N'awlins Mardi Gras Cafe

Had to try as we were familiar with Chef Eddie Adams back in the day, so we were rather giddy about seeing what was up his sleeve with another one of his new adventures. N'Awlins is located in East Nob Hill at a corner location, the outside is very festive & inviting. The inside decor is fun and creates good colorful vibes of New Orleans :) Our server was very sweet with letting us know about all the selections for lunch.

We ordered a Po'boy Sandwich which was rather skimpy with regards to the fish, we were actually really shocked as it was loaded with lots of rabbit food (Lettuce, Tomato & pickle) very disappointed :( we also ordered a cup of Gumbo as this was a little on the bland side and lacking in bold cajun flavors we mentioned to our server, we definitely wanted to let them know as they can address these issues with the Chef to fix as this place definitely deserves a second chance as all businesses go through the phases of opening.

We found the prices to be about right, sure we would like them less expensive, but know we all need to survive. Im also not a fan of being served out of paper cups, plastic utensils or even plastic bowls, I believe that really discounts the integrity of a business.

We will return and give it a try down the road...........

My husband ordered the po'boy and we were impressed at how much they packed it with fried shrimp. They sure weren't stingy unlike some restaurants we've tried nearby.
I always order the crawfish étouffée.
Always great service & we were lucky enough to catch the live band a few times.

Eddie Adams delivers AGAIN!!! For authentic and delicious food, given N'awlins your business. My suggestions, the Jambalaya is layered with flavor and absolutely rich and delicious. Also to die for, the fried crocodile and Crawfish Etouffee. Also love the Purple Haze beer - not too hoppie for those of us not partial to those types of beer.

Didn't get to try the Banana's Foster tower, but I'll weigh in on that the next time I'm there.

Do yourself a favor and check this spot out. This is a wonderful Chef (the one who used to have Cajun Kitchen and Vieux Carre) so if your memory serves you correctly, you already know how awesome this spot is!!!

Finally, there is a Creole/Cajun restaurant in Albuquerque that serves authentic NO-style Mom-and-Pop food.

You can get a fine, overstuffed Fried Oyster Po' Boy. If u are shunning large carb loads, get a Fried Oyster Platter. Both are excellent.

There are two Gumbos: Gumbo Ya Ya (with andouille and chicken) and Seafood Gumbo (with shrimp). My personal taste runs to the seafood, with its authentic spicing.

The Lemon-Rum Bread Pudding is good enough to have earned the #5 slot on my Hall of Fame's Best Bread Pudding List (see Larry's Albuquerque Food Musings Blog). Fabulous.

Oh yeah -- They serve Abita Beers on tap. I first ran across these brews in Abita Springs. You must try them.

Authenic New Orleans flavor in the 505?! Yes please!

This is a quaint little spot full ofcharacter. The decor and colors are exactly what you'd expect for a place boasting legit N'Awlins fare.

The inside is small, but cozy and the patio is great. There's live music often which can make things a little loud but hey- this is New Orlenas, right?

The food is all delicious. Flavorful, well prepared, and filling. The menu has grown since they first opened, and it's all been great.

The only thing stopping me from giving this place 5 stars is that the service is really hit or miss. Either your service will be on point or you'll be drinkless and dying of hunger. There is no in between.

Having been a here quite a few times since it first opened, I have to say, I do have quite the soft spot for this place. It's definitely been hit or miss for me with the food, but I feel like the service always makes up for it and so do their delicious desserts. I'm a Louisiana foodie and I've tried many different types of food throughout many different parts of Louisiana, so I've always had high expectations for this place. However, to be honest my expectations haven't always been met. I feel like the plates are good, but a majority of the time I find my dishes here to always be under seasoned. And when I say under seasoned, I mean not even salt+paper+Louisiana hot sauce are livening it up.

The beer selection is pretty good, especially if you're familiar with Abita beer, which is a Louisiana company that makes some pretty great brews. I love the Purple Haze (a bit of a berry flavor to it) and the always satisfying Andygator. Most recently I went to visit Nawlins because I had a hankering for some red beans and rice. Well, sad to say I was pretty let down. If this place was serving up Cajun food in Louisiana, there's no way it'd stay afloat, but for Albuquerque it's okay. My partner had the blackened catfish with gumbo (which was great) and I found myself nibbling from his plate more than my own.

