Restaurant that you don't like that everyone else loves

[TulaneRebel]

The Stein's and Gimchi discussions below gave me pause. How is it that so many people can be so wrong about various restaurants?

For example, I had one of the most disappointing meals of all time at Antoine's. Never seen more food and service f-ups in my life. Yet everyone from The Dean to Amarone praise Antoine's as the grande dame of NOLA restaurants. I think it's time to legalize euthanasia and put this old bag out of her misery.

Another one is Bywater BBQ. Several of my friends love the place, whereas I would rather grind my teeth out with a Black and Decker drill than eat there.

A final example is Jacques-Imo's. No explanation needed.

[buzd]

I agree with about BBBQ and J-Imo's (if I have to out for BBQ, my choice is Hillbilly).

Both chains, but I will add Zea and PF Changs. Neither has ever done much for me (and it's not because they're in malls, although that doesn't help).

[NoNoNanette]

The only thing that I liked at J-Imo's was their cornbread muffins.

Geez..... talk about over-rated. The place was a madhouse and the food sucked.

[Lorin]

How is it that so many people can be so wrong about various restaurants?


I don't think anyone is WRONG, taste is subjective. By the way, Antoine's is one of the restaurant Grande Dames like Galatoire's, Arnaud's Court of Two Sisters, Commander's, Brennan's, etc. as much for its impact on the culinary landscape as for the length of time it's been operating.

[Suzy Wong]

That's what I've been saying here and TOB, it's all subjective....I don't think anyone is "wrong" either. Good topic, I thought of it myself in the past.

That said, my votes for now go 2:
Mr B's: a step up from Bennigan's that I remember from highschool in food and decor
Stein's: dirty mediocre and over priced
Zea: go if you want barely average food on over sized plates, and feel like human cattle

Antoine's pre -K was almost average at best

[Mrs. Fury]

I've only eaten at Adolfo's and Emeril's once but was completely underwhelmed at both. Adolfo's for dinner & Emeril's for lunch.

[café au lait]

Mandina's - everybody raves over it, but I've never had anything there that I thought was delicious. Of course, that's the point here, isn't it? My delicious might not be the same as your delicious.

[edible complex]

oh yeah...I'm going there...Commander's doesn't do it for me.

[Cocktailtime]

To me Mandina's is about the atmosphere of seeing people you know etc.. not the food. I have found it passable. Arnaud's is one that did not impress me at all the last time I was there-both service and food. Galatoire's is another one that to me is about being there as I have had some meals that missed. But when it coms to food --to each his/her own!

[Alex]

my choice is Hillbilly




Hillbilly rocks!!

[edible complex]

Hillbilly rocks!!
three cheers for Hillbilly!

[Panama Hat]

Bayona's. Never had a good meal there and ate there many times over a number of years. Much better similar food in other cities.

[bdavid]

To drag this discussion across the lake, everyone here is raving about Villa Vancheri - I can't see it. Horrible reception one time - we actually walked out. Mediocre food the next -and tons of it, revoltingly so, no room to move a fork on the plate.

[mojo]

Don't hate me. Bon Ton Cafe. Have gone twice post K and thought the food and service were average.

[BTG]

I didn't care at all for my trip to Mosca's. The whole shack thing did not do it for me even though I was supposed to love the atmosphere. The waitress did not seem like she cared one way or another if she had the job. I don't like not having hardly any appetizers to choose from. I and I really hated the cash only deal.

I have to take issue with Zea's. I like their ribs, chicken, salads, and beer.

[Clicquot]

I personally love Mosca's. You just have to know how to order and you really don't need one entree per person. This is a restaurant where you share.

[Fenway2]

Bayona == have always so wanted to like this place. I have her cook book and like it-but every meal there has disappointed. Not bad, not terrible, just not up to the rave reviews.

Commander's Palace (not always--just the last few years). Blah, with an attitude.

