Sylvain — Restaurant in New Orleans

We left our hotel for a late-ish dinner on Saturday night. My boss suggested Justine’s, but they are now permanently closed (bummer, it was a good place). Anyway, we walked a few blocks and stumbled upon Sylvain.

Sylvain’s bar area looks out on Chartres, but the entrance is down a candlelit alleyway. It gave the vibe of 1800s era New Orleans. The host stand is at the end of the semi-covered alleyway. You wither make a left into the dark wooded bar area, or can take a seat and wait for a table. The restaurant has two areas: a back area up a step or two and is surrounded by greenery and bathed in led string lights, and the walkway to that area has a few tables. We were seated in the walkway.

Our server came by and immediately asked for drinks and suggested a few they are known for. We got water and drinks and poured over the menu.

It’s not a large menu and had several offerings that were uniquely New Orleans and several that were not.

The appetizers seemed that they were geared more towards traditional NOLA French Quarter cuisine and so we ordered shrimp remoulade on tomatoes and corn bread with an interesting butter/remoulade mix that was slightly understated but complimented the corn bread. Both were very good. I even ate a bit of the tomatoes (don’t tell my wife as she’ll try to get me to eat them more often). However, they were smothered in the remoulade and I couldn’t taste them anyway.

For the main course, I ordered the Fried Chicken Sandwich, sans tomato and onion, and kept the lettuce, pickles, and their “hot sauce. I think it was Frank’s Hot Sauce, and has a little kick, but isn’t super spicy. It was a good sandwich. The chicken was juicy and plump. It came with a side of fries typically referred to as “frites” when ordering a steak. They were the shoestring fries and they were lightly seasoned. Also good.

My other compatriots ordered the same sandwich as I and the local Gulf fish entree which he said was very good. Not being a fish guy, I wasn’t interested, but he liked it.

The server, for the most part, left us alone to eat and talk in peace. It was a nice night and there was no need to rush us out of there.

My only issue are the chairs. They are metal patio chairs that are uncomfortable after a while (and I guess that’s the point), but since it wasn’t busy, and they weren’t rushing us out, and drinks were constantly ordered, it made sitting there a bit unbearable after a while. A cushion might...

oh my god this restaurant was a true gem. i wish i took more pictures at Sylvain but i didn't so i will use words. imagine a dark, candlelit vampire restaurant hidden away but right near jackson square. we entered through this awesome breezeway into an idyllic cozy courtyard where we found the hostess stand. it was a wednesday night so not busy but looked to be an even mix of locals and tourists. perfect! it was humid as heck of course so we sat inside and cooled off while perusing their extensive drink menu and small but sufficient dinner options. addy started with a bourbon lemonade thingy on rocks and i asked about their frozen drinks as i wanted something cold but grownup. the fancypants greyhound is what i went with and it more than delivered. strong but not too sweet at all. i really enjoyed their playlist of old school heavy metal and classic rock b sides. all the waitstaff were friendly and fun and all wore black tees with metal designs which perfectly matched my occult mood that evening. i would have bought one of those tees but they were out 😢. we wanted something to eat but weren't starving. addy had pork belly as she often does and it was the best i ever had in life. melty, crunchy, salty, soft heaven. the presentation and quality of the dishes were outstanding, like something you might expect to see on Treme or some other show about nola. very fair prices tho. i had their market salad which contained very fresh ingredients, an amazing, unique dressing and the perfect portion size. i never order fried oysters but i did that night and they were also the best i have had in life. crunchy outside, gooey maritime salty goodness inside. addy finished with the chocolate pot de creme which she seemed to like a lot but wasn't my style. super dark and rich chocolate/pecan goodness though if you are into that sort of thing. i want to go back here asap. they said the restaurant has been there 13...

Sylvain was our first meal in NOLA and did not leave a good first impression. We came in around 815, and we got the cornbread, catfish & dumplings, and the short rib - all ordered at the same time as our drinks. We told our server we were starving since we had been up since 3am and to bring all the food out together. Our drinks took a long time to arrive and ended up coming at the same time as our food, but the bigger issue is our crawfish and short rib dishes were barely lukewarm. As someone who has worked in a restaurant before, it's clear that food had been sitting for A LONG time before it was served. We tried flagging our server multiple times but he was not attentive. Given that it had already been a long day and we weren't in a position to wait for our server and our dishes being remade, we ate the short rib as is and left the crawfish and cornbread having only taken a couple bites. Our server finally came around to check on us roughly 10 minutes later, we explained to him the situation and his response was borderline apethetic. At that point we told him we just wanted to get the bill and leave. In the end, the short rib was taken off our bill, which we appreciate the gesture but it was also weird given that it was the only thing we actually ate... There was also no sense of urgency to settle the bill with us promptly or any sense of customer service/remorse/apology to try to end our experience on a positive note. Ultimately given the other glowing reviews, our experience was a...