We ended our meal with some warm little beignets, so those fried lumps of heaven made up for my bland plate of red beans and rice. I've also had the bread pudding and bananas foster before and they were both equally amazing. I've actually never had a bad sweet treat from them. Overall, the atmosphere, service, and live music make up for their sometimes mediocre plates, so I'd say definitely try it out. They've always been great to us, so I'll keep coming in for the service and great desserts. I just don't know that I'd call this true or authentic tasting Louisiana cuisine.

All of a sudden, the Duke City is getting dirty dirty with Cajun flayvuh. I can't understand why this didn't happen earlier, seeing as we're a similar species out here, we're down for some tasty rice 'n beans and hot burnin' love on our plates, but whatever, my arms are open wide. Come bless us with your culinary goodness, N'awlins.

Potential, potential, potential. This little shack, which has seen more than its share of failed restauranteurs in the past, seems ripe for the concept these guys are pushing. I appreciated the menu, really liked my catfish and the shrimp remoulade was fine, but after speaking with the manager I'm going to nudge 'em to really expand the good times vibe, because the atmosphere seems to beg for, well, a party. They have some solid beer choices and a patio ready for a seafood boil, so why not make the place more family and group-friendly, with entrees that'll feed a posse and, you know, invite what the French Quarter is famous for? It seems like the perfect locale, just beyond Snob Hill, where us vagrants are itchin' to wander.

Time to get together for some N'awlins cuisine! We met some friends here for lunch and I really didn't know what I wanted but I jumped into the menu and did my best. As we were narrowing our choices, my friend pointed out that they have New Orleans beer here which is definitely some props right off the bat. The kind and knowledgeable waitress made her way back and let us know about the specials, one of which caught my attention. Everyone gave her their orders and when it got to me I figured I'd give that special a try.

It was an Oyster Po' boy and wow did it come out with a bang! This thing is huge! You cannot close this Po' boy up no matter who you think you are, so don't even try. I had to tackle it with my fork and at least get it to be a manageable size. I'll say right away that I should have known my taste buds better because I'm not a huge fan of oysters. These were certainly fresh, and the side of cajun fries was tremendous, but maybe I should have gotten something else on the menu. Nevertheless, this place still gets 4 stars in my book because I know it was genuine and fresh and I know if I would have gotten something that I know I like, it would have been awesome. Just looking at the pictures from other people's reviews is getting me itching to go back.

We were told about this restaurant by several people, so we went on Saturday night. As soon as we walked up, we were greeted with a smile. There was live music outside, and the patio was full of people, so we decided to sit inside. Every single employee we passed said hello. We grabbed a little table in a purple and yellow room, covered in paintings of New Orleans.

We love our beer, and they had a good selection of beers on tap, a few we hadn't heard of. The waiter was super helpful, asking what kind of beer we like, and brought us samples of something he thought we'd like (he was right!).

He did the same for our meals. We ordered the Commander Basket of Bread, Blackened Catfish, and Jambalaya.

Blackened Catfish - I usually don't order fish, but I decided to try it on the waiter's suggestion.The catfish tasted very fresh, had a ton of flavor, and it was cooked well. The rice that it was served with was flavorful and had pieces of chicken. It was served with a lemon covered in cajun spices... Really brought the flavors together!

Jambalaya - I'm a Red Beans & Rice kind of girl, but per the waiter's suggestion, this is like a step up. It had sausage, chicken, rice, all covered with a cajun sauce. It was delicious! It definitely had that cajun spice. Dipping the bread in it was amazing.

For dessert, we ordered the bread pudding. It was a giant slice, drenched with a lemon rum sauce. It was good, but a little rich, and we couldn't finish it.

Overall, we were very happy with the whole experience, and have already recommended it to our friends! Will return to try some of the other items.

N'awlins is a good place to visit for lunch if your near campus. We sat outside in the patio area, I really like the New Orleans style and the staff were extremely friendly.

The bread was addictive! Honestly I was very disappointed in the oyster Po' Boy. The oysters had a dirty/slimy taste to them but the jambalaya was pretty good.

I also had the chef's special which was blackened filet mignon over asparagus served with rice. The filet mignon and rice had a lot of flavor but the asparagus didn't have any flavor and was smothered in butter.