Saba — Restaurant in New Orleans

My lady and I decided to dine At Saba for the first time on our anniversary and the environment was lovely. From the ambience to the outdoor lightening; the set up was perfect. The hospitality and service was great. Servers and host were very friendly and accommodating. The only downfall was the extremely over priced menu. Chef Alon clearly is very experienced and has a wide knowledge of food but being a chef myself whom has worked prior at another one of Alons Mediterranean restaurant called Shaya, I find it unnecessary to take such simple food items, make them look fancy and then charge ridiculous amount of money for it just to accommodate the upper class. It’s frustrating seeing well off establishments still leaching of the people in the community as if there not enough money to go around for everyone. Don’t get me wrong I love mediterranean food but paying almost $200 for a single corse meal isn’t ideal; but more importantly the meal just wasn’t fulfilling. Too much bread not enough variety of nourishing and nutrient filled dishes or side plates. I ordered the salmon which was very underwhelming, hardly seasoned and just bland, so were the side vegetables. I should have known better than to order seafood from a Mediterranean restaurant I’m sure I was better off getting the falafel or another signature dish I was just in the mood for fish and went with it. It would be nice to witness a featured and well known chef cultivate a menu with a more reasonable price that way he can reach a broader range of individuals instead of taking advantage of those that don’t know much about food but will spend unnecessary Amounts because they are fortunate enough while others are hardly able to get by. Maybe chef will do a featured culinary menu , it would be nice to see more specials. Just my thoughts. Critical times call for change. Everyday children go starving in the world. Let’s keep that in mind. We are all in this...

Disastrous Dining Experience at Saba: A Cautionary Tale

My recent visit to Saba left me disheartened after being served undercooked shrimp, a potentially hazardous situation that could compromise the health of patrons. This experience was particularly disappointing considering my previous high regard for the restaurant.

Upon notifying the staff of the undercooked shrimp, their acknowledgment of the error was overshadowed by a lackluster response. While they offered to remove the item from the bill, the subsequent errors in billing and card charging only added to the overall chaos of the evening.

What should have been a celebratory occasion—bringing my friend from New York for his 50th birthday—turned into one of the most embarrassing and poorly handled dining experiences at a restaurant of this caliber. The initial mistake with the undercooked shrimp was exacerbated by a series of errors in the billing process, including stopping us from leaving to correct their own mistakes.

While Saba may boast great food on occasion, the handling of this situation underscores a critical oversight in prioritizing the safety and satisfaction of guests. I've dined here in the past and held the restaurant in high regard, which makes this experience all the more disappointing.

I sincerely hope that Paul and Brooke, the individuals who I assume are responsible for the management of the restaurant, learn from this incident and implement measures to prevent such occurrences in the future. Their careers in hospitality will undoubtedly be judged not only by the quality of the food but also by the care and consideration extended to patrons, especially when faced with critical lapses in quality and care. Emailing to offer to make a future reservation is not enough of a remedy of a ruined meal...

Another mild disappointment. Not that the food wasn’t great, it’s amazing. But the service isn’t up to it. We started off great—I had goofed up the online rez, we had 3 not 2, but the harried maitre d’ found us a table outside after a short wait. THANKS.

But mildly downhill from there. We got the arrogance you’d expect from an Alon Shaya establishment, so snooty. And the speech about ordering everything we wanted right then so they could “course it out”.

Um. This is sharing plate food, right? So we’re supposed to predict everything a griup will want based on vague descriptions of how big things are, we’ve never had? DOESN’T WORK.

Oh but here’s a generalization: even the $18 apps are tiny, a small-sized 1 person app. You’re supposed to politely catch on that this is super-high end gourmet world-class snack food, and order a little in spite of the prices.

So we did. No point economizing here. And waited, hungrily. And waited. And waited. Eventually 2 dishes came. We set upon them. And waited. Then 1 more. Inhaled. And waited. We gradually realized that this was what they meant by “coursing it out”—they don’t actually have staff to handle the people they seat, so they stretch everyone’s meals out. Then another biiiig pause — and then everything else came, when we were mostly done.

Lastly, our server—nice, to a point, but in a hurry and just rude. Serving the table next to us, she shoved past me so hard she moved my chair and my head. No acknowledgement. Her hurry is your problem.

So. It’s not that we didn’t have a pretty good time, or that the food wasn’t good. We did and it was. But compared to other restaurants with great food, it’s all about them. Not you. 4 stars a a gift, but it’s for the...