Oyster Festival

Woldenberg Park, NOLA

Early June

http://www.neworleansoysterfestival.org

Overall Ratings (H in orange, C in purple)

Food:   A / A

Ambiance: A / A

Music:   A-

Drinks: A

Overall Experience: A / A

H says, I didn’t go to this last year for some reason; boy did I miss out. [C says, I think he did go, but he says I am thinking of the Seafood festival, not the Oyster Fest...] I had a blast, even though I was melting in the heat. The food here was amazing. The only thing that I felt wasn’t very good was Drago’s, which is sad because normally their oysters are amazing. This year though they didn’t have enough butter and sauce on them. They were just cooked oysters :( . My favorite by far was the Fried Oyster Taco from GW Fins. It was amazing. Too bad they don’t offer it at their restaurant. If you are in town, you have to go. Period. I wouldn’t fly down for it as French Quarter fest and Mardi Gras are better but it is definitely ranked up there as far as fun and food goes.

C says, I love a good festival, so I thought we would give you some thoughts on what we sampled at the recent Oyster Festival here in NOLA. The menu will probably change somewhat by next year, but this will give you an idea of what to expect. Plus, the dishes are from restaurants around town, so maybe it will give you an idea of some new places to eat!

Dishes we tried:

Shrimp and Oyster Eggrolls from Arnaud’s: Quite tasty, with a nice dipping sauce. These, to me, were really spring rolls, not eggrolls (different wrapper), but yummy nonetheless!

1/2 Dozen Charbroiled Oysters from Drago’s: Generally, we’d recommend these highly, but they were skimpy with the butter this time. They know better than that! Hopefully this was just a fluke.

Fried Oyster Taco from G W Fins: Pretty simple, but absolutely delicious. Our favorite thing.

"St. Louis" Po-Boy: Fried Oysters, Bacon and Provel Cheese from Katie’s: Pretty darn tasty. Bacon was nice and crisp.

Sno Balls from Original New Orleans Snoballs: They never have cherry, which is my preferred flavor, but the strawberry was pretty good!

Oyster Pastries from Royal House: Two puff pastry shells topped with a spinach and artichoke sauce and a fried oyster atop each. Not overly generous with the oysters, but tasty.

Friends said the Bacon & Tasso crusted oysters w/ dill fondu from Cafe Reconcile were amazing and also enjoyed the BBQ shrimp po-boy (but I don’t see the one she had listed on the website, so I am not sure where it was from!)

Irene's Cuisine

539 St Philip St New Orleans, LA 70116

(504) 529-8811

Overall Ratings (H in orange, C in purple)

Food:  B / B+

Ambiance: A / A

Service:  A- / A-

Drinks: B (Wine selection was good but not excellent)

Overall Experience: B+ / A-

H says, C and I were walking in the Quarter and I thought we should try our Irene’s as it always smells so nice walking by. I really was worried it wasn’t going to be that good, but I was pleasantly surprised.

C says, Whenever we walk by Irene’s, the smell makes us hungry! A little Italian restaurant off of Chartres, it always smells enticing, so the other night we decided to go in. The meal had a few bumps, but was enjoyable overall--there’s just some room for improvement.

Overall thoughts from H:

First off, it doesn’t look like much from the outside but the interior is just what you think of when you mention old fashioned New Orleans interiors. I might be wrong but it just felt like this is where people went out back in the day. Not that it felt dated but it was just a very enjoyable ambiance. We had the mussels appetizer which was ok, nothing special but ok. I think when we go back we will try something else. [C says, The mussels were in a red sauce, which is not our preference. The sauce was very good, though. The problem was that some of the mussels were overcooked--not cool. The bread served with the mussels was especially tasty, though.] 

Mussels Marinara

For the main course I got the filet mignon which was very well cooked, but the potato side that went with it was a little cold, they heated it up for me and it turned out to be a very nice meal. Now, it wasn’t the best-tasting meal but the steak itself was delicious. All it was really missing was more sauce. I enjoy steaks, but it’s really about the sauce and steak together that does it for me. Now my favorite part: the dessert. They have a bread pudding with bananas foster dessert that is amazing. Enough to feed 2 easily, but it is amazing. So overall it was enjoyable, probably one of the better restaurants in the Quarter that isn’t named GW Fins. Definitely planning on trying it again.

