Fiorellas in the French Quarter

My gumbo journey through the French Quarter continues. It's been an interesting wander through the FQ's eateries, all in search of the perfect gumbo, the gumbo of my dreams, an Fiorella's was my latest mark. How does the place stack up?

Fiorella's is known mostly for fried chicken and a general assortment of Louisiana food. It's a small, funky place inside, and the outside usually hosts a healthy number of folks engaging in New Orlean's favorite sport: chain-smoking, drinking, and eating fried food. They're known for fried dill pickles. Haven't tried em'. (What do they say about this place? "After a New Orleans meal, you're always sure of your gallbladder?" Think I lifted that from Sarah Roahen's Gumbo Tales...)

I sat down and ordered me some gumbo and a Greek salad. Took a bit longer then I felt might be required to do gumbo and a Greek salad, but the servers were cute/heavily tattooed (as a good French Quarter waitress dang well should be).



The gumbo was the andouille, shrimp, and chicken variety. Verdict? Too dang thick for my tastes, without a ton of the rich, roux-a-riffic flavor that really gets my motor going. Wasn't bad, just too nondescript for my tastes, and wasn't hot enough temperature-wise either. That's a common complaint with gumbos. I am biased against andouille, as I come from a family that does ham instead. A few shrimps up in there, maybe could have used more.



The Greek salad was surprisingly delightful, with a small mountain of stinky grated parmesan, lots of feta, and a nice herby vinaigrette that probably had more cheese in it. A pretty nice effort and rather authentic to American style greek salad (ie, YUM CHEESE).