Chophouse New Orleans — Restaurant in New Orleans

In town for a conference and made a reservation for our team celebration dinner for 6. Our team loves our celebration dinners and it is looked forward to for delivering great food, wine, and team bonding. We always choose a great steakhouse, and in the last 8 months we have held this dinner at STK Las Vegas, Charley's Steakhouse in Orlando, Double Eagle in Plano TX, etc. All were excellent but what made each experience exceptional every time was the amazing service!! Unfortunately at Chophouse New Orleans our server (Kaylen) proved to break our winning streak. We had six people and we wanted to start with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot - I won't bore with over details, the summary was after corking the bottle we watched Kaylen over pour the same 2 people while the rest of us waited for our glasses to be filled - we pointed out she's creating a situation where she's not going to be able to give everyone a glass - her reply "I used to work at a bottomless mimosa place. I'm used to doing this." (what?! We paid for a $150 bottle of champagne and she's telling us no worries as she worked at a bottomless mimosa joint?) --- she kept it up - over pouring the same two people finally spreading out to a few others completely ignoring myself and a person sitting next to me. The end result I literally had one tiny bit of champagne in my glass. Barely enough to even raise it as part of a toast. I looked at her and said "Seriously? I hope you're going to make this right and get me an actual glass?" No exaggeration - her answer was, "No. I can't do that. Unless you want to buy a glass?" I was incredibly shocked, incredibly disappointed, and instantly aware how inexperienced and shortsighted our server was to be working at an expensive steak restaurant like this. The end result was we spent almost $1,200 on our meal and this girl received a 10% tip because she couldn't figure out a way to comp one single glass of champagne to correct her own mistake - a mistake we had cautioned and called out gently to her so she could avoid making it. It was just ridiculous. We ended up having three bottles of wine and I would not let her pour one of them. All she was allowed to do was uncork the bottle and we would take the bottle and distribute it amongst ourselves. (Isn't it funny how all of us had even glasses of wine when we were the ones pouring the wine.) After that we didn't have much interaction with her as we were all very disappointed in her attitude. From a food perspective the steaks were delicious cooked perfectly & seasoned perfectly. The chop House salad was not very impressive just a basic dinner salad. Fan favorites at the table were the lyonnaise potatoes, the asparagus, the steaks, the bacon appetizer, and the big shrimp. Things we were underwhelmed with included the steakhouse fries, the onion rings, and the desserts (we had the large chocolate cake that was dry and a slice of cheesecake.) Will we come back or refer others? Not for dinner. The bar was great with the piano player so we'd come there and have a steak for sure. Bottom line to management - make sure your servers have the experience...

We had a reservation in the bar area, high table seating. They fail to tell you that this is also where they send parties to wait around for their tables. The parties literally stood so close to us it felt like they were breathing and talking over our food. We asked that they be moved and someone came over to offer them a “more comfortable” waiting experience in the “lobby”. Who would’ve thought they even had a lobby area? Even parties AFTER this party came and stood by our table as they waited for their tables. Who wants to sit in a restaurant and, while trying to eat, have to keep asking that people be redirected? The staff should’ve stayed on top of this.

Then, we get to the food which was just okay. The baked potato wasn’t seasoned at all, they just added the toppings. The salad was okay. I’m glad I didn’t order a steak because they came out looking overcooked and under seasoned as well.

We finally got our check. I put my card in the folder with the top part of our valet tickets as the valet had instructed us to do so he could have our cars ready. Simple enough, right? Wrong! The waitress, Sarah Julianna B, returned the tickets to us stating “Yeah, you give those to the valet. I don’t have anything to do with the cars.” To which, I replied, “The valet told us to rip the top half of the ticket off and give it to our server so he could have our cars ready”. She doubled down and said, “No, I don’t know why he would tell you that because I can’t go out and GET YOUR CAR. I have nothing to do with the cars.” She had the most condescending attitude and tone I’ve ever been on the receiving end of. I said, “Okay, I know you can’t go out and get our car. What type of mess is that to say? That’s really condescending. I know what he told me. Why would I make something like that up?”

Fast forward, I went out and told the valet and he was in complete shock because that is, in fact, what they do. He couldn’t believe our server would tell us that.

Spoke with the manager who also stated that that is, indeed, their protocol and that she shouldn’t have said anything like that to us.

I expressed to him that we didn’t go to a fine dining restaurant and pay fine dining prices to be treated that way.

Now, I just want to know why she picked US to treat that way and, all of a sudden, not follow their own protocol for. I don’t want to think that this encounter was racially motivated but it just felt like it was. I didn’t witness her speaking with any of her other guests that way. She didn’t even try to figure out what was going on if she didn’t know. She didn’t speak with her floor manager about it, we confirmed. If she didn’t know, that’s who she should’ve turned to. Never, should she have treated us like we were...

Well.. I gave these folks a chance and JENNY couldn't return my call so I will proceed with my review! Friday June 21st 2024 my dad and I along with 20 other air force members were riding our electric scooter scouting resturants around 830 pm to Visit the next day. We stopped to ask the valet how far up ruby slipper was as our big group planned on eating breakfast there the next day as well as making a Reserva at chophouse for 23 people for saturday when we returned to our room that evening. My father approached the valet (a big muscle guy with blond hair) and said excuse me sir is ruby slipper up this way? The valet ignored him! My father asked again excuse me sir and nothing. Finally me being a female watching this young guy my age disrespect him I spoke up and said sir we are talking to you can you point us in the direction and nothing! He didn't even look up from the podium! It was bad we thought he was deaf until I screamed at him then he looked at me and threw his arms up. We are tourist that visit nola frequently and have NEVER EVER RECEIVED THIS KIND OF SERVICE. TO MAKE MATTERS WPRSE I CALLED AND SPOKE TO JENNY WHO CLAIMED TO BE A MANAGER ABOUT HER EMPLOYEES BEHAVIOR AND WAS TOLD THATS NOT HER EMPLOYEE! 1ST GUEST ARE NOT HEARING THAT IS NOT YOUR EMPLOYEE! You chose to stick a live human body outside of your establishment , he is the first face and interaction anyone has before even entering this establishment! This was rude uncalled for and completely out of line. To make it 10 times worse I called before I left this review to tell the management what happened and that he cost them a table of 23, a server a dang good tip, and the business over 1k in sales. Jenny begged me to not leave the review on multiple platforms as military like to keep each other informed when traveling where to go and not to go. Jenny assured me it would be handled and to give her the next day to call me back so she can investigate and get with her management . Jenny never returned my call, all I wanted was someone to assure me when we return on vacation I wouldnt have to worry about this guy treating us that way. It's been 3 days and she never returned my call. I WOULD ADVISE NEVER STEPPING FOOT ON THE SIDE WALK TO THIS PLACE, IF THIS IS WHAT THE SERVICE IS BEFORE YOU ENTER WHAT IS THE SERVICE LIKE WHEN YOU DO ENTER. FURTHERMORE IF THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH FOOD THEY PROBABLY WOULDNT CARE EITHER CONSIDERING THEY DIDNT CARE ABOUT THE ISSUE WE HAD. THIS ESTABLISHMENT IS CHARGING TOP NOTCH PRICES AND TREATING PEOPLE LIKE CRAP. ALL MY MILITARY (WE ARE AIRFORCE) DONT STEP FOOT IN HERE! THEY DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT CUSTOMERS NOR OUR...