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

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...

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.

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;)

Uptown Brat wrote: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.

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

TulaneRebel wrote: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.

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 wrote: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.

TulaneRebel wrote: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.