Cuisine: Seafood
Neighborhood: Metairie
Website: Drago’s Restaurant (Metairie)
Address:
3232 N. Arnoult Rd.,
Metairie, LA
Phone: (504) 888-9254
New Orleans is extraordinary; its suburbs are not. Fortunately, some relief from this anywhere-suburban blah is provided by unique restaurants nestled amid the McMansions and boxy chain stores. In the local seafood department, Drago’s holds a particularly high standing. This casual-nice seafood palace serves some of the best oysters around thanks in large part to generations-old connections forged between management and Croatian oystermen down river. Served raw on the half-shell, they are cold and wonderful. But the preparation that makes Drago’s worthy a trip across town (or at least a stop on the way to the airport) is the charbroiled oysters. Cooked over flames in their shells with a little lemon, garlic and parsley, they come to the table smelling ambrosial and bursting with an unforgettable flavor. The recipe has now been widely copied, but no one seems to have mastered it as Drago’s.
