Pascal's Manale by Dickie Brennan & Co. — Restaurant in New Orleans

This past weekend, my family, visiting from out of town, went to Pascal’s Manale to celebrate my brother’s birthday. Pascal’s Manale has been a staple for my family since I’ve lived in New Orleans for the past decade. Every family visit, we make an effort to dine at the restaurant; enjoying drinks and oysters at the bar with Thomas, ordering our favorite BBQ shrimp, and appreciating the classic and homey atmosphere. This past visit has undoubtedly undone any previous fond memories of a family tradition.

On Saturday, November 27, We arrived at Pascal’s at 8:00 PM for our 8:30 reservation. I told the host, maybe the manager, that we had arrived. He said that the table was available now if we would like to be seated at which point I relayed that we would like to have some cocktails and oysters at the bar before our meal. What the host/manager said next set a strange tone for what would soon become my most bizarre dining experience to date. He told me, “Well, you have 26 minutes.” I looked at him in confusion and he just laughed it off and said it was fine. My mother later approached the host stand to let them know that we were there to celebrate my brother's birthday and she was met by the same man with a dismissive attitude.

After finishing our pre-dinner cocktails, we moved to the dining room for our 8:30 reservation where we ordered another round of cocktails and appetizers. We ordered a bottle of wine, a few dirty Martinis, and my father ordered a Negroni. Service was slow, but we weren't in a rush so it did not bother us. After ordering our entrees and enjoying our food, the same host/manager came up to our table with the check and demanded that we pay our bill and leave without offering an explanation why. Based on my previous interaction with this man, I thought it was another bad attempt at humor. He left our table so I asked the busser if he was being serious and when she replied with yes, I asked if she could tell me why. She only responded with, “You’re going to have to talk to him about it.”

He came back to our table and he insisted again that we pay the check and leave. When we pressed for an explanation he refused and said we know what we did. All he would say was that when his server comes crying to him, that's all the cause he needs to act. We asked what made her cry and he hinted at the Negroni, a specialty cocktail on their menu, but failed to actually explain to us what happened. Seeing that we were not going to get any clarification from this man and frankly just being confused by the whole situation, we paid our bill and left. As we exited the building, the whole staff was in a line to escort us out, like we were dangerous people.

This experience was extremely disappointing, especially with our family's history of being regular patrons at this restaurant for the better part of a decade. What made this even more confusing was that the Negroni-related incident that was vaguely hinted at could only have occurred at the beginning of the service, and we were then served our whole meal with no mention until we had finished. I have worked the majority of my professional career in the service industry and have never experienced something like this. It felt like I was living an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I would be more than willing to talk to ownership or management about a way to...

Been here 103 years. It has an old school feel. You walk in the door to an oyster station, large reception area/bar. The decor is nice, neat, clean. White tablecloths and napkins, old school nice. The wait staff is polite, friendly and seem like they've been here awhile. The food took awhile to come out of the kitchen, maybe 25 - 30 minutes. Not a big deal, but we noticed a 6 top who came in 10 minutes after us had their food out 10 minutes before. Not a super large menu, which is good. Fish, veal, beef, pasta, shellfish....all available a couple of ways. The apps are mostly fish/shellfish. Nice selection of sides. A little pricey, but expected. That being said: THE FOOD: I started with 1/2 dozen Oysters Rockefeller ... I gotta say, they were not as great as I'd hoped. The oysters used produced small meat, so I mostly tasted breeadcrumbs, and the were done a little too long, so had a tad of a burnt taste. I had a wedge salad, and the girl who would be my girlfriend had the Insalata Manale. My wedge salad was fresh, with bacon bits, and a couple of red onion slices. The dressing was nice, and the bleu cheese was tasty, but not overpowering. The Insalata Manale was fantastic. Bright, flavorful ingredients of olives, greens, tomatoes, artichoke pieces, and peperoncino peppers. Fresh oregano, parmesan cheese and black pepper rounded it out. I tried it and loved it, and the girl who would be my girlfriend also loved it. For my entree, I had to try the famous "Original Pascal's Barbeque Shrimp" the menu describes them as: "The Specialty of the house prepared in a spicy and tangy sauce." This is a pound of extra large shrimp swimming in a seasoned buttery type sauce. They were just a bit better than ok. The was a bowl of cocktail sauce served with it, but none of it was spicy or tangy. The girl who would be my girlfriend had the Chicken Bordelaise which is on the menu as "Boneless chicken breast, grilled, then simmered in a garlic, wine and mushroom sauce, served with pasta." It also was described as "OK". Last of all, I had a side of onion rings, which were excellent. Thin sliced, tasty batter. That's the way they should be done. Overall, I expected better, especially for the price....

My second time to Pascal Manale after years ago. I remember the raw bar being very good, which still is. Our reservations was at 8pm, due to another commitment I called and asked if we could come earlier than 8pm. The man on the phone was short and rude, but did say come on in and we will try to work you in earlier. I asked if there was a long wait, and answer was yes, sometimes. I agreed to come at 7pm expecting to wait a bit. We got a drink and oysters at the raw bar, which was great! At 7:30pm my husband asked if there was a table available, ( same man on the phone ) said we will call you and leave me alone attitude. So we waited, at 7:50pm I walked up and ask the man if anything was available. He asked our last name, which he did on the phone when I called. He knew we came in early, he said your reservation is at 8pm. I said "I understand but I called, and we have been here almost an hour". Instead of saying something reassuring, he said, " your reservation is at 8pm, get out of my walk way and I'll call you"! I am beside myself at the behavior and customer service. I asked him who the manager was, he said " your looking at him". Wow!!! As a manager I understand there are challenging nights and demanding customers, but what I don't understand is how he handles the situation. How he spoke to us was unacceptable and should not be tolerated. The manger here needs to take a class on customer service and etiquette. If you can NOT manage the high volume stress level of the restaurant, then you should not be there. Very upset at the management and will be sure to tell everyone!!! I would have given them zero stars if it wasn't for the raw bar, those two men work very hard to service waiting customers. The food was okay, very heavy home cooking. The amount of butter and heavy cream on every dish, ..... it will kill you! I forgot to take a picture of the bowl of butter two inch deep that my shrimps were swimming...