New Orleans: Lilette

Lilette: A Garden District Gem

I recently had the good fortune to try an amazing restaurant in the Garden District of New Orleans. My colleague asked me what I liked. I said I’m not picky other choosing not to eat meat.  His response was Lilette. I immediately scanned the menu online and was excited by all of the prospects.

We started with a bottle of Barbera D’Alba. The wine came highly recommended and paired very well with our food choices (as promised). One of my dinner guests also goes light on meats, so the 3 of us went veg for all of the appetizers. We selected the Grilled beets with goat cheese and walnuts, Potato gnocchi with sage brown butter and parmigiano cream, and the Eggplant crisps with Skordalia, oven dried roma tomatoes, basil, and oil cured olives. The gnocchi takes home the gold. The beet salad was excellent. The eggplant crisps were fine, but not memorable.

The salad options looked so divine that we could not resist. We chose the Raw salad of brussel sprout, beet, onion, fennel, carrot, arugula, hazelnut and Banyuls vinaigrette and the Shaved Hawaiian hearts of palm with lemon, Parmigiano Reggiano and olive oil. I only tried one bite of the Raw salad, but it was fabulous and I would definitely order the salad at my next visit. My Hearts of Palm salad couldn’t have been more perfect. It was light and just the perfect size. 

We were ravenous, so we moved on to entrees that included The Hanger Steak, Snapper, and another round of Gnocchi. You guessed it-I was the one who opted for more gnocchi. It was superb. My guests cleaned their plates and we were content…well…until our server delivered the dessert list.

I typically pass on dessert. I explained to my guests that I had a 2 Buck Bar from Walgreens waiting for me in my hotel room. I told them how I really enjoy shopping the seasonal candy aisle looking only at the top and bottom shelves for the unusual items. On this occasion I found a $2 gem. It’s a ginormous Andes Mint that could easily last me 2 weeks.  Upon mentioning my love of seasonal candy, one dinner guest mentioned that the dessert list contained many seasonal items. We couldn’t resist.  We opted for the Nutella custard with fleur de sel, caramel cream and chocolate-hazelnut brittle and the Chocolate brioche bread pudding with Earl Grey ice cream and orange caramel. They were both divine. We were especially curious about the Earl Grey ice cream. It sounds odd, but was quite yummy.

Needless to say, I will return to Lilette the next time I am in New Orleans. The ambience was wonderful, the wine list extensive, and the prices were very fair. The service was also excellent. When you are in New Orleans, put Lilette on the top of your to-do list (after buying beads, of course).

Lilette
3637 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA
504-895-1636
www.liletterestaurant.com

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