Bayona (#256, 4/4/13) – 78
Finally made it out to Bayona, the Susan Spicer French Quarter restaurant. Right off the bat, it’s my type of place. It’s in an old house/cottage with a cool little courtyard. Inside, there are a variety of rooms and neat spaces. Even though it’s very close to Bourbon Street, it seems to be tucked out of the way; and with just a small unlit sign, it adds to that effect.
It’s a little strange in that they ask you to put in appetizer and entree orders at the same time as it has a small kitchen and it could greatly delay your entrees. Hard to say, we had a group which may confuse things. Regardless, it was fun space to hang out and the food was great.
The website has a sample menu, as it changes quite regularly. I had a hangar steak which was designed to come with portobello on top, but I skipped the mushrooms – actually, the sauce included mushroom parts and I kind of liked it, which is bizarre. The steak was excellent as well as the appetizers that we tried (including an interesting oyster combination). I would say out of 50 points, this place gets a 40 for food. Keep in mind that it’s pricey, but it’s worth it.
Atmosphere was excellent as well – as I said, I like the old cottage style with different rooms, adds good character. The room we were in only had about four other groups. One large group was kind of freaked out by a bug on the floor. I was entertained when the waitress said, “Oh, that’s not a cockroach, that’s just a june bug.” Oh well then, so much better. The table had Europeans – do they not have roaches in Europe? If not, then they had a good traditional New Orleans experience. Back to ranking, atmosphere…25 out of 30.
Service was decent, but not great. It took a little while to get drinks, which is always a problem. But not really a big deal, I have had much worse – see the next entry for evidence of that. Out of 20 points, I’ll give them a 13 on service.
Final total = 78.