the chimes east

not the same. it's been been awhile since visiting the chimes east and have always satisfied, but that change today. service was lacking, could have gotten more personal service from a drive through lane. service staff attire appeared to be what was on when they rolled out of bed. ordered the cheeseburger for lunch, when it finially arrive the meat cold and very- very over cooked, bun wasn't fresh. the only thing worth eating were the fries.

awesome waitress, hubby had a great steak, fried shrimp was wonderful and the boudin balls were awesome!!!

do not order the charbroiled catfish... lots of blackening seasoning and cheap margarine.

no lousiana feel.... from ms, my family & i are in town. being from ms we love to eat good food and was recommended to chimnes. it was not good at all!! at all!!! we had a $62 ticket for an oyster platter and a bbq shrimp po boy that was recommended by the waitor. the food was absolutetly terrible! the oysters were fried tooo hard! the bbq shrimp was straight nasty, there is no other way to put it. the glasses need to be upgraded, they are terribly scarred from years and years of use. just wasn't satisfied and i pay whatever the price for good food! a consumer of great food, and a person who knows what great food tastes like- do not recommend this place to anyone!!

lunch on saturday. we stopped in for a bite of lunch. great beer selection, other than that, average at best. we ordered roast beef proboy and bbq shrimp poboy. they were ok, it is very hard for anyone to beat the pastime (original) roast beef poboy. the chimes misses with too much gravy, which tastes like it is made from a dry powder mix. both sandwiches were served with french fries, which were thin cut frozen. if using frozen i prefer a thicker cut. over all service was very good. may decide to give them another chance if on that side of town. too many good restaurants in baton rouge to settle for average.

my experienced was mixed but i gave it an i like it overall. our server was ok, not particularly friendly but not rude. i ordered the platter and my boyfriend ordered the new orleans style bbq shrimp poboy. his poboy was amazing! my platter was what i expected of a seafood platter, but i was disappointed that it came with only one piece of catfish. we each has a beer on tap and they have an awesome selection. i was kind of perturbed that i couldn't substitute a side on the platter even after saying i would pay whatever up charge necessary. we ordered the crabmeat stuffed mushrooms to start with. i didn't expect there to be cream cheese in them because that isn't in the discription or in your average stuffed mushroom. i was pretty disappointed with them. overall i would say that they get 6/10 which just qualifies them for an i liked it.

the girl friend experience. i've eaten here off and on for many years and sitting in the outdoor area on international women's day i realized that it was time to do a review - i think what triggered this was our server arriving with the beer that we'd ordered and finding that the side-salad was already on the table, "damn that was fast" she said. we'd only been there about ten minutes after all ... ten minutes at chimes and we already had the side-salad on the table and beer!

that's when it came to me - what sets the chimes apart from all other eating and drinking establishments in baton rouge is that the chimes alone offers the full girl friend experience. not your current girl friend i hasten to add ... no, this is your first serious girl friend, the one that always said she could cook but let's face it - we're weren't there for her cooking. she was tremendous fun, had a thirst like a dredger, and could do shots and dance all night so we forgave her for the cooking, ate what was placed in front of us and went afterwards to drink and party.

chimes has the best selection of beer in baton rouge, it's a fun place to visit and with a group of friends you're pretty much guaranteed to enjoy yourself. most of the customers are students, ex-students or folks who vaguely remember going to college and still have the tattoo from the morning they got really drunk in mexico - and that profile probably fits most of the people who work here too.

so please, don't bring your mother here for a meal - she's not going to enjoy it anymore than she would if your first girl friend had cooked it. chimes serves food to soak up the alcohol - it's functional and generally edible, nothing to complain about - but instead of complaining about the service, or the quality of the food - try a new beer and hang out for a few hours ... like you used to in college with your girl friend - you're not here for the food after all.

goes beyond bar food. this place plays great music, has a laid back atmosphere and has pretty excellent menu items. i've eaten there countless times and have never been let down.

