Named after the classic New Orleans song “St. James Infirmary,” this Upper East Side spot is the city’s most ambitious and elegant restaurants evoking the food of Louisiana. Roasted oysters and praline beignets are in a Creole vein, Cane River gumbo and boudin balls are more Cajun, while lamb meatball po’ boys and Cajun hummus are pure invention. Classic cocktails like the Sazerac and the hurricane are available, along with a roster of Abita beers. 

This East Village sentimental favorite, founded in 1983, mounts a menu half Cajun-Creole, the other half a mixture of Southern cooking, barbecue, and other comfort food, sometimes creatively tweaked. That said, there are some unique Cajun dishes found almost nowhere else: tchoupitoulas chicken, fried oysters, inventive po’ boys, and Creole wings, for example. An Elvis lamp burns forever in the window. 

This is one of the few Manhattan places to score an oyster or shrimp po’ boy, and there’s a vegetarian muffuletta that ain’t half bad. Though these are the limits of the Cajun-Creole menu at this small sandwich shop tucked away on the Lower East Side, other choices strike Louisiana notes, including fried chicken and short rib sandwiches that come slathered with horseradish. 

Started by New Orleans native Matt Pace, Café Booqoo concentrates on po’ boys, meal-size salads, beignets, and other breakfasts, relegating gumbo and jambalaya to sides. Those sides are very good, though, with a jambalaya that’s thick and tomatoey. A chalkboard translates Cajun French expressions, including “beaucoup” (pronounced “booqoo”), which means lots of anything.

Unfurling a fleur-de-lis flag in the front window, Catfish displays the sass of a real New Orleans bistro in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. Brunches shine in particular, washed down with beer and mixed drinks, including an exemplary chicken fried steak with white gravy and fried eggs, a blackened catfish po’ boy, and eggs scrambled with andouille and bacon.

Located along Astoria’s 30th Avenue brunch strip, Sugar Freak boasts a premises that provides plenty of outdoor seating, and a cozy indoors when cold weather arrives. The sprawling Cajun and Creole menu is well done, including seafood boils, crawfish etouffee, Creole soups, and the legendary muffuletta, a round sandwich made famous by NO’s Central Grocery. Cocktails are plenty stiff.