Nouveau Bar & Grill – Jonesboro — Restaurant in Jonesboro

My first experience at Nouveau was great with my cousin‘s birthday party. The food was impeccable, service great & drinks on-point. So we decided to do a surprise birthday dinner for my aunt. I called, spoke to management on my scenario, not only was I not told it was a busiest day. We were placed in front of the DJ booth. My aunt is a older woman in her late 60s, even though she had a great time, the service was horrible. We can barely hear one another when I spoke to management about it. They came to me with excuses about what should’ve been done rather than what was done. I did get $100 refund, but I ended up spending that back on my check. Guest advised me they didnt receive drinks and appertizers after being the over an hour. Most guest stated they ordered from menu, then told they were out of several items. Guest didn’t receive their drinks until they eaten all their food. The service on the Sunday, February 2nd was horrible. We had one server for 40 people. Yes we reserve 30 but it ended up being 40. I asked to speak to the owner about the situation to give them better perspective to make things different for a customer coming in, but I was denied access. The CFO of the business told us that we should have paid $500 & a minimum of $1500 for a party of our size. I informed him I spoke to management was informed & i had proof via text. We was told the information given was incorrect. The CFO told us we should have spent $500 with a minimum of $1500 in sale, and showed us the email template. Yes we paid $200, we ended up spending over $2000 that evening. We had two individuals leave because items ordered, then told what was ordered was not available. Their appitezers was wrong. So when they left, the waitress chased them outside to pay for food they didnt want. Plus, we paid for a time of 3:00pm and was not seated until about 3:15pm, when I spoke to management about it, he told me what you want me to kick them out. I even called to asked premission to come decorate ealry and was told yes. But due to the crowd( we weren’t uninform about) that was not possible. I received feedback from guest that they felt the waitress was hounding them as if they were gonna walk out on their check. This is unacceptable for an establishment with great food & service normally. On my first visit to this location, we ordered lamb chops everything on the menu was great, this time when we ordered lamb chop like we had little baby back ribs and was charged almost $40 for this. It was unacceptable to receive food one way on a Saturday, the barely there on a Sunday 2 weeks later. People orders was mixed up and blame was placed on the guest. Therefore, the birthday girl did not receive her appetizer nor did she receive correct entree. I was told it was given to someone else. If you have a restaurant, you should have a seating chart to know who orders what, it is not the customers responsibility to make sure you give the correct plate, especially when you charge the price that you do & sat in front of a loud speaker. Like I said before I asked to speak to the owner I received an email by the CFO once again, so therefore, I am forced to write a review of this nature on this platform. We will not come back to this location ever again. They have lost our business, im quite sure that you may not miss it but it’s a sour taste in our mouth after we first gave you so much high praise, then receive this is very piss poor service all around. Please do better and make sure your customers are happy at the end of day. $100 off a booking fee is not enough when you spent over $2000 for an event. Long story short if I was management of this establishment, I would have made sure to make the experience unforgettable, especially when i was very transparent in my intentions for my aunt. All questions and concerns would have been addressed to make sure the customers was unforgettable. I would’ve sat them in the area that had enough space for them to adequately socialize, more than one server and make sure they drink orders...

I’ve passed this restaurant many times and said I should check it out. Then I heard about them again on channel 2 news on how they are popping up on college campuses with food trucks and how popular they are.

Finally I decided to go here with my husband as a date night/celebration of a job promotion. I made a reservation online for 6pm on Sunday. We finally get there and see that there are quite a few people there (parking lot was almost full). We get out the car and hear loud music. We wondered if that was coming from the restaurant. It was. I was like ok they got live music. Cool! I was not expecting it but that’s nice for a date night, right? We get inside and tell them our reservation. The hostess says one moment goes inside then comes back and tells us to follow her. We are sat down in a two seater table in the middle of the floor where the main foot traffic was (waiters and guests walking back and forth). We asked if we could get a booth or another table that wasn’t in the middle of the floor and was told if we wanted a booth, it would be $100 bottle requirement (of Casa Migos tequila at that! We know that bottle is $40 in the store. So why $100?!!). We declined and sat at the table, I moved my chair to the side so I wouldn’t get ran into by foot traffic. The music inside was SO LOUD that we couldn’t hear each other talk without yelling. There was also a DJ and a mini dance floor near the DJ booth. The music was great but every time a hit song came on, ladies all around us start twerking at their tables. I’m not talking about a little stand up and shake. I mean bend over to the floor and popping and shaking. I felt like I was at a club and not out on a date with my husband! I was very uncomfortable and almost wanted to leave. This was not what I had in mind for a date. If I wanted a club, we would have went to a club.

It took a while for a waitress to come to take our orders. But finally we got a waitress named A.Z. She had a great personality and was very friendly. We could barely hear each other talk over the music so I had to pull phone out and just point to the things we wanted instead of trying to yell at her. The wait time for a drinks and food was long. A.Z. said the kitchen was backed up and apologized for the delay. We ordered Long Island ice tea (water downed or too much ice) and the After Party (this was nice and strong 😊) drinks. For entrees - we were not aware that is was All Day Brunch on Sundays, so we ending up ordering the Seafood and Grits and my husband had the Steak and Eggs instead of what I originally wanted.

The food was amazing!! Or maybe we were just SO hungry (after the long wait) and trying to feed the alcohol that it tasted great. (Kidding). The food was good and we both enjoyed it. Another bad part - we spent $171 for two people and this included a bag of $12 grits that were sold to us by our waitress. (Purchased by my husband 🤦🏾‍♀️and the proceeds go to supporting HBCUs so that’s a plus).

So would I go back there? Meh, 🫤 only if I’m with a group of ppl and looking to party....

My husband chose Nouveau to host my birthday dinner, hoping for a memorable evening with friends and family. Unfortunately, the experience fell far short of expectations, by our server Raven tensed, unpleasant attitude from the beginning and lackluster food. From the start, the service felt disjointed and tense. Staff members seemed visibly irritated with one another, exchanging terse remarks in front of our group. The server blurted out how's she so irritated with the kitchen. The tension among the team created an uncomfortable atmosphere that made my guests and me feel like an afterthought. The food, sadly, mirrored the mediocrity of the service. While the catfish was super fishy in taste was passable, most dishes lacked flavor and care, the garlic potatoes and chicken was overcooked, and the appetizer spinach dip was the best which was a starter on their menu. For the price, I expected freshness and creativity and taste. The further horrible experience was topped when I ordered lamb chops and asked they be prepared grilled and medium well and seasoned. The lamb chops and server came back to the table not right. I told server this not what I ordered. She stated that's correct. I said...no, handed her the plate back! And she came back stating this how the cook said we make um... and my manager. I said I don't want them. At this 👉 What truly compounded the frustration was management’s indifference. When I mentioned the issues to the firt manager, I received a half-hearted apology and manager found this muse of service to be amusing and offered me another menu item. BY NOW MY APPETITE WAS RUINED along with the poor service. And the manager stated she felt the tension from me... Needless say the tension was first presented by the server!!! So I got up from my birthday group to find another manager. With effort to rectify the situation he offered me a cocktail for my birthday🎂 ... It felt like they were simply going through the motions. My birthday celebration was Ruined., myself and guest and family "DID NOT" enjoy this restaurant experience. It did not matter to the server her apologies NEVER happened, she received her high filtered in gratuity... Birthdays are special, and it’s disheartening to leave feeling your event was an inconvenience. While I hope Nouveau addresses its staffing and quality control issues, I cannot recommend it for occasions...