Smiley's Grill New Orleans — Restaurant in New Orleans

First, I expect warm greetings and friendly hospitality at any place in New Orleans. So when My family and I walked in Smileys and no one took a pause to even say "Hello" I should have known lt wouldn't be worth it but I was hungry so we stayed. Now after about 10mins of us looking around at the menu and for a place to sit. A Caucasian young lady kindly speaks to us and offers assistance. Now this is a Black owned spot, everybody except this one young lady is black. But yet she's the one to greet us with a smile, everyone even the owner, Yes the owner looked at us with annoyance while we were in there. Like I said I was hungry and I'd rather spend my money with local black owned businesses, so we gave them a chance. We ordered a steak breakfast with french toast, a wrap and a breakfast with pancakes. The steak was tough and had no flavor. The wrap was wet, making the tortilla soggy. I didn't like the way they scrambled the eggs and the grits were too runny. I literally only enjoyed the french toast and pancakes. Imo this place is for the people who are ok with the bare minimum of customer service, food quality, and the food and hospitality experience. I am born and raised in New Orleans, so I will be holding every restaurant accountable because I...

For Breakfast:

Wait times during this period seemed to be nowhere near lunch times, but I found the breakfast lackluster. Their omelettes aren’t terrible but certainly not worth the price (higher than an IHOP or Waffle House as a guideline, and with less additions).

Their big breakfast is an absolute ripoff. At the other end of Downman, near Haines, there is a gas station that will give you better grits, eggs, and bacon at literally half the price. I strongly advise you go there.

For Lunch:

Incredibly slow service. Almost impressively so. You could be waiting for over an hour with barely any other customers around you. It’s not as if there is a line out the door, it will be you and three people watching a train wreck as they continue to do everything but prepare your order.

Consistently incorrect orders and prices are far too high for what you actually get. Their prices are legitimately equitable to a formal restaurant, not some diner next to a tire shop on Downman.

I usually give a place a few chances before I rate them very low, but after five visits this place has earned its place as a terribly run diner with prices that cannot compete, and a wait time that...

I hate having to give negative feedback to my fellow black owners’ businesses , but I’m just going to write this because I believe in improvement and consistency. I don’t know if anyone was having a bad day but…….

I bought some oysters for $19.71. I wouldn’t have minded the price if the cuisine matched its cost. They had so much parmesan cheese you can almost make a pizza out of all of them. Not enough butter to dip the bread in (mind you you could not dip it anyways due to how caked it was with cheese)

And my stomach was not very happy with it. Didn’t wanna waste it, but also didn’t enjoy the flavor so I scarfed it down, almost wanting to vomit.

I was dissappointed. Tips for oysters: Oysters don’t need to cook for that long especially on a fire otherwise they just have a rubbery chewy texture. Perhaps this was just a bad day for everyone, but this was not good and my stomach hurts. I rather feel hunger than to have ate my oysters—which my body was craving.

You still have my support, but I wish y’all would put some love into the flavor and not cook our food on autopilot. It would really change the trajectory of...