Wine Spectator Award-Winning Restaurants in New Orleans

The New Orleans list brings together 23 restaurants with a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award, including Brennan's Restaurant, Commander’s Palace and Emeril’s. The awards come from Wine Spectator. Several restaurants are in French Quarter and Central Business District, and many also have recognition from Opinionated About Dining.

We choose venues by weighing recognition from independent critics, guides and awards. Browse entries in alphabetical order. Each shows the venue's town or city, a short description and awards from independent sources, with a link to its full guide page.

How this list is chosen: Every restaurant here holds a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award. When more qualify than the list can hold, En Primeur Club chooses among them by weighing recognition from independent critics, guides and awards. Entries appear in alphabetical order.

August Restaurant
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
August Restaurant holds a 2025 Michelin Plate at 301 Tchoupitoulas Street, placing it firmly within New Orleans' contemporary fine dining tier. The kitchen works in a price range that signals serious intent without the reservation arms race of the city's starred counters. For visitors mapping the upper register of the New Orleans dining scene, August belongs on the shortlist alongside the city's most recognized addresses.
Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, World's Best Wine Lists Awards
Brennan's Restaurant
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Grand Award
On Royal Street in the French Quarter, Brennan's sits at the centre of New Orleans' Creole dining tradition, drawing on a wine program of nearly 19,000 bottles and a front-of-house team recognised by Opinionated About Dining. Lunch and dinner run seven days a week, with the kitchen under Chef Kristina Padalino and the cellar overseen by Wine Director Sam Bortugno. A benchmark for the category in a city that takes both seriously.
Also recognized by Bureau du Champagne, USA, James Beard Award, Opinionated About Dining, World's Best Wine Lists Awards
Chemin à la Mer
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Chemin à la Mer occupies 2 Canal Street in New Orleans, a city where the convergence of French, Creole, and Gulf Coast traditions has produced one of America's most layered dining scenes. Positioned at the edge of the French Quarter and the Central Business District, the restaurant sits where the city's appetite for serious seafood meets its hunger for European culinary rigour.
Commander’s Palace
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Grand Award
Commander's Palace sits at the center of New Orleans' fine dining tradition, bringing New Haute Creole cuisine to the Garden District since the Brennan family took ownership in 1974. Seven James Beard Foundation Awards. The wine program spans 2,800 selections across 23,000 bottles, with a White Star recognition from Star Wine List.
Also recognized by Esquire, James Beard Award, La Liste, Opinionated About Dining
Coquette
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Coquette on Magazine Street operates in the upper tier of New Orleans neighborhood dining, where a tightly coordinated kitchen, floor, and wine program work as a single unit rather than parallel departments. Chef Carlos Mejia's Mediterranean-inflected New American cooking pairs with a 550-selection wine list strong in Burgundy and Champagne, anchored by Wine Director Nick Morisi. Opinionated About Dining ranked it #255 in North America for 2025, down from #135 the prior year.
Also recognized by La Liste, Opinionated About Dining
Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
A fixture of the French Quarter's steakhouse tier, Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse on Iberville Street sits within one of New Orleans' most storied restaurant families. The Brennan name carries decades of Creole dining authority, and this address applies that legacy to aged beef, classical sides, and a dining room that feels rooted in the city rather than imported from a national chain playbook.
Doris Metropolitan
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
A wine-bar-forward steakhouse on Chartres Street in the French Quarter, Doris Metropolitan holds a White Star designation from Star Wine List, placing it among New Orleans restaurants where the cellar is taken as seriously as the kitchen. The format sits at the intersection of serious wine programming and prime cuts, occupying a position in the Quarter's dining scene that skews cosmopolitan rather than traditionally Creole.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
Emeril’s
New Orleans, United States
2 Michelin stars · Wine Spectator Grand Award
Emeril's opened on Tchoupitoulas Street in 1990 and built a category of its own: New New Orleans cooking that placed Louisiana's produce at the centre of serious fine dining. Now holding two Michelin stars and a 2026 La Liste score of 92 points, the Warehouse District flagship operates under Chef E.J. Lagasse, whose tasting menu reframes the restaurant's founding classics through a lens shaped by Frantzén and Core by Clare Smyth.
Also recognized by AAA, Esquire, Food & Wine, James Beard Award
Galatoire’s
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
A Bourbon Street institution since 1905, Galatoire's operates on the logic of the regular: a dining room where loyalty earns more than any reservation system could. The kitchen holds a 2025 Michelin Plate and consecutive Opinionated About Dining recognition, with Creole cooking anchored in technique rather than trend. Lunch on a Friday is a civic ritual as much as a meal.
Also recognized by James Beard Award, Opinionated About Dining, Star Wine List
Gautreau’s
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
On a quiet Uptown block well removed from the French Quarter's noise, Gautreau's has held its position as one of New Orleans' most trusted neighbourhood dining rooms for decades. Under Chef Baruch Rabasa, the New American kitchen earns consistent recognition from Opinionated About Dining, serving a tightly edited menu Tuesday through Saturday to a room that skews local and returning.
