N'awlins Bar & Grille is back open in NH after a 7 year hiatus, this time in Concord, in the former Chuck's BARbershop space. N'awlins Grille was formerly located on Elm Street in Downtown Manchester from 2013 to 2016. There hasn't been a Cajun/Southern restaurant in the Concord area in 3 years, so N'awlins Grille fills that void.
This Cajun restaurant & bar is a speakeasy bar located in an unmarked building near Eagle Square. Same as before, upon walking inside the front door on Low Avenue, look for the phone to the left in front of the mirror and pick up the phone to be let inside through a discreet door by staff.
This bar and restaurant has a chill vibe with string lights across the ceiling, painted jazz musician caricatures on the walls, and exposed brick walls. The long full service bar lit up in pink & purple, booths and tables, and a small performance stage in the back corner with piano. They will feature live music on certain nights, including jazz and zydeco. Upbeat jazz music plays over the speakers.
The food menu offerings include a decent variety Cajun style dishes including jambalaya, crawfish etoufee, po boys, red beans & rice, gumbo, okra & tomato stew, plus appetizers (fried frog legs, fried pickled vege, snow crab clusters, shrimp remoulade, hush puppies, alligator andoulle), burgers, chicken sandwiches greens salad, and desserts (beignets, cakes). The prices are moderate, most entrees in the $15 to $26 range (in 2024).
The food menu 10 years ago seemed bigger, and the pricing in 2013 was about half, per my old Yelp posting in October 2013. I enjoyed their crawfish pie and alligator bites at the old Manchester location.
The bar offers 8 draft beers, can/bottle beers, wine, and cocktails.
After hearing that N'awlins Grille was back in open in a new location, I had to check it out. After I was let inside from the cold night, I took a seat at a booth directly under the heater.
The staff introduced themselves and I was asked if I've ever been to N'awlins Grille when it was open in Manchester. I've been there a few times with my buddy back when he was still living in Manchester. We were also greeted with bead necklaces there.
I took about 5 minutes to finally decide on the Jambalaya ($21 plus tax) served with skillet cornbread. The Jambalaya came out 5 minutes after ordering, nice and hot. The jambalaya "stew" had a mix of shrimp, vegetables, tomatoes, seafood, chicken, andoulle sausage and spices over rice. The dish had good mild spicy flavors, and the sweet cornbread balanced the flavors out. The shrimps were very soft to eat.
For the dessert, I got the Beignets ($7 plus tax), which consisted of 3 fried dough pillows smothered in powdered sugar. This hot dessert was a great choice to end the meal.
I haven't enjoyed Cajun food since last summer on my cruise. I'll try some of their other Cajun dishes and Po'Boys next time! read more
