Bijou Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in New Orleans

Very strange experience. Everything started really well and the gentleman who was helping us was super friendly and helpful. I really felt welcomed. Food and drinks were really tasty: the roasted gorgonzola dulce was amazing and also their old fashioned was right on point. I actually was starting to think I had found my new favorite restaurant in town… and then things went south from there.

All of a sudden we were being helped by a different person; no comment on “hey, I’m going to be your server from now on, my name is…” or anything, which is not a huge deal but still a bit disconcerting.

We ordered another plate to share and while we did that this new server took our plates and silverware. We thought she was going to bing new ones but no, she just brought the new dish and we were left there with no plates or silverware. After her disappearing for at least ten minutes while the food was getting cold. We finally grabbed her attention and asked if she could bring us new plates and silverware. Then while we were still eating she just brought the check to our table without saying anything, not even asking if we wanted dessert or anything else. It seemed she just wanted us to leave. She was not particularly rude, but definitely was not interested in helping us.

Anyway, we gave her our cards and asked her to just split the whole check in three, but she said they could not do that because they didn’t do separate checks, which is fine as we were not asking to separate checks but just to split the total amount three ways! Instead of arguing, one of us just paid the whole check with his card and we left.

In hindsight, it was probably that this server was new and (evidently) poorly trained, but unfortunately that whole situation turned my experience from “this may become my new favorite restaurant in town” to “I am definitely not coming back”. It blows my mind how service went from great to bad within...

Most of the time i write positive reviews but when it is insulting …. well i have to write it too…. it does not happen a lot but this time was absolutely a terrible experience !!! the place is very beautiful …. ok. Food ….is good ( even if i had a stomach ache just after) If you are hungry it will take you 3 courses minimum to start feeling that you are eating… but i am french and i know sometimes that restaurants put a little dice of tuna on your plate and they call it a tuna tartare…. i am not crazy about that style of cuisine but hey i understand it and respect it. The terrible problem was the staff. Very cold staff at the beginning but hey that happens sometimes too… so still not offended… i asked if it was possible to have 2 green salads as a side for my kids… not on the menu but she says no problem… ( see picture) but when the check arrived … it was 14$ A salad !!! even on the picture it looks bigger than what it was….. when i called the server she said : oh yes i counted your 2 green salads like 2 of our main courses : the roasted beet and carrot salad…. ( see photo) i said i was not happy with that and so she asked me if i really wanted her to do something about the price. it made us feel like we where asking for something outrageous… needed to argue with the fact that in a green salad there was no beet no carrot no grapefruit etc …. she went to see the manager and the price went down to 9 …. the way it was done was horrible. i said that could have agreed to pay 9 in a normal situation ( even if it is crazy expensive ) but in our situation i felt like they should have done better to at least make me feel they are sorry … the manager agreed on 8 $ per salad….. she explained that she could not do better because they did 2 vinaigrettes and that it was a lot of work …. and bla-bla-bla…. bijou means jewelry in french …. my kids had there first diamond salad …....

We stopped by for a quick cocktail before dinner at a nearby restaurant. The prices on the website were very reasonable so we popped in. My wife ordered the non-alcoholic blueberry drink and I ordered the Firing Squad (from the website as it wasn't on the current menu). Both were extremely tasty and came out quickly. We asked to settle the tab to make it to our reservation.

Here's where things go south. When we received the check it was almost $40 for two drinks, well above what was featured on the website. First, I asked why my wife's drink was 60% more than on the menu. Turns out, the bartender gave her the alcoholic version. Not the end of the world for us, but could be for someone who can't drink alcohol. My "$8" firing squad was $18! Over twice the price on the website. I asked about it and at first the bartender said it was a "sample menu" and then said the prices were happy hour prices. It doesn't mention any of this the on the website. There's a happy hour section with only food and the aforementioned drink section with reasonable prices.

Normally, I would consider this a simple miscommunication; however, after looking at the reviews this seems to be a recurring problem for over a year. There's the saying, "don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." I leave the answer up to...