K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen

My husband and I were vacationing in New Orleans and had to try some top rated Cajun restaurants in the process.
The ambiance is wonderful, walls are exposed brick with illustrated recipes on the wall. Dining room is open and spacious and feels homey.
Service was attentive and timely without being intrusive. Water was refilled promptly and additional rounds of drinks were produced swiftly. The waitstaff try all the dishes during their training and can make solid recommendations.
I can’t speak to the authenticity of the individual dishes but the menu had a range of Cajun entrees and sides. We split the gumbo (no seafood in this one) which is a must-​try. I ordered the beef tenders and my husband had the flounder. The beef was tender, no steak knife needed. The debris sauce was essentially straight umami although at times I found it too salty (and I’m extremely generous with salt myself). It’s served with creamy, buttery potatoes and cooked broccoli. The flounder is fried and served with a spicy vegetable mix and jambalaya with fried shrimp. The jambalaya was out of this world tasty, it overshadowed the rest of the plate. Dinner is accompanied by a bread basket with multiple options, the sweet cornbread muffin is the highlight. For dessert we split the special, a chocolate fudge pie. Like everything before it: tasty but rich.

I came here with work friends for dinner. We had a party of 12 and they sat us relatively easily. Only a 5 minute wait at around 5:30 pm. Our waiter Marcelo was nice and personable and really patient with our big crowd.
Food wise: DELICIOUS! Our whole party was full and ready for a nap afterwards. My coworkers ordered turtle soup, gumbo, and red beans & rice. All said they were phenomenal. The bread they provide is mouthwatering. I ate the jalapeño one and the flavor is throughout the roll. I ordered the flounder and jambalaya. Absolutely delicious. Full of flavor and yummy! The twin 4 oz beef with debris sauce is also amazing. My coworker said it was the best steak he’s ever had. Finally we ordered the praline crème brûlée for dessert. Tiny (because we split it) but amazing!
Drinks: I had the white chocolate raspberry martini and it was excellent. I’m not a huge drinker and prefer sweet fruity drinks but it was delicious.
Whenever I come to New Orleans again I will definitely come back. Absolutely amazing and one of the best restaurants ever.

I semi grew up on Paul Prudhomme cookbooks. I have a couple, my dad has all of them, and there are recipes we make again and again. So when it dawned on me that K-Paul’s, the only restaurant I think Paul ever opened, was just down the street from my hotel, my fate was sealed. I took the earliest solo reservation I could get on short notice (8:45!!) and took a nap before dinner.
I ended up walking in right around 8:30 and was seated immediately. I had to try the gumbo for starters, mostly because I figured this would be a guaranteed win, and because I kind of needed to redeem gumbo after the just meh order I had at Felix’s. I was not let down — this was basically 12 star gumbo. I wanted to climb inside of the cup and live there for a while. No one look at me while I eat this, I need to be alone. Ridiculously rich, dark roux, but not burned, not pasty, just. perfect deep flavor. Super tender, moist chicken, clearly shredded pieces from a cooked bird, and not just chopped chicken breast. And nice flavorful pieces of andouille. When you combine this with the jalapeño cheddar rolls and soft butter (yes!) — so much like the butter horns my mother makes, I was in a really good place. I managed to exercise restraint and not pig out on rolls, thankfully.
For the entrée, I was debating between the paneed rabbit with shrimp and tasso cream sauce over pasta, or the paneed veal with «hot crawfish fanny» — crawfish tails in a spicy brown butter sauce with toasted pecans. I asked the waitress, and she said, «look, pasta takes up too much room in your stomach. If you want, I can do either meat with either side?» Perfect. I went for the rabbit with the crawfish fanny. Worth pointing out, good anticipation — I hadn’t said a word about why I was debating between the two, but she saw right through me.
Stellar — really nicely fried rabbit cutlet, well seasoned batter, crisp outside but fork tender and flavorful meat. Not too much, but the right amount of sauce with the right amount of heat, and I loved the pecans, plus a huge sprinkle of tender crawfish tails. All next to some really nice sauteed squash and some lightly seasoned glorified potatoes (which I didn’t eat too much of, trying to save stomach room). I ate as much of this as I could because it was so delicious, but the portion was huge, and I ended up not being able to finish it.
And finally, bread pudding. I like bread pudding, and this was very straight forward stuff — dense and rich, with what I thought was a small scoop of vanilla ice cream… but what ended up being a scoop of frosting. Wow, that was quite a bite I took. Some nice vanilla ice cream would have been refreshing with the bread pudding, but alas. This was also a massive helping, especially toward the end of the meal for me, so I took it easy. But it was nice sweetness to cut through what had been a very savory meal.
Service throughout was kind of odd? Friendly, but a bit slow, perhaps due to the special order. And then it took quite a while for me to get my check — given the late reservation, heavy food, and a 5am flight that morning, I was getting a little drowsy and just wanted to go to sleep. And also, while I was thankfully spared this treatment, I witnessed my waitress feeding people at two other tables — like, loading up the fork and holding it out for them. OK. But I should stress that this is about the only complaint I can come up with. I also thought price was very reasonable given quantity and portion size, definitely no complaint there.
Hopefully I’ll be back — I wanted to order basically everything on the menu, so I need to try some more things.

