Breads on Oak (#246, 2/11/13) – 68
I’ve been passing Breads on Oak daily for a while now, so finally decided to stop in. I originally thought it was just a bakery type place with fresh bread, but they do have a menu with lunch items., I had a ham and gruyere (which I hoped was cheese of some sort, it was) sandwich and it was pretty good. However, it was over $10 for just a pretty basic sandwich, so a bit pricey. Of course, it’s all handmade bread, so pretty good. They also have vegan and gluten-free options. I took mine to go, but they do have some tables inside, as well as a few out on the sidewalk, so a decent little cafe.
As far as ratings…the food was good, but including price, it takes a hit, will give an 18 out of 30. Atmosphere was solid, just a good old mom-and-pop style place….so I’ll go with 30 out of 50. Service was good, very friendly people, I enjoyed them so I’ll go with a 15 out of 20. Final score is 68, which is quite solid.
Mais Arepas (#245, 1/29/13) – 57
I’ve seen this little place on the edge of a shady part of town on Carondelet, but just one block off St. Charles. I haven’t been able to find a website for them, but will link to the Yelp page for Mais Arepas. It’s a casual place, described as Colombian Creole. It seems decent for lunch or dinner, and reasonably priced, but you have to be ready for some different food. I am not overly familiar with Columbian food apparently, but the specialty is the arepas. They have a wide-range of them – oh wait, you don’t know what an arepa is? Well, neither do I. Basically, it appears to be a tortilla-type grilled pocket stuffed with a variety of things. I went with the pulled pork with friend plantains – I find it hard to go wrong with plantains. Having said that, I didn’t have the plantain appetizer, which I understand has mozzarella cheese melted over it. That sounds like a dish for me. Anyway, the arepa was quite good, though rather greasy. They did not have iced tea (also no hard liquor), but gave me some weird fruit/juice/drink concoction. It was pretty tasty, so ask about that.
As far as a rating, food is probably a 26 out of 50. The service was decent (though not fast), so it gets a 13 out of 20. The atmosphere was pretty good; it’s a casual, pretty open dining area with Columbian (I’m assuming) art on the walls and low music playing. I’ll give it an 18 out of 30.
The grand total is…57. I think that’s pretty good.
La Fin du Monde* (#244, 1/24/13) – 21
My first (and likely only) stop at La Fin du Monde was doomed from the start. I had to do some errands in the lower-Magazine area and then thought, “Hey! I haven’t been to Cafe Rani in ages and they have that great pasta dish for lunch!” So I was pretty upbeat about lunch. I have to admit, I was a little confused by the weird words on the door. What does this “La Fin du Monde” mean? Well, apparently it means that Cafe Rani is no longer there. Which stinks. In some research, I found out Cafe Rani simply closed the door one day and never re-opened, then this place jumped in.
I can’t find a website for them and I can’t really remember the menu. Put it this way, after reading the menu, if I wasn’t trying to eat everywhere, I think I would have left. I still can’t figure out what they are trying to do. I guess it’s sort of breakfast. I had no idea what most of the things were and made the mistake of saying, “Frittata? Hmm, that might be good.” Then, to avoid admitting to the waitress (very over-friendly, maybe because I was one of the only people in the place, not like Rani, another bad sign?) that I had no idea what a frittata is, I simply said, “Soo…what’s in the frittata?” And she checked and list and said it had chicken with seasonal vegetables. That seemed reasonable so I went for it.
It arrived shortly after, and it turns out a frittata is some sort of egg dish, essentially an omelet. And it’s very small. I’m okay with eggs, but I knew I was going to starve the rest of the day. And then…well…don’t you think it’s worth mentioning that, along with the chicken and seasonal vegetables, this frittata is full of mushrooms?! Good lord. It was awful. And I was starving. Essentially, I ate far more mushrooms than I’ve ever had, maybe combined, in my life. And yet I still starved. I should have just left and gone to Wendy’s.
Anyway, as far as a rating, food? I’ll go with 15 out of 50 – didn’t know what half of it was, menu wasn’t impressive and they forced mushrooms on me. Actually, due to the mushrooms, I’m dropping it to a 5. Atmosphere? That stunk too, I was the only person inside in a pretty bare place. I’ll go with 10 out of 30. For service, the waitress was ridiculously friendly, but don’t want to hold that against her too much – the main issue is that if someone asks what’s in a dish, get it right, many people don’t go for mushrooms. I’ll give a 6 out of 20. Grand total = 21. Not too impressive. Skip this place.
