Restaurant New Orleans

 

5

9

Aiesha T.

Brooklyn, NY

This is not the place to go to if you want a fast meal. It is the kind of restaurant where you sit and chat with your friends, the staff and get a fabulous well-cooked meal.

I had walked place Restaurant New Orleans several times, but finally had the opportunity to pay them a visit when my mother paid me a surprise  visit. The dining room reminds me of grandmother's house and there are really comfy settees to relax on after your meal.

The food was fabulous. The basket of cornbread muffins were perfect. You could tell these were real, baked fresh. You could taste the collard green juice in the buttery muffins. We ordered the seafood gumbo and the jerk chicken breast dinner. Both were fabulous. The chicken was juicy, tender and perfectly seasoned. The broccoli was steamed perfectly -- green and crunchy. The large shrimp and tender okra in the gumbo made for a perfect dish and the rice was seasoned perfectly.

The food was well worth the wait.

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0

1

Ida V.

Brooklyn, NY

We had the exact same experience as Dahlia. We only got one of the dishes we ordered, different sides(they never told us that they didn't have spinach, just gave us something else that wasn't on the menu) and one of us didn't get any food, even though they promised us it would arrive. We gave up waiting after two hours.

The food we received tasted really good, though.

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0

9

Dahlia T.

Brooklyn, NY

Last weekend, though, we went out to dinner with some friends, with the intention of grabbing dinner before seeing "There Will Be Blood". I suggested Restaurant New Orleans, since it was close to BAM where were going to see the movie. I've passed by this place numerous times walking back from BAM and it always intrigues me. It is decorated like someone's parlor, but half the time its empty and sometimes we've passed by around 10pm and its been dark, with a woman sitting at a computer in the window.

Anyway, we decided to meet at 7, figuring it would leave us plenty of time to catch the 9pm movie. We sat down and browsed the menu while the man who sat us looked for a bottle opener and glasses for the bottle of wine we brought with us (byob). This took about 10 minutes, and the glasses we got were sherry glasses. When the waitress came to take our order, she nearly forgot to take one person's order.

And then the fun started. Our friends had ordered crab cakes and we had ordered shrimp cocktail as appetizers, but after about 20 minutes, only the crab cakes came out. After a few minutes, we tracked down our waitress (who was astonishingly hard to track down in a place that was also the size of a parlor), she said our appetizer was on its way. But then out came my catfish (which two other people had ordered as well), with a sweet potato on the side. I had ordered spinach and something else. The waitress said they were out of whatever sides I had ordered but they could make some nice garlic brussels sprouts. Sure, why not. About 5 minutes later, out came two other people's catfish as well. The grilled catfish looked exactly the same as our blackened catfish. And they didn't have any sides. And there was no sign of our order of gumbo. And it was about 8:30. The brussles sprouts never appeared.

We reminded our waitress about the appetizer, though we told her to just forget about it since we were already eating our main course. And then, about 5 minutes later, the reason for the missing shrimp cocktail became clear - they "were having a problem with the shrimp". And so they couldn't make the gumbo either. But they offered to make our friend a nice salmon fillet instead, on the house. She brought out a bowl of red beans and rice on the house too (we still never received any sides other than my sweet potato), so our friend ate those while waiting for the salmon, which came around 8:50. So we asked for the check too and paid that while our friend ate.

They felt so bad for all the trouble, so they comped us for two of the entrees and also offered us free brunch (though they didn't give us anything in writing indicating this). And they seemed so genuine that we weren't really upset about the service, mystified was the better word for our state. I mean, if they didn't have shrimp, they could have told us an hour earlier. Or the whole issue with the sides. The salmon dish came with collards, which two other people had ordered with their catfish but never came. How the place stays in business was the biggest question - its been there since we moved to the neighborhood I think. The food we did get was very good, but it just seemed like such a haphazard business that it was surprising that it was able to stay open.

Oh, and when we got to BAM right at 9pm, the movie was sold out. We saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly instead, which was very good, but of course, not what we had our hopes on seeing.

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0

3

kat c.

Brooklyn, NY

This restaurant is very down-home and run by one of the sweetest degreed chefs in town.  The menu is inventive and the meals painstakingly-prepared (you'll never get dry meat or cold beans and rice here).  She says herself she doesn't have the prettiest containers, etc. for delivery, but she packs a whole lotta love into her meals and really takes care of loyal customers - my second time ordering she delivered my order herself!  The only reason I didn't give this place 5 stars is that it's a bit pricey.  In any case, it's definitely worth a try.

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