Acme Oyster House — Restaurant in Metairie

I probably would have rated Acme a 5 star experience because everything was so much fun and delicious - except for the chargrilled oysters, which were badly cooked!!!! More to follow. Parking was easy, especially since there is overflow parking in the adjacent shopping center. The environment was "fun" loud, with football on the TV, music playing in the background and everyone talking, eating and laughing in this casual, fun environment.

Our server Amber was charming and took care of our ordering and delivery of food very efficiently. The Crawfish Flatbread was a new menu item and very good. The crab and corn bisque was delicious! We also had a fried crab cake on top of maque choux with a remoulade sauce.There was more breading in the crab cake than I personally prefer, but it was large and tasted good; you could taste the crab! All of this is a 4 or 5 star experience.

Now, to the chargrilled oysters. My friend loves them and orders them everywhere she can that serves fresh seafood - Apalachicola, Cedar Key, Amelia Island, St. Augustine, Hilton Head, Charleston, Savannah, etc. Everyone says get them in New Orleans - they are the best. So it was shocking to get the worst ones ever- an order that was cooked to the extent that there was no juice whatsoever, that the parmesean cheese was burned and 2 of the oysters were overcooked to the point that they were obliterated, with no meat to separate from the shell! I asked her to return them to the kitchen, but she had already eaten two of them. They were tough but she thought the rest of the order under the bread might get better. Imagine her surprise when she discovered even worse oysters awaiting as she unpiled all the bread on top of the order, including the two oysters that were obliterated. She felt sure they had to know they were burned and piled the bread on top of the ones with the burned cheese. Plus they cook thousands of oysters, so they must have known they were sending out a substandard order. By then, my food had arrived and she felt like she didn't want to deal with it.

She had researched chargrilled oysters before we came to New Orleans and we came specifically to Acme Oysters as her pick for chargrilled oysters. She was so very disappointed. At $28 per dozen oysters, you can bet I would have sent them back if they were mine.

So with the oysters scoring a zero star, seriously not one good oyster in the dozen, it really affected the overall rating.

Our total dinner for 2 was $78.

We are in town for 5 more days and collecting recommendations for other places known for great chargrilled oysters. When we find them, I'll rate them...

My aunt transitioned to eternal life precipitate the gathering, the family from all over the US want to spend some time together and we were all hungry. After 30 mins of the hostess forgetting about our remaining 10-person party the manager began a tense, elevated conversation as if I were a new staff member who had lost $1000 from the register. He separated our family in two halves in two room then justified his actions by saying, "I just started my shift". Somehow he is a manager who does not know courtesy/responsibility does not punch a clock. It was too many of us too leave, we had waited so long, and our aged family cannot so easily keep moving around, so I couldn't allow his shallow thinking to disrupt my family's attempt make lemonade from lemons. On NOLA standards the gumbo/etouffee/charboiled oysters were on up to the challenge; the seafood platter/fried fish/shrimp po-boy/sausage po-boy were lacking. The drinks were excellent all around! Our waiter, Omar, was animated, energetic, and cool. The hostess was kind but incompetent. Because of the circumstances no anything could dampen my family's elevated Grace-filled emotional state, but in 20-30 years of restaurants I have not encountered such a formidable attempt of a restaurant to spread angst. Money focused businesses like this need not interact with public. Depending on the day of the week or time of the day their impact could devastate someone who does not know how to manage their own state. I do not want any other family to spend money for such risk/low value/simple greed. New Orleans has to many genuine people-loving restaurants to offer than to waste time with Acme's money-grubbing love. Spare...

Oh my goodness! Soooo delicious! For our first time in NOLA, we didn't want to eat chain food, but made an exception for this NOLA-based chain. Being from an inland state, I himmed and hawed over what delectable seafood to order. But, after reading some other reviews and having never seen anything similar near home, I landed on the charbroiled oysters and an oyster shooter! I had to do my shooter in 2 gulps because I couldn't shoot it all at once. So tasty! Like a Bloody Mary in shot form, with an oyster! Hubby got an Old Fashioned Gentleman drink and enjoyed it as well. My oysters were well worth the hype! Even my not-so-seafood-adventurous hubby tried one and really enjoyed it! I even got a 7th one on my half dozen order! 😉 Hubby ordered the half shrimp po-boy and jambalaya. I tried them both and liked them, though the po-boy seemed a bit dry for me. Hubby loved it. We got a go-cup to take back to our hotel, the hurricane, nice and sweet (if not too strong). Overall, a great dinner for our first bite of NOLA! Can't wait to see what else the city has to offer!

One final thought... Parking was TERRIBLE! Parking was tough as it was very busy at the time we went. The lot was full and the very empty lot behind the restaurant will tow you if you leave your car there (according to signs in the lot and on the restaurant door). Lots of people standing around in the parking lot while you're trying to get in or out of a spot. Parking had my hubby's fuse running very short. Fortunately, we were seated fast and he cooled down. We nearly left and chose a different place to eat because of the horrendous parking situation. Fortunately, we stayed and had...