Oak Oven — Restaurant in Harahan

My husband & I were celebrating our 30th anniversary. Yay us! We made an early reservation bc we didn't want to deal with the whole dinner rush thing. I noticed only 4 tables were sat when we arrived. BTW it's a small restaurant, so you can tell if it's busy. They sat us at a table for 2 people, understandably. We then requested a bigger table bc we wanted to order a lot of food to celebrate 🥳. The server said NO but explained I will course out the food accordingly so it will fit on the table. Totally makes sense... I guess. BTW we just wanted to enjoy a lot of food bc it WAS one of our fav restaurants & we were celebrating our 30th anniversary. Meanwhile no other tables were sat for a while, like 30 or 40 min. Then a family of 10 people arrived. We thought boy are we happy our order was in before the large party arrived. But then we waited & waited & waited for the main entrees. We inquired to our server about when is our main courses coming. She said oh! Well because "you" wanted your dinner in sep stages your order has been put in after the family of 10 people. WHAT!!!! WOW!!! We asked to speak to the manager. She was basically terrible & explained we were wrong. All we wanted was to celebrate our 30th with a lot of great food. Y'all treated us poorly & we will never be back....

This delightful little Italian restaurant came out of nowhere! We ate here as soon as it opened, and we were blown away. We have been back many times since for both lunch and dinner. The restaurant has a fresh clean look that feels just slightly whimsical. The food is like nothing I have had before. They have some of the traditional dishes such as veal or chicken parmigiano, veal marsala, etc., and they are great. But the real stars are the more original offerings. We have tried many of the menu items, and it seems like each one we try is better than the last! I think my personal favorite is the penne with rosemary chicken, but the handmade pappardelle with shrimp and artichokes is also mouth-watering. We also love the parmigiano salad. We have tried a few of the pizzas, and they are great, too. Even humble lasagna is elevated to another level at Oak Oven. One really nice thing about Oak Oven is that many of the entrees are offered as either full size or small plates. Oak Oven's prices are VERY reasonable. I am not a big dessert eater, and even less enthusiastic about a simple scoop of "ice cream" for dessert, but I always try to save room for a serving of gelato. It...

Maybe it was an off night, but we waited an hour and 15 minutes for cold food, and an entirely unappetizing "braised oxtail". We couldn't even get our water refilled. The waiter was very apologetic, almost excessively so.

When the food finally arrived, it was cold, so it had clearly been sitting out waiting. Raviolis were short one and cold, fried eggplant had hot pasta, but the eggplant was cold.

I ordered the braised oxtail sandwich (oxtails, mozzarella, pimentos, and romaine with a jerk dressing) and asked for it with no bread. Sure, I made a special request, but it seemed easy enough, and the waiter said absolutely they could handle that.

They served me some oxtail gravy with a side of fries. When I asked about the other missing ingredients, the manager told me that they could bring them out if I wanted them. I told her no thanks, just send it back.

I wasn't charged for it, and we were given 15% off the bill, and it was still more expensive than it should have been. Entirely disappointing experience. I would be embarrassed to serve food that cold and ask people...