New Orleans

Compère Lapin

Caribbean
Creole/Cajun
American South
Special Occasion

Few contemporary restaurants can be credited with helping shape the present and future of New Orleans’ culinary scene like Compère Lapin. It opened in 2015 as something entirely new: a sophisticated ode to the intersection of Caribbean and New Orleans cuisines. Nina Compton’s Warehouse District restaurant has since become one of the city’s top special occasion destinations due to its festive, upscale feel and large footprint in The Old No. 77 Hotel. The menu — particularly the prix-fixe “Feed Me” option — showcases dishes that have become synonymous with Compton over the years, like scallion and jalapeño hush puppies, curried goat with gnocchi, blackened pig ears, and passion fruit glazed fish collar. Compère has inspired restaurants highlighting Haitian, Trinidadian, and other Afro-Caribbean cuisines to open in New Orleans along the way, all similarly embraced.

Compère is a very personal restaurant of mine. That is my heritage, being from the Caribbean, but with the melding of all the influences of New Orleans and the bounty of what we can get in our area.

Nina Compton

Nina's Perfect Order

StarChefs

Buttermilk Biscuits

Baked to order and still steaming when they arrive, Compton’s pillowy biscuits are traditional, an ideal blank canvas on which to slather honey butter or bacon butter or both.

Tuna Ceviche

While remaining a nice, light start to the meal, herby tuna ceviche provides a surprising richness from coconut and a pop of heat and texture from scattered jerk peanuts.

Curried Goat

The best-selling dish since day one, tender curried goat arrives saucy and plush with hearty hunks of sweet potato gnocchi, offset by cashews and cilantro.