We Rated Every Bar on Bourbon Street

Every bar on Bourbon Street Rated
Scott Gold/Thrillist
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Ah, Bourbon Street. Many have heard its siren call and walked its neon-hued promenade in search of, well, bourbon (despite the warnings), only to be faced with what seems like booze roulette. But take it from us, this is not a dive bar crapshoot -- there are some great places, there are some terrible places, and there are everything-in-between places, and we've rated every single one of them. Whether you're down there for Mardi Gras or just another good time, please heed both our warnings and recommendations.

Author's Note: Venues have been graded on a 10-point numerical scale, where 10 is "Don't leave New Orleans without going here." and 1 means "Enter only if you're blotto enough to seriously consider a Little Mermaid tramp stamp, and even then, it's dubious."

Tropical Isle
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Home of the Hand Grenade, touted as the "world's most powerful mixed drink," which tastes like Midori, sugar, and pure grain alcohol. Do NOT have more than one. The balcony's worth a visit, however.
Rating: 9, if you've never been to Bourbon Street. Otherwise, 4.

You'll know The Beach by the machine blowing suds bubbles into Bourbon, enticing you to enter this summery spot. It claims to have the biggest dance floor on Bourbon Street, plus $3 "tooters," whatever those might be. Who cares? They're only three bucks!
Rating: 3

Galatoire’s 33 Bar and Steak
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Adjacent to one of the most famous restaurants in New Orleans, 33 is Galatoire's new steakhouse. If you're looking for a cold beer or cocktail in an elegantly masculine room where you can still watch the game on a pair of huge flat-screens, this is your place.
Rating: 8, because it also has an amazing burger served with waffle-cut chips

Refreshingly, there's no neon here, but actual candles for ambient lighting. Also refreshing is the list of well-curated New Orleans classic cocktails, plus an Abita root beer float with rum and cream cheese ice cream.
Rating: 10. Um... did we mention the rum-and-ice cream root beer float?

Funky 544
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Dive bar? Heavy pours? Live music? Aggro shot girls? Check, check, check.
Rating: 5

The only gay nightclub in NOLA that's open 24/7. FYI.
Rating: 5

Fat Tuesday
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Daiquiris, daiquiris, and more daiquiris! From the Banana Banshee to the "Tropical Itch," and everything in between. Watch out for the brain freeze -- and the vicious hangover.
Rating: 2

If Channing Tatum were to open a bar on Bourbon Street... wait, that's not a hypothetical. Channing Tatum DID open a Bourbon Street club, and this is it. It's a stylized version of a Victorian bordello, only, you know, more modern and stuff with a swanky VIP section, if that's your jam.
Rating: 7

famous door new orleans
Flickr/Wally Gobetz

You’ll find plenty of live music here, mostly geared towards getting you on the dance floor, though you might have to make your way through some aggressive shot girls to get there.
Rating: 6.5

It might be a hyper-neon electric dance club with a neat courtyard, but Bourbon Heat is ALSO apparently haunted by a ghost named Penelope. So... there's that.
Rating: 3

Bourbon Cowboy
Scott Gold/Thrillist

What, did you think Bourbon Street wouldn't have a rodeo-themed bar complete with mechanical bull? Of course it does.
Rating: 5. It might rank lower, but watching people fall off of a mechanical bull is endlessly amusing.

Statues of Louis Armstrong, Pete Fountain, and more welcome you to this little garden jazz oasis. This is the kind of place you'd want to bring your parents if you happen to have them tagging along while you're on Bourbon Street (for some reason).
Rating: 7.5

A no-frills -- and, even more important, no cover -- live-music venue, suitable for ass-shaking or just enjoying the show.  Or the bathroom. Because you're definitely going to have to pee at some point, and it might as well be here.
Rating: 5.5

Jester Mardi Gras Daiquiris
Scott Gold/Thrillist

More booze slushies to suck down here, including the eponymous signature drink, served in a Jester-shaped plastic cup. Just in case everyone couldn't spot you as a tourist from a mile away, one of these will definitely do the trick.
Rating: 2

At this "European Jazz Pub" (whatever that means) you're sure to find your fair share of Dixieland, even though we’re pretty sure that Dixieland is definitively American.
Rating: 7

Another 24/7 club, this "Lafitte" (not to be confused with the Blacksmith Shop, mind you) has been a Bourbon Street hangout since the '50s, making it the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the country. It boasts Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote as former patrons, though these days it's known more for its "Kafe Karaoke," "Trash Disco" (with napkin toss!), and oyster Bloody Mary.
Rating: 7

Cat’s Meow
Scott Gold/Thrillist

All the karaoke you want and more, mostly at the hands of preposterously inebriated tourists and conventioneers. Let's see you curl that lip and belt out "White Wedding" one more time!
Rating: 3 if you're a spectator, 7 if you have the balls/liquid courage to get on stage

You know it's going to get crazy when you spell "crazy" with a "K!" Despite the name, be on the lookout for live R&B and zydeco, especially when local acts are on the bill. Plus, the largest COVERED balcony on Bourbon, if you want to watch the street people get soaked when it starts to rain, which is fun.
Rating: 6, for hosting decent local musicians

The Swamp
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Here's the place to go if you really want to get three, four, or even five sheets to the wind and act like an incurable a-hole on the balcony, begging to barter beads for chesty exposure... and have absolutely no one care, because they're all in the same boat. Yup, that's The Swamp alright.
Rating: 2

Oh, Chris Owens. The oldest -- sorry... most "mature" -- burlesque dancer in New Orleans. She's a living legend, mostly through the marvels of modern technology and surgical science, and her show is something between Branson, MO, and the Storyville days of NOLA. If you don't catch Chris, hit her club for the killer Latin night.
Rating: 7 on a regular day, 10 on Latin night

