Thanksgiving Turkey Croissant

I always love restaurants I can recommend to people without having to worry about whether or not the recommendation will be well-received or not. Thankfully, Stanley is one of the places that never lets me down.

Whether it’s breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, Stanley serves up consistently great dishes at a fair price point — especially given French Quarter spots tendency to drive up prices.

Sure there are more tourists on hand than some local places, but you’re a fool if you let them detract you from enjoying Chef Scott Boswell’s menu.

For breakfast or brunch, my favorite thing is the Breaux Bridge Benedict. It’s boudin, smoked ham, cheese and poached eggs. The boudin is of great quality and the poached eggs at Stanley are damn near perfect. The yolk of the poached eggs weaves its way through the boudin perfectly to give you a quintessential bite every time your fork hits the plate.

The Eggs Stanley and Bananas Foster French Toast are also worth ordering. The oysters for the Eggs Stanley are lightly crusted in cornmeal rather than a heavy flour breading so they don’t overwhelm the eggs.

Beer-Battered Onion Rings

For lunch, I would highly recommend the Thanksgiving Turkey Croissant when it’s available (seasonal). It’s nicely seasoned shaved turkey meat, bacon, cranberry dressing, arugula, cornbread dressing and basil mayo sandwich between a fluffy croissant. I would prefer this sandwich to most Thanksgiving full-on meals. The flavor profile is light even though the portion is a bit large, but I’m not going to complain about getting too much of this sandwich.

The Club Stanley is also legit. Rather than relying solely on deli meat, it has a grilled chicken breast as the star surrounded by ham, bacon, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and a pesto dressing. It can be a little bit messy, but I’ve always found messy foods to be some of the best.

Club Stanley

A lot of people also like Stanley’s burger, but I honestly feel there are better options out there — even in the French Quarter. The Caesar Salad is also a little off. I found the chicken to be too dry both times I had it.

Aside from the food, Stanley has homemade ice cream and sorbets that are divine. The Pecan Pie ice cream and Bananas Foster ice cream are two of my favorites. You can also have any of the ice creams made into a milkshake or malt. I haven’t tried any of their specialty sundaes, but I doubt they will disappoint you. You really can’t go wrong if you go this route.

All in all, Stanley is a solid French Quarter spot that turns out high-quality items for a very affordable price. The best part is that it completely avoids the tourist trap feeling despite being situated along Jackson Square.

Stanley is located at the corner of St. Ann and Chartres in the French Quarter. Stanley is open 7 days a week from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.