[JudiB]

Commander's!! Geez.... my last experience was my LAST EXPERIENCE there! I haven't been satisfied with that place for the last ten years. I didn't go often, but never, ever thought the food/service worth all the hoopla - and that was on a good day. On a bad day.... oh I won't even go into again. lol

[RouxTheDay]

K-Paul's. :o

[bam bam]

1) Jacque-Imo's
2) Bayona--Doc B's rant on the Duck PB&J on TOB was hilarious.
3) Antoine's
4) Mr. B's
5) Commander's

I would also say Palace Cafe but there isn't anyone whose food opinion I respect who actually likes the place. Although it is packed on most nights.

[globe9]

Definitely J-Imo's...what are all those people smoking? I've been there 4 times now(1st time was on purpose and that SHOULD have been the last time) and it SUCKS every single time. 2 of my closest friends LOVE it(the reason for the other 3 visits), but culinarily(is that a word?) speaking, I don't think they know good food from a fried turd. They see the crowds and think it's the cool place to go, so they go.

Can now add Sandro's to this list too. Experience and food was ok, nothing great. Next time I see my friend who told me he thought it was better than his old Italian grandmother's cooking, I'm gonna slap him upside his head.

[justagirl]

Vincent's on St Charles. It doesn't do anything for me.

I'm sure there are others but I tend to block the stuff I don't need to think about from my head so I can use the room for more important things...like remembering when to take my daily vitamin.

[JonSmith]

Darn using my own name and knowing the chefs at all the restaurants I can't stand that everyone else likes....I guess I can't hide behind my anonymity and say how I really feel about places that Feed Me.

[Penny Lane]

I think by giving everyone the finger you have it covered. ;)

[JonSmith]

I think by giving everyone the finger you have it covered. ;)


Leave Johnny Cash out of this!

[jodyrah]

Bayona
Upperline
Adolpho's
Emeril's
Clancy's
Jacques Imos
Commander's for dinner however, I enjoy lunch in the garden room (could it be the martinis?)

[Panama Hat]

2) Bayona--Doc B's rant on the Duck PB&J on TOB was hilarious.





BamBam, I give up. What is the "Duck PB&J on TOB"?

[jshushan]

BamBam, I give up. What is the "Duck PB&J on TOB"?


While I don't want to speak for him, TOB has got to be "The Old Board" and "Duck PB & J" is/was a dish at Bayona that was actually called a "Duck Peanut Butter and Jelly" but I don't recall any details. Hope it helps.

Jonathan

[peychaud]

Lola
Clancy's
Liuzza's By The Track

All overrated, IMO.

[PNG]

Commander's, Arnauds, Galatoires, Irene's Cuisine, Palace Cafe, Cafe Giovanni, GW Fins, Pascal's Manale, Emeril's, Coop's Place, others............

There are two restaurants in the City where we never had any issues and always enjoyed the food and service which are Gabrielle and Charlie's Steakhouse.

[peychaud]

While I don't want to speak for him, TOB has got to be "The Old Board" and "Duck PB & J" is/was a dish at Bayona that was actually called a "Duck Peanut Butter and Jelly" but I don't recall any details. Hope it helps.

Jonathan

It was the smoked duck sandwich with pepper jelly and cashew butter.

Here's how GQ's Alan Richman described it:

"For the pièce de résistance, I ordered a sandwich that locals and the Bayona waitstaff advised me not to miss: smoked duck, cashew butter, and pepper jelly. It was warm and leaden, as though it had been compressed with car-crushing equipment. It glistened with fat. It had that creepy jelly and that weird butter plus a few chunks of duck and a lot of oily cooked onions. It was moist. It also was reddish brown, like the soup and, come to think of it, the walls."

[TulaneRebel]

Does anyone here actually LIKE Bayona?

[jshushan]

Does anyone here actually LIKE Bayona?


I have had good meals there over the years. I think the place has gotten better/back to itself since her bread company bit the dust after 08/05. She's back in the kitchen basically full time and I think the food is good these days.

Jonathan

[PNG]

The food is okay. Nothing very special. The service has been good for us.

[BTG]

Commander's, Arnauds, Galatoires, Irene's Cuisine, Palace Cafe, Cafe Giovanni, GW Fins, Pascal's Manale, Emeril's, Coop's Place, others............