Wonderful service and amazing food. Everything from the bread they serve (3 kinds), to the cocktails, to the entrees, and dessert.
The building is also lovely. Try to get a seat on the balcony!

I love this place and go every time I’m in NOLA. This is the place for fresh fish, done Creole/​Cajun style. You are treated like family, the portions are huge, reservations are always honored. Just a top notch professional operation.
The spirit of Paul Prudhomme can be felt everywhere. What a legacy.
We had a party of 8, I had flounder, babes and others had drum fish, Missy and others had blacked ribeye. There was an order of stuffed pork chops. All yummy.
We brought a birthday cake with us, they cut and served, then we have the rest to the South African ladies next to us.
I will always have a meal here, when in NOLA.

Told y’all I would come back if I was ever in town. This time, with a party of 8 for my friend’s birthday. Again, everybody was satisfied with their meal. Loved their food. I’m going to keep this review short and simple because I don’t think I’ll have a bad experience here with the food.
Ordered Fried Green Tomatoes and the Surf ‘N’ Turf. Amazing, completely satisfied with it. Amazing flavors complemented each other like the fried green tomato with the shrimp and its sauce. The Blackened Drum is my favorite, enjoyed that a lot. The steak was the perfect medium rare and it was soft and tender.
Man, I will always come back if I’m in town.

This spot isn’t 5 star already? Insanity! All of my family has been here on separate occasions and highly recommended it.
Based on Unilocal reviews, we began with the fried tomato. It was a crunchy, large, fresh tomato smothered in a spicy yet sweet sauce. Then it had tasty shrimp beneath it. Well worth trying. After, I had a Caesar salad. The dressing was a little sweet and creamy. It was good. My boyfriend had the house salad. His homemade dressing was delicious.
For entrees, I began with the drum fish that had crab on top. It was a large piece of fish that was caught fresh in the morning. It was tender and flavorful. It came with a squash and pepper medley. The veggies it came with weren’t what I would pair it with. The mashed potatoes were good. My boyfriend had the filet mignon. Both pieces were tender and flavorful.
For dessert we split the strawberry cheesecake. It was very moist and flavorful. The crust was especially delicious.
We sat on the balcony, which we especially enjoyed. Our waitress explained the menu changes daily based on what is fresh that day. The service was phenomenal. It was a perfect evening!

This place is great. We tried to get in to eat here during our honeymoon 3 years ago but could never even get a reservation. We were able to get in this trip though and it did not disappoint.
My husband had the surf and turf which I think he almost cried, it was that good. I had the blackened beef tenders with debris and it was also seriously so good! Drinks were good! The BREAD was AMAZING too. We had a wonderful waiter and service was A++++++. Go here! You won’t be disappointed!

We discovered K Paul’s lunch a couple of years ago when visiting New Orleans and had to revisit. No reservations allowed and a very casual approach to service. After ordering drinks and lunch at the bar, you grab your utensils and condiments at a central place before sitting down. From there, the service is standard.
And the food — yum! We had blackened chicken sandwiches which were the best we had ever eaten. The chicken was tender and the bun, labeled a pretzel bun although different than any pretzel bun that I had tastes, was a yeasty taste of deliciousness. The sweet potato fries were good but the potato skins were the bomb. They weren’t traditional potato skins — no cheese or other toppings. Instead, they were the potato skin with a little residual potato pan fried to perfection.
And the Bloody Mary’s were great.
Too bad lunch is only available Thursday — Saturday. I would have returned to dine again.

Loved the red beans and rice here, they’re so creamy, dreamy and perfect on top of the dirty rice. Fried chicken breast was good too, so crispy yet so tender. If you like your gumbo on the thinner, less okra-​y side, then this place is for you.
Service is a bit slow but they are very gracious. Lunch service is self order at the counter and they bring your food to your table.

