During our recent weekend in New Orleans, we chose a hotel in the Warehouse District because we remembered fantastic restaurants and wine venues within walking distance. We’d enjoyed Cochon, Emeril’s, W.I.N.O and Tommy’s Wine Bar during a prior NOLO visit.
Always up to try something new, Yelp reviews led us to discover the “farm-to-table Cajun Creole” Restaurant Rebirth at 857 Fulton Street.
Opened in mid-December 2015, Restaurant Rebirth features the “southern fine dining” of Chef Ricky Cheramie, a native of the Southern Louisiana bayous of Lafourche Parish.
While Chef Ricky sharpened his culinary skills at New Orleans’ famed K-Paul’s, Emerils, and Commander’s Palace restaurants, his cooking is also influenced by working in his family’s shrimp trawling business. In other words, this chef knows his seafood, southern Cajun Creole style.
Although the Rebirth menu is diverse with steak, pork, duck and chicken, we focused on the seafood, which we found to be a great decision.
Mr. Jones started with the soup Du Jour, which happened to be seafood chowder. Being an Alaska native who spent his college years in Nova Scotia, Mr. Jones makes a mean chowder at home. He can be tough chowder critic, but this one exceeded his high bar. It was loaded with seafood and flavored with bacon, with a creamy broth with a touch of spice that didn’t overpower.
Fried oysters and grilled mushrooms sounded like a strange combination but they paired perfectly with the cream sauce and pasta in this hearty Oysters & Angel Hair appetizer. Crispy fried oysters were laid on top of grilled wild mushrooms flavored with tasso “ham” in a Parmesan black pepper cream over fresh angel hair pasta. For future visits, I’d order this rich appetizer as my entree or share it.
We both love the Spanish tapa Gambas Al Ajillo, so of course we had to try the Gulf Seafood Al Ajillo entree of fresh gulf shrimp, crab claws, oysters, and fish broiled in a sauce of white wine, parsley and olive oil. Just like our favorite Spanish tapa, this seafood dish was served with warm French bread to sop the sauce. We perhaps could have done with a little less sauce, but would still recommend this entree.
If we had to pick one favorite from our menu selections, it would be the blackened scallops and fingerling potatoes served on top of lobster and tasso maque choux with a sweet chili glaze. This entree was a perfect combination of perfectly-cooked rare-on-the-inside scallops with a Cajun bite.
We chose a champagne from the wine list to accompany this meal, which paired perfectly with all of the dishes.
The service provided by waiters John and Justin was legendary. If this restaurant had any “new” kinks, they didn’t show in the month past the opening.
We couldn’t pass up sharing bites of the Cafe Au Lait Creme Brûlée from the dessert menu, which was the perfect ending to a fantastic meal.
Restaurant Rebirth is open for dinner between 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday.
What’s your favorite New Orleans’ fine dining restaurant?
Other fine dining posts that you might enjoy:
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The Master Chef’s Table on Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam
- World Class Food at Borkonyha Wine Kitchen in Budapest, Hungary
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