Brigtsen’s (#290, 2/21/14) – 83
One of the long-time places that I’ve been meaning to check out is Brigtsen’s in the Uptown Riverbend area. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and they all proved true. Another excellent old New Orleans style place with amazing food.
I made reservations for 8 p.m. on a Friday with three days advance notice, so not that difficult to get in. The atmosphere is old New Orleans, a little stuffy. You definitely need to dress up; not sure if there’s an actual dress code, but you should look right to go here. It’s Mardi Gras season, so they had some fun Mardi Gras music playing, but very low volume. Being in an old house essentially, it has multiple rooms, but the room we were in had space (tables not stuffed next to each other). For atmosphere, I’ll give it a 23 out of 30.
The service was excellent. I believe co-owner Marna was the one who greeted us (could be wrong on that), but she was very friendly and even dancing a bit in her mardi gras outfit. We arrived about 7:40 for the 8 p.m. reservation and waited at seats in a little hallway for about 15 minutes. We had a little delay in putting our food order in, but really no issue at all. The food came relatively quickly and the waitress was there when we needed anything without being over-bearing. I’ll give them an 18 out of 20 in service.
The food was also excellent. I definitely recommend the seafood platter. It is a big dish that includes two different baked oysters, a good-sized piece of drum almondine, a nice plump scallop, shrimp cornbread and some interesting cole slaw. Slid all-around. The tuna was also good, but had a large amount of sauce/salsa. Probably too much of that, but still tasty. Prices are high (approaching $30 for most entrees), so be ready for that. You’re at a high end restaurant, you’re going to pay high-end prices. Out of 50 points in food, I’m giving Brigtsen’s a 42, which is very high for me!
Final score = 83.