These are Ian McNulty's favorite new restaurants around New Orleans. Try them in 2024.

Tumultuous times mean change, and so it was in the New Orleans restaurant world in 2023. There have been many closures and a high number of restaurants changing hands.

But another dynamic has been a flow of fresh additions through the year. These new restaurants elevate local flavor, bring traditions from across the globe, continue family narratives and express new visions and ideas, all to the tune of delicious food and fine drinks.

Here are 20 new restaurants from my coverage in 2023 that stood out and should be on your list of places to try next.

And they keep coming, not following the calendar for year-end coverage. Even as I write this I’m also following a flurry of new restaurants that have just opened.

It’s not all about new restaurants in New Orleans, of course. So stay tuned for my annual roundup for individual dishes from a year of eating broadly around our community, coming soon.

Osteria Lupo, 4609 Magazine St.: This new restaurant takes an Old World approach to Italian cooking that I bet many an Italian would recognize (at least more so than our homegrown Creole-Italian style).

It’s the next from the team at Costera, and like that Spanish restaurant the tasting menu is the best approach for a table willing to share courses.

Garrison Kitchen + Cocktails, 2928 Metairie Road, Metairie: The most compelling new edition Metairie has seen in many years is a three-part restaurant with a stylish dining room, a long chef’s counter and resort-like grounds with gazebos.

Chef John Sinclair is answering the demand for contemporary and savvy dining in Old Metairie.

Seiji’s Omakase, 2300 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie: Put yourself in the hands of Seiji Nakano (formerly of Shogun), who orchestrates omakase lunch and dinner at this restaurant within a restaurant (inside Little Tokyo).

It’s a den for high-end Japanese flavor guided by a master.

Pigeon & Whale, 4525 Freret St.: Here’s a stylish, modern seafood restaurant drawn up differently than the New Orleans norm, thrilling so.

The menu descriptions only hint at what plays out on the plate, with dishes bringing big flavor and a dash of style and whimsy all the way to dessert. The look says Jules Verne, with just a winking bit of Steve Zissou. Get a Negroni, don’t miss the mussels.

Thai NOLA, 5931 Bullard Ave.: This remarkable restaurant in New Orleans East is the result of love through a blended family, with the upshot of traditional Thai dishes on the menu and Creole soul standards on the blackboard.

The Thai NOLA boiled shrimp is a feast with rice noodles and fresh herbs; Friday’s gumbo has people lining up out the door.

Fives, 529 St. Ann St.: This tiny cocktail bar and raw bar is giving the Lower Pontalba Building on Jackson Square the love it deserves.

Developed by the people behind the renewed Columns Hotel, it has great cocktails, the kind of food I want to eat with drinks (raw oysters, steak tartare, crudo), and a setting that feels like it’s always been there and has progressed through the eras. Beautiful.

Francolini's Italian Deli, 3987 Tchoupitoulas St.: This is a temple to the Italian sandwich cravings of the northeast. The long wait times that greeted its debut have largely been tamed, thanks to an efficient online ordering system.

Don’t fuhgeddaboud the Updawg (formerly called the Underdog) a dream of mortadella and salsa verde; get it on focaccia.

Rosella, 139 S. Cortez St.: A part of Mid-City thick with old school neighborhood restaurants now has a fresh new vision of what that can be. The charcuterie boards, salads and snacks make for easy, tasty noshing and the wine program is refreshingly affordable.

Chapter IV, 1315 Gravier St.: Family stories abound at this new restaurant from Edgar “Dook” Chase IV, from the menu to the bar to the art-filled walls.

It makes a great destination for weekday lunch/Sunday brunch downtown.

Tavi, 330 N New Hampshire St., Covington: Beruit-born chef Fariz Choumali has a deliciously verdant menu at this a northshore spinoff from the Uptown restaurant Shaya, both part of BRG Hospitality.

Fill a table with dips, larger plates to share and don’t miss the sujuk flatbread.

Dahla, 611 O’Keefe Ave.: This family restaurant relocated from Metairie (where it was called Thai Ocha) as a stylish new downtown addition. I’d sit at Dahla’s bar anytime for snacks and drinks, and it can furnish a quick downtown meal of Thai standards. But really, this is a restaurant to bring your craving for spice and dig in deep.

LUFU NOLA Indian Kitchen & Bar, 301 St. Charles Ave.: This downtown restaurant brings traditional flavors of India that go well beyond the traditions we normally find here.

It adds a compellingly creative spark that you can feel all across the operation, from the menu to the bar. Get the pani poori, just trust me on that one.

Dough Nguyener’s, 433 Lafayette St., Gretna: The pun-packed name at this modern Vietnamese bakery debuted king cakes two Carnival seasons ago. Now it is a full-fledged bakery café that gets an early start with a mix of Vietnamese and American flavors.

Get the breakfast bánh mì and don’t miss the doughnuts with a glaze inspired by the creamy-sweet Vietnamese iced coffee.

Sun Chong, 240 Decatur St.: The soundtrack is old-school hip-hop, the design is a stylish Korean motif and the whole restaurant is a tribute from restaurateur Larry Morrow to his grandmother, the chef and namesake of this new French Quarter hot spot.

The menu is not traditional Korean but a fusion blend and some of the presentations are visually stunning.

Brewery Saint X, 734 Loyola Ave.; and Devil Moon BBQ, 1188 Girod St.: These connected concepts share a kitchen, a pitmaster (Shannon Bingham) and a key location for anyone heading to the big downtown venues, with the Dome just a one go-cup walk away.

Brewery Saint X makes its own beer and serves a full bar, with a menu of meaty plates and snacks; Devil Moon is your slow-and-low (but swiftly served) downtown barbecue spot.

Hungry Eyes, 4206 Magazine St.: One look and it can’t disguise: Hungry Eyes is a synthesizer-led, leotard-strapped, neon-trimmed love song to the ‘80s.

The next from the crew who started with Turkey and the Wolf feels like a drinking restaurant — not quite a tavern, but a place where "just drinks" seem just as right as dinner with drinks. Get a martini (of course) and those artichoke hearts “on the half shell.”

plates, 1051 Annunciation St.: This large restaurant in downtown’s Cotton Mill building goes big on small plates, adding New Orleans sensibility to the idea of Spanish tapas.

The bar at plates (yes, confoundingly, spelled lower case) is a great perch for drinks and bites. I’m starting with the crudo and lamb skewers with herbs.

Crazy Hot Pot, 3322 N. Turnbull Drive, Metairie: Chinese hot pot is a choose-your-own adventure meal you dunk different meats and vegetables and noodles in the bubbling broth at your table.

This whirling, wonderful Metairie restaurant adds the controlled chaos of an all-you-can-eat buffet and the entertaining oddity of robots ferrying appetizers around the human waiters.

Island Bistro, 2401 Veterans Blvd., Kenner: The food of Indonesia is just as diverse as this massive Pacific archipelago, and this strip mall find serves a broad introduction.

One easy access point is the fried chicken, called ayam goreng serundeng, almost candied in its crunchiness and heaped with fried coconut. If you’re a fan of spice, let them know when ordering, because they can turn the dial up.

Habana Outpost, 1040 Esplanade Ave.: This long-overdue renewal of a derelict gas station plants a verdant outdoor patio restaurant at a key entrance to the French Quarter.

The Cuban sandwiches and tacos are good (especially the vegetarian ones); the green energy and composting program throughout is revolutionary.

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