The Best Seafood in New Orleans
From a Bywater room that debuted at #30 on North America's 50 Best Restaurants to Gulf-Coast wood-fire grills and a prepaid bayou-cooking supper club — where to eat seafood in New Orleans.
New Orleans seafood splits between Gulf-Coast classics and global reinterpretations of it, and Acamaya — sisters Ana and Lydia Castro's Bywater room, which debuted at #30 on North America's 50 Best Restaurants for 2026 and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand — is the clearest example of the second. The picks below span that range, each one scored and verified by Dim Hour.
A note on range: Pêche Seafood Grill and GW Fins anchor the Gulf-Coast wood-fire and daily-catch tradition, Mosquito Supper Club serves the bayou cooking of coastal Louisiana as a prepaid, family-style dinner, and Dr. Jones in Metairie runs a tight, chef-driven tasting menu built around Gulf ingredients. Reservations matter across nearly all of these — book ahead, especially for Mosquito Supper Club's small, sell-out seatings.
Pêche Seafood Grill
Donald Link, Stephen Stryjewski, and chef Ryan Prewitt's Warehouse District seafood grill, built around a wood fire — whole grilled fish of the day, a raw bar, shrimp toast, and hush puppies. In 2014, it took two James Beard Awards in one night: Best New Restaurant and Best Chef: South for Prewitt. Book on Resy.
Acamaya
Sisters Ana and Lydia Castro give Gulf seafood a Mexico City treatment in this Bywater room, drawing on childhood trips to the capital's mariscos markets. The mostly-pescatarian menu runs hamachi tostada cured al pastor, shrimp aguachile verde, and arroz negro with squid and mussels. Open since July 2024, already holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a #30 debut on North America's 50 Best Restaurants 2026.
Mosquito Supper Club
Melissa Martin turned a restored Uptown cottage into a communal table for the bayou cooking she grew up on in Chauvin — a James Beard Award winner for Best Book: U.S. Foodways in 2022. Dinner is a prepaid, family-style prix-fixe built around whatever the Gulf gave up that week: smothered green beans, crab claws, gumbo, oysters. Seatings are small and sell out; book on Tock.
East Harbor
A seafood restaurant on Elysian Fields Avenue in Gentilly, leaning on fresh-cooked, made-to-order plates. Casual and neighborhood-facing, open late most nights of the week.
GW Fins
A French Quarter fine-dining seafood house run by the Wollerman family, with a menu that changes daily around whatever the boats bring in. Marquee dishes include lobster dumplings, the halibut-scallop "Scalibut," parmesan-crusted sheepshead, and dry-aged yellowfin tuna. The wine list runs past 100 bottles, about 50 by the glass. Book on OpenTable.
Dr. Jones
A shoebox of a Metairie room where two Donald Link-trained chefs, David Rouse and Billy Jones, cook a tight, chef-driven menu off an open kitchen — about a dozen dishes including shrimp scampi with lemongrass and mushroom gnocchi in truffle dashi. Five counter seats, a handful of tables, BYOB; Ian McNulty named it a top-five new restaurant of 2025. Book on Tock.
What is the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans?
What is the best new seafood restaurant in New Orleans?
Where can I find James Beard Award-winning seafood in New Orleans?
What is a prepaid, family-style seafood dinner in New Orleans?
Do these New Orleans seafood restaurants take reservations?
How many New Orleans restaurants does Dim Hour cover?
Dim Hour scores every restaurant on food, service, ambiance, and value, and verifies every listing. This guide is updated as the catalog changes. Explore all New Orleans restaurants →