Meals From the Heart Cafe

I was so happy to find this spot in New Orleans. Lots of vegan and vegetarian options. The vegan crab cake was beautiful and delicious. However, I am not sure that at $10 for one crab cake, I would order this again.

Open-air joint, walk up counter in the French Market. Food was amazingly good and beer was nice and cold for our walk in the heat. We had the Vegan Gumbo, Vegan Red Beans, and Grits! Highly recommend.

Tucked inside the French market, this half vegan, half regular fare shocked me to my core! The vegan crab cake tacos were recommended by staff and I almost fell over they were so good! I had three people, who were walking through the market, stop at our table to ask where I got the tacos and was more than excited to share with them the restaurant name!

Gluten free crab platter and GF shrimp philly sandwich were really good, and it's always amazing to find celiac safe options to eat. It did take awhile for the food to come out and the prices were a little high, but I would still recommend if you have the time and the budget.

I ordered the gluten-free vegan gumbo. I thought it was very good. The vegan beignet was also good, but it is definitely not anything close to a traditional beignet. It was a cake with powdered sugar. One of the people behind the counter was sure to tell me that it wasn't deep fried, so I wasn't hugely surprised. It just wasn't what I was expecting before I arrived.

My husband also ordered a traditional gumbo. He said it was good also.

I want to go back to New Orleans so I can eat here again. They have a separate vegan menu that has so many great choices-including beignets! So hard to find vegan beignets so I was SO happy to have found this place. Everything was delicious. My husband ordered from the regular menu and he enjoyed his meal as well. The people who run it are great. New Orleans can be a very challenging place for vegans. Many of the restaurants we looked into had zero vegan options (which I find incredibly sad). I’m happy Meals From The Heart exists and I hope they get a ton of support.

This place has good food with lots of vegan/ vegetarian and gluten free options. It is very much a pick up food spot since it is in the market area. The market does have seating nearby, if not there are park benches around the market as well, but I took it for pick up to a bar that does not serve food. I had the vegan crab cake po’boy which was good, so I can only imagine that the traditional crab cake po’boy is amazing as well! I would most definitely come back to try that out or any of the other delicious looking options. They had a variety of food options with a lot of traditional New Orleans fares as well like red beans, okra gumbo and beignets. So I would say this is a great place to try some true NOLA foods. Also, true to the NOLA spirit, they also sell alcohol! Yay! Parking around this area is rough, so if you must park, I would recommend the parking lot a few blocks away.

I really enjoyed stopping here. The man who took our order was named DC, and the woman who cooked the food was Ms. Lee. The owner’s (Marilyn) son, James, was also there. I want to really commend this staff. They were so friendly and accommodating and knowledgeable of dietary restrictions. I was excited to get to enjoy gluten free gumbo. It was so well made, and I could tell they really care for their customers and ensuring that they are being well taken care of. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone looking for a healthy meal made by loving hands, and if you have dietary restrictions, I just want you to know that their gluten free gumbo pretty much tastes like the real deal. It was GREAT. (My boyfriend tasted mine for comparison.) Bless this staff and I hope your business absolutely flourishes and grows! PS - they have the most BOMB mimosas I’ve ever had. Just so y’all know. Deeeefinitely get a mimosa. I had the pineapple and my love had the class orange mimosa and they were both very tasty.