Barcadia* (#272, 8/15/13) – 62
Barcadia was a tough decision for me. Does it count for my list or not? Technically, I say no chains; and Barcadia has two original locations in Dallas/Fort Worth. But, I’m going with it, I see chains as things like Applebee’s, Chili’s or McDonald’s. So this counts for me…which is also going to throw me off on another place; I may have to make some adjustments.
Regardless, Barcadia is an interesting place – it is a bar/arcade (hence the name). They have a ton of old-school video games all over the place. I didn’t really look at what they had for games, but looked fun and interesting. It wasn’t a baking hot day when we went for lunch, so they had the large garage door type entrance open, unfortunately, it wasn’t cool out either, so a little warm for that. Note to restaurants: If it’s August in New Orleans and it is cooler than expected, that doesn’t mean open all the doors wide, it’s still crazy humid. It just has basic tables, but not a bad feel to the place. Adding in all the games, I think the atmosphere has to get a solid boost, so I’m giving it a 23 out of 30.
The food had drawn me in the first place. They have a good range of salads, appetizers, burgers and sandwiches. Being a big fan of the American buffalo, I gave the bison patty melt a try. It wasn’t that great, maybe the lowest on my bison experiences. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I think putting it on rye bread didn’t help, a regular bun would have been better. Just didn’t do anything for me. I had fries with it (extra charge) and they were just average. Some of the other sandwiches were good, but nothing special. I am very curious about the fired peanut butter and jelly. I may have to go back just to try that. However, from this trip, I’d say the food is average, but I’ll give it a little boost for creativity. 27 out of 50.
The service here was good. We sat right away, the waitress was friend;y and competent and we didn’t wait too long for food. Just basic; I’ll give it a 12 out of 20.
Final score = 62.