Paladar 511 — Restaurant in New Orleans

Appetizers were good, entrees were overhyped, service was god awful. It’s very obvious that management will not care about this review but we are posting to warn other people who have heard the same great things about this place as we did. Had a reservation for 8pm, we arrived at 755 and seated at 810 (not an issue but for timeline purposes). Immediately greeted and asked for our drink order. We didn’t have time to look over the drink menu so we ordered off menu classic cocktails. We were pestered about the wine menu more than once when someone in our party is sober. We received the cocktails in a timely manner by another server and shortly after our server came by to get an order from us. We ordered bread service and we told her we were debating our appetizers and even asked for a recommendation. We then did not see our server for almost 45 minutes. We had to flag down a manager to send our server over so we could order apps at 9pm. She was shocked we hadn’t ordered yet but didn’t take our order for her. We put appetizers in and told her we would be getting entrees as well but were deciding on whether to get two or three based on the size of the appetizers. Our apps (3) were almost done by the time she came by for dinner orders, past 9:20 when the kitchen closed at 9:30. She then very obviously forgot to put our food in and was too busy sitting in a booth socializing to notice. We were one of two tables left and the other was already eating. We only got a pasta w bolognese and braised meat, but it took over 40 minutes to get those entrees…Mind you it’s an open kitchen concept. All chefs looked to be cleaning and she frantically ran our food to us with yet again, no apology. We watched as they put out large trays of food for staff meal. The staff was eating in front of us which is completely unprofessional. That’s not the worst part. We told her preemptively that we were going to want dessert because it was a birthday and we know it’s getting late so we were trying to hurry things along. Didn’t get our dessert order until we had boxed up our entrees and no, the server was not trying to let us take our time - she was absent and inattentive. We understand that we were in the restaurant late (we did NOT want to be, we would have loved to have been out by 930) but the staff started having a dance party and singing loudly to the music that had been raised multiple levels. All of us work in the New Orleans service industry and know this was a tactic to get us out. AGAIN, We wanted to leave. Trust me. But the server’s gross inattentiveness and management’s lack of accountability and effort to rectify the situation made for a miserable experience. 2.5+ hrs we will...

SERVICE: 3/5 FOOD: 5/5 VIBE: 5/5

I want to preface with the fact that we enjoyed eating here so much the first time... we ended up coming back on our last night when plans fell through for another place. We typically don’t eat twice at a place on a trip, but it was so delicious (and we were tired of looking for anything else), that we decided to revisit.

SERVICE: Because we ate here twice and were seated in a different serving section each time, I feel I can comment on the service as being more than just a one-time situation. Both nights the server checked in once at the beginning, once as we finished the meal, and once to drop off the check. Normally this wouldn’t bother me, except we felt we were being forgotten due to much more attention being given to other tables, and that we really wanted to order more drinks but were unable to. Food runners brought us our dishes each time rather than the servers, which is fine, but it did feel as though maybe we weren’t important enough or large enough of a party. I hate flagging down servers or other FOH staff because I know there are a million things that need to get done, so maybe I should have done that. Anyway, apart from feeling forgotten, the rest of the service was very nice: suggestions were great, and the people were friendly.

FOOD: Holy. F*. I am so glad we came here. The first night we had: Squid Ink Spaghetti, Beef Tartare, Pappardelle, Pork Saltimbocca, and (to go because we were little pigs) Farm Egg Pizza. Let me tell you, every single item was perfect: all the textures, all the flavors, the spices, the aromas, everything was amazing. I couldn’t finish the Pappardelle so I took it home to reheat, and it was still so damn good. When we went back, we got almost the exact same dishes except no Saltimbocca, and everything was exactly as delicious as before. Delicious consistency more than made up for the feeling of being forgotten.

VIBE: I enjoy divey, grungey places above all others, but for an upscale vibe, this is what I love. It was dark, moody, but still well lit enough that I could see the menu, and the place was bustling. It felt like an old Italian brick osteria that had been pulled up at the ceiling to bring in height and airiness. I felt like we could have a conversation without shouting, but also still feel very private because of the chatter. It felt nice and upscale without being stuffy or hoity-toity.

I can’t wait to come back here; it’s one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve been...

Food was amazing, but the service was incredibly aggressive and intrusive on a Wed. night. The decor is lovely, but with all the concrete surfaces, it’s a super-noisy / loud and energetic environment

We arrived at approx 8:45 PM after calling ahead to see if we could still get dinner, and the hostess had assured us we were fine. (Closing time was 9:30 PM.)

My partner and I had drinks and 4 items that were all made with the finest tasting ingredients:

1.) the locally grown lettuces salad, with fantastic olives, generous dollops of the creamiest and freshest ricotta cheese I’ve ever had, and a delicious artichoke viniagrette dressing

2.) the freshly-baked poppyseed challah rolls with carmelized onion butter

3.) the sea bass - fish of the day - with butter beans, summer squash, basil hollandaise, cherry tomatoes, and buttered garlic breadcrumbs (which just set the whole dish off!)

4.) the Apple Cornmeal Galette with a luxe blackberry caramel sauce and vanilla malt ice cream (best ice cream in the US ever!)

So that’s the good news.

BUT, then the aggressive campaign to turn our table as quickly as possible started with a bang.

We were 3 minutes into enjoying our salad, when a server slammed down our fish. Dismayed, we stopped eating our salad to enjoy the fish before it got cold.

Only a few minutes later, another server stopped by and asked if we were “done with anything yet.” We said no thank you, and tried to keep enjoying the delish wine & dishes, but feeling pressured as we watched the servers circling around the restaurant.

About 5 minutes later, yet another server stopped by and attempted to grab a plate, asking if we were “still working on that.”

I got testy, said we were indeed still enjoying our meal, and asked if the restaurant was closing? The server put her hands up and fled.

We were interrupted yet again by another 1 or 2 servers, and thought about skipping dessert as clearly, the whole staff wanted us out of there ASAP.

But our server encouraged us to order a dessert. Which was super.

But we could not even have a decent conversation the whole time as we were interrupted about every 3 minutes by servers trying to rush us out.

We are not slow eaters, and certainly didn’t expect to linger for an hour, but have never experienced this...