Best Of New Orleans #14

Every day during the month of August, we're highlighting one restaurant from our recent ranking of the 31 Best Restaurants in New Orleans. Today's restaurant, Jacques-Imo's, is #14 on our list.

Jack Leonardi's style of cooking is big, bold, and undeniably delicious, and at Jacques-Imo's (which is a play on his name), his brand of "real Nawlin' food" is the center of the action at a restaurant and bar that also turns into a nightly party. The lengthy menu is chock-full of near-perfect interpretations of Cajun classics, from shrimp and alligator sausage cheesecake to fried green tomatoes, blackened redfish, fried chicken, shrimp creole, stuffed catfish, gumbo, jambalaya, and BBQ shrimp. It's gutbusting fare, for sure, but when washed down with some Abita and possibly shared with the tables around you, it's the harbinger of a rollicking good time.

Here's our complete ranking:
#31. Maurepas Fine Foods
#30. Boucherie
#29. Mother's
#28. Luke
#27. The Joint
#26. Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse
#25. Mahony's
#24. MiLa
#23. La Petite Grocery
#22. Gautreau's
#21. Coquette
#20. Parkway Bakery
#19. Clancy's
#18. Dooky Chase
#17. Drago's
#16. Emeril's
#15. Redfish Grill
#14. Jacques-Imo's
#13. Bayona
#12. Camellia Grill
#11. Domilese's
#10. Willie Mae's Scotch House
#9. SoBou
#8. Root
#7. Herbsaint
#6. Domenica
#5. Cochon
#4. Peche
#3. August
#2. Galatoire's
#1. Commander's Palace