Not a bad view. Not a bad view at all.
This is literally the balcony right off my room at Le Richelieu Hotel in the French Quarter, located on Chartres Street. In addition to the beautiful landscape, the hotel was in convenient walking distance (four minute stroll to the end point of) to the French Market that presumably carries on with a multitude of vendors seven days a week. There is a cornucopia of culinary delights, drinks, and goods for sale for nearly every kind of person to enjoy.
It was rather unseasonably chilly when I arrived, so I mostly stayed bundled up in a serious jacket while perusing for either vegan & gluten-free goodies to eat, or some fun NOLA-style liquor to keep me from realizing how cold it actually was. Lucky for me, I found both virtually unscathed.
Fresh off the plane, my two friends I was visiting the city with decided we had to try our first meal at The Original French Market Cafe on Decatur Street. Mind you, I was not under pretense that I was visiting a city whose food popularity lie mainly with dead sea creatures smashed between bread or thrown haphazardly into a bucket with potatoes and corn. I honestly had resided myself to the notion of living on french fries and vodka, which was absolutely fine with me. Now, before getting into my review here with the French Market Restaurant, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by how many vegan options (and gluten-free options) are available throughout the French Quarter, and for those driving or on the Uber/Lyft kick, outside the quarter vicinity as well.
Sadly for me, The Original French Market cafe did NOT add up to one of these other places that I will soon post about, but in chronological order, here we go:
The Spicy Bloody Mary was good. Also, I was thirsty. No crawfish in my Cajun Bloody, thankfully, though I did make sure to specify. To reiterate, I CANNOT EAT WHEAT. That’s not to say some other vegan who can handle glyphosate poison found in wheat couldn’t enjoy some breads and such that I couldn’t imagine trying to stomach. This restaurant for being “Original #1 Blah Blah”, well, it was exactly what I would expect Louisiana cooking to be like. A simplified menu, mostly seafood, about half fried, and very few options for a cruelty-free eater. At least with it being 2018, they DID offer a veggie burger, which was literally the only thing I could order since everything else like the beans and rice already came with meat carcass shoved up inside, or greens with tortured carcass rotting up to give it “flavor”. Clearly no one has heard of a spice rack, which contains infinite flavors and NO DEAD ANIMAL PARTS. But again, we’re in NOLA…
Anyway, I digress. One veggie burger, side of fries (in lieu of meat-tainted side dishes otherwise) and no bun since gluten free bread was not available (many other places, however, DID offer gluten free alternatives). Here is my food:
I cannot make this up. The fries were a scanty portion compared with nearly any franchise restaurant I’ve ever been to. Lightly seasoned with what I assume is Lawry’s seasoning salt. Normally I have enough fries as a side that I don’t mind sharing with friends. This time I ate them all easily, didn’t share a singular spud spear, and could’ve easily eaten more.
My burger was flavorful, but that’s all it had going for it. At least I got two slices of tomato, but the lettuce was looking about a day after it’s expiration for the compost garden, and there wasn’t any sauce to further kick the burger into a meaningful lunch. I detest leaving bad reviews, but in this case, I don’t recommend this for vegans because you’ll only end up with what I did – -a sad burger and some sadder fries. My two friends who ate the seafood appetizers and crawfish pot said they were equally disappointed in their meals too — not the flavorful and exciting restaurant they had remembered it being.
So, 2/5 stars — 1 star for the waiting staff who were kind enough, and 1 star for at least having a veggie burger on the menu. Bottom line: save your time and money, go to any of the multiple vegan-friendly establishments and get a better bang for your buck. :/
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