22 July 2024
Sachin Darade, Aman Kota, and Sarthak Samantray of LUFU NOLA. | Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA
The chefs behind Indian restaurant LUFU NOLA are delving into bubble tea downtown and Cajun seafood in the French Quarter
Exactly one year after opening one of New Orleans’s best new Indian restaurants, the chefs behind LUFU NOLA are significantly expanding their local footprint. Sarthak Samantray, Aman Kota, and Sachin Darade have opened a branch of a Taiwanese bubble tea shop in the CBD, Ding Tea Downtown, and will soon open a New Orleans-centric seafood restaurant in the French Quarter, called Cajun Flames.
Samantray, Kota, and Darade are opening Cajun Flames at 1117 Decatur Street, the address formerly home to Saint John. That restaurant closed earlier this spring; chef and owner Eric Cook recently revealed Saint John’s new home downtown, expected to open in early fall 2024. Ding Tea opened in mid-July at 337 Baronne Street, serving milk and fruit teas, souffle slushies, coffee, and croffles: pressed croissant waffles with toppings like banana Nutella, Biscoff, mango graham cracker, and takoyaki.
In an Instagram post announcing Cajun Flames, the trio of chefs said: “We have portrayed our story about Indian cuisine with LUFU, and it is time for us to move forward the best way possible. We are starting our new venture with Cajun Flames and need all the love and support to portray our story of New Orleans.”
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA
LUFU NOLA opened in July 2023.
It’s an unexpected progression for the chefs, who experienced a whirlwind few months last summer when their popular Indian kitchen became one of the city’s most celebrated new restaurants almost overnight. LUFU NOLA opened in July 2023 after three years as a pop-up and then vendor at the former food hall Pythian Market, which closed at the end of 2022. The restaurant was an instant smash hit, bringing a stylish, lively destination for upscale regional Indian cuisine to the heart of the CBD. It won a 2023 Eater Award for New Orleans’s pop-up-turned-restaurant of the year. “We love sharing this part of us with the city,” Samantray told Eater a few months after opening.
While menu details for Cajun Flames are scarce, the gist sounds wise for the address: a casual, drop-in restaurant focusing on oysters and fried seafood in one of the most tourist-heavy areas of the French Quarter. It’s expected to open sometime in September 2024.