N’awlins Cafe and Spice Emporium

I think my brother mentioned that this place was on Food Network (or a channel of that sort) so this was his stop at the French Market. While I was chomping down my crêpe from across the walkway, I swear he was waiting on his gumbo for 15 minutes. The only plus in my opinion was the large amount of broth they give you and there’s some nice pieces of seafood, including crab, in there. The spice market is also worth a quick look, but we left with nothing.

Don’t know why the bad reviews. It was near end of day and the vendors were shutting shop when we decided to give this place a shot (without looking at Unilocal reviews). Honestly, the food was very good. The large Creole gumbo was full of sausage chicken okra and pieces of crab. My picky teenager loved it. My not so picky other teenager loved his cajun jambalaya. It was a pricey risk we took, but it was worth it. Guess we must have got them on a good day…

Creole jambalaya was bone dry. Tasted like microwave rice r roni. Crab poboy was stinky and old. Worst meal in new orleans by far.

Gator bites are normally delicious although here they just make me sad they were small flavorless pieces of grilled gator. I drenched them in their sauce and it wasn’t so bad after that. They do have ‘as seen on food network gumbo’ so I figure this has to be good; wrong, I was absolutely wrong! The rue wasn’t thick so I got slimy fish water with a piece of crab, chicken and sausage. I couldn’t stomach the gumbo and I’ll eat almost anything, I’m disgusted to think this place was on food network, really makes me question everything about my food network life!

Spicy little bar and spice market in the French Market.
Vegetarians and pescatarians — yep! you have some options (jambalaya included)
Food — lots of spicy options around $ 9 – 18
Time wait — took 25 minutes
Seating — bar stools and surrounding tables
I’d split an order with a friend — they’re large, so you can share different entrees. Wasn’t mindblowing but they do have options for vegetarians and pescatarians, and that is kinda big in this city.

We only ordered one small creole okra gumbo and it was GOOD! A small size was enough to share between two people. The rice to meat ratio was perfect. We were also able to taste the okra, as it was not overpowered by the roux. As for the service, our server was nice, attentive, and the gumbo came out piping hot and fast.

This was our third food stop during our stay in New Orleans. The food overall was decent. For starters, presentation is a ¹⁰⁄₁₀. I was really impressed with how the food was presented in style, very elegant. However, the taste didn’t live up to the presentation. While the gumbo was tasty, its texture was very thin and the taste was more of a seafood-​like taste than traditional gumbo. The price didn’t live up to what it was advertised at, with so many other competing places in the area. It’s really a hit and miss with these market places, but I will probably take my interest for this popular New Orleans cuisine elsewhere in the future.

Don’t waste your time or money here. Mediocre food and incredibly bad service. A very dissapointing waste of a 25 minute wait for 3 small pieces of unflavorfull bites of meat. Lame.

OMG, OMG, OMG. The seafood gumbo with okra is great! Spicy as heck (yesss!)and they give you a humongous amount of gumbo when ordering a cup. Really, a cup is a bowl portion and a bowl is a pot portion. Awesome hot sauces too!

Great place for organic flavored and non-​flavored coffee. I have yet to try their food.

Amazing! So good! Who would have thought that red beans and rice would be so tasty! I had with the alligator sausage– the beans were definitely slow cooked with great spices, the sausage was the right side of chewy. I would see go back

So many questions why this place is still in business. Here’s a handful:
1) Your signs advertise pancakes, your menu says pancakes, but you don’t have pancakes? What DO you have?
2) You can’t find the crab? One does not simply, loose crabs. Does that mean you don’t use crab much? I probably shouldn’t order this then. Oh good, you found the crab! That only took 40 mins. No need to apologize for being slow. It has only been an 45 mins since we ordered and I’m starving. Thanks for making us wait 45 mins for our overcooked, over-​seasoned (or inexplicably under-​seasoned, see below), overpriced food.
3) OH MY GOD THERE IS A MAGGOT IN THE SEASONED SALT. HOW DOES A LIVING CREATURE MAKE A HABITAT OUT OF SODIUM?! Thanks for apologizing and trying to make things right by giving me a free shirt. Next time, try a little cleanliness.
In conclusion: menu and signs are misleading and do not reflect what they actually serve, servers are indifferent and slow, the food is not great (simultaneously too salty and not salty enough!) and there are bugs in the seasoning. There’s too many places to eat in New Orleans that are worth the calories. This, sadly, is not one of them.

Visited this location on our food tour and tried the seafood gumbo. It was spicy, flavorful and amazing. We really enjoyed the food and are planning on going back to try a few of their other specialities and buy some spices.

Right in the middle of the French market. There’s searing right on site (bar like setting with bar stools) or u can find a seat on some of the tables scattered through the market. Open air, so dress appropriately.
Alligator burger at $ 12 is not worth it. There’s very little meat, and even though it is heavily seasoned, I’m not a fan of it. The potatoes were good, but I got such a small portion of it. I really dont recommend it, but if u want the bragging rights that u ate alligator, go on ahead! Lol.
Seafood gumbo is pretty flavorful. Very spicy, lots of stuff in there, but it is a bit on the swampy side — but hey, it’s gumbo! Duh! Anyways, the price to portion ratio is pretty justified. I’m sure two people can easily split the large order at like $ 11. If ur not into this type of food, u may not like it — but hey, it’s a culinary adventure!
Service was kinda slow, and we had to flag them down to be assisted even though we were sitting right in front of them.
All in all, not too bad, but not too great.

