Oak Street Po-Boy Festival

New Orleans, Louisiana
November 18th 2012

Well, here we go again. Back on Oak Street after a year of anxious waiting and hungry for some delicious po-boys. For some reason, this year's festival was unbelievably crowded from the start. So, my plan on knocking out the heavy favorites first was a total bust. I was ridiculously hungry, so I went for a sure thing and revisited Ninja for their Soft Shell Crab Po-boy. It was like being reunited with a long lost friend and their signature sriracha sauce was just as delicious as I remembered.

Next on my list was the 2011 Specialty Seafood winner. This Shrimp Remoulade Po-boy was done by The Ridge Bistro.

I was actually somewhat disappointed with this one. The flavor was pretty bland for a remoulade, and the main curve ball was that the shrimp was really cold. My sister enjoyed it because of the really light contrast from the heavy fried po-boys that were around. I was looking more for things that sit like a brick in your stomach.

This year's Best Seafood award went to Ralph Brennan's Red Fish Grill's BBQ Oyster Po-Boy. It was dressed with lettuce, red onion and fried oysters in their BBQ sauce. The BBQ sauce wasn't overpowering but very tasty and allowed to flavor of the oysters to play the main role in this one. Definitely well done.

Here is Mondo's Pastrami Po-boy, dressed with gruyere cheese and pickled slaw. The pastrami was good, and the slaw was really nice, but something about it made it a little too much on the salty side.

Here is the 2011 'Best of the Fest' Shanghai Shrimp Po-boy done by WOW Cafe and Wingery. Last year, I was so skeptic about them putting a po-boy out in the festival that I didn't even try theirs. When I heard that they won the top prize, it left me baffled. So, naturally I have to try the best one right? This po-boy comes with fried shrimp in their special sauce, ranch dressing and topped with an Asian slaw and lettuce. The shrimp was done pretty well , the sauce was certainly unique. It was a very mild buffalo flavored sauce with an Asian twist to it. The Asian slaw was the kicker here, and probably my favorite part.

Winner winner chicken dinner. Or, I really should say roast beef dinner. Here was the number one crowd pleaser of the festival, winning both the Best of Fest and Best Pork/Beef awards. All brought to you by Palace Cafe's Poutine-boy. This came with their roast beef, french fries and cheese curds. The fries and curds were buried under the hot roast beef, which eventually melts the cheese. The roast beef was nicely shredded and really juicy, and just full with good quality beef flavor. We added a touch of crystal sauce on it to give it some kick. And who doesn't love fries in their sandwiches?! Congrats to Palace Cafe.

Now, back to the Best of Fest winner of 2010. Yes, we went back for it and yet again the line was a block long! GW Fins' Fried Lobster Po-boy was pretty good this year, but not as amazing as I remember it. Maybe it was because they didn't try to live up to being the reigning champs, or maybe they were just running out of lobster (we got in line pretty late). Still a great po-boy though.

Last, but not least was the Fried Chicken Waffle Po-boy from Palate New Orleans. This was probably my favorite one of the day. It took my sister an hour long wait in line to get it too! It came with a nice crispy piece of boneless chick on top of a sweet potato waffle and some slaw. We got the combo as well, so it came with a side of Crawfish Mac and Cheese. The chicken was decent, and the waffle had a great cinnamon sweet potato flavor. The cole slaw took off some of the heaviness that came with the chicken. The Crawfish Mac and Cheese was pretty good too. I think it could have use a little more cheese but the crawfish flavor made it pretty awesome.


That was all I tried this year, and I'd say it was pretty successful festival. I did notice that it's better off to get po-boys as early as possible. Not because of the lines, but I could definitely tell that the po-boy bread at a lot of stands tend to get harder as the day goes on. Bring friends, and bring an empty stomach. I'll see y'all next year!

Ninja - 8433 Oak Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Ridge Bistro and Deli - 1827 Hickory Avenue, Harahan, Louisiana
Red Fish Grill - 115 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
Mondo - 900 Harrison Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana
WOW Cafe and Wingery - 231 N. Carrollton, New Orleans, Louisiana
Palace Cafe - 605 Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
GW Fins - 808 Bienville Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
Palate New Orleans - 8220 Willow Street, New Orleans, Louisiana