Bourrée — Restaurant in New Orleans

It's late. You're sitting there watching TV. Okay, it's a Food show. You're munching on leftover pizza. This episode is putting you into fantasy mode. Your mouth is watering. Some chef is whipping up a-mazing looking stuff while some Guy is standing there cracking jokes and getting fed freakin awesome food! It's NOT fair! you vehemently, but silently protest! If you could at least get just a small taste! Or a whiff of those decadent aromas! All the while thinking you'd invest heavily in the invention of Smellevision!

That, would be me, about three months ago as I watched the kitchen kreations at Bourrée being made right before my very eyes. Look! But can't taste! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

What would any sane foodie do in a situation like this? Why, of course! Plan a trip that JUST happens to be in the same city as this restaurant. Brilliant! And that is exactly what happened.

Driving from Florida to New Orleans is a fun drive for me and my Bodacious Bourrée Ready Fiancée! We just 'happened' to have an event to attend nearby, too.... So, I marked my calendar and put a digital post-it note on my phone that read simply 'Bourrée', circling the date May 10, 2018.

Once we arrived, we immediately smelled smoke, of the cooking something variety. YUM! The place is cute, snugly tucked away between buildings. Nothing fancy at all. Ordering was easy. We just ordered what Chef and that Guy had made on the show. 2 each of the Meat Pies, Smoked & Seasoned Chicken Wings and Shrimp Boudin. Oh! And we'll both try some of those frozen daiquiris, please!

The Meat Pies were our favorites. The crust was perfectly cooked with almost a snappy bite to it, but still easily edible. The inside concoction is a pork mix with other goodies and American Cheese! I was told they'd tried various other fine cheeses and nothing stood up to their expectations better than good ole American Cheese! Bravo!

The wings were seductively smoky tasting with a tongue tapping blend of spices. For dipping they gave us a roasted Pablano Ranch that was good, but the wings really needed nothing added. They were good!

The Shrimp Boudin casing provided a great Snap! when cutting into them. Bang Bang Boudin!

While we were eating on the deck outside, a small jazz band was setting up. We hung out, sipping on frozen adult Slurpees, enjoying the music as the occasional trolley rolled past in the background. It was quite surreal, in a way. Old meets new meets meat meets street!

As I escorted my Finely Fed Fab Fiancée to our awaiting chariot, I noticed we were doing a bit of a lively French dance. Let the Bourrée begin! Dance on in and tell them John &...

I'm usually very forgiving, and typically I understand that there are off days, but this was definitely not just an off day or a single dish that disagreed with me. This was just a level of disrespect to the food served and to the customers being served that I'd have been embarrassed if I'd sent this out.

First of all, the employees were nice, I'll give them that. They were quite friendly, and I don't want to imply that they were at all unprofessional. This is towards the food and the food only.

I honestly do not think the chef has nearly enough familiarity with food preparation in general, much less how to treat smokehouse meats.

Starting with the burnt ends cheese fries. Okay, I love burnt ends. I lived in Texas for a long time, I know very well how good burnt ends are, and I've seen them served over fries before. I'm not terrible at making brisket myself.

This wasn't burnt ends. What I got were twisted, soggy fries with some kind of mostly bland meat paste with what tasted like some premade seasoning blend lightly dusted in. There was no hint of the low and slow fattiness of brisket, or the char of good burnt ends. This was just some low grade meat paste with nacho cheese over lackluster fries.

The wings were, no joke, the worst I've ever had. There's a reason most of the times chicken wings are fried or baked. If you're going to try an alternate method of cooking, please understand that method well. These were undercooked to the point of being a hazard. The skin and taste was soft, and still almost raw. There was only a slight amount of sauce (for which I'm thankful, I might have accidentally ate more). It seemed like they were on a smoker or a grill, but the person cooking didn't know how to control heat, time, or even how to check internal temperature for doneness. Someone is going to get sick from that.

And last was the meat pie. Cool, everyone loves a meat pie, it's a Louisiana staple, kinda hard to mess up. Nope. The inside was low grade stewed, mostly bland meat chunks and what tasted like canned red chiles (unrinsed, too, there was still that tinny taste) and tinned nacho cheese that had started to break into oil. The oil that it was cooked in had gone rancid as well.

This place really, REALLY needs someone looking over the kitchen. And whoever is in charge should take some serious time learning how to use a pit before serving smokehouse food. Seriously, please tend to the state of your recipes, quality control, and training before you...

Disappointing First Visit – Great Potential, Poor Execution

We were really looking forward to trying this place, but unfortunately, our experience left a lot to be desired.

From the moment we walked in, things felt off. It had just rained, and there was no floor mat at the entrance—nowhere to wipe wet shoes—which made the already greasy floor a slipping hazard. The overall cleanliness of the restaurant was a big concern: open lids on food containers, a personal backpack sitting right next to the meat slicer on the kitchen counter, and no visible food safety practices like covering ingredients. The dining area didn’t inspire much confidence either. There were no chairs—just benches on one side of the tables—and the tables looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in quite some time. We had planned to dine in, but after seeing the state of things, we opted to take our food to go.

Now for the food:

12-Hour Roast Beef Po-Boy: The roast beef was decent, but it was completely overpowered by the horseradish. Using half as much would’ve gone a long way in balancing the flavor.

Boudin Grilled Cheese: The boudin itself was tasty, but the bread was burnt, which ruined what could’ve been a great sandwich.

Wings with Sweet Mango BBQ Sauce: These were the highlight of the meal—great flavor and cooked well.

It honestly felt like the owners were away and had left a few uninterested staff members in charge. The lack of care and attention to detail was really unfortunate because the menu shows promise.

We hope this was just an off day and not the norm, because this place could be so much better with just a little...