Fodor's Expert Review Brigtsen's

Chef Frank Brigtsen's fusion of Creole refinement and Acadian earthiness reflects his years as a Paul Prudhomme protégé, and his dishes here represent some of the best south Louisiana cooking you'll find anywhere. Everything is fresh and filled with deep, complex flavors, and the menu changes daily. The butternut shrimp bisque defines comfort food. Rabbit and duck dishes, usually presented in rich sauces and gravies, are full of robust flavor. But Brigtsen really gets to unleash his creativity on the "Shell Beach Diet," a nightly changing seafood platter that might include grilled drum with shrimp and jalapeño-lime sauce and shrimp cornbread. Trompe-l'oeil murals add whimsy to the intimate spaces of this turn-of-the-20th-century frame cottage. Ask for a table on the enclosed front sun porch.