Oh, and one more thing. What about the name? Apparently it means “end of the world” in French. Really? That’s what you want to call your restaurant? As it was pointed out to me, they opened in late-November, so maybe they were trying to play along with the whole Mayan thing. So yeah, you have a name that is cute for about a month, then it’s just bizarre. I also thought maybe the owners really believed the world would end, so they said, “Man, I’ve always wanted to open a restaurant. Quick, let’s do it now before the world ends.” And followed up with, “Eh, don’t worry about the menu and making anything good, we don’t need to make a profit, we’re all going to be dead anyway.”
St. James Cheese Company (#243, 1/21/13) – 63
Here’s a good little lunch spot located uptown – the St. James Cheese Company. I am surprised it took me so long to go here, but a solid place. I think the ideal thing would be to go here when you have a day off work. Have a sandwich, maybe some white and relax on the patio.
Having said that, do NOT go here and order the Croque Monster and then plan on going for a run later. The online menu says that it’s the Croque Monsieur, but trust me, it’s a monster. Simply a massive amount of cheese, to go with some ham and thick bread. I’m not complaining, but it ruined me for hours. I just laid around on the couch all afternoon. There were plenty of other cheese-related sandwich items that I’d be up for trying in the future, so I expect to be back. The salads also look very good.
Also, keep in mind that it’s a small place with a lot of people just hanging around, so probably not a good spot to try to run in for a quick lunch grab.
As far as a rating. For the food, I’m going with a 35 out of 50 – it’s cheese, cheese is always good, on almost anything. Except ice cream. The service was basic; you order at the counter and they give you a number and bring the food to you, so probably a 12 out of 20. The atmosphere is pretty good too, assuming you are looking for a lunch-type atmosphere and not some sort of romantic candlelight dinner, so I’ll go with a 16 out of 30.
Final total is 63. Wow! Pretty high-ranking, I think. Not bad.
5 Fifty 5 (#242, 12/30/12) – 55
One more Sugar Bowl time meal. We ran by 5 Fifty 5 in the downtown Marriott on Canal Street. It’s an interesting place in the fact that it’s pretty good, but not sure if I’d ever go back. A victim of New Orleans. There are so many great restaurants, not really worth going to a hotel restaurant unless its simply sensational. Another bad thing is their website. I hate websites with music, especially restaurant websites. Do I really need music when I am looking for food options? So I turned the music off on the front page. Then I click the “menu” link and what do I get? More damn music. Nothing makes me less likely to check other pages than knowing I’ll have to turn the music off every time.
But anyway, the place was good, service was solid. We had an Asian waiter who had a fairly strong accent (no issue with that), but then he stepped it up by making some jokes, but very dry sense of humor, so I was confused, thinking, “This guy has no clue…wait a minute, he’s messing with me!” So that was good.
I don’t actually remember exactly what I had. I believe I had the 555 redfish, and I also had lobster mac and cheese. Man, I need to do this posts more promptly so I remember things better. They also had a fun bread basket, which is a very under-rated part of any meal, especially when you’re starving, which I usually tend to be. And I need to remember pictures too. Sorry about that. Anyway, the food was solid, going with another 25 out of 50; service was very good, so 15 out of 20. Then the atmosphere…well, it was a hotel, so it’s taking a hit, I will go with 15 out of 30, for a total of 55. I don’t think 55 is bad, is it? Maybe I’m turning into a tough grader. Well, tough luck, 5 Fifty 5, sometimes life isn’t fair.
Le Citron Bistro (#241, 12/29/12) – (-60)
A little “bistro” theme for this weekend. And this is a place that I have been very excited to review. I’ll just cut right to the chase – based on my new rating system, this place receives a negative-60. It’s the worst restaurant experience I have had in New Orleans. So that’s pretty exciting and probably makes it worth visiting.
Le Citron Bistro is located on Tchoupitoulas (actually Religious), on the way to Walmart downtown, so a bit of a shady neighborhood. But it’s in New Orleans’ oldest building above Canal Street, so that’s pretty cool. You walk inside into the bar area (oh, by the way, didn’t have trouble getting late reservations on a Saturday night) and then you turn around the corner and there are a variety of rooms. We had a group of about seven, so they put us at a semi-private table – everything looks very old, not in a bad way, just vintage furniture and such, almost like an old farmhouse, again, pretty cool.