the service at chimes was horrible. we did not get the extra lemons we asked for. my soup came out with no spoon. it took the waitress 15 minutes to come so i can ask for a spoon. my sister ordered soup and appetizer as her entree and the soup came out with no spoon again. how do you eat soup with a fork? we ordered two burgers at medium temperature and received 2 well done burgers. if you order sweet potatoes fries you will get regular fries. we couldn't find our waitress, emily, for 20 minutes, so we went to the hostess table to get assistance. boy, she surely came running when she must've thought we left without paying. i will not come back here.

could kill myself on the appetizers alone. great food, usually a long wait for a table.

never been back . . .. what am i missing? i brought my mom there for dinner on her 87th birthday and almost nothing went right. 1st of all let me admit i did not know the place was so noisy, if i did i would have made another choice. but the reviews here at yahoo were so overpowering i thought i could not go wrong with this choice. wrong!

the service leading up the meal arriving at the table was fine, but after it did our waitress was nowhere in site. she did come back to check on us about 15 minutes into the meal.

ah the meal, wife had shrimp and corn soup and liked it, the birthday girl had stuffed shrimp and also liked her entre even though she had to ask another waitress for some butter before her hush puppies went totally cold. we also had onion rings as a table appetizer, they were wonderful but the bad news started here. i had a $20.00 rib eye that was about 25% fat, and it was horrible. i usually do not send anything back to the kitchen; i just leave it on the plate and give the restaurant another try at a later date. but if my waitress would have given me an opportunity i would have sent this steak back as it was that bad.

paid the bill, i always hand the waiter a card before they bring the check and tell them i am trying to save them some walking. i did at that time ask for a box to take the birthday girl's extra stuffed shrimp home. well 15 minutes and no sign of our waitress, she does show up after another 5 minutes to tell me their computer is down so they can't run the amex. i say no problem how much is the bill, i'll just write you a check, she laughs and says we do not take checks and walks away. now she has my amex card and i have been waiting for my check for one half hour and she is gone! another 10 minutes passes and she comes back to inform me that the computer is still down and i will have to wait a little longer as they don't take checks, not laughing this time. it was then i ask for the manager, he comes to my table within about five minutes and ask me to wait a bit longer as he is trying to get the computer to run the card working. what he did not say was deafening, i.e., we apologize for the delay, can we buy you and your party a glass of wine or cocktail to make your wait more enjoyable? no there was never an offer of gratitude to their customer for patience, it was all about their problem.

at this time i informed him how i was going to handle this issue since we seemed to be at a stalemate and that was . . . . if the computer still did not work after another of his attempts his choices would be to give me my card and i will write him a check on a local bank (i live in br), or i will call amex and tell them chimes east is holding me and my card hostage until they get their computer up and running. if you have not guessed it by now i am no longer the happy guy i was when we sat down to my mom's birthday dinner nearly two hours ago. he reluctantly takes my check, what a nice guy, and i am on my way muttering things to myself like, never again, never again!

i am writing the manager of the chimes to see what kind of response i get, so i will revisit this post to do an update in an effort to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt.


* * * * update * * * * no reply from the manager of this restaurant regarding my letter of complaint. i guess they don't care.

what happened!. no smiles,aggravated server.empty drinks, long wait to place order, holy server mia most of time .like to receive what i order.when bill paid, wrong change given(shorted more than $25). manager appeared overwhelmed.doesn't check on guests.food was good though. seafood platter not so good.come on,get it together.family and guests did not enjoy this visit.

unbelievably bad experience at chimes east tonight. 9 of us from work got together for dinner. i called ahead to chimes east to ask if any problem seating 9 for dinner at 6pm. told no. arrived at 6pm to find that no table available. staff could not tell us how long wait would be. after 30 minutes, i called walk on's and they said table was available there. went to walk on's and immediately seated. at 7:36 pm, got text from chimes east saying table ready. sent back text of empty plates from walk on's.

worth coming back to. i have now been here twice, and had great meals. their beer selection is excellent, but pretty common by my standard, nonetheless i can always find something interesting to try. service is a strong suit, and the food is consistent.

boudin balls where good but oyster po boy was not crispy. is it better than mother's in new orleans. no way. will i give them another try. yes


-----13 nov, 2011-----

the service is fast the boudin balls are great. the oyster po boy needed to be fried hard to have more of a crunch! is it better than mother's......no!