Tableau by Dickie Brennan & Co. — Restaurant in New Orleans

Our Son requested that we celebrate his birthday at Tableau.

Our table was in the very corner at Charters & St. Peter, looking out on the square; perfect, or so we thought when seated. We started with a round of cocktails, and when the Old Fashioned was placed in front of our Son, he immediately handed it back to the waitress. It arrived with a dead fly garnish, which was not requested. The waitress apologized and went back to the bar for a replacement. When she returned she delivered another "Old Flyshoined" and it wasn't the same drink, this fly was even bigger!

(If alone, at point I am leaving)

I would expect that a waitress at ANY restaurant, but especially a fine dining establishment, would inspect the second drink. Common Sense or Training: If one had been sent back already for a fly, hair, lipstick smudge etc., please inspect before bringing second to the table. At this point, he decided to forgo a cocktail. Felt would be safer with the wine.

For appetizers, we had two orders of gnocchi and mussels, and our table was bombarded with flies, having an aerial dogfight trying to get to our appetizers. Our guest were swinging arms and napkins like at an outdoor seafood boil, and soon a gentleman came over to assist. He opened doors on both sides of our table, chased most of our unwelcomed guest outside as they landed, or flew close to the glass doors. He told us that,. . ." for some reason flies like to hang out in this corner of the restaurant ."

I can't begin to explain how disappointed we were. If it would have been a normal get together, I would have asked for a check and left, never to return.

The Food & Wine

During the rest of the meal, until darkness, we still had aerial visitors. . .but nothing like the 1st course. Restaurant had a good wine selection; prices comparable to other fine dining establishments in the French Quarter. The mussels were very tasty, but overcooked; gnocchi was heavy & doughy, with lots of pecan pieces. There was a lamb special, and three lamb lovers ordered the special. It was so salty that it was sent back. Need i say more? There was an order of Tableau Chicken, not much was consumed. The Waygu Steak was described as, "overcooked & cold". One guest stated, . . ."was expecting a higher quality dish, it was, meh."

Dessert

By the time we arrived at Dessert, darkness was falling outside, so our aerial visitors were off to visit brighter areas of the restaurant. The Cream brulle was delicious, but what made it so tasty was the way it was served. It was served on a flat dish, so with every spoon the crunchy caramelized top was pronounced & present. The Rasberry sorbet was described as "delicious, homemade & best I've ever had."

We have never been so disappointed at any restaurant in our life, let alone a New Orleans fine dining establishment. As a New Orleans native, I expected the food to be of a much higher quality. I do not expect to be fighting flies off my appetizers, or; have cocktails delivered with, "unrequested garnishes"As far as I am concerned, flies and fine dining don't coexist in...

UPDATE 9/2024 - We'd dined at Tableau twice since my last review, once last year at the same time of year, for the same occasion. Last year our dining experience and the food was again, excellent, and the waiter truly entertaining.

Unfortunately, this year was disappointing, to put it mildly.

The atmosphere and ambiance, excellent as before, the waiter, gracious, but the food!

Gone were the dishes I'd raved about in previous reviews. Instead among a skimpy selection, there was some beef (something or other) which consisted of beef wedges and cut potatoes, very little sauce or gravy, and the whole of which appeared as if they'd lingered under warming lights for too long. Which probably accounted for the unusually long wait, even though the dining room was not crowded.

I'd ordered crabmeat topping, expecting it to be at least in a butter sauce or something, but it was just dry, lump crabmeat.

Our son who'd accompanied us this time, ordered the burger, which he also found severely wanting. I'd seen better at less high profile venues, and I'm no burger aficionado.

In all the only high point being when our waiter realizing (much later) that we were there for a special occasion, comped the soup, in lieu of a complimentary dessert. A nice gesture, but I don't think we'll be back.

UPDATE 9/2019 - We've just returned to Tableau for a special occasion. I personally didn't care for the table we were seated at (near a lot of traffic going in an out the kitchen and the restroom), but my wife didn't seem to mind (her back was to all of it) so I didn't quibble.

As before great atmosphere and gracious staff. This time I tried their gulf shrimp remoulade for starters (I'd have preferred more remoulade sauce) and she, the crystal shrimp. She said it was very good. For entrees, we had fillet of beef bordelaise and redfish bienville. Both were prepared to perfection.

Excellent, on point service, and another quite enjoyable evening. Highly recommended.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

We recently dined here one evening, for the first time. Nice atmosphere and very gracious staff. I had the Oysters Bienville for "starters" and for the entree, Filet of Beef a la Oscar (with crabmeat). And my wife, Shrimp Remoulade, and Redfish Bienville.

The topping on my oyster starter was okay, and of the shrimp, the Mrs said she'd had better. I asked the waitress about the Filet of Beef and she confirmed it was Filet Mignon, though I'd wondered why they didn't just call it that.

Further the waitress advised that the blue crab butter sauce on my wife's entree was "infused" with elements of crabmeat, but that either crabmeat or crawfish tail toppings could be ordered for an extra charge.

We thought it should've come that way up front, hence the four stars instead of five.

Otherwise both entrees were very good, and the meal and overall ambiance, quite enjoyable.

We'll...

We travel to New Orleans often and absolutely have loved and the food and service we have consistently received. Unfortunately, Tableau fell short.

We decided to dine at Tableau on Christmas Eve hoping to taking advantage of the Reveillon menu. We booked weeks in advance and were very much looking forward to the dining experience.

When we arrived, we were asked if we wanted indoor or patio seating and they assured us there would be heaters outside. We chose outdoors to have a view of Jackson Square, but when we were seated noticed only two of the tables had heaters. We inquired with our server about potentially moving if there were no additional heating options. He was clearly overwhelmed, but eventually was able to make the switch for us to sit indoors.

Once inside, we were greeted by our server and things seemed to be back on track. She was clearly very busy and we understood wait times may be slow, which we were totally fine with. We didn’t see the Reveillon menu and when we inquired about it our server bluntly told us, “we don’t have that. Sorry.” So, while we were disappointed, we decided to still order from the regular menu. We started with wine and our second choice appetizer, with the first one being out after we had tried to order it.

By the time we received the appetizer, now cold by the time it got to us, we had been sat for over 45 minutes. We then realized that we had no silverware and with our server not in site, we asked the bartender who delivered the wine if she could help locate some. She disappeared and after another ten minutes our server appeared and we again asked for silverware. She delivered it without napkins and ran off before we could order more food.

After over an hour, we decided to leave and find somewhere else to have dinner.

Reading other reviews, it sounds like this may have been an isolated incident. But it was incredibly disappointing and discourages us from returning...