Our waitress, who appeared to be the only one working, shuffled to us and took our drink order. Which led to another cool thing – it took about 20 minutes to get those drinks. As far as we could tell, there were only two other tables of people in the entire place. I ordered an appetizer and one of us ordered soup and then she disappeared for quite a while. Maybe 20 minutes later, she re-appeared with those items. So we finally had the chance to order after being there about 40 minutes or so. Then the food made it to the table after about another 45 minutes. While the wait was brutal, the worst of it was, she just ignored us. Now and then, she would wander through to the other tables, but nothing for us. No “is there anything I can get you?” or “Sorry about the wait, we kill all of the food ourselves and huntin’ ain’t too good right now.”
Some good entertainment came when a decent-sized group came in and the woman said, “Do you have a reservation?” They said no and she said, “Sorry, but we’re really backed up right now.” One guy looked around in confusion as it was only our table and one table of two at that point. We were waving our arms and telling them to leave.
I really have no idea why this place was so messed up, but the terrible service is making me give it a negative 100 in that category. Then the food is a 25 (out of 50) – everyone agreed it wasn’t bad, although some parts were cold. This is probably high on the food, but I think we were trying to come up something to give the benefit of the doubt. The atmosphere was good – the old building and all with music playing, though being put in a semi-private area didn’t do anything for me, so I’m giving a 15 out of 30 in atmosphere for the final score of minus-60.
Please, go there and let me know if it’s not that bad.
Tomas Bistro* (#240, 12/28/12) – 60
Dropped in at Tomas Bistro, a French-creole style bistro, for the first time on a Saturday night just before the Sugar Bowl – unfortunately, this probably says something about the place. I tried to go to a variety of other places, but as usual, I tried to get reservations at 5 p.m. for a 7 p.m. dinner. Never easy on Saturday night on a busy weekend. However, Tomas was ready and willing to accept us at any time. And when we walked in, multiple people jumped to help us. There was definitely not a lack of service; to the point I was ready to tell them to leave us alone. Just go stand in the corner and we’ll wave if we want something. One of the people in our group ordered a drink and somehow, two different people brought it to him (two different drinks). I’m not sure how one drink order can get doubled, but I’m all for it in the future if there’s only one charge.
Having said that, it was a good meal. I had some giant scallops to open and they were solid, then the tournedos of beef, which were very good.
So overall, a decent meal and a worthwhile spot; especially if you forget to make reservations.
I almost forgot my new rating system for this…let’s see…for food, I will go with a 35 out of 50. Atmosphere was okay, so I guess 15 out of 30. And service, well, service was actually a little annoying, but not that bad, so giving 10 our of 20. That makes a grand total of 60. So I guess pretty good.
This is actually one of the few places that I have doubled up on – it used to be Tomasito’s (#158), but that closed down and the owner’s tried another variation of Tom this time around. I didn’t use the bathroom, but am very curious what they did with the cool Pancho Villa painting they had in the old Mexican-restaurant bathroom.
City Greens (#239, 12/13/12)
I think the kid is crying because his brains were used to make the water.
Okay, as I continue my vegetarian diet, I opted for a nice, healthy lunch, just down the road from the Superdome. This City Greens place is pretty good; I had never heard of it, but it seems like a good salad. Sort of a chipotle-style place with salads. You walk along the counter and tell them what you want in your salad. I went for the truffle caesar salad with boiled shrimp – pretty darn healthy, huh? They also had funky waters, called Wat-aah, or maybe WAT-AAH, with stuff added to them. I went with the Brain-flavored water and I could barely taste the brains at all.
You just order at the counter, they hand it to you, you pay, then find a seat and eat. I bet you could even take it with you if you wanted, since it’s in a plastic bowl with a cover. They have a handful of tables and a longer bar-sort of seating place. A typical lunch-style place (it’s only open 11-2).
So let’s see, using the exciting new ranking system….the food gets a 35 out of 50. It was a a very good salad. Hmm, this is a problem with ranking system. The salad was very good as far as salads go, but it wasn’t as good as the sushi from the other night. So I don’t see how I can give a salad more points than that sushi, but they never represented themselves as anything different than a salad place. Oh well, I’ll say, good food. 35.
Atmosphere? Eh, not much, but nothing bad – again, it’s just a lunch place. So I’ll give it a 15 (I’m saying that’s half of 30 so it’s average). Then service; all good, pretty quick, always a bonus in a lunch place, so they will get the full 20 there; they did everything that could be expected. Hmm, they didn’t go above and beyond though, so will give them 17.
The brain-flavored water is good though, so this may be a case of the drinks resulting in bonus points. They also had coconut water and a lot of different root beers. Definitely five bonus points for drinks. Hmm, or maybe four bonus points.
So, the final score for City Greens is…56. Not too shabby.
Kyoto* (#238, 12/11/12)
Rahhhhh!
Since I’m moving towards a vegetarian diet (or at least pescatarian…or maybe non-red meat…or at least less-red meat), I need to explore these sushi places. Having said that, I think this is the fifth one I’ve been to in New Orleans, so that’s kind of weird. Anyway, I hit up Kyoto, which came highly recommended, and it was pretty good. One weird thing is that you have to eat with little pieces of wood, like sticks. Not sure what to make of that, but I gave it a go. Good dinner discussion revolved around what are the elements that make up a restaurant evaluation. We came up with three keys – service, atmosphere and food. And for me, I may be bizarre, but I only give 50% to food. And that may have changed since dinner; sometimes I confuse myself. Anyway, so I’m going with 50% to food, 30% to atmosphere and 20% to service. I do think each of those items can weigh heavier however, which means my system makes no sense whatsoever. Like if service really sucks, then food and atmosphere lose points as well.
Anyway, to get back to Kyoto, I had the Desiree Roll (dynamite, crawfish, and crabstick are rolled together and then tempura fried and served with a creamy wasabi sauce…wait a minute, “dynamite”? Is that an actual food? And that’s not the only weird use of a word on the menu, they also use “crunchy” as a noun). Seems like in New Orleans, that should be called “Street Car Named Desiree.” Too bad my friend Pat wasn’t there, because they had a Yum Yum Roll as well. I also had the Gyoza Dumplings (Ground beef seasoned with fresh ginger, garlic and cabbage wrapped in gyoza skin and pan steamed…maybe that “ground beef” thing conflicts with this vegetarian thing, doesn’t it? Dammit. I love dumplings of all types; no way I could resist). It was all pretty tasty; I will explore sushi further after this experience. So the food was solid. Should I give it points? Let’s say 40.
Then the atmosphere – not too bad. There is a Godzilla poster on the wall, which seems appropriate for a sushi place. Though I was surprised to see lasers coming out of his eyes. Did Godzilla have laser eyes? I don’t think I remember that. Decent music playing, oldies – the Elvis bugged me a bit, but some other good stuff. Seats seemed comfortable; funky painting on the wall and interesting light shades. Solid atmosphere too. Will go with a 20.
And then the service; the service kind of sucked. In the waiter’s defense, he was pretty much a meathead. He ended one sentence with “yo,” which was a little funny, I guess, but shows the issue. As in, “All right, here’s your menus, yo.” Then it took forever for him to get back around to us. He even asked, “Do you have any questions?” We said, “No.” And he said, “Good” and left. Seems like taking order time, but hey, whatever, yo. So in my new rating system, the service is going to get a…5.
Also sampled the hot saki. Not sure I’ve ever had that. And I still don’t really know what to make of it. Usually I avoid all hot liquids, so that probably contributed to my apprehension. Hmm, drink selections/tastes may carry weight at some places too. Maybe I’ll make those a bonus, so no bonus here.
And our final score for Kyoto is…65. Not too shabby. Although since it’s the first place I have actually rated, maybe it sucks. Really need a frame of reference.
GW Fin’s (#237, 11/15/12)
I’ve heard a lot of good things about GW Fin’s - in fact, I even recommended this to people before I even went there. Well, I finally made it, and it was spectacular. Very good meal. I had the wood-grilled grouper with some sort of pineapple glaze, plantains and other good stuff. What’s with the plantains? Been eating them a lot lately. Also had the blue crab pot stickers which were outstanding also (just started and ended that sentence with the same word) and some sort smoked sizzling oysters (nothing special). This is a great seafood/fish stop so definitely check it out – if you’re into that sort of thing.