Herbsaint — Restaurant in New Orleans

Firstly, I’ll list the only reasons this restaurant gets two stars: the last-minute reservation change on Valentine's Day, and the water boy who was incredibly attentive.

Otherwise, I want to share our (seemingly unique) perspective on why Herbsaint was terrible. It all started when my ID was taken after I ordered a cocktail. Our waitress, Katelyn, claimed it was ‘suspicious’ and added that she ‘needed to show it’ to the other workers; in Arizona, driver’s licenses that are not valid for federal identification often don’t expire for decades, and mine is one of them. While waiting for the staff to verify my actual ID, we heard Katelyn speculate about calling the police. Thankfully, another employee — someone who was also from Arizona — confirmed that (surprisingly) our state’s IDs work that way. I suppose this outcome was preferable, although part of me still enjoys the thought of our waitress calling the police to verify an authentic ID — and subsequently disrupting a crowded restaurant on Valentine’s Day. Before I start the next section, in which I’ll explain why our evening grew progressively worse, I want to offer one suggestion: if you’re going to take carding people seriously, maybe you should learn how to do it.

At this point, we transitioned into the awkward, awful aftermath. Instead of truly apologizing, Katelyn returned with my ID and explained that (surprisingly!) Arizona licenses can expire decades from now. Rather than sensing my frustration, she decided to defend herself again by adding that it’s mardi gras season, that they have to take carding people seriously, and that they could risk losing their liquor license if not. Fine. I agree that patrons should be identified, especially if they look underage, but should you be explaining that to a 22-year-old whose holiday you’ve already ruined? Nope.

Next, there are a few more topics to discuss. One is my partner’s wagyu, which she ordered medium-rare and received as rare at the most. I think preparing steaks can be difficult, but this instance confused me because it was already cut and plated. How do you serve an entree that's improperly cooked when the meat is already cut? Fortunately, the assistant general manager noticed this mistake and returned it to the kitchen; at this point, our waitress was hardly communicating with us, and she certainly wasn’t attentive enough to remedy anything — even tossing a steak back on the grill for two minutes. However, what Katelyn was considerate enough to do was bring us our bill, say ‘happy mardi gras,’ and roll her eyes before walking away. For us, that was it.

Afterward, we talked to the assistant general manager, the same person who was helpful in cooking our steak but complicit in her taking my license. My perspective on him is fairly neutral, but I think he finally started to realize their service was appalling and atrocious. During our conversation, we shared everything included in this review — so it took a while — but the focus was on Katelyn continuing to be inattentive, unapologetic, and disrespectful. Rather than getting caught up on my ID, which is admittedly a little strange, we wanted to discuss a central part of serving: knowing when you’ve made a mistake and working to recover from it. Then, the assistant GM tried to take our bill, which was charged and paid in full (including the beverage that almost got my license stolen), but we declined his offer. That’s not the point. Alternatively, our intent is to say that from Applebee’s to Spago and everywhere in between, this was the worst dining experience I've ever had. From getting my license taken to being ignored for most of our meal to dealing with passive-aggressive comments about attending mardi gras — which was untrue, as my partner flew out for a work trip — Katelyn and Herbsaint handily gave us a horrible meal. While she should be embarrassed, I can’t help feeling humiliated for researching, considering, and selecting a restaurant that was the worst possible choice.

In a city filled with great food, my best recommendation is to...

First impressions: Host who sat us was delightful. The indoor dining room, even with reservations made a week in advance, was in the bar area and way too loud. We asked to sit outside, and the host was gracious about this change. Bummer, because it was very loud out there too.

The food was very good.

Fabulous fried green tomatoes—and I love these so I’ve got lots to compare them to. These were divine.

Fried Asiago—eh, mezza-mezza, as the Italians say. Wonderful idea, but a very tiny portion, mostly stuck to the bottom of the tiny iron baking dish; this would prove a problem for our servers (more on them). It was beautifully browned, but so hard to get it out, and not a real portion, more like a sample.

The Gem salad was wonderful. I don’t know what the breadcrumbs were, but I wish I did, because perfect taste, perfect texture. The radishes were so thinly sliced, adding a lovely zing without overwhelming it. The gem lettuce was crunchy and so pretty. A really lovely salad, creative and delicious. (More on this too.)