Also recognized by James Beard Award, Opinionated About Dining
GW Fins
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
GW Fins occupies a specific position in New Orleans fine dining: a locally owned French Quarter seafood house where the menu changes daily around seasonal Gulf catch, executed with technical discipline rather than Creole tradition. Opinionated About Dining recognized it in both 2023 and 2024. Dinner only, Sunday through Saturday.
Also recognized by James Beard Award, OpenTable, Opinionated About Dining
Jack Rose
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Jack Rose occupies a ground-floor address on St Charles Avenue, one of New Orleans' most storied corridors, placing it inside a dining scene that rewards patience and ritual over speed. The venue sits within a city where the meal itself functions as a social institution, and where the distinction between a good table and a great one often comes down to how deliberately the evening is structured.
MaMou
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
On the edge of Tremé, MaMou holds a 1-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine London Awards, signalling a wine program and kitchen that operate above the neighbourhood-bistro baseline. The address on N Rampart Street places it between the French Quarter's tourist circuit and one of New Orleans' oldest African American neighbourhoods, a location that shapes both its clientele and its culinary register.
Also recognized by World's Best Wine Lists Awards
Miss River
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Miss River anchors the Louisiana Creole tradition inside the Four Seasons New Orleans, with a wine list of 170 selections and 2,000-bottle inventory curated by sommelier Blake Baudier. Chef Glen Forman's kitchen works the classic register of the city's cooking, earning the restaurant a spot on Esquire's Best New Restaurants list in 2021. Lunch and dinner service, with wine pricing at the $$$ tier.
Also recognized by Esquire
Mr. B's Bistro
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
On Royal Street in the French Quarter, Mr. B's Bistro occupies a position in New Orleans dining that sits between the grand Creole institutions and the newer wave of contemporary American restaurants. The address has held a place in the city's dining consciousness for decades, making it a reference point for visitors mapping the evolution of Louisiana cooking across different eras of the city's restaurant scene.
Muriel's Jackson Square
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Muriel's Jackson Square occupies one of the French Quarter's most storied addresses at 801 Chartres Street, where the dining ritual is inseparable from the setting. The room has the feel of a city that treats its culinary heritage as living practice rather than nostalgia, placing it squarely within New Orleans' tradition of occasion dining done with theatrical conviction.
Pelican Club
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
On Exchange Place in the French Quarter, Pelican Club occupies a building that has absorbed two centuries of New Orleans dining culture. The room favors the kind of low-key authority that older Quarter restaurants carry without effort, and the kitchen works a Creole-inflected menu that places it firmly inside the city's enduring fine-casual tradition.
R’evolution
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Among the more formally recognized Cajun restaurants in New Orleans, R'evolution holds consecutive Opinionated About Dining placements in North America's ranked restaurants. Chef Samuel Peery leads the kitchen at 777 Bienville St, operating nightly from 5 pm in the French Quarter's dense restaurant corridor.
Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining
Ralph's on the Park
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Positioned at the edge of City Park on one of New Orleans' most atmospheric corridors, Ralph's on the Park occupies a restored Victorian building that frames the city's oldest urban green space. The kitchen draws on Louisiana's Creole and regional American traditions, placing the restaurant in the same broad category as Commander's Palace and Bayona while offering a setting few dining rooms in the city can match.
Tableau
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
On St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, Tableau occupies one of New Orleans' most loaded dining addresses, where the traditions of Creole cooking meet a room shaped by decades of reinvention.
The Country Club
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Tucked into the Bywater neighborhood at 634 Louisa Street, The Country Club occupies a Victorian mansion that has long drawn New Orleans locals seeking an atmosphere removed from the French Quarter's tourist circuit. The property pairs a relaxed, clothing-optional pool culture with a full kitchen and bar program, placing it in a category of its own among the city's social institutions.
The Grill Room
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Inside the Windsor Court Hotel on Gravier Street, The Grill Room occupies the quieter, more composed end of New Orleans fine dining. Chef Vlad Kogan's contemporary American menu draws on Creole tradition without leaning on it as a crutch, while Wine Director Daisy Cross oversees a list of 1,060 selections and 5,290 bottles with particular strength in Burgundy and California. Sunday jazz brunch and live evening entertainment anchor the experience firmly in its city.
Also recognized by Forbes
The Italian Barrel French Quarter
New Orleans, United States
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
On Decatur Street in the French Quarter, The Italian Barrel sits at a cross-section that New Orleans has always navigated comfortably: the convergence of Old World technique and Gulf South ingredient culture. The address places it steps from the river, inside one of America's most food-saturated neighbourhoods, where Italian and Creole traditions have overlapped for well over a century.

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