New Orleans–known as Nola to locals–is one of my favourite U.S. destinations. The city is both gritty and pretty, steeped in history, mired in mystery borne of pirates, plantations, and voodoo; ravaged by hurricanes and rebuilt by indefatigable people, Nola is a city to be explored and cherished. And the food…oh, the food. If its not been officially declared as one yet, New Orleans, Louisiana, should be every foodie’s Mecca.

So, when a place called Nola opened up in Edmonton, you better believe my ears pricked up in a hurry.

The place bills itself as a Creole Kitchen and Music House. That’s a very good combination; in New Orleans you can’t have one without the other. The night we went to Nola in Edmonton, Alfie Zappacosta was on stage, and though I’ve never been a huge fan, I have to say the man won me over that night with his vocals and humour. Maybe the rum had something to do with it…

L: Embalming Fluid R: Hurricane

Nola’s drink list is impressive and fun. You gotta love a drink called Embalming Fluid. But horror of horrors, they had run out of mint for the Juleps. If that happened in the South, there’d be a riot.

The menu looked enticing with many a “Nawlin’s” dish to be offered: gumbo, jambalaya, blackened snapper, hush puppies, and more. We were ready to dig in to some Creole fare and asked our server what she’d recommend. She replied, “I’m not a fan of Creole food…” Such uninspiring words are not what you want to hear from your server and after our eyebrows lowered to their normal positions, we settled on fried oysters, hush puppies and a bowl of gumbo to start us off.

I can still taste and recall the fried Gulf oysters I had at Felix’s Oyster Bar in New Orleans–big, succulent, lightly breaded and seasoned. The ones we had at Nola in Edmonton were, well, strange; more oyster bits than anything (a minced combination of three Canadian oysters). At $9, a huge disappointment, but that being said, what bits were there, were very tasty.

Fried Oysters Oyster Bits

The hush puppies were quite good, but aren’t your typical hush puppies. ‘Puppies in the South are made of cornmeal and few other ingredients. These hush puppies were a combination of seafood and cornmeal and called “seafood fritters”. They (and the smoky red pepper aioli) went great with the French Quarter dark beer, made specially for Nola by Amber’s Brewing Company. I’ll give the chef at Nola some creative leniency here with his version of hush puppies.

Hush puppies $8

Speaking of cornmeal, the little cornmeal muffins that came before everything were the highlight of the whole experience. Moist, fluffy, and served with a whipped butter made it hard not to fill up before the rest of the dishes came. They were a wonderful accompaniment to the gumbo which lacked a little in flavour and could’ve used a “BAM!” a la Emeril to kick it up a notch.

Gumbo

For mains we went with the blackened snapper, a nicely spiced chunk of delicate fish, cooked perfectly and served with roasted fingerling potatoes and vegetables, all nestled in a bourbon butter sauce. Don’t fear the bourbon, it was remotely present to the point of being unnoticeable.

Blackened Red Snapper $18

Any Creole kitchen worth its salt should have an étouffée on menu. The word means “to smother” and a bowl of seafood étouffée should be smothered in a rich dark roux (gravy) made from fat and flour. The darker the roux, the deeper the flavour. At Nola, the seafood étouffée was a combination of all the right ingredients (shrimp, clams, scallops, vegetables), but the roux was more broth than gravy and lacked the depth of flavour it should’ve had. The restaurant also lacked Louisiana hot sauces, a big no-no.

Seafood Etouffee $24

After all that food, we forged ahead to the dessert menu because when you’re faced with southern desserts, you just can’t say no.

The desserts at Nola are substantial and not for the faint of heart (or heart patient). The beignets are again, not like the ones New Orleans is known for (light, fluffy, one to a plate), but rather dense dough balls swimming in chocolate. Try to put your past beignet experiences aside (if you have them), and enjoy these, because they’re deep fried dough in chocolate, and how can you not enjoy that?

Beignet with chocolate sauce $8

The bread pudding left something to be desired though. It definitely needed the sauce and the strawberries to let the tastebuds know there was flavour present and it could’ve benefited from less heft.

Bread pudding in whisky sauce $8

Overall, the food was decent but lacked a bit of soul. The experience was enjoyable — music, food, cocktails and local beer. The service, or rather, server was more booze-oriented than food-savvy, and the whole concept of vacating your table after two hours was confusing being that you’re there to enjoy food and music performers. Sorry Alfie…would’ve liked to stay, but our time was up. ?

To listen to my review of Nola on CBC Edmonton AM, click here, and to read about our New Orleans, Louisiana experience, click here.