Cafe at the Square — Restaurant in New Orleans

Vile staff.

We were in New Orleans in May and stayed a block away at the Lafayette Hotel, which didn't have breakfast while we were there. (Their breakfast cafe was closed for two weeks.)

I was suffering from a shattered left foot and massive damage to my skin from an attack during which I'd nearly died. I was traveling with my beautiful partner and my PTSD service dog, a small Belgian Shepherd. After being referred by the reception staff at the hotel to Cafe at the Square, I sent the girls ahead so that they wouldn't get soaked and while I limped/hopped past Lafayette Square through a tropical storm, (impossible to run because I was mostly hopping on one leg what with the smashed foot and broken toes but there were no cabs running and all of the hotel's umbrellas were gone already,) we reached Cafe At The Square utterly soaked. The place was half full and we collapsed at a table in the corner furthest from the bar and closest to the square, away from the other patrons who were enjoying their brunches and surrounded by other empty tables. My sweetheart was shivering with her hair wet and blown across her face by the gusting rain.

A human piece of garbage came over and said that we had to leave because dogs weren't allowed. I even embarrassed myself by taking off my soaked greatcoat, rolling up my sleeves and showing my hugely damaged forearms that were riddled with keloids, (bright red, raised scars,) some the size of quarters and explained that my dog was a PTSD service animal. She was in her harness and perfectly well behaved, but since I'd forgotten to bring her laminated service card from the hotel they threw us out.

I kid you not. Even after I took off my shoe and sock with great difficulty and showed him my left foot, which was literally blackish blue tinged with yellow from the bruising. I asked for the manager and she was even worse. They literally made us walk back into a storm, we had to literally step over sandbags and back into the gusting rain and flooded street.

And the place only had ten other people in it, because you know.... there was a crazy storm and they had sandbags at the doors!

"Come back with your dog's ID and we'll be happy to serve you!" Yeah right! It took everything that I had to drag myself through the storm to get there in the first place, as if I'd repeat the process to eat a place with such sad service! They didn't even let us order to breakfast go.

JERKS!

They wouldn't even take my suggestion to call the hotel and confirm that I was there with a service animal.

It may well be that the policy is to require proof that an animal is a service animal. But there is also such a thing as common decency, to say nothing of common sense!! We hobbled back to the Lafayette through that same storm, loaded up our SUV and literally left New Orleans. You couldn't pay me money to give the people at this place another try. We own a travel company and I actually go out of my way to warn people to stay away from Cafe at the Square, even while I recommend staying at the Lafayette a block away.

EDIT: The owner's response to my post is a transparent evasion. My review mentions other people eating there and I certainly wouldn't be complaining about being turned away from a place that was closed down for flooding! What nonsense! I told the waiter and the female manager that I would eviscerate the cafe online, and I kept my word even though it took me several months to do...

The way the waiter Kenneth treated me is unacceptable. He was rude from the moment I walked in. They had a few customers but not real busy and seemed to have plenty of staff. He looked me up and down and said you must be here to pick up? (I guess it was how I was dressed, I had yoga pants, t-shirt, and hair up in a ponytail. I am staying at hotel around the corner and had just finished getting a pedicure. I seen this place on my walk back to hotel and decided to try it. Most customers were in business casual attire.) I said no I would like to dine in. I asked if it was open seating, I missed his reply and stood there for a second or two until he snapped at me, I SAID SET AT ANY TABLE THAT IS CLEAN. Once I set down it took a few for him to bring me menu (again they were not busy). 5 mins or so passed and when he came back to take my order he said “Okay, let’s do this, what do you want?). I politely ordered. He took my order with a snippy attitude and walked away. My food was delivered by a very nice lady who was polite and asked if I needed anything else, which I did not.

No one ever came back to ask if food was good or if I needed anything more. Once I was done he DROPPED the check/in folder on the table and walked away. He came back and picked it up never speaking to me (but did give me a smug look), charged card and dropped the receipt back for me to sign and said nothing.

Never once asked if food was good, never once said thank you for dinning with them, just 100% attitude. I am not sure why he choose to be so rude to me or maybe he has had a bad life and takes it out on everyone.

Note to owner: I have been in customer service for over 30 years, 20 of which at senior VP level. It is my experience that you can’t fix a bad attitude. I would send Kenneth on his way if he treated my customers this way.

The food was okay, I just had French onion soup (reason I decided to stop in the beginning) and a house salad. The soup could use more onions for my taste, but that could just be me. The citrus vinaigrette was delicious. I promise you my review would have been so different if it was not for Kenneth/ Kenny being so...

Probably the best meal I ever had. I Searched for the name of this restaurant on Google maps (because I forgot the name so the best way to find it was retrace my steps the night I went and find it on Google)

I was there with some associates of mine and we really went all out with our order after being at a convention all day long. I had the pleasure of eating the gator sausage and fried green tomatoes. Both starters were delectable, the sausage had a very noticeable twang of spices and was a unique flavor that can only be had eating gator. While the fried green tomatoes were a succulent and crisp burst of flavor.

For my main dish I had the pasta of the day, to this day I think back to this choice as the pinnacle of my dinning career. Luckily the pasta of the day was a craw fish pasta with the perfect calculation of spices and herbs with the most al dente pasta I think I ever had the pleasure of gracing my lips. The explosion of flavor and the complexity of the sauces creamy nature was the apex of my taste buds life. This dish makes me feel nostalgic, if I had to describe the sensation of it it would be similar to late summer forth of July nights and watching fireworks go off in the distance.

My compliments to the chef, who's name I cant remember but I recall her being from Huston Texas and coming to New Orleans simply because she loved cooking the dishes from there. Well done, bravo, the next time I return to this beautiful city I hope to capture the magic of...