Vals — Restaurant in New Orleans

Vals nailed the design of their intimate indoor and lux SoCal patio vibe. Hats off to the Architect. The service was first rate and perfect level of attentive but never feeling like an interruption. I particularly loved the service window for cocktails and snacks while we waited a short 20 mins for our table as walkups on a weekend at sunset. The cocktails were on point as one would expect although priced accordingly. The menu is au la cart or Sushi style as explained to us. You fill out your order on a paper menu which was nice. The menu is fairly traditional street tacos, dips, and sides with a couple of interesting sides like Elote, a Tuna Tostada, and even a salad. The food was unfortunately a little disappointing. I was hoping for unique flavors, perfect textures and the highest level of execution on can get in a taco given the already high bar set by everything else. The food did not deliver on flavor or texture unfortunately. Our food was a little under seasoned and underwhelming. The chips for the salsas were everything from light ans crispy to thick chewy and saturated with oil. The totada had a great texture but the flavor was so mild it was like eating sashimi with no lemon or soy. The small street tacos were beautiful and have great potential. They all needed salt but were almost there. The two different types of beef tacos were indistinguishable from each other in flavor. The one vegetarian option was boring and insufficient for someone with an appetite. The crown jewel and savior of the tacos was the shredded chicken uniquely cooked in a verde enchilada like sauce. It was amazing. Didn't try the fish although i wish i had. Would definitely go back and encourage others to. Hopefully they can tighten up on the food execution. I don't like paying $30 for a meal I could have bought for $15 at a taco truck and have been more impressed with but thats me being picky. Most people arent spolied by taco trucks and are looking for a sexy spot for date night in which case this place will...

Will NOT be returning. Food was pretty good, nothing crazy. Our waiter was Bryan W and he was BEYOND rude and judgmental. I figured this would happen when I saw the automatic 20% gratuity. The problem with that is they have no inclination to provide good service bc they already know they are getting their tip. I asked if they had Pinot Grigio since I didn’t see it on the menu and he laughed at me and very bluntly said no. I said can I have rosé then and he said “sure…” like he didn’t wanna give it to me. I almost said “is it not good? Should I get something else?” His tone was so condescending. The rosé was old and HORRIBLE. I told him and asked if I could switch it out for Chardonnay and he said okay and took my full glass of rose away. When the bill came the rosé and Chardonnay was on there and I asked if he could take off the rose since it was old. He said laughed and said “no. You ordered it so it’s staying” he TOOK THE WHOLE DRINK AWAY FROM ME? Mind you the drink was full. It’s not like I drank it and asked for a refund. And when I asked to switch it out for something else he said okay. If he had plans of charging me he should’ve either left the glass of rosé or told me that I can’t switch it out but I can order another glass. I called the manager over and he was lovely and very understanding and took off the rose. Our waiter was clearly so embarrassed and immature that he couldn’t even come to bring us our change, the manager had to. Even despite the judgmental tones and rudeness he never even came to check on us after we got our food. It was a Wednesday night so not like it was slammed. We were sitting there with empty water cups for 30+ minutes.

If your people skills are this bad you are in the WRONG industry. This waiter is only lucky they do...

I was very excited to try this place out and I was more than disappointed. My boyfriend and I shared the beef, pork, and fish tacos. The fish and pork were decent, but the beef had 0 flavor, like it tasted like nothing, not even beef. But that wasn’t even the big issue. After taking a couple bites, I realized the tortilla has the WORST texture, like old peeling rubber. Upon inspection, I realized the tortillas were horribly soggy. Like it looked like wet dead foot skin when you get a pedicure and they scrape your dead skin off. It was that bad. I wasn’t ready to give up tho, so I asked the waitress for new tortillas because they were soggy (I made sure to say they were soggy so they could made sure they new ones weren’t soggy) well, we get the new ones and they’re the EXACT same, like they had just been run through a dishwasher. She came back and asked if they were better and I said, no not really but it’s fine we’ll just get our stuff to go. She just said okay and brought us our ticket. That was that, I was ready to pay and leave… UNTIL I saw the bill and they had the AUDACITY to charge us extra for the “extra” tortillas. That’s the main reason I was motivated to write this review, to warn others not only of their nasty tortillas, but also their extremely poor customer service. I have provided photos below. So imagine that, but WET...