There are two restaurants in the City where we never had any issues and always enjoyed the food and service which are Gabrielle and Charlie's Steakhouse.

That is alot of restaurants there PNG. Are these all places that you really don't like, or just places that you think are overated?
I am just asking as I would have a hard time myself not liking Emerils and Commanders so to speak, but I could argue that maybe they are a little overrated and not worth the money, etc.

[PNG]

That is alot of restaurants there PNG. Are these all places that you really don't like, or just places that you think are overated?
I am just asking as I would have a hard time myself not liking Emerils and Commanders so to speak, but I could argue that maybe they are a little overrated and not worth the money, etc.

Those listed are for mediocre to very poor food, and service issues mixed in with that. We do not mind poor service if the food is good.

[hungryone]

My list includes Mosca's, Vincent's, Venezia, Franky & Johnny's, Antoine's, Shogun, Zea, Jacques-Imos, Ninja, Sake Cafe, Bravo.......

[PNG]

Forgot Mosca's and Lillette.

[JonSmith]

Does anyone here actually LIKE Bayona?


Me, I love the place.

[Creole Eats]

Muriels, Bayona, Nola, Mr B's and Ralphs on the Park

[Uptown Brat]

Brigtsen's. I want to like it. I never hear anything but great things about it. But, I have tried it many times and every meal has at least been a disappointment. On two occassions it was down right embarassing because I had been the one to suggest it, James Beard Award and all. I'm not going to say anymore at the risk of being exiled...

[HomeMadeCajun]

Galatoires, Antoines--I refuse to be treated like a moron or have anyone act like they're doing me a huge favor by waiting on me. I keep hearing "you have to know how to order there"...I guess I don't want to learn. I'll take new & innovative over old & dated most any day.

Also--GW Fins. I just don't get they hype. It's okay. The service has been pretty bad the last few times we were there. I think the last waitress we had was a slow adult hidden in a teeny-bopper's body.

[Suzy Wong]

uptown brat,
Say whatever you'd like, no one has been mean to anyone else, I believe that is the whole point of this topic, restaurants the diner just does not enjoy for whatever reason, yet they seem so popular with majority.

BESIDES, if we all liked the same restaurant, we'd never get a table;)

[PNG]

Brigtsen's. I want to like it. I never hear anything but great things about it. But, I have tried it many times and every meal has at least been a disappointment. On two occassions it was down right embarassing because I had been the one to suggest it, James Beard Award and all. I'm not going to say anymore at the risk of being exiled...

Ditto for us. We dined there only once. The food was a joke and the service was poor. We will not be back. People tried to use the excuse that the chef was not there, but he was sitting at the host stand when we walked in. Try another one! The pate was the worst that we have ever eaten, the fried softshell crab was missing several legs and was completely burned. The food was terrible.

[Gobee]

August, Bayona, Mothers, Cafe Giovanni.....to name a few

[Pete]

How is it that so many people can be so wrong about various restaurants?

For example, I had one of the most disappointing meals of all time at Antoine's. Never seen more food and service f-ups in my life.


Does anybody other than the Dean like Antoine's? Other than his constant plugs of the place, I don't think I've ever heard anyone other than tourists say they like it.

[Pete]

I'd have to cite Galatoire's as the restaurant about which I seem to disagree with everyone else. I don't think the food is horrible, but I've never had anything there I thought was the best in town. The main thing that annoys me, though, is that the restaurant is in love with itself.

[PNG]

Ditto for us. We dined there only once. The food was a joke and the service was poor. We will not be back. People tried to use the excuse that the chef was not there, but he was sitting at the host stand when we walked in. Try another one! The pate was the worst that we have ever eaten, the fried softshell crab was missing several legs and was completely burned. The food was terrible.

The seafood platter was a tasteless joke.

[DoctorB]

Does anyone here actually LIKE Bayona?

No slobbering I'll-scratch-your-eyes-out kneejerk defense of Snoozin'? Dare I hope we have a busboy-free forum so far?