Always happy here. A neat atmosphere of home cooking and white table cloth. This is Cajun. Gumbo is so personal but this one does not have file’. It is dark and rich but I miss that punch of the spice.
Fried green tomatoes with chipotle shrimp remoulade was a hit. Crunchy, spicy and well cooked shrimp.
The blackened drum was perfectly cooked –a signature dish and deservedly so.
Others in the party had a jalapeño margarita that blended a touch of sweet with the heat and called for a second round

Let’s hope my girlfriend forgives me for ruining her 30^th birthday. Pretty bad dining experience that ended with us paying way more than customers ever should when a restaurant has had such a rough night.
First off, our server was the meanest thing this side of the Mississippi. Unless she, too, had eaten cold crawfish etoufee from K-Paul’s earlier in the day, I’m not sure what could have happened to put her in such a foul mood. I basically saw her as much as I saw Chef Prudhomme.
Five out of our eight entrees came out cold, which is no surprise because it took 17 hours for them to arrive. It seems like everyone in the back was standing around, waiting for Chef Prudhomme to fire up the flat-​top. To be fair, there weren’t any pieces of shell in nine out of the ten fried oysters; so, no one broke a tooth, but we did have one golden-​brown fried oyster shell.
I guess I didn’t mind being overcharged. Hopefully, the restaurant can use some of the money to widen Chef Paul’s casket.
The one star is for the 75 seasoning packets we got as a consolation from the manager. Now, if I ever need to blacken a grizzly bear, or a fully developed moose, I have all of Chef Prudhomme’s old salt.

Wow. Just… wow. Hands down best meal in NOLA by far!
If I could have eaten all of my dinners at this place I would have. The food was stunningly amazing, the service was great and the ambiance just what we were looking for!
Like many Unilocalers, we also had one nice dinner while we were visiting and this place was perfect. The noise level is just right — not so dead silent that you feel you can’t speak above a whisper, but certainly quiet enough that you feel you have a reprieve from the jazz bands and street performers outside.
The service was great — we had the hilariously witty Patricia, and she treated us right. Food was out quick but we didn’t feel rushed at all.
The food — oh the food — I’m still day dreaming about this meal that I was blessed enough to experience. They bring out the most delicious, warm, heavenly bread basket — cheddar and jalapeño rolls, homemade dinner rolls, and some divine cornbread like roll — yum!
But wait, don’t fill up on those rolls! You still have yet to experience the main course. I ordered the eggplant. I must admit that it’s one of my better decisions in life — it ranks up there with going to college and not doing drugs. The eggplant is fried — not gross greasy thick fried. It’s light and crispy and it tastes like eggplant candy. If that’s not enough (and it would be enough) they top this puppy with seafood heaven in an amazing sauce. I can die happy now.
I didn’t have room for dessert (even though the choices looked amazing) but the after dinner coffee was the perfect finale.
Please please please come here. And get the eggplant. I promise you won’t regret it! I don’t give many 5 star reviews, but this place is more than deserving!

We had a family group recently in NOLA for a birthday celebration, and when the time came to celebrate the actual birthday dinner, this was the ONLY option considered… way too many friends have echoed Unilocal reviews, screaming that this IS the best restaurant in New Orleans.
So off we went — and have to admit, one walks into a far more elegant setting that normally accustomed in NOLA. Once seated, we perused the wine menu, and I was quite happy to see some great selections of all genres.
We settled in and selected our choices for the evening — and as typical for this group, everyone had something different.
After enjoying great conversation, our entrees arrived — and we all dug in… and I have to say, the previous reviews are spot on — the food was FANTASTIC…
In fact, everything about this place screams fantastic… truly. And a small benefit was that on ones return from the restroom, one wonders right by a small basket of sample seasons from one Chef Paul Prudhomme (the Paul of the above name). We each snagged one to try in the privacy of our own kitchen.
So why the lack of five stars? One star HAD to go due to the small issue of pricing. While I would expect prices to be a tad higher than other restaurants nearby due to the overall ambiance, this was a pretty serious hit — up there with Morton’s level pricing. No big deal, worth the $$$, but you really need to understand going in that this place is pricey…
that is all…

While in NOLA, we had to visit this restaurant. So many different sites said this place was one of the best. We had a reservation and were seated right away. The restaurant has an open kitchen towards the back, which is nice so you can see what’s going on. I ordered a jalapeño margarita, which was pretty good. I just wish it was a little bit less sweet. My boyfriend had a cocktail with gin and he really liked it.
The menu was pretty unfamiliar to us. We haven’t seen anything like it in New York. Our server was extremely helpful and gave us recommendations. We ordered the fried green tomatoes with shrimp to start. It was delicious. I had the blackened Louisiana drum fish. It came with this spicy butter to rub on the fish and mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. It was great. I really enjoyed it. My boyfriend had the pork chop and he really loved it as well. We didn’t order dessert because we were full, but we did order two Mexican coffees. It was coffee with tequila and kahlua. It tasted strong but we liked it. Overall, this was our favorite restaurant that we went to in NOLA!