Rita’s Tequila House
Scott Gold/Thrillist

An impressive selection of agave spirits (the tequila list is 135 deep) and a cozy, surprisingly low-key room give Rita's a solid edge over its Bourbon Street neighbors. Also: tacos.
Rating: 7

Right at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann (known as the "Lavender Line"), Oz is consistently considered the best gay dance club in NOLA.
Rating: 7

Razoo Bar & Patio
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Sad that college ended and you can't party like a frat boy anymore? Razzoo will bring it all back: the cheap shots, the fist-pumping, the eventual vomiting of three-for-one hurricanes in the urinal trough.
Rating: 2

The name pretty much gives this gay bar away from the start.
Rating: 5. Not a bad spot, but loses points for having the worst name on Bourbon Street.

Old Absinthe House
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Dating back to 1806, it's an old Bourbon Street favorite. Famous patrons have included Oscar Wilde, P.T. Barnum, Mark Twain, General Robert E. Lee, Franklin Roosevelt, AND Liza Minnelli. The copper bar is a sight to see. And, yes, it has plenty of absinthe for you.
Rating: 8

Pirates weren't known for being funky or admiring live blues music, but you'll find plenty of the latter here. It's owned by Tropical Isle, so you can get your Hand Grenade on, too. Or a "Shark Attack" if you want a plastic souvenir shark to play with, which, admittedly, can be a lot of juvenile fun when you've just consumed a Shark Attack.
Rating: 6

Maison Bourbon
Scott Gold/Thrillist

One of few options on Bourbon that still actually offers live jazz music, a good option if you've tired of bounce rap, oontz-oontz dance jams, and karaoke caterwauling.
Rating: 8

A slightly more elegant Bourbon venue (if you can call anything on Bourbon "elegant" outside of Galatoire's), filled with dark woods, wrought iron, and exposed brick, for when you're looking to give your eyes a break from the blinding, ubiquitous neon, strobes, and black lights of the strip.
Rating: 6

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop
Scott Gold/Thrillist

This is the oldest structure that's served as a bar in America, and you can tell by all the charming old stone and wood. Expect a mixture of old and new, lighting by both candles and video poker machines. Beware the "purple drank," Lafitte's signature daiquiri.
Rating: 8

More live music, more dancing, more shot girls. A sign on the restroom door reads "Do not smoke weed in the bathroom. You will be escorted out of the club."  So, you know... classy.
Rating: 4

Spirits on Bourbon
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Does it have a rotating leather chair in which you can sit and let a buxom lady climb atop you to pour booze directly down your open gullet? Why, of course!
Rating: 5

This Hole in the Wall is a hole in the wall. Did we mention that it's a hole in the wall? Johnny White's is the Moe's Tavern of Bourbon: cheap drinks, local barflies, zero touristy schlock, and an overall air of general sketchiness. Which means it's pretty great. But it loses points for being a haven for Redskins fans. At least it's not the Falcons.
Rating: 5

Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse
Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse

Less a bar than a genuine music venue, Irvin Mayfield's hosts some of the bigger names in local music seven nights a week (with no cover!), not to mention an absolutely killer burlesque show every week.
Rating: 10

It's huge, it's colorful, it's a Hard Rock Cafe. 
Rating: Anywhere between 2-3 (depending on how much you like HRCs)

willie's chicken shack
Scott Gold/Thrillist

Do you want fried chicken AND a plastic yard of colorful frozen booze? Here you go.
Rating: 3, mostly because it's not really much of a bar. But if you're hammered, the chicken gets a 9.

Yeah, it's a daiquiri shop. It's right there in the name, buddy. It also has pizza.
Rating: 2

Beer Fest
Scott Gold/Thrillist

While this may seem, by its name, to be the embodiment of the college kegger, Beerfest is actually a manly beer hall with a satisfying array of domestic and imported brews. It's pricey, though, especially for Bourbon Street.
Rating: 6

A hole in the wall with live music, but note that there's a drink minimum if you want to stay for the show. One drink, usually... but who has one drink on Bourbon Street?
Rating: 5.5

Mango Mango
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If you haven't had enough frozen daiquiris and greasy pizza yet, Mango Mango has you covered... but with a "tropical atmosphere," y'all!
Rating: 2

Bourbon Live

Yup, more live music here. If you didn't get that from the name.
Rating: 6

fais deaux deaux
Flickr/Laurie White

If you've ever wondered where tourists get those fishbowls of booze, well, here ya go.
Rating: 2 usually, or 5 if you can figure out another use for the empty bowl

If the three-for-one happy hour somehow doesn't speak to you, maybe the rolling mixture of cover bands and jazz outfits will get you inside. It's a standard-fare Bourbon Street bar with all the fixin's: live music, a balcony, and lots of tourists wildin' out.
Rating: 4

big easy daquiris
Flickr/AngryJulieMonday

More sugary cocktails, more pizza, and few surprises, save for the syringe shots of booze and the White Russian daiquiri that tastes like breakfast cereal.
Rating: 2

Gussied-up bar food that includes a burger benefitting firefighters, a solid selection of beers, and, oh yeah, "the 5th Quarter Challenge": If you can make your way through a 4lb burger and 2lb of debris fries within 45 minutes, you've earned yourself a free meal, a jersey, a spot on the Wall of Honor, and eternal bragging rights.
Rating: 7

Better known as Huge Ass Beers, its signature offering.
Rating: 1, or 10 if you really need 64oz of suds in one serving  

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Scott Gold is a writer in New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter