Red Fish Grill

Red Fish Grill
115 Bourbon Street • New Orleans, LA • 70130
(504) 598-1200 http://www.redfishgrill.com

Overall Ratings (H in orange, C in purple)
Food: B / B+
Ambiance: C / C
Service:  C / A-
Drinks: F (probably a bit harsh)
Overall Experience: C / B

C says, I know a lot of people who are very fond of Red Fish Grill, so we decided to try it out for restaurant week here in NOLA. The location is down on Bourbon, right off Canal, which is not my favorite place to try to go/park, but we got down there with few problems. You’ve got the lovely ambiance of Bourbon to start you off--it’s right behind the Hustler club--and it has a very tourist-y feel as you enter. It’s definitely one of the more casual Brennan’s restaurants. (It’s on the Ralph Brennan side of the family.)

H says, when C says the lovely ambiance of Bourbon St., she means that it smelled worse than--well, I won’t say because it’s inappropriate, but it was awful I wanted to gag. When we first walked in the door, I knew this wasn’t the place for me. Too open, too loud, too bright, and just not what I want in a dinner place. If I was drunk or going out with friends to do some damage I might start the evening here, but most likely I wouldn’t. Personally I don’t plan on ever going again.

Overall thoughts from H:

I was really looking forward to going to the Red Fish Grill. I had heard a lot of great things about it from people at my office. Take a taxi to get here if you can, being located on Bourbon it is a pain to find a place to park. But in all honesty, take a cab, but just keep walking and go to GW Fins instead--but, I digress. Once you arrive, you have the option of waiting in the bar for your table, but from the looks of it you can just eat in the bar as well. The space is large and open, and the floor is concrete and the sound travels extensively. Even the back room where we were seated felt too exposed. Also the lighting was far too bright, I like a nice cozy feeling when I am going out to eat. I don’t like feeling like I am on display. [C says, The lighting didn’t really bother me, and I was glad we were in a smaller room that was a little more secluded, but the atmosphere was definitely not one we prefer--like I said, it felt very touristy.]

I ordered a glass of their red wine and when it was brought out, it just didn’t taste right. I thought it might have been something to do with the food interacting badly so I just tried to sip it throughout the meal. This was my mistake. It was simply an awful glass of wine. I told them to take it away. I thought they might offer a discount or something on it but no, nada, nothing. Simply put that in my mind is unacceptable. If you bring me a glass of wine and it is just plain bad I shouldn’t have to pay for it. [C says, the mistake H made was that he didn’t complain until our meal was basically done and he had drunk at least half of the glass. He also made the complaint to the “lesser” of the two waiters who were serving our table. I think if he had complained right away and/or to the head waiter, the outcome may have been different.]  As for the other parts of the meal, I ordered an appetizer of crab cakes, which were very good. I thought they were light, fluffy, and tasted great. Unfortunately, it went downhill from here. It took a VERY short amount of time for our food to come out; we had barely finished our appetizer when the main course came out. I enjoy good service but in this case it felt more like they were trying to rush us through the meal so they could get us in and out. My main meal was a sesame seed tuna with salad, which was good but the tuna was cold all the way through even though it had been cooked on the outside and the salad was massive. It was ok, but honestly felt more like a salad you would get at Outback. It was ok, but not worth the price I payed for it. Dessert was a chocolate bread pudding with both white and chocolate sauce poured out. It was quite good but the experience as a whole was so off-putting I would never go there again.

C says, I had the shrimp and corn bisque, which came out in an adorable miniature pot. It was good, but nothing spectacular. I think I could find something comparable in almost any restaurant in town. H’s crabcake was definitely better. For dinner, I had the Tagliatelle pasta with Louisiana blue crab, wild mushrooms, asparagus, and tasso. It was good, but seemed like there should have been more pasta, especially since H’s salad looked so abundant. However, the portion was satisfying, and I probably wouldn’t have had room for dessert if it was more generous. Again, it was good, but nothing special. As for H’s salad, I will say that the dressing was quite tasty and the fact that he ate any salad at all means it must’ve been pretty good. Both the appetizer and the entrees came out REALLY quickly, and H is right, it felt a little rushed. I had the blackberry cobbler with creole cream cheese ice cream for dessert, which was good, but not nearly as good as H’s chocolate bread pudding, which was insane. If you do go, I’d reccommend that dessert hands-down.

Overall, the food was not bad at all, and some things were really good. It just doesn’t have the atmosphere or the location we prefer, and there are so many other good restaurants in town that we won’t rush back to this one.