Miss Shirley's — Restaurant in New Orleans

Remember when you used to go to eat out and it was an EXPERIENCE? Well, get in because we're going on a drive down memory lane: Your parents knew the name of their waiter. You could sit at a table with friends and it felt like home. The whole restaurant buzzes, every table is having a great time. The owner swung by to say hi to the table and make sure everyone was happy. An amuse bouche to prep you for the meal ahead and thank you for your patience if you had a wait. And at the end of the meal a sweet lagniappe. Everything on the table was worth sharing and forks went around dish to dish with "here, try this!" followed by that eager stare awaiting a proper reaction of awe. So, that's Miss Shirley's. Friends & I arrived knowing that a Sat. night meant a wait, so we killed time at Rendevouz (also rec the Vintage) for drinks. We ordered fully from the dim sum menu and every single thing was perfect- quality ingredients make all the difference, perfectly seasoned, a beautifully presented feast of bites that might offer a new twist on what you've had before. The sticky rice in lotus leaf is a face from Chinatown, seasonal pea shoot leaf dumplings, and traditional faves like bbq pork rib, soups (hot & sour and egg drop) & soup dumplings on tiny little bamboo baskets.... dining out should be fun and Miss Shirley and her team deliver. The bill brought complimentary beignet bites, alongside the traditional almond cookies & fortune cookies to make sure you leave with the full Chinese American restaurant experience. Mandatory. And here's the impetus behind leaving a review- I see Miss Shirley almost every day on Magazine Street loading boxes of produce out a car into the restaurant. She is present in her business. She swung by the table this very busy night to say hi, check in, drop off the cookies. You can tell staff like her. You know she works hard and her restaurant gets her love and her customers give back the joy she gives. All this for $130. For 4 people. She's got another a loyal customer life, because I'm sure...

Let me start by saying I have lived in China for 10 years , and been to hong kong many times. Therefore any response claiming " i dont know chinese food should be discredited. I had high hopes as New Orleans has been waiting for a decent Chinese restaurant.

Cleanliness - - Terrible odor - The staff was overworked and no time to tend to clean, or pay attention to detail Value - 75$ prior to tip , on 3 vegetable dishes and 2 soups Taste -- Horrible -- The sweet and sour soup -- tasted like sugar water , the vegetables were quite bitter, and the egg drop soup was just egg whites and water. Also the FOOD WAS COLD Wait times- waited 30 min for a to-go order which was cold. The spinach was so bitter i could not eat it. The food may have been cooked on a grill that was not cleaned as random brown particles were in the spinach.

Ambiance- way too crowded and no attention to detail w tables packed together in a place that should have been 4x its current size for that many tables. The smell of the place was quite strong and VERY LOUD, i could hear everyone around me CHOMPING on food, and the perfume of the women on nearby tables was quite strong. I did take the food to go but had to wait at the counter and even though i spent only 10 minutes inside, it was hell. The Karma- the staff were running around with their heads cut off and very anxious and loud and things were flying everywhere. It was very frenetic. Go here if you want to have your nerves frayed. Its like spending a night in the Emergency room.

One of the waitresses was kind when she handed the food she had a pleasant smile, that deserves 1 star /

They have all the people waiting for a table on the side of the restaurant in very uncomfortable chairs, lined up like animals.

Also the night i was there there were many people over 90 with name tags, maybe it was a special event but it was quite unbearable.

This review can be contested yet one thing is for sure: I won't...

Worst customer service I've encountered in a locally owned business. We were told it would be a 20 minute wait, no problem, we told them we'd be at Rendezvous and they said they'd text when our table was ready. After 30 minutes my friend called them to see how much longer it would be and they said we should go ahead and get another round as it would be awhile. We finally got a text later that our table was almost ready and to start walking back to the restaurant. We arrived at the restaurant about 5-7 minutes later (I'm disabled and it takes me awhile to walk anywhere) and our table wasn't ready. We stood there for about 10 minutes until they finally had a table for us. I'm standing the whole time because the chairs for waiting were either inaccessible for mobility impaired people or I would have to sit outside and get eaten by mosquitoes. We're finally seated and the server seems nice enough until she abruptly starts walking away before even asking if we wanted to order drinks. My friend called her back to the table to take our drink orders and she proceeds to take my two friends drink orders but not mine. In fact she didn't even acknowledge me at all from the moment she approached our table. Weird that the only person she refused to acknowledge was the disabled person... We walked out, the hostess called after us and I told her we're leaving because their service is s*. I'd been wanting to go there since they opened in December of last year and was really excited about going. I live in the Lower Ninth Ward and don't get down to that area a lot because it's about a half hour drive if there's any traffic and parking can be an issue depending on how well I'm walking that particular day, meaning sometimes I can't walk more than a block. There are far too many fantastic, locally owned restaurants in this city for me to put up with the awful service and what seemed to be...