Budget Queen - NOLA help

I spent hours reading your suggestions before we went to Alaska so hopefully you have some insight to NOLA too. This is my second trip to New Orleans and we'll be there 2.5 days pre-cruise and 1 day post cruise. Last time we stayed at the Hilton Riverside. We saw the zoo (fabulous), the IMAX, and the aquarium (not impressed). We went to Pat O'Briens, Cafe DuMonde, Johnny's Po' Boys and Mothers (again, not impressed-expected it to be much better based on reviews I'd read).

I'm looking for suggestions of restaurants that have food that is great but not on the scale of Commanders Palace. Something a little more wallet friendly :) What coffe shops are the best? We'll be at the Drury and plan on walking where we need to go.

One of the things we are going to do this time around is visit a plantation so we'll be renting a car specifically for this purpose. Any suggestions as to which one is better? I'm leaning towards Laura.

Any other tips or hints you have, I'm happy to look and listen!

You can kill two birds with one stone. Laura is a more historically accurate plantation and there is a really good and affordable seafood place right around the corner from it.

The other places I would recommend are:

Cafe Amelie near the Cornstalk hotel.

Camellia grill

Oliver's

And the Creole Creamery.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've looked into Café Amelie and the Camellia Grill. I haven't heard of the other two so I will check them out.

We enjoyed Red Fish! Very good food! Wonderful fried oysters!

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