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Hotel restaurants go in and out of vogue, and this is not an especially good time for them. Tastes in restaurants these days are in the very casual direction, while the strengths of hotel eateries focus on atmosphere and service.
Too often, corporate hotel management has no good idea of what New Orleans eating is about. The greatest hotel successes have come from partnerships between hotel operators and well-known local chefs. (The Brennans and John Besh have led the field in that regard.) When that chemistry is right, we get some very tasty and beautiful places to dine.
One more advantage of hotel restaurants: They're open on all the holidays throughout the year.
1. R'evolution. French Quarter: 777 Bienville (Royal Sonesta Hotel). One of very few fine-dining restaurants to open in recent years, R'Evolution's premises are spectacular and the food is impressive. The menu doesn't quite fit together, and the lack of tablecloths in this expensive dining parlor is curious. Still, you can't help but leave the place happy.
2. Luke. CBD: 333 St Charles Ave (Hilton Hotel). The most successful of John Besh's properties (enough so that they opened another location in San Antonio, Texas), Luke calls itself an Alsatian-French bistro. This is credible, but so too are the downtown-style daily specials, the raw bar and the...