I had the lamb dish, which was redolent of a gyro, in the best possible way. It has two small loaf-shaped portions of ground lamb with a yogurt tzatziki-type sauce and beans. If it’s like a gyro, it’s the best gyro, with a wonderful texture. I was thrilled with this.

My BF had the duck platter with dirty rice, which our sever, Skip, told us not once, but twice, is the best duck on earth—something hyperbolic like that. Was it good? Yes, quite good. Was it the best he’s ever had? No, but it’s good. And it was beautifully presented.

We skipped dessert because our two severs—Skip and I think Chris—did a splendid job of making us feel feel like we were just a big hassle, like they couldn’t wait for us to leave, so we did. And we usually have dessert + after dinner drinks.

What happened? Well, Skip at least seemed like he was okay with us being there, at first. His partner, and I’m not positive Chris is his name, seemed to feel put off by us from the start. We’ve got a lot of years of fine dining experience here in New Orleans (we live here) and in bigger cities. We dress for dinner, my BF always in a jacket etc. We are sticklers for good manners—and we do not complain. We leave appropriate 25% tips for mediocre to very good service, more if somebody really blows us away. We don’t leave bad tips even if with poor service. We both have serving experience and we know, everybody has an occasional perfect storm night. But this was beyond that. When I asked if the margarita on the menu could be made without grapefruit juice due to medication restrictions, Skip’s partner told me flatly, empathically NO. Then he went on to tell me (castigate me) that they make their cocktails ahead of time, each carefully crafted, and it just wouldn’t be the same cocktail if they left out the grapefruit juice. Well, I guess he put me in my place. It’s not that I had to have this. It was an honest question, not a demand. Talking down to me was completely unacceptable. And so much for their question: “has anyone got food allergies we should know about?” I guess it’s a rhetorical question?

I had the rum cocktail instead—and it was very good.

The fried Asiago appeared to cause both severs some heavy duty animosity. They kept trying to take it off the table while I was still trying to dig/pick off the baked on cheese. It’s good! It’s just stuck to the dish. Three times, I had to tell them no, please don’t take that. I finally got tired of fighting with them and let it go.

Then we sat for a l-o-n-g time with no entrees. Skip’s partner noticed and came out—to crumb the table? And had a dismissive reply when I asked about the entrees. We sat some more, watching them chat with their colleagues. Someone brought another gem salad. “No, not ours, sorry.” We sat some more. Then we finally hurried through our entrees and declined dessert when offered. No thanks, we’ll get out of your way.

The bill was close to $200. So disappointing. We’re still puzzled. Great food....

The experience was not at all what we expected or wanted. For our reservations, they sat us in the bar area. While not normally an issue, this meant being right next to the standing bar table for people wanting for their table. This meant we were surrounded by standing people gawking and staring at every dish we eat. We felt crowded. On top of this, our waiter seemed very curt. Avoiding friendliness and any conversation, rushing us to order. He barely checked on us and when the entrees came, we have no silverware. We had to ask the hostess for silverware- to her credit, she ran it right over and apologized which we appreciated. The waiter basically ignored us- which was unacceptable. We haven’t had such rude service in a long time in a restaurant.

We had the pumpkin soup, which is excellent, the gumbo which is quite good, the fried oysters which came with the best coleslaw I’ve ever eaten in my life, the duck which was good and then the unexpected issue- the shrimp is not deveined. I’ve actually never eaten at a restaurant where shrimp was served with the vein (which is intestine) still in. The general manager came over and informed us that that was how shrimp is served at the restaurant, which I would have no problem with if that was detailed on the menu or if the waiter had bothers to tell us that.

To the credit of the general manager, he immediately offered to replace the dish which I very much appreciated.

When our bill came, we were charged for both the shrimp dish and for the replacement dish that I had ordered. My partner had to go over and get it corrected, and once again to the credit of the general manager he not only comped the dishes he also comped our drinks.

We really wanted to Like this place- and we appreciated the hostess, the GM and the waiters assistant- but the waiter was AWFUL and the non deveined shrimp(with no notice) was pretty shocking. I would come back- but only for the actual food (minus the shrimp) not the service. Also- ask to be seated away from the bar. Shout out to the GM who was really trying to...