Antoine's Restaurant — Restaurant in New Orleans

Went to Antoine’s last night for dinner with the wife after it was recommended.

We booked the appointment the day before, as we heard they are usually a busy destination.

We arrived early (our reservation was for 5:30pm, we showed up at 5:20pm) and was told to go wait in the bar. We waited for 20 min and no one came. My wife then went to inquire and noticed they were seating people. Apparently they forgot about us. The fact that the snooty hostess gives attitude was a bad sign.

We finally were seated in a dull hull with absolutely no atmosphere. No light music for ambiance. Nothing. Just a dead feeling.

The server and his minion came to the table to take our drink order and bring us some “fresh” bread. I almost burst out laughing at my wife taking it out of the paper bag it came in and breaking it apart only to try and put the rock hard butter they brought 🤣.

Please keep reading, it gets way better.

The server was a nice little boy, that must have been his second or third shift. We asked him if he had any chef recommendations or a special dish that Antoine’s is known for, and he was oblivious. So we went ahead and ordered what we thought might have been edible for our starters.

First up was the shrimp cocktail. Very simple. Was not disappointing. The potato things were neat and edible.

Second was French onion soup and Antoine’s house salad. Please look at the picture below to understand the absolute nightmare that showed up to the table. Missing are the tomatoes that I picked from the salad as those were the only things not drenched in vinegar. French onion soup was just like any other French onion soup... nothing special.

Third came the entree’s. Now we stuck with fish dishes as this was the recommendation from the boy server. Again, please look at the pictures to get an understanding of what came from the kitchen, and placed in-front of us. My wife’s meal literally looked like someone to a sh#t on a plate and sent it out. Clearly these cooks have no concept of presentation. My meal on the other hand was actually delicious and tasteful... again, presentation lacks. (the only reason I gave 2 stars was because of this dish)

In conclusion to our dinner and waiting for our bill, I saw out of the corner of my eye, a wee little mouse jump out and run across the floor. This was the icing on the cake. I don’t condemn places that have rodents, as I know most restaurant have them and do there best to maintain, but it was just too funny.

All in all, I would not return to Antoine’s again. It was a huge disappointment. From the inexperienced waitstaff, lack of environment, sub par food, and the all around experience... there are much better places in New Orleans to spend your money at.

But this is only my opinion. I’m sure other people have had a better time at this restaurant after reading...

The service here was amazing. It was awesome to see a team work together for our table. We never had an empty glass of water, soda or tea. I will say it was weird for nobody at our table to be asked if they wanted a second alcoholic drink so those were one and done. However, the sazarac was the absolute best I've ever had anywhere. You could easily get in trouble with that drink, both because of how great it was and that it was $16 per drink.

In regard to the food, this was a bit of a mixed bag. The bread was very fresh and tasted great. You could easily eat several pieces and fill up before the food arrives. NOTE: This is not an indication on the other food taking long, but rather how good the bread was. The Oyster Rockefeller was surprisingly good. I was hesitant as I generally do not like oysters cooked, nor cooked this way, but these were great. The shrimp appetizer was decent, though be warned it is a cold appetizer. Based on the description and the way it looked coming out you would have thought it was a hot appetizer. Still, it was worth it. The puffed potato appetizer was the most disappointing of the appetizers. No real flavor and only 6 pieces for either $13 or $14. This one was not worth ordering in my opinion, both because of taste and very lopsided cost-value.

Meal review: I ordered the 3 course combination. The value of this was great and the options you could select from was great as well. You had 3 different starters, 3 main course and 3 desserts. I did the turtle soup, NY strip, and peach peche.

The turtle soup was ok. To me, it was way oversalted. It tasted like it was a beef broth base, which is already salty, but then it seemed like extra salt was added. I tried adding some pepper to even it out but I couldn't. It was still a good soup, but I'd like to try it again with about half as much salt. The NY strip was very disappointing. It was extremely overcooked. I ordered medium rare and it was more medium well. Someone else in our group ordered the NY strip and ordered medium and got close to well done. Both of us also felt it was lacking flavor, almost like any salt that should have been on the steak was in the soup. I barely finished half of my steak. The mashed potatoes that came with it were very good. Good temperature and great flavor. The peach dessert was the best part of the combo. There were ample peaches and crumble. It did not taste like there was added sugar so it tasted more like natural sweetness. The ice cream was very good as well, though for the size of the dessert I do wish it would have come with 2 scoops instead of one.

Overall, it was a good experience and I'd like to return for another opportunity to see how they do. I wish I could remember the two people who waited on our group to ensure they receive appropriate recognition because they...

There were so many factors in why I didn't like this place. First off, they didn't know where to seat us and led us around the dining room, changing their minds. We were put at a 4 top as a party of 2 and our table became the place that servers and busser would dump off menus and water pitchers. It was bizarre. Fortunately, we can have fun anywhere and laughed off all the issues. Our waiter was as old as the restaurant itself and couldn't hear very well so he was "in your face" to get your order. Awkward. My friend had his heart set on the baked Alaska that was invented there, but on this night the person who makes them didn't feel like it and there were claims that that person was off that evening. We later found out that it was a lie and that the manager was off that day so it was a choice of laziness and not actually because of who was off that evening. But, we are convinced that the garde mange was off that night since our food had absolutely zero flavor. Zero. If you decide to come here, sneak in some Tony's, you'll need it! I got the vegetarian dish that was supposed to have onion rice, but it was plain ol white rice. Worth noting, the menu is not accurate. Coq au vin on the menu online says it has bacon in it. The menu at the restaurant did not have bacon listed so I asked. Yes, it has bacon. I would've been pretty angry if I would have ordered that and it had bacon in it. Even angrier still if I ate bacon.. since I don't. We ordered the bread pudding and coffee but did not get the coffee for 10 minutes after our dessert came. At bill time, the server picked up the bill wallet, opened it, and looked at his tip right in front of us. It was so rude. My friend called the restaurant and the manager basically made excuses and didn't really offer much. Said to let him know if we were coming back in and he'd take care of us. But, my friend doesn't live here. I think this is just another restaurant making a living from the reputation that it once had in the past. Currently, they don't really care if you have a good experience or not and they just want to sell you bland food and turn your table. The dessert and wine was delicious. But, we know they didn't make the wine and bread pudding is easy to make so it got a green light from the baker. I've seen reviews of African Americans saying the service was bad and potentially due to race, but I think it might just be across the board lacking, but who knows? If you want a great New Orleans restaurant with a great history and great food and service, go to Commaders Palace. They still care about their customers and I've never had a...