Pêche: Offering Creative Dishes & Local Classics

My first experience at Peche was like going on a first date with someone I'd been friends with for years. I found the familiarity of the classic New Orleans dishes—such as the gumbo, raw oysters, baked drum, and smothered catfish—comforting, but I was also excited to see familiar ingredients in a new light in some of the more creative dishes. Since then, I admit, I've been in an open relationship with Peche. The menu changes as ingredients come in and out of season, and it offers enough variety to ensure you never get bored.

My favorite dish by far is the crab and jalapeño capellini. The capellini is house-made and perfectly cooked. It comes with an ideal amount of broth; the consistency isn't too watery, and the dish is incredibly flavorful. A generous portion of crabmeat complements the jalapeño and somewhat acidic flavors, and although the capellini is not spicy, the peppers add a nice kick that provides depth to the dish. In short, the dish is delicious, well balanced, and deeply flavorful.

I was skeptical when a waiter recommended I try the fish sticks. Who orders fish sticks at a James Beard award-winning restaurant? But I trusted the waiter, and he did not lead me astray. These are, hands down, the best fish sticks I've ever had. The somewhat light batter is perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper and has a mildly sweet taste from the NOLA Rebirth Pale Ale (Peche previously used LA 31 beer). Its tempura-like texture provides the perfect contrast to the soft, fresh, flaky, and mouth-watering Des Allemands catfish. (For those who don't know, Des Allemands, in southeast Louisiana, is known as the "Catfish Capital of the Universe," at least according to Wikipedia.) Served on the side is an aioli-like tartar sauce.

I'm not generally tempted by a $5 ball of bread, but I ordered the fried bread with sea salt at the behest of a coworker, who insisted it was worth a try. She wasn't wrong. These balls are rolled in honey and sea salt. The first taste is sort of like biting into a savory donut hole, with salt, rather than sugar, coating the outside. They're served steaming hot (literally), and while the exterior is perfectly crisp, the interior is delicately moist and soft.

The crab claws are tender and are drizzled with a citrus chili vinegar—the same vinegar used to pickle banana peppers! The onions provide a nice contrast in texture to the claws, and the Korean chili flakes add a subtle kick. Overall, the dish has a wonderful balance of acidity and flavor.

I was too curious to pass up the spicy ground shrimp and noodles. Admittedly, I prefer my shrimp in its usual, whole form, but the ground shrimp was fun to try. The curry-like broth is spiced with turmeric and cumin and comes drizzled over house-made fettuccine. It is delicious but doesn't quite pack the depth and complex flavors of the capellini.

Turns out I indulge my curiosity pretty often; I had to try the crispy shrimp heads the one time I saw them on the menu. They reminded me of deep-fried prawns I'd had in Cuba (anybody?). The batter was really light and was much like any other batter you'd find on fried shrimp tails. It had the right amount of salt and was sprinkled with some red pepper flakes, and the dish was served with a sweet pepper jelly.

The crab-stuffed shrimp is incredible—lumps of crab meat stuffed inside of jumbo Gulf shrimp and then deep-fried in a light and well-seasoned batter. What more need I say?

The only dish I probably wouldn't order again is the smoked tuna dip, which comes with saltines. I know, I know; everyone raves about it. The dip was, as the title indicates, very smoky, which I appreciated, but it was too reminiscent of tuna salad for my taste. That said, if you like smoked fish, pretty much any smoked fish available on the raw bar menu, such as the smoked drum, is a must.

Finally, I ordered the raw tuna special from the raw bar menu, and it was nothing short of amazing. The tuna was incredibly fresh, and the acidity was nicely balanced with olive oil.

In short, you can't really go wrong at Peche. The servers I've had are quite candid about which dishes are its strongest, so don't be afraid to ask. Although Peche never disappoints, it reaches its peak when crab is in season (which, fortunately for us, is most of the year).

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