GW Fins
The menu is rewritten every day around whatever landed, and the kitchen cuts bluefin into something it calls a ribeye.12
Why go
Megan Braden-Perry sets it against the rest of the city, which she says runs on fried catfish under a cream sauce with crawfish tails piled on.2 What she rates here instead are the dishes that mimic meat, a bluefin cut like a ribeye and a mortadella sandwich built out of swordfish.2 The restaurant's own line is a menu that changes daily,
which is the mechanism behind all of it.1 Grab a table near the huge windows and do some French Quarter people-watching with dinner.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever came in that day, then one of the meat impressions. Braden-Perry names
bluefin 'ribeyes' or a mortadella sandwich dupe made with swordfish.
2 - Order: the Salty Malty ice cream pie. Her instruction is to
always end the meal
with it.2 - Avoid: turning up dressed for a poboy counter. Men need a collared shirt, and t-shirts, cut-off shorts, athletic wear and baseball caps are all out.1
What locals & experts say
- Megan Braden-Perry, The Infatuation, 24 June 2024:
GW Fins is where you come for innovative seafood dishes with fish that was probably swimming that morning.
2 - The kitchen on its own aim:
Our chefs craft each dish with subtle techniques that enhance the natural flavors and textures of the day's freshest catch.
1
Good to know
- Booking: book it. This is a dinner room in the Quarter with a dress code.
- Dress: the restaurant's own wording is that coats and ties are not required, and that gentlemen wear a collared shirt. Hats come off in the dining room.1
- Hygiene: not established. New Orleans publishes no inspection register this project reads.
Verdict
should-visit — Megan Braden-Perry, the one bylined critic to write about this room, makes a comparative case rather than a general one, and that is what earns the rung. She sets the city's default seafood plate against this kitchen and says the fish here 'was probably swimming that morning'. The kitchen backs the claim structurally, rewriting the menu daily on its own account, and the two dishes she picks are a bluefin cut like a ribeye and a swordfish standing in for mortadella. I read the MICHELIN Guide's New Orleans list in full, all 31 rows, and this room is not on it, which is a fact about that selection and not a mark against the cooking. One review is thin for anything higher.