Mandina's Restaurant — Restaurant in New Orleans

My wife and I took some out of town friends to Mandina’s on 3 separate occasions. All three visits were beyond disappointing. Mandina’s was very good years ago, but something changed and the food and service are just plain bad. I used to live a block from there and ate there a lot, but it went down the flusher.

We went to Mandina’s six months ago, three months ago, and Saturday 7-29-2023 with out of state friends.

Six months ago: The food was bland at best, little to no seasoning at all. The portions seemed small for the high prices charged, and service was almost non existent.

Three months ago: Same experience. The shrimp poboys had very few tasteless, unseasoned shrimp on them. The server brought us our drinks and disappeared for 20 minutes, I had to go looking for her and get refills from the bartender. Our food arrived late and cold, probably because she was upset I spoke to the bartender for refills. Do your job and I won’t have to have someone else do it for you!!

Saturday, 7-29-2023…This was the worst, and final time we will ever visit this restaurant. Period !! My wife and I ordered gumbo, shrimp po-boys and drinks. Our friends split a Muffaletta, or what was supposed to be a Muffaletta. There was no seasoning on the breading on the shrimp at all, and it was soggy like it sat under a heat lamp waiting to be ordered. We asked for the French bread to be toasted, it wasn’t. Just soggy and limp. Terrible. The gumbo was very good and the portion was large, the only good part of the meal.

The Muffaletta came on French bread, rather than on a large muffaletta bun which is the customary bread. I have NEVER seen a muffaletta like this! Obviously made by someone with absolutely NO IDEA of what a muffaletta is. The olives were left whole, there were large round pickled onions/shallots on it, and it was loaded up with pickled green beans!! It tasted horrible, my friends didn’t eat it and we didn’t pay for it. Absolutely NOT a New Orleans Muffaletta!!

The service was abysmal. The hostess sat us, the bus boy brought 2 glasses of water and 2 menu’s for 3 people! We asked for more water and another menu, they never arrived. We never saw the busboy again. We had to ask the hostess to send our server to our table, she arrives with attitude. Our food came 30+ minutes later, she never came back to check on us so we got our drinks refilled by the bartender (who got the tip instead of the server.) We had to have the hostess track her down to get our check! Horrible Service, BLAND FOOD ! We will never go back to...

Edit: I am changing my review due to the worst experience ever. First it took forever to get anyone to the table even though the servers were all standing by the bar. He finally came, took our order. Food came out pretty fast. We shared a wedge salad which was huge and delicious. I ordered the catfish almondine and my husband ordered the veal parm. I will say that the portions are HUGE. His meal was good, the veal was flavorful. My fish was horrible. The catfish was mushy and fishy tasting, and the sauce tasted like gravy not almondine. Waiter NEVER checked back with us, never came to the table at all even though we were his only table. All the servers seem to do do that since we watched them all hide in the kitchen area. I finally asked one of the bussers to get the waiter and told him about the fish. When he came back he said that the manager would only give us 1/2 off because I ate some and still had my onion rings which I honestly didn't think I had to hand back (we ate one). This was a $20 unedible fish dinner and we had to fight to get it off our bill. It's sad because our last experience was amazing

Went here for the first tonight and was pleasantly surprised. When you first walk in, it looks like just a plain restaurant with a little artwork, but it was truly far more than that. The food was incredible and the waitstaff very friendly. We ordered the crab claw appetizer, turtle soup, veal parm sandwich, and the chicken parm dinner. The crab was delicious and you actually got alot unlike most restaurants. I dipped the bread that they automatically serve in it and it was yummy!

The turtle soup was excellent as well and loved that they brought the sherry to the table and not just mixed inside.

I felt that the veal parm sandwich was a little disappointing. There wasn't much to it, and the pickles were soggy and gross

Now the chicken parm dinner was out of this world. The portion was HUGE! The chicken was the size of the plate, and there was plenty of spaghetti and sauce. I could only eat about 1/3 of it. The sauce is a sweeter than normal type sauce. It is not as acidic, so don't go expecting something like most places serve.

Overall this is our new favorite restaurant and can't wait to try some of the other...

So here is the deal: my son and I are both foodies and decided to take a trip to New Orleans to see what this glorious city had to offer. Our fifth stop in our quest for food was Mandina’s. When my son and I got to NOLA, we had it in our heads that we would eat what New Orleans is known for, Cajun and Creole. What I did not know was that New Orleans has a rich Italian heritage. My son and I never really planned to go to Mandina’s, but a local Lyft driver recommend it and swore by it. Boy, I am sure glad he did. Mandina’s was awesome. I suspect my son and I got there at the right time. We were seated almost immediately. I did notice a small crowd beginning to form as they waited for tables to open up. (This was on a Wednesday evening.) My son, nor myself, knew what to expect. The atmosphere was wonderful. The staff was warm and friendly. As for the food, it was stellar. We started off with some calamari. It was lightly breaded and really hit the spot. My son ordered the veal parmesan. He loved it. I ordered the shrimp and oysters. Although their shrimp and oysters were delicious, I now wish I would have gotten something else. Why? The portions… they were gigantic. My son could not finish his parm, nor could I finish my shrimp and oysters. Apparently, Mandina’s portions are massive. Yes, the food was amazing, but wow, I swear what I had to eat could feed a minimum of two people and maybe even three. Anyway, we finished what we could and got some to go boxes. My impression of Mandina’s is that it is a great family/neighborhood restaurant with great Italian heritage and great Italian food. They do have some traditional New Orleans selections but also steaks and chops. Just a great place to get a great (and large) meal. Thanks Mandina’s. I will always recommend this place to anyone looking for something just a bit...