bourbon house

worst dining expierence ever!!!!!. while visiting the french quarter for the first time, my friends and i wanted to relax and have a nice meal at a nicer restaurant. looking over the menu, we thought bourbon house would be an excellent choice. wrong.

let me preface by saying i am a restaurant manager, and the entire group of us (7 total) are in the food and beverage industry, so we are generally very forgiving and understanding of other restaurants.

after waiting over an hour for atable(which we were completely fine with), the beverage server, brittany, comes directly to thetableand gets our drink order and promptly returns with the drinks. (yay brittany!!) she informed us that our server would be right along to get our dinner order. we sat at thetablefor literally 20 mins watching who we presumed was our server go to all of his other tables but not even acknowledge us. finally, keving (yep, it was him all along) came and said "have any questions?" one of our party asked what the soup of the day was. he ignored her and asked the one male at thetableif he knew what he wanted. i then loudly asked him once more what the soup was, assuming he just didn't hear the first time. he rolled his eyes and then told me what it was, but not the rest of the nightly specials.

he then started taking our orders (again, starting with the one guy first). we waited a good while for our salads and calamari. then, waited even longer for our entrees. while kevin was no where to be seen, other servers/food runners were trying to pass out our orders, but they were not correct. after everyone was served, we tasted our food. it was okay at best. i looked around the table, already frusterated by the lack of service and wait for our food, and noticed that not only had our server, nor anyone else, been back to thetableto check to see if we needed anything, everyone was out of water and drinks.

i then proceeded to leave my meal and group to find a manager. armond (i believe) was receiving another complaint at the time from a different table. once his attention was free, i explained to him our situation. i assured him that we wanted absoultely nothing in return, i just wanted to make him aware of what was going on in his restaurant. he seemed rather frazzled (it appeared he had already had a pretty rough night). upon returning to my meal, the manager came up to ourtableand told us he was sending out dessert on the house. it was appreciated, but certainly not necessary.

after going to the manager, brittany came and refilled our waters and drinks (yay brittany!!). kevin seemed not to care one bit. by this point, we were all fed up with the dinner and wanted to leave as soon as possible.

we asked for separate checks. after taking 15 mins to separate the checks, they were wrong. one of our cards got charged twice, incorrectly. it took a total of 30 mins just to get our checks and pay.

this was by far the absoulte worst dining experience myself or anyone in my group has ever had!! i personally would have rather gone through a drive through, because the at least smile and tell you to have a nice day!

i get that new orleans doesn't see that much repeat business, so customer service standards might not be what they are in places that do focus on repeat business, but the expierence we had was just unacceptable.

ate there last night. one guy serves drinks and another serves the food. the wait for atablewas not long, but it did take a while to get drinks. the bar was busy, though. i had shrimp creole and tomato salad while my husband had citrus glazed chicken with a spinach salad. they use local produce and seafood. his chicken was spectacular as were the sides of greens and anadoille potatoes. the cosmo and the bourbon milk punch are also amazing.

very little wait and had a fun and knowledgeable wait staff. the bourbon milk punch was delightful! ourtableordered blackened ahi tuna a shrimp lettuce wraps, gumbo, redfish on the halfshell and the la seafood sampler-all very tasty. we splurged for dessert as well and had the creme brûlée and pavlova with fresh fruit. i actually had the pavlova and it was a treat- so flavorful!

the only reasons i'm rating it a 4 (and not a 5) is 1) walked in, heard the front of house offer to move tables around to accommodate a party of 8 to seat "right now" then told us we had to sit at the bar or wait 20-25 minutes for atable(for 2) then snaking through the restaurant to the bar noticing multiple open tables (and there was no line out front and no one else waiting) and 2) my husband's green beans were undercooked (keep in mind we are from the south and like our veggies well done). that being said the wait staff and bartenders were fabulous. bbq shrimp is some of the best i've ever had. also tried paneed veal with crab and the crab crusted drum, so good. bourbon house has made it to the list of places to eat.

really great whitetablecloth place with a tremendous selection of.....you guessed it...bourbon. veal parmesan is a tad dry but the roasted chicken dish was interestingly sweet. the alligator starter was actually my favorite!

what we hoped for. after walking by bourbon house several times while in town we decided that we liked what we saw -- a large, handsome restaurant constantly busy with patrons -- and decided to try them for a weeknight dinner. although it was a monday we still had to wait for about 40 minutes for a table. no big deal, as the restaurant lounge opens onto the lobby at the astor hotel, with ample comfortable seating. the hostess desk texted us when ourtablewas ready, and we were then promptly shown to our table.
the waiter appeared immediately to detail the daily specials and answer questions. then a waitress showed up to take our drink order. apparently they divide up those duties.
we ordered a mix of appetizers, salads and main courses, and each was delivered in a very timely manner, shortly after our drinks and a small loaf of bread were served.
my pecan catfish and prawns with sautéed veggies and rice in a bourbon pecan sauce was very good. my only wish is that the kitchen would have pealed and deveined the shrimp. trying to do so in a dimly lit dining room proved to be a chore.
that aside, my meal was excellent, as was my husbands, he first ordered the raw oysters, and when they arrived he was both shocked and delighted at the size of each oyster. and his roasted duck was pronounced as being one of the very best he had ever sampled.
my meal represented a wonderful blending of the bourbon and pecans to form a wonderfully rich and flavorful sauce, which i used for dipping large pieces of my pecan encrusted catfish. between the sauce and the accompanying rice, my meal was a winner.
a word about our server: he clearly loved his job, and was quite good at it. he also took time to share some of his love of new orleans, and of music. it was a nice touch.
i highly recommend the bourbon house to those who don't want to spend an arm and a leg, but who still want a high quality meal professionally served in a big, handsome atmosphere, at a price that won't force you to take a second job. while this place is located near the headwaters of bourbon street, it feels like anything but a tourist trap. i recommend it.
food: a
atmosphere: a
service: a
menu sophistication: a-
value: a-

we at here on sundaytableof 6. our service was horrible and the food was not very good. we have eaten here a few times before. being from new orleans i was very disappointed in the service and food . will not recommend this restaurant to locals or tourists.