Mary B – 1 star Horrible! Horrible! Horrible! Worst place we ate at in New Orleans!
December 31, 2014 ·
This is from my facebook wall on July 6, 2015 The owner was rude, and hostile, a very unpleasant conversation, I would NOT recommend this eatery ever!!!
World Famous N’awlins Café’ & Spice Emporium
The Lady who ate at my restaurant please call me and tell me what was wrong please
July 6,2015
World Famous N’awlins Café’ & Spice Emporium
MY FAMILY have been DOING BUSINESS FOR FOUR GENERATIONS I’M THE THIRD GENERATION TRAINING THE 4TH GENERATION. SO IN SAYING THAT WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING
July 6, 2015
World Famous N’awlins Café’ & Spice Emporium
CALL MY CELL 504−214−9210 ARTHUR O. HUMPHREY JR. PRESIDENT /​CEO FOR 45 YEARS, CREOLE BORN N RAISED
July 6, 2015
World Famous N’awlins Café’ & Spice Emporium
We don’t do fried foods we do sautéed Creole entrées big difference.
July 6, 2015
World Famous N’awlins Café’ & Spice Emporium
I see you’re from Kanas big difference in foods between Kanas and N’AWLINS LOUISIANA
July 6, 2015
Mary B
WOW! After 6 months you decided to comment on my review… asking me to call you, so I do, and what happens I am not allowed to explain to you what was wrong with my meal, am told that I am jealous of you as a business owner and then you tell me F**K YOU! …and hang up! What a PROFESSIONAL, CLASSY, WELL MANNERED, SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN! My Review STANDS, WE HAD HORRIBLE SERVICE, OVER AN HOUR TO GET OUR FOOD AFTER WE ORDERED, THEN WHEN WE GOT OUR FOOD IT WAS COLD AND DISGUSTING HAD TO THROW MOST OF IT AWAY!!!
July 6, 2015
Mary B
And MY HOME being in KANSAS has nothing to do with the fact that we received poor service and disgusting food…
July 6, 2015

It was a busy day but the wait for some Creole jambalaya was much longer than you would expect. Their jambalaya lacked proteins with a 1 piece of andouille sausage, two bites of chicken, and a handful of shrimp on a bed of rice. It seemed like they wanted to make up for the lack of meat with abundant spices but in the end you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth and a lighter wallet.
It’s like they’re surrounded with all these competitors and they decided to give up.

Situé dans le «French market» ce petit snack est plutôt mauvais.
Un sandwich à l’alligator à 12 $, pain glacé sauce type mayonnaise sans goût, très peu de frites bien grasses, la viande à un goût particulier plutôt agréable, mais petite portion pour le tarif.
Un sandwich au crabe à 14 $ pain froid sauce type mayonnaise sans goût idem pour les frites, le crabe est très restreint.
Une attente interminable pour prendre la commande, et de nouveaux pour avoir nos plats. 1h15 entre notre arrivée et l’obtention des plats.
Très mauvaise organisation, hygièné douteuse.
Très facile de trouver mieux à la nouvelle Orléans.
Très cher pour cette médiocre qualité.
Je né recommande pas.

I found out about this place because a person walking down the street had the bag. Hahha. Come here for spices and a quick bite to eat. My purpose here was to get some Nawlins spices.
They have a sample area where you can try the spices with some bread or chips. I was apprehensive in trying anything because the bread and chips didn’t look replenished. The person working there was pouring a spice into a cup, but the spice was chunky. She shook the bottle a bit and poured more of it into the sample cup. She walked away to help a customer with a purchase and as I got closer to the cup I noticed there were bugs crawling in the sample cup that she just poured for me to try. It was disgusting. I showed her the cup and she opened a new bottle and threw the old one away.
Even though this little fiasco happened I still happened to make a purchase of something else from their 3/​$ 12 deal. They also have other products that are not part of the deal and start from about $ 8 a bottle and up. It’s a place you should stop by and visit when in ‘Nawlins.

When you’re advertising GATOR ON A STICK, it would seem reasonable that your customers are expecting meaty chunks of gator flesh on a stick. Right?
Well, what they don’t mention is that it’s really more of a gator sausage, and good luck tasting anything but sausage. You know what sausage tastes like, and no matter what meat is inside they all sort of taste similar. Not necessarily bad, but identifying the meat contained within is a fool’s task.
Bummer.

OMG. We thought this placed was going to be soooo cool because it had all these «swamp» food on the menu and all the Cajun style food but we were very, very, DISAPPOINTED. We waited 51 minutes for our food and we don’t even wait that long at a NICE restaurant. Definitely very touristy and very unorganized. The food was whatever, the jambalya was undercook and was basically was like scrap food, poorly put together. The table next to us whisper «this is like slave food!» when they ordered a plate similar to ours. Lobster poboy was all bread and not enough meat. For 51 minute wait time, you would think it would be a little better. Awful touristy place. DO NOT GO! There are better joints near by!

Food was ok.
Service is slow, as mentioned by other reviewers they apologized at least for slow service and were nice enough.
We actually got ours fairly quick but the couple next to us waited twice as long as we did and weren’t very happy!
I think it’s a bit overpriced but it seems everything in NOLA is overpriced.
With only an overnight stay and trying to hit the highlights the food spots sometimes suffer in our choices but we would PROB eat here again. Nothing spectacular. I guess I’m just not a Naw’lins food fan or at least the seafood part. I really want to like the southern food but my core being sez NOOO It’s sooo unhealthy!
But if you want something quick in the french quarter sure grab a bite here.