Probably my favorite NOLA dining experience on our recent road trip.
I loved the décor, the wood paneling was rich without being too dark, the lighting was perfect and the brick walls kept the interior rustic in nature. Everything was just in harmony.
The service was friendly and efficient. We like to proceed at a somewhat brisk pace and our waiter was astute enough to sense this and pace the meal accordingly.
I had the shrimp enchilada as an appetizer. I must not have paid close enough attention to the description as I was expecting more of a cajun flair, but it came out as more of a Tex-​Mex style (think chili con carne meat & cheese sauce). Now it was an excellent version, but I’d probably try something different next time.
For my main dish, I went with the Blackened Louisiana Drum, covered with crab meat & compound butter, along with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was outstanding, the best thing I ate on the trip. The drum was perfectly seasoned and cooked and the mashed potatoes were so light and tasty — the best I’ve ever had.
We didn’t have a chance to try any dessert as we over-​filled on the outstanding breads that were brought early out prior to the appetizers. I would definitely come back to visit on my next trip!

My review is for Sheila the waitress. Wow she is just terrific. She has been working there for 17 years. I was undecided on what to order, between two dishes and she said «I’ll take care of that for ya…» Wow did she. The kitchen combined my two wishes into one and thank you Sheila, I left a happy person! Hopefully you are lucky to find yourself waited on by Sheila because she is what makes a good restaurant great!
Side note, the bread to start is ridiculously good, get the bread pudding at the end. You will not be disappointed.
Oh you must get reservations, or in our case, we looked at what time they opened and waited ½ hour outside to be the first walk in. The second walk in was turned down. There is my sneaky little tip for ya;)

It was a toss up between K-​Paul and Mr B’s Bistro. K-​Paul won on the sheer fact I saw soft shell crab over this delicious looking linguine.
There was no soft shell crab over linguine on the day of visit. Now I’m stuck sitting there eating their delicious bread basket consisting of pecan muffins, corn bread and jalapeño cheese rolls.
The turtle soup was not very good. It tasted like a dark, hearty chili with meat that tasted like a mix of liver and ground meat.
She ordered the duck breast with andouille sausage with rice. The breast meat tasted like chicken. Don’t get this.
The fried fish with shrimp étouffée like sauce over rice was good but it didn’t taste like a $ 40 dish. Quite frankly, it wasn’t that impressive either.
We must have ordered the wrong things because I didn’t enjoy the 5 star experience like the rest of the reviews.

From one of the best chefs I have experienced, the food at K-Paul’s is fantastic, overtly yet genuinely Cajun. Theres no other version of this cuisine can challenge the authenticity of the food at K-​Pauls. And rightfully so, most of the recipes here were from the chef’s long standing family traditions and cooking strategies. The ambience? Casual, not chic, not formal like the grand dining establishments in NOLA, yet you dine on tablecloth, with whimsical Cajun recipes on paper. Once you sit down, you are treated to genuinely attentive staff, deliciously unique flavors, you leave thinking you’ve got to plan your next trip back.
For this recent trip to NOLA, I had to honor Paul Prudhomme with the dishes he’s made that to me, were uniquely K-​Pauls:
1. Chicken/​Andouille gumbo. The gumbo here is peasant style, the roux darkened close to mahogany, and to brag about this serving, my small cup was loaded with chicken and home made sausage, in this rich dark gumbo broth. Can’t have this anywhere. This version is distinctly different from any gumbo I’ve sampled in the city and oh so soo good.
2. Blackened Twin filets (well only one requested this time) in debris sauce. I loved the largesse to the plates at K-​Pauls, and this dish proved distinctly Paul Prudhomme. You don’t get one filet mignon, you get 2; the filet deliciously blackened with a developed debris sauce, you’d swear you’ve had nothin’ like it. No steak knife provided here for when I cut into the steak with my butter knife, I was treated to the smoothest cut of a tender medium rare filet of beef. You swipe that bite with the debris sauce and this combo was 2die4. An Orin-​Swift Zinfandel totally sent this dish to the clouds for me.
3. K-Paul’s version of Bread pudding with Hard sauce. The bread generously seasoned with spices and custard only a Louisiana Creole can concoct. It came baked in a small ramekin, with a supremely delectable hard sauce (the liquor present to the taste buds but oh so complementary). I am in love with this version. I loved it so much I took another togo.
Paul Prudhomme passed away October 2015. You are missed. You’ve changed our dining landscape and planted Cajun cuisine on the world’s culinary road map.
I love this place and the people who work here. For there is no other resto in this U.S. of A where one can say, «I’ve dined in an authentic Cajun restaurant where the food was made with lots of love.»
Visits: More than 10, maybe 15
Tip: The wine list is amazingly well put together with a nice range of French and California wines. Be prepared, entrées are not skimpy and can be shared with 2 people. They make a really good, on point Sazerac here. The blackened drum (fish) is famous here. The bread basket is also famous: you get different kinds of Cajun inspired breads with delicious butter. If you don’t have reservations and you don’t mind the wait, they will not turn you away.