ugh.. the hostess was very passively rude. there was almost no one in the restaurant, yet we waited for nearly 15 minutes for them to "clear a table."

i was really disappointed in my cuban. i picked out the pulled pork and the rest wound up getting thrown away. the chips were cooked in burnt oil and were overly salty. the others at thetableenjoyed their raw oysters and bloody marys. thankfully the waitress was nice.

my husband and i went to bourbon house for breakfast this morning and the service was poor given the grandeur of this place. our waitress was scarce and the waitress for nearby tables would come out with plates and say "who had the...?" the lady at thetablenext to us waited over 30 mins and her food never arrived. my husband took it upon himself to stop another waitress to help the lady at the next table. as we were leaving, the manager i presume, was letting her know they lost her ticket in the kitchen.

my husband ordered the bourbon house benedict, which was tasty, but the pulled pork bagel i ordered was dry and lacked flavor.

the drink server was great, he actually took care of us because our waitress did not have time for us. my wifes fish was on a bed of minute rice and the sauce was not even cooked. it was very cold also. my dish wasn't what i ordered, they took it off thetableand i received nothing else but the check. of course we had to pay a crazy amount of money for this meal and when i asked for a break on it they said you should not have eaten off the plate. hope they change. very bad experience.

service was horrible. as working in the service industry for 11 years, i understand when things go wrong. but when u have 3 people waiting on u, you should never have to ask for anything. on that note, i felt like we were ignored. having to ask for straws (more then once) and having to ask for condiments (more then once) is just uncalled for. asking to have thetablecleaned of bread crumbs is just ridiculous. just based on the service i will never return!

pretty good, but not special, food. poor service.. my friend said we had to go for their shrimp creole.

we walked in off the street and were seated, then sat waiting. finally someone came to take drink orders but he was not our server. when we asked about a couple of the microbrews, he suggested he could bring tasting samples. i kid you not, the bartender put the film of some beer in the bottoms of the glasses. i went from "hey thanks" to being kind of put off. i went ahead and ordered a full beer based on one of the dropperfuls that crossed my palate.

our server eventually turned up. there were other items on the menu i might have ordered, but i got the shrimp creole and i was okay with that. the dish was good, the shrimp were a little bit over but the flavor was nice.

getting atablewas easy on a friday night and that is telling. there were lines elsewhere. you could do much worse, but also ...

terrible food/tiny portions. we waited an hour and a half to get atablewhen the restaurant was about half full. once seated, it took 15 minutes for the staff to greet us. i ordered their hummus plate as my meal and specified it as my entree. once the entrees were delivered, my plate took close to 20 minutes longer to come out. once arrived, i thought the plate was some sort or joke. the portion was ridiculously, pathetically small, and looked more like a sample plate. ive never had hummus with the consistency of sand before, and was almost inedible. feeling severely undersatisfied, i ordered a salad. the salad came out quickly, but again looked like a sample plate. i literally finished the salad in 7 normal bites. something in the salad also made my mouth hurt for the next two days. the only redeeming quality is that the manager understood my anger and dissatisfvtion, and rightly comped my meal. i will be fair in saying that no one else at thetablehad any problems with their meal and seemed to fairly enjoy it, although they too were not overwhelmed by any means.

hostility and redfish... yum!. recommended by a manager at galatoire's (as lunch and dinner on sundays require a jacket) when asked if he could point us into the direction of the nearest casual-fine eatery, bourbon house became our sunday afternoon destination. i was quickly drawn in by the specials board, and the st. gee cosmo, in particular, was a must have.

we were greeted by a surprisingly rude hostess, and taken to atablewhere someone eventually showed up with waters as icy as our hostess. he introduced himself and sped through the names of two other individuals, including our server, katy, who would be helping us along. minutes later, i'd say five or so, someone came along for our drink orders. the restaurant was obviously busy, but that long for a drink order? add to that at least 5 more minutes until the refreshing abita delightful st. gee cosmo made it to our table. still no katy.

i saw several managers parading around, seemingly, in fits of rage, the f-bomb was dropped within earshot of myself and other patrons. isn't that what boh is for? and other guests' faces marred with the same confusion as mine. we were hungry and sad. no food order had been given. time was slowly ticking away.

unfortunately, we had only given ourselves a 2-hour window to dine (hornets tix!), so we had to flag someone down to help us (how tacky!). at this point, two other black-vested servers(?) took over, facilitating the move toward a more pleasant experience. when i finally realized who the mysterious katy was, i was irritated to see how many times she had actually visted her section without any acknowledgement of our table.

the redfish on the halfshell, with an addition of sweet, buttery j-lump was beyond satisfying. i didn't care for the dish's new potatoes that were prepared in crab boil, bc the flavor was too intense for the delicate fish and lemon butter. no time for dessert, so i opted for fluffy, pink cotton candy at the game, although, there were a few things i would have liked to try.

bc la, no in particular, has sooo many amazing restaurants, service and ambiance tend to be a deciding factor on whether or not i should visit a place again. i'd like to enjoy their menu on another visit to no, minus the hostility, but hey, i hate working on sundays too.