Commander's Palace

1403 Washington Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Phone: (504) 899-8221

The restaurant, which has been a landmark since 1880, takes up two floors of a huge Victorian mansion, and we were seated upstairs with a window overlooking the courtyard. The service was impeccable, as one would expect from the James Beard Foundation's Lifetime Outstanding Restaurant Award winner and the "Most Popular Restaurant in New Orleans" according to the Zagat Survey for the past thirteen years straight. Our waiter was incredibly knowledgeable about everything on the menu, which was welcomed since we were nearly overwhelmed with all the wonderful choices!

We eventually settled on two of the three course dinners, while nibbling on fresh garlic bread. Aaron started with an oyster chowder which was really fabulous, despite being served in an artichoke. I started with the "Soups 1-1-1" - a demi serving of each of their three soups. It was quite cute - three little espresso mugs, each holding a delightful soup. Their turtle soup is world-famous, and was very savory with a sherry base that doesn't overwhelm. The creole gumbo du jour was some sort of seafood that I can't recall at the moment, but also quite tasty. Their soup du jour was intriguing... cauliflower with brie. I foolishly didn't inquire about it before ordering, but it was surprisingly good! I don't usually like cauliflower, but I like brie... and Aaron is the opposite, and we both enjoyed the soup.

For entrees, Aaron chose the pheasant cassoulet, and I chose the New Orleans barbecue stew, which arrived with a fresh loaf of french bread. Aaron's dish came with the pheasant leg hanging over the dish (nearly traumatizing him!), but was a healthy portion of tender pheasant, delicious sausages and various spices and beans. My dish, however, was indeed tasty... the rosemary barbecue sauce was great, but the focus of the meal was undersized. There were only a few shrimp and oysters, a small piece of garlic crusted redfish, and a very small slice of their homemade seafood sausage. It was all very delicious, but I was underwhelmed with the portion size - for all of the raving about their sausage, you'd think they'd at least give you a good portion, or more than four shrimp.

All was forgotten by the time they brought out dessert. When we ordered our dinners, Aaron pre-ordered their world-famous bread pudding souffle... but I wanted to try something different, and opted for the creole cream cheese cheesecake. Now, if we didn't have the bread pudding, we'd be raving about that cheesecake... it was so light and fluffy and sweet without settling like a rock into our stomachs. It was drizzled with a light caramel sauce, and the crust was more of a shortbread cookie taste instead of the typical graham, However... it did pale in comparison to the dish laid in front of Aaron. The bread pudding souffle is a masterpiece. It's a generous single serving of hot bread pudding, under a cloud of perfect meringue, which is broken by the server as he pours some of the warm whiskey sauce into the dish (thankfully they leave the small bowl of sauce for you to scoop every last drop). It was so incredibly delicious - the meringue was so light and matched perfectly with the dense cake, heated to perfection. And the sauce just could not be beat. They even gave us a flyer at the end of the meal with the recipe and told us some tips about making it at home. Surprisingly, we got out of there for under $100 before tip.

Update: We dined here again in February 2002 for my birthday (after lunch at Petunia's), and I saw a crawfish dish that looked intriguing. I asked the waiter if it would be "crawfish overkill", and he said it would not. Well, it was, and I didn't like the dish at all. They did bring out another entree (steak, which was "fine"), and they brought a wonderful pear sorbet out with our bread pudding souffles. We weren't as blown away with this visit, and the next time we go out to New Orleans, we'll likely try their brunch instead of dinner.

Food:	7 - amazing desserts, traditional creole classics shine
Ambience:	8 - beautiful mansion, jacket required, quiet atmosphere
Service:	8 - seamless service, extremely well coordinated wait staff. You feel taken well care of at Commander's.
Overall:	7 - a wonderfully romantic dining experience in the Garden District with pampering service

review written 3/2000 and updated 11/2002 by stjarna - latest restaurant visit 2/18/2002 for dinner
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