Nice Guys Nola — Restaurant in New Orleans

My friend and her husband invited me and my husband to have brunch here after a weekend visiting New Orleans, neither of us are from the area. We made reservations per the website; before arriving my friend called and said there were no place to park and they parked in the parking lot that was located next to this establishment (grocery store parking lot) once we arrived, there were cars parked on the side of the street, in front of homes, across the street, down the street just anywhere they could park (1st sign we ignored) so we parked in the parking lot as my friend did. Soon we got out the car you can hear the music (kind of loud for our brunch expectations) however, we preceded since this was our first experience. Upon walking up to the "barn" appearance restaurant, we encounter a line. Remember I mentioned reservations were made; however, reservations do not matter, we still had to stand in line, in the heat and wait to be seated. While standing in line we noticed three armed officers two in uniform (2nd sign we ignored). One officer was assisting with getting the line moving swiftly. Once our party made it to the podium the host walked us to a table that's located outside near a big fan and told us our waitress would be with us shortly. while reviewing the menu we noticed they charged you a 5.00 entertainment fee and a 20% service charge fee EACH receipt. NO split tickets (3rd sign we ignored). Not to mention the prices were just radicicolous (& we are a combined annual income of around 400k) let me mention, we were fanning heat and flies with the menus. Once the waitress came, she immediately said we had to give her a credit card to put on file, (never explained why) my friend husband asked why we needed to do that, she replied, "it's an outside hold"... I then asked her to explain "an outside hold" she stated since we were seated outside, (not by choice) we had to give them a card to put on hold just in case we ran (4th sign we ignored), let me remind you we are yelling while conversating due to the loud music. The card was given, and we continued to review the menu. The DJ then came across the mic chuckling while announcing that if you are parked next door in the store parking lot your car had a boot on it and a Honda was hooked on the truck ready to be towed by Mid-City Towing. Our table ran out and there it was, cars were booted, and my car was on the tow truck (due to it being backed in). The driver wanted cash before he removed the boots and put my car down. I felt as if this was a every Sunday opportunity to get more money by Nice Guy Nola and their co-partner Mid City Towing. I asked where the No Parking signs are posted, the driver of the tow truck who thought everything was funny, stated, "at the entry and exit", of course the signs were so small you couldn't see them with glasses. Nevertheless, that was our fault, we paid, my friend told the waitress to cancel the card hold and we left. From my experience the owner of Nice Guy Nola is only worried about squeezing every dime they can from their customers, these people don't even care about your parking. They can care less, they put you outside in the heat and expect you to pay those ridiculous prices, service charges and entertainment fees. WE WILL NEVER VISIT THIS PLACE AGAIN! I refuse to recommend this place to anyone. NOT our kind of brunch spot anyway! If you like loud music, high prices, paying service fees, entertainment fees, ridicules food and drink prices, fanning flies, sitting in the weather, no parking, jeopardizing having your car booted and towed then this is your place. If you don't like the above mentioned and don't wanna be musty then stay far away!...

A year ago, I told myself I wouldn’t return for recreational purposes, but today (3/26/25, around 5:18 PM), I was waiting nearby for a friend and decided to give this place one more chance.

Upon arriving at the bar, I was greeted by an employee who said he would get the bartender since I had been sitting there unattended for a bit. No problem, he even brought me water while I waited. That was the last bit of hospitality I experienced.

When the bartender arrived, I asked about the happy hour listed online (4-7 PM, Monday-Friday). She bluntly stated it ended at 4 PM. No worries, I simply asked to see the happy hour menu for clarity and to check what was offered. Her attitude immediately shifted to one of agitation, as if my request was an inconvenience. Even when I offered to pay full price for any HH drink, she refused to provide the menu, stating that those drinks were only available during HH even though the full bar was right behind her.

I moved on and asked for a cup of gumbo and a sidecar (which is listed as a cocktail online). I also asked if the gumbo was ready, which seemed to confuse her. Gumbo isn’t cooked to order, so I was just asking to gauge the wait time. She replied, irritated: “What do you mean?” Eventually, she said it would take a couple of minutes, so I proceeded with the order.

Then came another confusing moment: I ordered a sidecar, but she told me it’s a shot, despite it being listed as a cocktail online. Instead of getting the shot, I opted for the full drink and asked how much it cost. Her response? “It doesn’t matter, don’t worry about that.” That level of dismissiveness and rudeness was completely uncalled for. If a drink is, say, $25+, I want to know before I order—why is that unreasonable?

Wanting to pay upfront so I could leave when I was done, I asked for the total so I could unlock my card for the precise amount. She seemed annoyed again and just started ringing it up instead of actually providing me with a way to pay. When I repeated my request, she mockingly repeated the total. The number seemed oddly even (rare with tax), so I asked again, her tone even more condescending before she finally gave me the exact total, change included.

At this point, I was done. As I grabbed my card to pay, I noticed her muttering under her breath, visibly annoyed. I decided this wasn’t worth my time and told her to cancel the order. Instead of just letting me leave, she yelled for me to come back—multiple times. I refused, and her aggressive, sarcastic remarks as I walked away almost felt like a veiled threat.

My advice, if you want a bare-minimum experience, just go straight to the bar, order a frozen drink, and leave. Don’t ask questions. Don’t expect hospitality, transparency, or even basic courtesy.

This was my final attempt to support this place, and unfortunately, I won’t be returning & if I do I’ll just sit with my party and only have...

5 stars for the food. It was good every dish we had. Everything else sub par if that. We went on my birthday as this was my annual birthday vacation that I take in a different place every year. The appetizers depending on what you get also don't justify the price. Like the seafood bread, its really good but its small like 4/5 pieces. My 10 year old could eat it in 2-3 minutes The service also doesn't justify the 18% gratuity added on to the check regardless of party size. As a person who has dined in many different countries and states at all types of restaurants and eateries and have had no issues paying for good food and service this place was not in that category. I normally see gratuity added at 5 star restaurants where the service is great and above excellent or on a certain number of people in a party. This is not 1 of them, its not fine dining and the service was little to no effort. There's no parking, only on the street so happy hunting. They don't split checks either its stated on their menu. So for those of you that are going with your friends or family one person needs to pay. On our reservation my boyfriend put its my birthday. When we got to the restaurant he told our server again and specified a sparkler and the birthday dance and song. This was a Wednesday night so of course it wasn't packed which was fine with us. There was about 2 other small parties there. Our server was not interested in providing excellent service as she quickly took our orders, then placed our food down when it was ready and we barely saw her at our table but she did float by every now and then. For silverware we were given one plastic fork wrapped up in a napkin literally. For the birthday song only 2 girls appeared, no sparkler, just a light, the song and the sign. But then another girl was there celebrating her birthday and of course she got the sparkler light and sign. My poor boyfriend was genuinely confused and upset but we made light of the situation and let it go by making up funny scenarios of why I probably didn't get a sparkler. For my drink I ordered the Candy drink. It was great and very festive. I needed a cup to take it with me and I asked the server since the hurricane drink came with a souvenir cup and the candy drink was the same price as the hurrricane could I just get a hurricane cup to put my drink in. She said she would check and in 1 minute came back and told us "He said No."

I'm Not sure what the big deal was but apparently the hurricane cup is special in some way that you can only order the hurricane to get the cup so I got a regular plastic to go cup instead. We're great tippers so when he paid, the amount wasn't a big deal but for the gratuity charged and the service was lacking of course he felt cheated. We didn't expect a 5 star restaurant by the Instagram and the advertising but you can't charge 5 star prices, offering no accommodations and 2...