Filet and potato gratin

Soft-shelled Crab w/ Pasta

C says, I will agree with H that the ambiance is perfect for a New Orleans Italian restaurant. When you sit down, they bring you a couple of pieces of Italian bread with sliced tomatoes and melted cheese--a nice amuse. Then, later in the meal, they bring a basket with tasty rolls. As you should know by now, H and I love bread, so that was a plus! The mussels were ok, as we said above, but next time I would try a different appetizer. For dinner, I had the soft-shelled crab with crawfish pasta. The crab was cooked perfectly, nice wide pasta with plenty of crawfish, spinach, and a cream sauce--the sauce was over-herbed, though. Someone had a heavy hand with the oregano or something and it threw the dish off. Otherwise, it would have been really delish. As H said, the dessert was bread pudding with bananas foster sauce and vanilla gelato--basically his 3 favorite foods--and it was very good. Now, from what I hear, we really lucked out being able to walk into Irene’s. We went really early and got the last table in the house. So, if you want to check it out, you might make a reservation first. And expect to spot Irene herself puttering around. Not our favorite place, but a fun one to try. They just need to make a few tweaks and it could be excellent.

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.

Muriel's

Muriel’s
801 Chartres Street New Orleans, LA 70116 (on the corner of Jackson Square)
(504) 568-1885 http://www.muriels.com/

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

H says, I really enjoyed Muriel’s. It has a classic New-Orleans-type feel. The location is perfect as well, situated on Jackson Square. I would recommend an early reservation as it is a popular establishment and I think the wait time on the food may be longer the later into the evening you get. If you are in New Orleans for more than a few days, you need to try this place out. Very New Orleans, and very delicious.

C says, I was eager to try Muriel’s, since I had had their food at festivals but never in the restaurant itself. I thought the atmosphere was really lovely and the staff was attentive (we had an early reservation, which helped, because it is less crowded). We went last month, when the COOLinary specials were still going on (http://www.coolinaryneworleans.com/), and it was a great deal. I would definitely go back.

Overall thoughts from H:
We arrived a bit late due to the first Saints preseason game being the same night...don’t try getting a taxi on a game day. Just doesn’t happen. But after a long walk and a bit of bitching on my end about how freaking hot it is here in the summer, we arrived. [C says, At least it didn’t start raining on us! It did start raining right after we arrived.] Upon entering my mood improved dramatically; the lighting is dim but nice and the A/C was heavenly. We were seated by a window surrounded by older pictures. [C says, Our table was tucked in a corner and I thought it was very cozy. We could also look out at the people milling around Jackson Square.] We had 2 waiters: 1 for food and 1 for drinks. I had a glass of the house Cabernet Sauvignon and when I say house wine I mean they have their own version bottled for them with their own label by a winery. It is fantastic. 

Goat Cheese Crepes

For my appetizer, I had the pan-seared redfish cake; it was fantastic. Although C had her crepes, I was more than happy to keep my redfish cake for myself...though I did give her a bite. [C says, When you go to Muriel’s, you have to get the goat cheese crepes as an appetizer. They are served with a crawfish or shrimp sauce depending on the season, and Muriel’s is known for them. H’s app was very tasty, but he is forgetting how good my crepes were--he was coveting them a bit and I had to give him several bites!] 

Double-cut Pork Chop

The main course was a pork chop that was HUGE. I was not a big fan of the sauce and sides as I thought it was too much apple and didn’t let the smokiness or flavor of the meat come through. [C says, the chop was a monster. The glaze and sides (sweet potatoes and greens) had a very autumnal feel. I lhought H’s sides were quite good, but you have to like sweet potatoes and southern greens (not sure if they were collards or a combination). H got a couple of meals out of the chop even though he didn’t love the sides.] It was perfectly done, though, and I can’t blame them for my disliking it too much. Now onto the dessert: in one word--Fantastic. Bread pudding, of course! Although they didn’t serve it with vanilla ice cream (my favorite), it did in fact have caramelized nuts on top. There was a lot of it and a great taste, but if I had to choose I would still take GW Fin’s over it, but just barely. [C says, it was really tasty. The top tasted bruleed, and the candied pecans and rum sauce were awesome. It was a very generous portion, too. I also give GW the edge on their bread pudding, but only because I love chocolate!]

Bread Pudding

I also decided to get a glass of the bananas foster drink that was on the dessert menu. I thought it would be well just a well-type drink or shot or something...what I ended up with was a whitish martini...not what I really wanted, but it was pretty good. I think next time I will stick with a nice glass of Amaretto, though.

