was just under $ 100.
Shrimp and grits is my ultimate favorite!
Best service around!
Desire Restaurant was definitely one of the highlights of my New Orleans trip.

Friend picked out this place so decided to come try it out. Ordered a half dozed baked oysters, half order regular oysters, and a shrimp po boy.
Shrimp po boy I would neer order again as it tasted to dry and the flavor wasn’t there.
Regular oysters didn’t have any flavor.
Baked oysters tasted pretty good.
Service was good as the waitress was on the orders and provided good service.
Wouldn’t recommend coming here.

I feel like there is some serious Unilocal inflation in NOLA so I’m here to review the oysters and the Catfish & Étouffée. I tried a dozen of the grilled oysters… and just having tried the grilled oysters from GW Fins the night before I was surprised they were prepared differently. Similar to how they are at ACME Oyster. Yup I was disappointed; the size of the oysters were small/​medium and they were just loaded with Parmesan cheese. My husband on the other hand loved his dish with catfish and the Étouffée. Though I think he’s never met an Étouffée he didn’t like haha. Anyway, I feel like if Oyster is in the name of your restaurant then you do oysters the best. I didn’t find that to be the case here. I’m glad I tried this, since it’s in a famous hotel and the venue is darling. It was really nice sitting next to the window, catching a breeze with my meal.
Food ³⁄₅
Venue ³⁄₅
Service ³⁄₅

We came here for dinner with a few friends and the food was good. I ordered half a pound of shrimp and a friend shrimp po boy. Between the 2 I liked the half of pound of shrimp better. Had good flavor and a hint of spice. Buddy of mine had the chicken and waffles and we also ordered a half dozen grilled oysters and 12 raw oysters. Everything was good and the waitress was really nice. The prices for the food were a little high for the amount of food you get buy the quality was there.

Have eaten here many times and has been dependable. This rime the shrimp poboy and bimbo were good but nothing special. It is a lovely, energetic place that definitely has the Nola feel

Miss Kitty at the bar took good care of us! This is the type of hospitality that makes us keep returning to NOLA. We went for happy hour and had drinks, the red beans and rice and lots and lots of oysters! Grilled or raw, these oysters did not disappoint!
Drinks were cold and delicious! Even something so simple as red beans and rice was very good.
Miss Kitty told us that Desire has the best gumbo in New Orleans. She’s right, they do! She brought us samples and it was so good! Tasted like home!
She talked with us and had us laughing and feeling good! We are sad she won’t be working the next few days before we go home because we want to see her again! We will definitely return and tell everyone to go here!
$ 1 oysters during happy hour, $ 3 beers, $ 5 wine/​liquor. Heaven!

I was super excited about trying this place, but it was just ok for me! Fell short
We ordered the trio and the bbq shrimp. We also ordered French 75 (was ok) and Ramos Gin fizz that tasted like a plain vanilla milkshake!
The bbq shrimp was good the rest was blahh nothing exciting. place was busy but service was still good and friendly

Came in for oysters and this place sure delivered! Classy, great service and delicious/​fresh oysters! Decent prices too! I must say they have the best cocktail sauce I have ever tried! Very zesty!
If you visit here, I highly suggest sitting up by the oyster bar! The men who work to prepare the oysters are so sweet!

Have to give a five for no complaints & memories :)
The only drawback is the wait. Hubby had dashed over to Old Absinthe to get me a beer as we stood patiently in line. But Absinthe was sooooo slow, by the time he returned w/​my beer we were next in line & I had to give my lovely Heineken to the group behind us :)
We hadn’t been there in a while but have seen all the reincarnations over the years. Found out it’d been «reopened» earlier 2015, again retaining all the charm (ceiling, floor, etc).
The oysters are awesome. All our fried food was fresh, tasty. Pictures speak for themselves. Except I substituted for Lyonnaise potatoes & that was a mistake. Just don’t.
We mentioned to our waitress how hard she worked — & trust me, she controls the flow of patrons. She mentioned that she’d worked there for 40 years & my mouth dropped open. You know how you just «know» something.. . I said to her, «You’re not going to believe this, but years ago we were here…»
«And I gave him,» motioning to hubby, «the recipe for bread pudding.» Yep. It wasn’t as frenetic back then. And I mean 25 – 30 years ago.
Laissez les Bön temps roulez!

My shrimp n’ grits were on point. Grits were creamy and the sauce was tasty and flavorful.
The waitress recommended getting two homemade biscuits on the side and boy were they delicious!
Location is perfect right next to the Royal Sonesta.

I stumbled upon this restaurant by accident when I thought I was at Oceana but luckily everything was delicious! The service was good, the interior was classy, cozy, and loud. Now onto the food:
Shrimp and grits — The sauce is so thick that you can see cracks in it. It was creamy to perfection and was the same consistency as clam chowder. It tasted like a hybrid of chowder and thousand island dressing. There aren’t that much grits.
The creole trio was good. The sausage was delicious and I enjoyed the jambalaya.
I prefer raw oysters and of course, being in Louisiana, all of the oysters are plump and delicious. The charbroiled oysters were alright but that’s because I prefer them raw. The horseradish sauce added a nice kick to the cocktail sauce.

In the midst of boisterous Bourbon Street during a free wheelin’ Southern Decadence weekend is Desire. The interior was a stark contrast to the grubby concrete floors, black walls accentuated with neon and nicotine stained brick of many establishments in the French Quarter. Gently gleaming tin ceiling, copper accents, marble tile and cushioned chairs presided over by orbs of glowing lights welcomed the diner. Cold AC soothed our humidity tortured bodies and we gratefully took a seat at the bar since all the tables were full.
Angela the bartender was super busy but that didn’t stop her from efficiently taking our drink and dinner orders. Food was whisked to us quickly. Our first experience with charbroiled oysters left us wanting more but we had to save space for gumbo, red beans and rice, alligator and crab macaroni and cheese. Through is all, I sipped my mint julep and we ended dinner with a fried PB&J topped with vanilla ice cream. I had heard that Elvis Presley’s favorite dessert was a peanut butter banana and jelly sandwich deep fried in butter. I thought that was just crazy but I doubt him no more. Holy cow, it was surprisingly good. I seriously considered ordering a second one but practiced restraint in the face of deep desire.
As much as I wish I had a vast amount of experience savoring creole/​Cajun dishes I don’t. My tastebuds were well satisfied this evening. It was our first time eating charbroiled oysters and we loved them. I’m not gonna lie – it was put a ring on it kinda love.
Desire. It a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a restaurant worth your attention.

Woot woot! I found a groupon for this place! $ 20 for a dozen oysters and two drinks! This restaurant is located beneath a hotel right on Bourbon street. Really hard to miss!
There wasn’t a line when we arrive… plus our friends were already there. Obviously, these restaurants don’t have parking space lol. But who needs a car while on Bourbon Street?!
Atmosphere is casual. You can see the grill masters (oyster guys). We had a dozen of the grilled oysters. When i received my oysters, there wasn’t the char taste i was expecting or tons of shredded cheese. It had a flavorful butter and Parmesan cheese mixture. Nice and buttery. I used lemon to balance out the richness. Hubby had the Creole trio. He liked it but didn’t love it. He finished the plate. It came with Jambalaya, Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice and sausage.
One of my friend had the grilled chicken Caesar salad and enjoyed it. My other friend had the shrimp po’ boy but he didn’t like the meat to bread ratio. Too much bread and not enough meat.
All-​in-​all after the groupon, we still had to pay over $ 80 with tips. Kinda pricy. I would come back just for the groupon only but would not eat here on a regular basis.