Pigeon and Whale — Restaurant in New Orleans

Okay so we had a reservation and we were sat at the bar. I'm a bar person fine and Dandy. When I asked about certain things on the menu it seems like it was hard for them to try to explain the items on the menu because the menu descriptions are very vague and only generally mention two items in the dish. I started out by ordering the Shuckers Choice which is a assortment of different specialty oysters and the the Shocker who came over said the oysters are left to right and the dissension of the menu. So I basically had no idea what I was eating. Other than that they were some of the smallest voices I've ever had some of which being the size of a quarter. We had the mango blue crab salad which was actually pretty good. I had a Cabernet which was Sour because they leave the corks in the bottles of the lines. Both bartenders were drinking behind the bar and not even trying to be Shady about it very openly drinking in public. In fact one of them told us as he was making his drink that was for him. The bartenders even did a cheers to each other furthermore one of the bartenders was pressing basil into a drink and picking it whereby he scratched his face scratched his neck and continued to pick basil without washing his hands. A few moments later I saw the other bartender do the exact same thing which I was curious if they had some sort of skin ailment. Also there was an obnoxious customer in the restaurant he was honestly over served and just obnoxiously laughing and yelling at the other people in this table knocking over drinks. I protested the next twice that someone tell him to quiet down and they said they couldn't do that. All in all it was a very strange experience from top to bottom and I feel like I would give this I don't know somewhere between a C+ and a d Plus on my scale but choose for yourself it's very very loud in there and for two people dining cost about $300 so I don't know but that's the truth. Furthermore we had the char- grilled mussels which are neither chard nor grilled. They are obviously placed in a broiler with some sort of cheese on top of them. They're not charged rolled over any sort of a fire. If you order them turn the shells over and there are no black marks on them so call them charbroiled oysters or salamander oysters but anything further than Char grilled oysters. It's just a blatant lie and for $18 you only...

Pigeon and Whale is an interesting new restaurant located in the Freret Street development area that opened up back in July of 2023. They certainly do things quite differently here than other restaurants in the New Orleans area as, while they focus on seafood, they absolutely don't do anything New Orleans or Southern style here as this is a New England style seafood joint. Pigeon and Whale also puts a lot of effort into their raw bar and caviar service offering some options not commonly found in Louisiana. They also really focus on their cocktails here to the point that I couldn't get an iced tea here and they only have canned drinks for anything non-alcoholic.

Having something a bit different can be interesting and they certainly do some things quite quirky and unique compared to other spots in the area here. They do offer that New England fan favorite of the lobster roll here, which I've eaten many examples of all over when visiting New England, and I have always found them to be OK sandwiches but always too tiny compared to a poboy for my appetite. So I decided to roll the dice and order the lobster roll here to sample it and unlike most of my experiences in New England they actually serve the version here with a side of what they call "Jo-Jo Potatoes" and what I would call potato logs (which are nice big slices of potatoes deep fried) which actually make this lobster roll a decent meal for me. I found the lobster roll here to be one of the best versions I've experienced so far and on average better than most I've had in New England.

They also have some extremely creative and interesting desserts here and I decided the sample the "Bathtub Dreams" which chocolate mousse with hazelnut ganache and whipped cream all over it served in a bathtub shaped dish so that it looks like a bubble bath and then they place a shortbread whale tail coming out of the "bubbles" along with a candy "rubber duck" on top. This dessert was visually interesting and tasted ok but I probably wouldn't get it again as it was just way too much whipped cream and it might have been better with a layer of ice cream instead of such much whipped cream.

Overall if you're in the mood for something completely different than New Orleans food this spot will give you that experience.

My video review of Pigeon & Whale is...

I have never encountered this much indifference and absolute lack of care with restaurant service in the city. Why do you even offer reservations if you can't even honor them within a reasonable time, or at least give some courtesy to guests who are patiently waiting for their reserved table? We had a 7:30 p.m reservation for my birthday for a table inside. After arriving at the restaurant a few minutes before our reservation time, the hostess told us that our table was not ready yet, but it should be just a few minutes as two tables had just paid and were wrapping up. We decided to wait outside as the entrance area of the restaurant is very small and there's nowhere to sit. The hostess proceeded to give us menus and assured us that she would take our drink orders shortly. We sat outside watching the hostess blow past us multiple times without any acknowledgment, not bothering to stop to take the promised drink order or give us an update regarding the status of our table. After 20 minutes of watching her go past us, I had to finally stop her in her tracks and ask if she could at least start us on drinks. She took our order, did not utter a word about the status of our table and disappeared. A bit past 8 pm.--over 30 minutes past our reservation time, a server came out with water for us. Not a word regarding a table, status of the ordered drinks, and no apologies for the lengthy delay or lack of service whatsoever. "We are a little busy today," he said matter-of-factly when I noted that we had reservations for a birthday dinner and had been waiting for over 30 minutes being completely ignored. I have been in situations where I had to wait for a reserved table, but I have never encountered such disregard and aloofness. At that point, it made absolutely no sense to continue waiting as the restaurant clearly couldn't care less whether we ate there or not. Additionally, we were getting very hungry, and eating at a reasonable time at Pigeon and Whale no longer looked like a promising prospect. The experience put a damper on the evening and ruined the mood. We ended up going elsewhere on Freret where the service was...