Chartres House — Restaurant in New Orleans

I am a server of six years and I have never before left a restaurant feeling so dissatisfied with service.

I understand mistakes happen and servers are human and can’t give perfect service 100% of the time, but neither of those things were even the issue today. The issue was that my server was hands down the rudest waitress I have ever had serve on me in all of my restaurant dining experiences. I can’t tell you the name of my server since she never did greet us with it. After my friends had ordered their entrees, I briefly hesitated to order mine, unsure whether I was hungry or not. Our waitress then rudely questioned, “you were the one who said you all were ready to order, now you don’t know what you want?” (my little sister said we were ready to order, not me). I laughed uncomfortably and decided to order a beer and split my friend’s sandwich with her instead.

Fast forwarding to when food had arrived, we requested 3 sides of ranch dressing and ketchup and our waitresses responded, “calm down, give me a second, and imma get you your sauces”. We were all very calm, surprised and offended by this response.

Finally, when the checks had arrived at the the end of lunch after being split four ways (my sister’s meal on one, her boyfriend’s on another, my friend’s sandwich, and my beer on the last) my friend and I realized the sandwich and beer had been combined onto one bill. We nicely pointed this out to our server, and she snapped on us, in a manner that left me with my blood boiling. She rudely stated, “first of all, I told you we don’t split items” (previously my friend and I had asked if we could split the price of the sandwich between our two checks). I responded, “we don’t need the sandwich split, but we wanted the beer on one and the sandwich on anoth-“ when she cut me off by repeating, “I tolddd you we don’t split items, and we don’t split checks and I already did that for you”. She had never mentioned she couldn’t split checks...even though she DID split it into 3 separate bills, but couldn’t split the beer and sandwich apart...? At that point, I decided arguing with the woman was useless and told my friend I would Venmo her if she payed the bill.

Mistakes at a restaurant are inevitable, but approaching costumers with a sour attitude and treating them with disrespect is absolutely unacceptable. All four us left this restaurant today feeling utterly disrespected, wishing we had dined...

I've been visiting New Orleans with some regularity for decades now, and I nearly always have a satisfying food experience when I go. Not so this time. To be sure, it's a lovely place and well-situated. And while I was part of a large group (we had made reservations for one of the side rooms as part of a conference I was attending), I don't think the size of the group (~15) had anything to do with what I saw as hit-or-miss food. Service went smoothly. There were some bumps with the vegetarians as our server mistakenly thought the red beans and rice could be served as vegetarian option; it seems he should have known that the roux began with a meat simmer, but then again, I didn't know how long he'd been in service there.

I started with an average Cosmopolitan from the bar, then a cup of the crab and roasted corn bisque. This was tasty, but it was more like a stew than bisque, plus I wasn't the only one at the table who had to fight with bits of inedible crab parts-it wasn't well-picked. My entree was the crawfish pasta, which I was really looking forward to. This was going to be my off-the-healthy eating rails meal. The pasta was penne and I thought the whole idea of using the tube was so it could roll around in the available sauce, through and through. This penne was so done, it was nearly mush. It stuck together and evaded all attempts of the sauce to get at and in it. And I had to hunt for the bits of meat that I wasn't 100% certain were actually crawfish.

My plate wasn't the only one left full. Cries of "too salty!" went up around the table as the verdict for the blackened redfish. On the other hand, the stuffed catfish was a hit for someone else. But even woth so many plates left practically untouched, no notice was made and I honestly don't recall being asked how my meal was because I would have responded clearly that it wasn't going well. As a former server myself, I would've never dreamed of leaving a cue like a cold, full plate of food hanging with no response.

I'm sorry, Chartres House. I don't know who was in the kitchen Wednesday night, but it didn't go...

Chartres House was a place I took my wife to for supper on our honeymoon three years ago. The food was phenomenal, service exceptional, and was all around great.

Ate there today (for our anniversary) - food was warm, but the kind of warm that happens when you don't put enough time on the microwave. Small portions and larger prices than the food is worth. For crawfish to be in season right now, and to have what very much appeared to be the frozen Chinese crawfish tails you can get year round in my pasta and my wife's etoufee was kinda gross. The shrimp in the remoulade looked like salad shrimp straight from a Winn Dixie freezer. I expect more from a meal, especially in a place that prides itself on its cuisine.

Ordered a glass of Proseco, and was told they may not have it. We said Moscato would be a fine alternative-- they weren't sure if that was there either. Waiter came out with a Dixie Cup- sized portion of wine in a cheap plastic cup. I asked if this was supposed to be a sample, since he didn't let us know what wine it even was. It wasn't an unreasonable question at all. $9 dollars for an amount of wine that would barely wet your throat. After that, the waiter's demeanor shifted to apathy. He left us feeling like we weren't worth his time. I was never even offered a refill of my water.

It seems to be a shadow of what it once was. Very disappointed. Won't be coming back. would recommend a solid pass...