Many people here are probably more aware than they'd like to be of my Top Three Overrated Restaurants of New Orleans (Jacques-Imo's, Bayona, and Restaurant August). Here are a few more that don't grab me the way they seem to grab other diners:

Upperline (the food is OK if unchanging, but how anyone can enjoy a meal with Ms. Famous Local Character's constant ear-splitting guffaws arrowing through his head is beyond me)

Five Happiness (five stomachaches)

Stella! (that exclamation point grates on my nerves, the food is sillier than anything I could make up, and chefs who have special, spotless designer chef jackets that never see the inside of the kitchen should perhaps consider alternate careers as GQ models)

Domilise's (I don't hate it, but I fail to see the magic)

Cafe Atchafalaya (only the desserts ever struck me as anything more than average, and the late Iler Pope was so extremely, pointlessly rude to my aged mother on one occasion that I've held a grudge ever since. However, I've not been there since the change in ownership -- is it worth another try now that I won't be putting money in the pocket of that elder-abuser?)

Every BBQ place in the city (I can't help it; I was ruined for any other BBQ by spending time in North Carolina ... and please God, don't try to tell me The Joint serves NC-style BBQ. They don't.)

While that duck PB&J was a truly vile concept, I really don't think Bayona is horrific most of the time, only deeply mediocre -- it's just that people make such a huge deal out of it, as if it is some kind of world-class restaurant. As well, too many of the halfway-decent ideas on the menu strike me as uncomfortably derivative of other local chefs' cuisine. Sure, chefs riff on each other (and rip each other off) all the time, but one expects a famous and critically acclaimed restaurant's menu to show more originality than I've seen there. (Of course, going by the duck PB&J, Bayona diners may possibly count themselves lucky that Ms. Spicer doesn't kick out the jams more often.)

Take my words with several large grains of salt, though. I learn something new every time I read the food boards, and my most recent lesson is that, by tending to prefer cocktails over wine with meals, I have rendered myself a moron.

[Cocktailtime]

I have been to Cafe Atchafalaya since the management change. I liked it. It didn't blow me away, but it was good.

[Duke]

Every BBQ place in the city (I can't help it; I was ruined for any other BBQ by spending time in North Carolina ... and please God, don't try to tell me The Joint serves NC-style BBQ. They don't.)

I think I can be honest in this forum without offending anyone or coming off as an apologist or a self-promoting shill....

New Orleans is certainly not a good BBQ town (and I say this as a native Texan who was married for 25 years to a South Carolinian). Despite its slow-cooked nature, BBQ does not hold well for serving. A place certainly has to pretty much specialize in it and move a lot of product along (thereby constantly replenishing it) to make sure it's at its peak of flavor and consistency. There's just not the consistent demand here (or at least not Uptown) to do that -- and I think the absolute best stuff around here is done in personal back yards.

I'd agree with Ian McNulty's assessment that our place is certainly adequate -- but it's not Bywater nor The Joint. But, as he said, both of them can seem very far away when you're Uptown and get a hankering for BBQ. I think his term was "J'anita's will certainly fill the bill."

Nice (and honest) enough, but experience is a great teacher. As it is now, redfish and burger sales easily dwarf our BBQ sales. Had I known then what I know now, I'd have de-emphasized the BBQ nature of our place. Too many potential new customers see our neon sign and either come in because BBQ is what they want (and they rightly expect Texas/Memphis/KC/Carolina) or they pass us by because they assume that's all we are.

...not that I regret serving BBQ in New Orleans. Not at all -- and we certainly have our strong adherents and we're proud of that. But, in general, BBQ has never had a strong identity in South Louisiana (nor in any coastal area, far as I can tell-- and I've lived in several).

Thanks for letting me ramble. I've had a rare day off and it's given me time to think -- and that's always a dangerous thing.
;)

[Dark and Stormy]

Cafe A is ok under the new owners and they definitely try hard. I wouldn't call the food spectacular or anything. Hillbilly BBQ was good pre K. Haven't been since. But I agree that for whatever reasons, actual BBQ is not well represented here.

[JonSmith]

i have strong opinions about your post, but other "forces" are hindering my typing.


