New Orleans Eats Forums at NOLAEats.com

Heading to the Big D at the end of the month for a couple of days. Anyone have any suggestions/"must try's"?? Thanks in advance.

The usual questions. What part of town? Budget? Preferred food type? Ambience?

I'm staying close to downtown at the Warwick Melrose Hotel. I've never been there before so I'm not that familiar with the area. I am going with a friend for her birthday (she was born and raised there but hasn't been back there in about 25 years so I'm sure it has changed a lot from what she remembers). It's going to be a fairly laid back visit so we are probably looking for somewhat casual, but I'm not really concerned about price. Someplace lively, fun and with good food pretty much would fit the bill. I think we need to try at least one Tex-Mex place at some point, but any places you could suggest would be greatly appreciated.

Javier's for Mexican.
Nick & Sam's for steak.
I hear good things about Abacus but have not been.

Casper,
We almost never eat downtown so I'm coming up dry on ideas. The Dallas Morning News has a pretty good website. http://www.guidelive.com Lola receives lots of accolades on Chowhound. Stephen Pyles new restaurant would be a good bet. I think that's where I would go. It would be different from New Orleans.

I had one of the best meals of my life at Abacus about a year ago and it is downtown. On McKinney maybe?