This is not going to be a traditional review. It’s a long, touchy-​feely story, and I’m a few beers in. I came to NOLA for a lot of reasons, but Chef Paul Prudhomme was the first.
About 13 years ago I found one of the few restaurants in NYC that served authentic Cajun food. Here I tried new things and I thought of food differently because of it. I bought Prudhomme’s cookbooks, spent hours in the kitchen trying to recreate his magic. Until one day I thought… why not go? Why not go down there and eat it for real?
I read on their site that sometimes he offered demonstrations, so I sent an email inquiring. Within a few hours of that email the receptionist called to speak with me directly. She explained that Paul likely wouldn’t be doing any demonstrations during my stay, but if I wanted to make a reservation I could.
A couple of weeks before my trip, and after that phone call, I found out he had passed. I got a little emotional, don’t hold it against me, it’s not something I do for strangers. But this was different. I missed him by such a short time.
I invited everyone who was coming down with me to this dinner, and explained when we arrived why it was important to me, and how amazing the food was going to be. I didn’t request it, I can only assume the receptionist gave us the chefs table out of some sense of Southern hospitality I’m still learning to understand, appreciate, and pass on.
We ordered everything! Seven entrees for four people, plus appetizers and dessert. The cooks would occasionally look over through the window and laugh, shaking their heads. This was the MEAL man, if it was my last on earth I would have been happy.
And it was amazing. The bread basket alone is ridiculous. Jalapeño bread, pecan bread– take an extra one home with you, it’s worth it.
The fried green tomatoes with chipotle sauce and shrimp are nothing short of transcendent. Listen– we came very close to literally licking the plate clean, but elected to use bread instead. This may make you see god. Gumbo, turtle soup, all delicious.
Paul’s jambalaya is the best jambalaya. You wanna know why? He makes a creole sauce. Now jambalaya is great in general, but the creole sauce/​sauce piquant adds a level of flavor that will send your endorphin levels through the roof. This stuff is GOOD.
The shrimp etouffée may be my favorite dish, I don’t have the skills to describe it. The flavor is deep, multi-​layered, warming. It’s perfect. The description on the menu doesn’t hint at what’s in store, it’s more than the sum of its parts.
If there’s steak or pasta on the menu when you go just order it. We did and the steak was just melt in your mouth perfect. And Paul has always done sauces well (if you’ve ever had anyone’s version of his seafood mamou you’ll know what I mean).
The sweet potato pecan pie is a thing, and it’s the only way pecan or sweet potato pie should be served– together.
I came back twice and brought two different groups of friends. I’d like to think the looks on their faces were the same as when I first tried this food.
To go a step further, my last night in the city I happened to be passing by the restaurant and across the street were all the kitchen staff enjoying a smoke break. That’s where I met Chef Sylvester. I was so excited to meet someone who was responsible for creating the food, I started gushing like a fool right away. Sylvester got it though, he understood. He told me to wait there, ran across the street into the restaurant, and came back with a gift I’ll always remember. Much love.
My point is… go.
Thanks for all the memories guys–
Luci

Absolutely outstanding! Went here two nights in a row because the food was SO delicious. The first sensation was their house salad with pesto vinaigrette — I promise you it is amazing. We also had the best turtle soup ever here and all four entrées we had (drum, salmon, pork chop, beef tenderloin) were simply mouthwatering.
The experience was complemented by our waitress Sheila who provided outstanding service and gave perfect recommendations with her cajun charme!
Overall 5 stars because we couldn’t have asked for better service, food or ambience. Definitely a place to recommend and will come here again when in NOLA!