Duke, let have lunch monday at your place

[café au lait]

Too many potential new customers see our neon sign and either come in because BBQ is what they want (and they rightly expect Texas/Memphis/KC/Carolina) or they pass us by because they assume that's all we are.


Guilty as charged.

[DoctorB]

...not that I regret serving BBQ in New Orleans. Not at all -- and we certainly have our strong adherents and we're proud of that. ;)

Hey, Duke. I should probably have specified that I haven't actually been to every BBQ place in town, and J'anita's is one of those I haven't tried yet. I do know that you serve things other than BBQ and have been meaning to check out your place on the recommendation of folks whose palates I trust -- I just don't get out as much as I'd like to these days.

[kcdixiecat]

On the matter of barbecue. At the risk of stepping on anyone's toes..I'll apologize now..LOL. We have yet to find anything in New Orleans that remotely resembles barbecue. NOW...let me say that we absolutely LOVE the local cuisine ...just not impressed with the attempts at barbecue. So..don't jump back at me..I might cry.

BUT, if anyone wants to try some good authentic smoked meats...come to my house. Grins...Doug's a happy camper now that he has all of his barbecue toys here. We've recently moved into a home after living in corporate housing for 9 months. He's in barbecue heaven. The testosterone level is at an all time high at our house these days. He thinks he's the barbecue king and I just smile sweetly and let him think what he wants.;)

[Isabella Maja]

On the matter of barbecue. At the risk of stepping on anyone's toes..I'll apologize now..LOL. We have yet to find anything in New Orleans that remotely resembles barbecue. NOW...let me say that we absolutely LOVE the local cuisine ...just not impressed with the attempts at barbecue. So..don't jump back at me..I might cry.

BUT, if anyone wants to try some good authentic smoked meats...come to my house. Grins...Doug's a happy camper now that he has all of his barbecue toys here. We've recently moved into a home after living in corporate housing for 9 months. He's in barbecue heaven. The testosterone level is at an all time high at our house these days. He thinks he's the barbecue king and I just smile sweetly and let him think what he wants.;)

Is this really an invitation? ;)

[kcdixiecat]

Is this really an invitation? ;)

Sure..what better way to make friends? You know it's bad when you're ready to go back to work so you can make friends! We've been here since September and I've not been out in the work force yet. I've never not worked so it's been hard for me. I'm a social worker and worked for hospice for about 20 years prior to moving here. I'm tired of being a kept woman..never thought I'd hear these words coming out of my mouth. Grins..I need female friends..damnit:P

Doug's great and all...but it's hard to talk about Desperate Housewives with him.

[Duke]

See? The best stuff really IS in someone's back yard. I say we all show up at once and insist on a demonstration.

:p

[kcdixiecat]

See? The best stuff really IS in someone's back yard. I say we all show up at once and insist on a demonstration.

:p

LOL c'mon. Let me get back home from Mom's...and we'll make him smoke a bunch of stuff for us. Just be prepared...he likes to drink gin and tonics while playing with fire....oh, and our two dachshunds will be all over everyone..but don't worry..they don't bite....just lots of licks.

[dragongrrl]

Sure..what better way to make friends? You know it's bad when you're ready to go back to work so you can make friends! We've been here since September and I've not been out in the work force yet. I've never not worked so it's been hard for me. I'm a social worker and worked for hospice for about 20 years prior to moving here. I'm tired of being a kept woman..never thought I'd hear these words coming out of my mouth. Grins..I need female friends..damnit:P

Doug's great and all...but it's hard to talk about Desperate Housewives with him.

Oh wow. I'm a social worker too. Hello colleague.

[kcdixiecat]

Hi there! I'll send you a private message so we can talk shop!

[JudiB]

I love forum potlucks! :) You don't find better food anywhere in this city than at one of these. I've participated in lots of them, through nolaforum.com.

If you have a get together, dragongrrl and kcdixiecat, I'd love to participate! (and I have no pride, I invite myself....) LOL

[kcdixiecat]

Grins...sounds good to me. Just be prepared for two dachshunds that like to lick toes.