Butterscotch Pudding

C says, As mentioned above, I had the crepes first--phenomenal. For my entree, I had Pan Crusted Puppy Drum, served with oven-roasted pecan and jumbo lump crabmeat relish, with a lemon butter sauce. It was incredibly delicious. For dessert, I had the Black Bottom Butterscotch Pudding. It’s served in a little teacup--butterscotch pudding on top, and as you dig down, you get the chocolate syrup at the bottom. On top is a tiny homemade oreo with praline filling. It was so delicious, and a good size--not too large, thankfully, as I was stuffed from the meal (and a few bites of H’s bread pudding!). H also made me get a drink because he thinks it is boring that I always order water, so they made me a virgin mojito, which was quite tasty. Overall, I thought it was a great experience. They also have wrapped butter mints as you leave--in Saints wrappers. Excellent touch. :)

G.W. Fins

808 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112
504-581-FINS   http://gwfins.com
 
(I promise we'll work on getting photos of the food, but we haven't been to GW since before we got the idea for this blog! the photos featured here are from the restaurant's Facebook page.)

Overall Ratings (H in orange, C in purple)
Food: A+/A
Ambiance: A+/A
Service: A/A
Drinks: A+
Overall Experience: A+/A

H says, Much like our Olympic athletes, GW gives it 110%! This wonderful restaurant is by far my favorite in New Orleans so far. The prices are a bit higher, but again, the service, the food, and the wine are all top-notch. If you want to go out for the evening and have an amazing meal in a great atmosphere, go here. If you don’t, go anyway--you will love it.

C says, H introduced me to GW Fins. Though I had heard about it (and had eaten their lobster po-boy at the Po-boy Festival: OMG), I had never been to the restaurant. It is a great place to go for a nice night out. Entrees range from $21-$38, with the majority just under $30, which is certainly not cheap, but not exorbitant for a special occasion by any means. The thing I like best is that they change their menu every day based on what is fresh, so you know you're getting the best fish. (There are a couple non-seafood entrees on the menu, but when you're at what has been dubbed the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans, get the fish!)
Overall thoughts from H:
First step, make a reservation. If you plan on eating in the dinning room anytime after 7pm, make a reservation and when you do, ask for a booth in the back. The back booths are perfectly lit and allow you to look out over the rest of the dinning room. It is, in one word, perfect. Dress is business casual. The first time I went, I wore a jacket and did not feel out of place, but just a collared shirt and slacks will work just as well. [C says, The back booths are really nice and cozy, and you'd probably be comfortable in anything from a sundress to a cocktail dress, depending on your mood!]

Once seated, you are presented with a menu which changes daily based on what fresh fish and foods they got in that day. They tend to stick to a few dishes, all of which are amazing but you will almost always see something new when you go. The wine list is amazing--a great selection by the glass and by the bottle. If you are unsure of what to get, ask the waiter when you order. I tend to stick with red wine regardless, but my Dad had a number of white wines which he enjoyed. [C says, Their signature dish is the "scalibut": halibut topped with sliced scallops and served with lobster risotto. Delish, if just a touch salty. But, everything I have had there has been good--you can't go wrong.]

Now, once you have ordered food and wine, they start bringing out biscuits. Warm and delicious with butter, if you finish these, they bring more, and more and more, until you stop eating them. Be careful or you will fill up on these and not want dessert. Trust me, wait, it will be worth it.

The last time I went, I had my favorite, Yellowfin Tuna served rare with light vegetables and sticky rice. This meal is to die for. The fish is perfect and the sides absolutely enhance the dish. If they have it on the menu and you enjoy tuna, get it. The servers will continually check on you throughout the meal to make sure you have everything you need. It is not overbearing and every time I was about to complain about something they would solve it before I said a word. The only reason I gave them an A instead of an A+ is that they don’t grovel over you the way they do at Commander's. Which is fine, but an A+ is for perfection, as as much as I love G.W. Fins, the restaurant isn’t really set up this way.

For dessert, I would recommend the bread pudding, as it is fantastic. Also, I believe all bread pudding should come with vanilla ice cream and they were happy to add this to my desert; making it absolutely perfect. Any of the other desserts are great as well, but the bread pudding is fantastic. [C says, the bread pudding is white chocolate bread pudding with dark chocolate chunks and caramel. It really is delicious.] Did it come through that I really enjoyed my experience at G.W. Fins? I absolutely plan on being back time and time again. Right now, actually they have a great summer special where you can get a 3 course meal for $35. That is well worth it as well, but if you want the full experience, I would go with it, it may be a bit more expensive but definitely worth it.

C says, The summer special is a great deal (my three courses were cheaper than H's wine!). It is only Sunday-Thursday, and the menu changes daily. Last time I had the crispy lobster appetizer, which is basically the lobster from the po-boy they make at the Po-Boy festival--yum!, then the flounder, and finally the chocolate cherry cake with butter pecan ice cream. The ice cream was splendid. I also have to give a shout out to the sizzling smoked oysters that are often available as an appetizer (H's dad would be so upset if we didn't mention them!)--they are really delicious, though they don't top Drago's charbroiled oysters for me. This is definitely H's favorite, and I love it, too. I'm happy to go whenever he wants!