What’s the Most Popular Restaurant Cuisine in New Orleans, LA ?

Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser is always talking about the food in Louisiana whenever he is traveling around the country riding in parades and promoting our state. You can tell by looking that Billy hasn't missed too many great Louisiana meals so it's no surprise that food is one of the many reasons people flock to Louisiana and especially, the City of New Orleans. 

When it comes to good food New Orleans is a Mecca. The New Orleans metro area is home to 22 different five-star restaurants according to the website Yelp. If you break it down even further that's 1.74 five-star restaurants per 100,000 residents. And this doesn't even take into account the seemingly endless numbers of "hole in the wall" joints where the food is better than any Michelin Chef could prepare.

Naturally, when you think New Orleans and New Orleans food there are two "types of cooking" that come rushing to mind. One is Creole. The other is Cajun. A lot of people describe the differences between the two cuisines this way. Creole is "city food" and Cajun is "country food. At least that's how Explore Louisiana defines it.

So, the top cuisine in NOLA has got to be Cajun or Creole, right? Wrong.

Alright, then it's got to be French Cuisine. New Orleans and all of Louisiana south of Alexandria are known for French influences in our culture and our cuisine. There are quite a few French restaurants in New Orleans, but no, it's not French.

What is the Most Popular Restaurant Cuisine in New Orleans, Louisiana?

Based on research done by Grand Canyon University using the information provided by users of Yelp a clearing house for consumer reviews of businesses of all kinds the most popular cuisine in New Orleans, Louisiana is Mexican.

Mexican cuisine dominated the Grand Canyon University study appearing as the top cuisine in most of the 50 cities that were surveyed. Mexican food purveyors also had the most five-star restaurants represented in the survey as well.

So, the next time you're in New Orleans and someone asks you "Where do the locals eat" you can send them to a Taco Bell with confidence or maybe one of the many other Mexican restaurants you'll find in the Big Easy.

Now, if you take Cajun Shrimp and make a taco is that Cajun, or is that Mexican? It's a good thing most of those restaurants serve Margaritas, we're going to need a drink to think on that question.