Touché French Creole
By Naperville Magazine
August 2025 View more Table for Two
By Phil Vettel
Experience a touch of NOLA
A little taste of New Orleans recently opened in downtown Aurora. Touché French Creole is the latest effort from JH Hospitality Group, which also created Leilani Asian Fusion and Giardino Trattoria & Pizzeria (all side by side along River Street).
A lot of restaurants dabble in Cajun and Creole flavors; Touché is one of the few that gets them right.
Start with the interior, which was done by Aurora-based Vara Design, which also designed Leilani, Giardino, and the very attractive Santo Cielo in Naperville, among other projects. Touché makes subtle NOLA references with its fleur-de-lis-inspired logo and profusion of feathers throughout the interior. Contrasting paint colors create faux arches along the dining room wall, and art pieces consist of a series of plaster torsos wrapped in fabric and ferns.
The bar, with its jade-colored counter and soft-pink padded stools, is so attractive and comfortable I was slightly disappointed that my table was ready so quickly (we had arrived 15 minutes early). The entire restaurant projects a low-key, sexy vibe.
The menu is executed by dual executive chefs: Keonte’ Tooles and Rayshawn Hendricks. The two met as students at Joliet Junior College’s Culinary Arts Program and cooked around the area (Hendricks’ résumé includes stints at Roka Akor and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen) before reuniting at Touché French Creole.
Appetizers include the New Orleans boudin, a trio of fried, meat-filled nuggets topped with dabs of Dijonnaise. But what stood out for me was the included arugula-apple salad, dressed lightly with a tarragon vinaigrette. That salad could be its own menu item.
You can’t do NOLA without oysters on the menu, and Touché offers them two ways: raw (naturally) or roasted with Creole butter. I’m a raw-oyster consumer for the most part, but I’d reorder those roasted beauties in a second. Either way, the oysters arrive on a plate with a base of dried black beans, and, on behalf of your teeth, I’ll point out that the beans are not edible. (“One customer tried,” Hendricks says.)
Also worthy is the Bayou crab cake, loaded with crabmeat and little (if any) filler; it, too, comes with a little salad (frisée with marinated tomatoes) and an excellent Cajun rémoulade sauce.
Entrées include shrimp and grits, the shrimp lined in a row over a generous amount of Parmesan-laced grits and a spiced beurre blanc; it’s a very pretty presentation. Creole gumbo arrived in a bowl so large we immediately asked for extra spoons to share; the rich soup is loaded with chicken and andouille sausage.
There’s blackened chicken on the menu, and the airline chicken breast (includes the wing) is certainly tasty enough, but the seasoning is way shy of actually blackened. Call it bronzed chicken, perhaps, but it does include an herbed cream sauce and some fresh arugula topped with shaved Parmesan.
My favorite main course would be the Louisiana catfish, fried to a perfect exterior crisp and draped over jambalaya and a mix of braised collard and mustard greens. It’s a lot of food for something priced in the mid-$20s, but there’s a lot of value everywhere on this menu.
Desserts include a Bayou Brulée (basically crème brûlée) and a Brandy Banana Bliss, a banana tart with ice cream and sweetened brandy sauce, not unlike Bananas Foster without the pyrotechnics.
But the Bourbon Street Beignets is the dessert you want, four sugar-dusted fried pastries that would pass muster at Cafe du Monde. Although, Hendricks tells me, his version is closer in style to that of Loretta’s Authentic Pralines (which explains the praline dipping sauce on the side).
In addition to dinner, Touché serves brunch on Saturdays and Sundays; the gumbo is on the brunch menu (in a smaller portion), along with a Bourbon Street Benedict that includes a fried oyster, Bananas Foster French toast, and biscuits and gravy.
Beverages include some interesting cocktails (most run to the sweet side, so prepare accordingly) and a couple of nonalcoholic drinks, such as the Mardi Gras (ginger beer with assorted fruit flavors). The wine list is short but very well organized, and almost all bottles sell at $50 or less.
Photos: Sarah Cervantes, Courtesy JH Hospitality Group (interior, oysters, beignets, catfish); Ulysses Arriaga, Courtesy JH Hospitality Group (espresso martini)
