MiLa New Orleans

I have amazing luck. I set a trip down to New Orleans to visit my brother for a couple days and just happen to hit Coolinary New Orleans, the city’s restaurant month.

So with that in mind, we decided to go to Restaurant August for their lunch special. However, there was a discrepancy between the website and reality, and it turns out that they only do lunch on Fridays. Hence, the title of this review MiLa, the restaurant we actually ended up at.

So without further ado, MiLa.

To start out with, I definitely give the restaurant a thumbs up overall. We each got the $20 dollar prix fix lunch menu, and it was fantastic.

Before we ordered, the waiter brought out the bread, and I could tell then that this was going to be a good meal.

There were two types of bread, a sweet potato roll and a chive cornbread, and two spreads. One was just butter, although very good butter. However, the second spread was pureed lima beans with some sort of spice in it, and it was very good, despite the fact that pureed lima beans sounds like baby food. I will definitely be experimenting to figure out how to make that.

For the first course, I had a summer corn chowder with sauteed shrimp and creme fraiche.

It was delicious, sweet from the corn, savory from the shrimp and tangy from the creme fraiche.

There was a choice of two entrees.
First, the filo-crusted redfish.

and the braised veal cheeks.

at first I liked the veal better, because it was very rich and had a bold, excellent flavor, but the redfish, although a little more subdued ended up being my favorite. The crispness of the filo crust contrasted with tenderness of the fish was amazing.

Dessert likewise had two options: Rice pudding or house made ice cream. The menu said that the ice cream would be peach, which sounded fantastic, but we were later informed that that day it was actually banana, which did not appeal to me so much. So I got the rice pudding, and a small french press of New Orleans style coffee with chicory.

The rice pudding was good, but the coffee was the standout in the final course. New Orleans coffee has a sweetness to it that comes from the chicory that makes it incredibly smooth and flavorful to drink.

And now I will leave you with the gratuitous close up.