kingfish

kingfish is a popularrestaurantand cocktail bar in the french quarter, that tips its hat to the huey p. long era. the kingfish menu embodies new louisiana cuisine, with traditional options and fun new twist.  during dinner, there may even be a pianist playing classic new orleans tunes. overall, nice atmosphere and excellent happy hour.

this was the worst dining experience i have ever had in the french quarter. what a disappointment! i can't remember what you call what i had but it was a seafood dish that was supposed to have several types of shellfish. it was $34. what i got was a plate with what appeared to be and tasted like a generic can of tomato sauce with a few bits of shell fish in it but most of that was just claws and shells that i had to pick through. there were a couple tiny shrimp and two tiny mussels. you could literally fit what actual eatable shellfish meat in in a shot glass. i'm not exaggerating. so, what i got was basically just a dish with some generic tomato sauce and two little pieces of bread.

my wife had a steak costing about the same my dish. it was so tough and so full of gristle that it was almost inedible. she couldn't eat it so i tried some and i could hardly cut through the gristle, let alone eat it. only a couple ounces of the so-called 14 ounce steak were edible and that was tough and tasteless.

in short, we were ripped off. it's as simple as that. i have never had an experience in the french quarter like this in all the years we have gone there. it was unbelievable. it made me wonder if perhaps they were planning on closing down soon and didn't worry about making customers satisfied anymore.

it really was that bad. you've been warned.

on the other hand, the waiter was ok - nothing special but friendly.

when we left, we actually had to find anotherrestaurantto eat because we were still hungry and neither of us are big eaters.

i came to thisrestaurantas part of a 14 girl bachelorette party. we arrived about 20 minutes before our reservation time and went to hang out at the bar. there was limited bar seating available and the wait staff was rudely indicating that we were in their way. the waitress was incredibly rude, the food was expensive and it wasn't good. the only thing i got that i enjoyed were the fried pimento cheese balls. the happy hour prices were only available at the bar and we were angrily told by the bartender that she would talk to the waitress and get us happy hour prices at the table (the bartender said that us coming to the bar was just "too much"). of course when bills came, we were charged full price for everything. annoying, not good food, expensive. definitely do not recommend this place!

another cookie cutter touristrestaurantin the french quarter.. the glowing reviews from the out-of-towners is evidence that i am correct: chef greg sonnier needs money badly; and he therefore set up a tourist restaurant, where he can cut corners; serve cheap, mediocre, ersatz "cajun" food; and offer a wine list of grocery store wines marked up to appalling prices.
my family and i went to the $47 reveillon dinner at kingfish on december 21. the first indicator that something was wrong was the wine list. "menage a trois" and "folie a deux" are grocery store wines, and bad ones at that, that they were offering for $30 and $37, respectively. i was going to order a michel schlumberger cabernet for $52; and then i thought, "why am i going to spend that kind of money on this off-the-shelf wine?" so i ordered something by the glass.
we had the oysters and tasso appetizer. it arrived at our table 45 minutes after we arrived at the restaurant, and it was cold.
i had gumbo, next. it arrived cold, and had no rice in it. i complained, and they took it away. 5 minutes later, they brought my gumbo back, microwaved almost to boiling. still no rice in it.
the lamb loin entree was good, albeit too salty.
the special reveillon dessert was homemade peppermint ice cream on a flavorless bundt cake.
my pecan pie was ice cold from being in the refrigerator.
the bar staff were a bunch of snotty jerks.
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here's what i think happened: it is well known that chef greg sonnier bought a building uptown that had been used as a catering place, but was approved as a restaurant. after he actually tried to put arestaurantin it, the nimby neighbors filed suit, and they won. sonnier was stuck with a location that he could not use as a restaurant. he tried making it a "club," where the guests join the "club" when they come to eat, but predictably it did not work.
sonnier now needs to pay for the dead-weight building, and earn a living, so he apparently said, "i'm going to sell out and open one of these gumbo-jambalaya-cajun-loosiana tourist restaurants in the french quarter that make so much money even though they are serving crap." that's what he did, and that's what kingfish is: touristy garbage.

i love that thisrestaurantis hip and has great food. i'm mortified that once the check was paid, our waitress reset the table for the next guests while we were in it and allowed the next couple to hover at our table before we had finished just waiting for us to leave. our waitress who did this never introduced herself, but she is african american with very long hair down her back. we were sitting at a table for two at the bar which does not have reservations and we were not sitting too long. infact, it was hard to get her attention until she was trying to turn the table. service needs improvement in this respect as the glasses were taken and table remade while sitting in it.

simply remarkable. for those who have followed new orleans bred greg sonnier thru his award wining gabriellerestaurantand windsor court service, it is no surprise that kingfish is another remarkable culinary experience with first class service. among the louisiana creations, try the hoppin john crawfish salad and any of the seafood or duck offerings. his shrimp and scallops on chese grts special is extraordinary. if the creole cheese cake is on the menu, you are in for a terrific desert and fininsh to the meal.

aptly named. thisrestaurantisn't so much arestaurantas a swindle, like its namesake. the entrees are pure bait-and-switch, the food, amateurish, the service, distracted. it's a lovely room put to something much less than its highest, best purpose. avoid with extreme prejudice. i didn't, but sure wish i had.

the excellent wait staff is the first thing you will like. then the food will blow you away. i had blackened scallops served on a bed of creamy grits with a hint of gruyere. my wife had their "kingfish" (actually a catch of the day - the variety was two generous filets of smoked drum the night we were there). this is their signature dish served on a salt brick and slathered in a delicious, fruity sauce. the chef here is a local favorite and presidents have insisted on his cooking. this is a top-notchrestaurantwith prices competitive with the local "average" places.

yeah. i've been lagging in the posting department, but i certainly haven't been lagging in the eating department, so i have a lot of catching up to do. so many restaurants, so little time! anyhow, almost two months ago (don't hurt me!), i went to a media lunch of sorts at kingfish with my good friend lorin gaudin and two new friends (if i didn't scare them away), mary sonnier and kristen essig. now, i don't often go to media lunches/dinners because i think it's important for me to be treated like the average "gal on the street" when i am reporting back to y'all on this fine blog of mine. but! sometimes, it can be a whole big barrel of fun to get royally spoiled and this happened to be one of those times. let me preface this a little by saying i am one of those unfortunates who never had the opportunity to visit the famed gabriellerestaurantbefore it was damaged, never-to-return, during the levee failures in 2005. but, now that chef greg sonnier is at the brand new kingfish in the fre

seafood cassoulet. great newrestaurantin the quarter. thoughtful remodel with exposed brick, wood beam ceiling, slate blue walls and low lighting. we sat a the bar for a round while we waited for a table. well-mixed cocktails from friendly, energetic bartenders.

dinner had highs and lows. i really enjoyed my seafood cassoulet and the service was super friendly. there is one very-fixable issue...i found the food to be off the charts salty and i love salt. the chorizo sauce on the jalapenos was salty and then actually had large, crunchy sea salt grains in it. needless to say the collards that separate the kingfish from the himlayan salt brick it'd served on were super salty.

i think this place is still in soft open so i reserve final opinion. the menu reads like food porn and the staff is great. i would definitely come back again and give it another try.