TABLEAU Restaurant – “New Ideas” + “Traditional Offerings”
616 St. Peter St., Jackson Square, New Orleans, LA
A FIRST-PERSON REVIEW
By Jack Atkinson
When visiting New Orleans’ French Quarter one notices there is a restaurant or bar on every corner. My experience is… if you casually walk into 90% of these options, on a lark for convenience, or for the price point, the odds are high you have chosen a tourist trap with very average to poor food.
A few years back my wife and I were in New Orleans for a family reunion, we were just wandering around the Quarter and decided to try a new restaurant just off the corner of Jackson Square named Tableau! We did see the familiar Brennan’s name on the sign, which gave us some confidence, but the restaurant was unknown to us.
Wow – Oh my Gosh! We had one of the best meals of our lifetime that evening. We went on to dine in some of the NOLA’s very best restaurants during that visit, but none were better than our meal at Tableau!
There is no better local commercial real estate in New Orleans than this location, at the edge of Jackson Square that shares space with Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre. So glad it is a jewel of a restaurant. There are private dining areas on the third floor, more dining rooms and seating on a wrap-around balcony on the second floor, and the street-level rooms feel very French, fitting perfectly into the dreamy image, that is the French Quarter.
When you enter, Tableau’s interior features dark wood and a stone floor, wonderful chandeliers, and large sectioned mirrors. The service is formal and the food is fine, traditional, French-Creole cuisine with contemporary presentations and are very open to offering new ideas, occasionally they feature NOLA Brass Band Brunches.
If you like large Gulf shrimp, perfectly cooked Gulf fish, crab or other locally sourced foods, Tableau features many on their menu.
On my recent trip to Tableau restaurant, I was solo and on a budget, so I only ordered a nice glass of French wine, some turtle soup, a salad and an appetizer of flaky crab meat, w/sauce, and house-made crackers. For dessert, I enjoyed their special crème brûlée.
Their house-made French bread has a sourdough quality to it with a very flaky crust – very good for absorbing soups and sauces. The two waiters and manager all made the service offered to me just as exacting as the food.
The dessert menu is large, but their crème brûlée is impressive and recommended for special occasions. They have taken the small pot traditional crème brûlée presentation (1 1/2″ of custard with a small sugar crust on top) and spread that out into a quarter inch of custard covering the entire indention of a dinner plate, with a sugar crust covering it all. This allows for a bite of brittle in every bite!
There is no way for any rational person to say one restaurant at the top of their game is better than another top restaurant. With that said, I do recommend Tableau to all interested in a top-of-the-line French-Creole meal in New Orlean’s French Quarter. Tableau seems to be working hard to continue building their reputation and accomplishing their mission, by bringing new ideas to traditional Creole cuisine.
My meal at Tableau.
Some other contemporary dishes: crab claws in a truffle vinaigrette; roasted bone marrow with the rib eye; and oysters en brochette using rosemary sprigs as the skewers and roasted garlic beurre blanc as the sauce. The dessert list runs through crepes and bread pudding (made from monkey bread) and also includes tart a la bouille, a custard pie and bayou specialty.
(Source: Tableau website and a personal restaurant visit for review, by ARTS&FOOD® staff.)
