Mat and Naddie’s
937 Leonidas St.
New Orleans, LA

Whenever possible, I try to make dinner reservations ahead of time if I know I will be dining out on a Saturday night. Usually if I don’t call early enough, the restaurant will tell me that they are completely booked. Well not the case with Mat and Naddie’s! When I called, they still had a few availabilities so when I picked up Joe I told him to rush into the car so we could make our dinner reservation.

duck confit salad

Joe and I are so predictable, just from glancing at the menu, I already knew what two appetizers we would most likely order and sure enough when the waiter came around, we got the duck confit salad and crabcakes. Joe asked if we should try something new but I said why mess with something good? PS. im also a super picky eater, so once I find dishes I like, I tend to stick to them like glue…. I thought the salad was surprisingly delightful, and I say surprisingly because all the duck was hidden underneath the lettuce and so when you put your fork down for a bit of lettuce and come back up with a bunch of other delicious treasures like succulent duck, what other word can you use to describe it?

crabcakes

The crabcakes were warm and crisp on the outside. They smelled delicious! A mouthwatering combination of ocean and bread. WHO DOES NOT LOVE THE SMELL OF BREAD? you know what i’m talking about! it’s the same reason y0u all of a sudden get hungry when you’re walking on a block with a bakery. BAM! BREAD SMELL!

rack of lamb

Joe ordered the rack of lamb but he didn’t realize it would come out as lollipops of meat (I don’t know why because the description clearly said it would). He let me try one and it was delicious!

filet mignon

I had the filet mignon. It was melt-in-your-mouth-good! I have a few friends who are vegetarians and I say, hats off to you guys. I don’t know how you do it. I don’t think I could ever cheat on Meat with Veggies. =)

I think this place is a gem regardless of its location. When I was parking, I saw a security guard standing out front and thought, oh geez! please God let me find a parking spot within sight of the security guard. Let me explain, this area by the riverfront tends to be dodge-y at night and I’m already super paranoid….And it doesn’t help that we get emails from Tulane Security saying a younger person got mugged at gunpoint in this area at 3 AM (ok, why would you be out here at 3 AM anyways?). I figured since it was 6:30 PM, parking around the corner from the restaurant would be fine but I admit, after dinner, I did make joe join me in a light jog back to the car because I realized I was holding around 3G’s worth of camera gear around my neck.

Filed under: American, New Orleans, LA

Read the original on: The Foodographer