la Madeleine — Restaurant in Louisiana

We were shopping at Perkins Rowe and wanted to stop by for an early dinner. We've eaten here many times before and this, by far, was the worst experience ever. The restaurant was not very crowded so easy to find a table for the 3 of us. My wife and son ordered and I was last. My son is a growing teenager and has a huge appetite. Even though he's a kid, he has a man-sized appetite! All he wanted was pasta and butter. Easy enough, right? When it was my turn to order, I told the employee taking orders I have a gluten allergy. He then proceeded to scream throughout the kitchen: GLUTEN ALLERGY! I turned around and saw people standing behind me. I thought: could he not be a bit more discrete? It is no one else's business. I ordered a salad and he proceeded to scream to the kitchen staff: GLUTEN ALLERGY! While I appreciated his attention, I thought there could be a better way of handling this. I walked to the register to pay and found a table. When my son's food arrived, it was a kid's size serving of pasta. I think we counted how many pieces of penne were in the bowl. After he cleaned the bowl, he filled up on sourdough bread. After we ate, we went to the dessert section. No one there. I counted 4 employees standing approximately 4 feet away from me, I made eye contact with at least 2 of them. And no one acknowledged my presence or offered to help. I could have easily interrupted but thought, no, I wanted to see how long it would take before someone stopped the conversation long enough to see what I needed. Six minutes! A lady broke away from the group and she took my dessert order. She started to put my dessert in a box and I said, we're eating here. She proceeded to put my dessert in a "to go" box and I said, we're eating here. She handed me the "to go" box with my desserts. I had to ask her for 2 plates because we were eating here. I really hated giving her my cc to pay for these two desserts. It will be a very long time before we...

08/13/2022

Today, my wife and I went in for almond croissants and hot tea. The lady prepared two for us. When we sat down, the croissants looked old and soaked with butter and showed brownish spots and there was white powder on one of them. My wife took them back got 2 plain croissants. When my wife came back, I noticed they did not credit her the difference so I went to the cashier and got the difference back on my cc. Still the plain ones tasted old and soaked with butter. I finished mine (not sure how I managed to do so) but my wife could not. So she left hers and the now warm green tea on the table. We got home and had to make a hot mint drink to clear the "soaked butter" I gulped down.

So sad this place is going down and by the way we were told the AC was out of order.

Next time we will go to the one on Jefferson Highway branch.

07/31/2021 "Zero" star

My wife and I have not been there in more than a year and before Corona startted. We decided to go take a look and buy something. We go in there, 1 minute later we were out of the store.

Corana cases averaging 300 new cases/day Neither the customer nor the helper was wearing a mask. I can understand if customer was not, but no the employees. Cutomer and helper talking with faces less than 2 feet aprat. No plastic barrier between them. Employee was not wearing gloves. AC was not running or slow poking.

Four stars a couple of years ago Food is good. Service is good. Having AC off is not good. For that reason, my wife and I had to make our order to go :(

Went back minutes ago at night, AC is off. Floor by windows is sticky with food debris are everywhere. I think there is no night manager and all things go to hell. Could not stay long. Left our hot teas on the table and let the place.

Still believe this place can do much better, A/C and cleaningness, next to...

Located in Perkins Rowe, this place has a fantastic vibe, but it falls short in quality of food and clear understanding of table service or buffet service. It was recommended by a family member, who understands what I like in the way of casual dining, but a miss. I made the best of it.

This restaurant offers a spacious outdoor dining space and the decor in general design has a definite French bistro vibe - painted plates, shelving with knick knocks of books, bottles, ceramic and metal vases, vintage irons, lamps. There is a fireplace in the middle of the space, which divides dining rooms of wood flooring and angled ceilings. The cafeteria style setup is to the right of the front pastry counter, but did not look appetizing or freshly made. I had to ask the young man behind the cafeteria counter about how to order off a menu, as I had googled it before making decision to go and saw several meals that looked quite tasty.

I finally decided on the glazed salmon with wild rice and broccoli with side of fruit. The portions were generous, but there was red bell pepper in the rice, and the salmon just didn't taste right to me. I ate the fruit, a little bit of rice and vegetables and then left. It was getting late, and I decided not worth time to have to make another choice for dinner.

I feel like this could be a fantastic place for dining if the level of quality in food were raised. The salmon smelled good, but was not seasoned or cooked enough to be flaky and tender as it should be. I noticed the table to my left got salads that were large and generous with toppings. Maybe I should have ordered something more traditional or even a pastry or dessert.

Not sure if this a place In would return. It was pretty full for the time of night, so seems like place people like to go. I just did not get to enjoy the full French bistro experience as I have in...