When we visited Commander’s Palace we ended up in the Garden District .  Commander’s Palace is defining restaurant in New Orleans ! It was rated the most popular restaurant in New Orleans 18 years in a row by Zagat.

The staff at Commander’s Palace  work hard to ensure you are provided with a true Southern Dining  Experience. You definitely need a reservation –  for lunch or for dinner. The service is exceptional . It is white table cloth dining experience. We had a table right by the window. At lunch time when you order an entree you get 3 drinks for 25 cents per drink ! It is a cool perk ! The lunch was good . I really enjoyed the gumbo and the strawberry shortcake dessert !

Once we were done lunch we walked around Commander’s Palace  in the Garden District. Garden District is a neighborhood in New Orleans with some of the best preserved historical mansions in New Orleans. The mansions are from another era and is just a wonderful place for a stroll.   We spend about 2 hours walking around and exploring the various mansions. We did a self guided tour using the map available at this site.  See below for some beautiful photos of the historical mansions !

We also visited the Lafayette Cemetery – right across from Commander’s Palace.  There was a lady offering a one hour tour for tips. We took the tour with her.  Learned a lot about the different burial practices. In New Orleans the dead are buried above the ground since the city is build on a swamp. Because of this the cemeteries look grand . Many movies/tv shows were filmed in this cemetery . One of my favorite shows – Vampire Diaries had  scenes filmed here.