Ludivine — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

This place may be unique, but there are many other places unique in this city, where the food is not horrible, or of poor quality, and in all honesty cheaper. So as far as drinks: - Girlfriend and both ordered cocktails. Hers had a medicinal taste blurring with rubbing alcohol. Mine was actually decent, but honestly nothing I would write home about. Whiskey Cake, WSKY Lounge, the Mule, I've had better at all three places just mentioned. Food - they initially brought bread, and this is where I knew we were on a downhill slide. Biscuit was a drop biscuit type, cold, bone dry, flour, no flavor, no seasoning whatsoever. I've made better at home, also in no particular order - Cracker barrell, Mama Lou's, Sherry's diner all have much better biscuits. Cornbread muffin was ok, but just ok. I ordered braised goat shoulder. Again -- seasoning, what's that? Roast was dry, flavor was minimal, I've had better goat at two ranches in New Mexico, better roast in general out of any pot at home, if I wanted a dish with similar spices, there is a Gyro place run by an old Greek couple on Northwest Expressway that has far better Pita Bread, far better meat, better use of Yogurt to make a flavoring sauce. Lentils were horrible, bland, and tough.

My date ordered house spaghetti, and it was OK, but just OK. Also, portions were small.

So basically you are paying for decor, and presentation (all menu items did have very pretty presentation, well and professionally done). It's pretty sad how common the places and even dare I say it Chains are that have better food.

So their spagetti - Olive Garden is better (which is sad to say, especially with the price) In town I would suggest Vito's, or Moni's.

Bread - Cracker Barrell, or sad to say even KFC. Both are better, and I'm aware of how sad that is.

Braised Goat Shoulder - It's still red meat. I've had better goat on a ranch in New Mexico, if you wanted to try good red meat in town similar to this flavor, but infinitely better, Guyutes, and Gyro City Cafe both have better variations on that. Or just make a roast at home, it really is not that hard to match the flavor.

Lentils - Whiskey Cake.

Dessert - I can't comment, it was so horrible up until that point, and so overpriced vs quality, I literally paid the tab, took my date and left. We stopped by the Mule in plaza district, had an amazing chef made dessert, I had a beer, she had a decent cocktail, and we called it a night.

Star Rating - Service was OK, but not great, I expect better from any non chain restaurant, especially at this price range.

Food quality - this gets us one star. Ridiculously poor, considering the price. Lukewarm to cold by the time any of it got to the table, and I don't care that you use unusual high end ingredients with decent presentation, if they taste worse than mediocre, you are pretty much defeating the primary purpose of food - it should...

So....this was a pretty disappointing experience. As a concept, the restaurant is a nice idea, but the execution was terrible. It would be worth the price, in fact, if the food had be digestible. Too bad we nearly walked away hungry.

Starting with the good parts of the experience, we started with a charcuterie board as an appetizer, and that was quite pleasant. The board included venison, cheese, pickled vegetables, dill mustard, and various other pieces, all of which were excellent, and that's coming from someone who dislikes mustard. Additionally, the pork chop and grits (a surprisingly agreeable combo) were quite good, though I may have been rather hungry still, having not been able to stomach much of the previous courses of the tasting menu. Finally, the 3rd course was a pear sorbet in white wine, which was nice, albeit a tad unremarkable, especially for the price.

As for the bad, the first two courses were nearly inedible. The 1st course was a lobster bisque, and while I understand delicious foods can sometimes have offensive smells, not only was the smell of it beyond gross, the taste was no better (Understand that this is coming from someone who lives on lobster bisques amd chowders, and all kinds of smelly seafoods). The lobster was rubbery and hard to eat, and still the only edible part of the bisque.

The second course was scallops on a bed of vegetables, and I really couldn't tell you which was worse. Both were bitter and required effort to swallow, not to mention the scallops were chewy and in some places burned. I really can't say i enjoyed eating (or trying to eat) crunchy scallops. While I understand food can sometimes be less flavorful/more bland than desired, I don't feel as though I should have to pay nearly 100$ a person for food that's not just flavorless, but downright gross.

Finally, the dessert course, while not expressly bad, was bizarre. A strange ensemble of dark chocolate, pine nut brittle, roasted grapes, and blue cheese. It really wasn't the kind of dessert I would hope to end an already disheartening meal with.

With respect to the service, there was again nothing outright bad, though a little more presence would have been nice seeing as we'd be left entirely alone for long stretches (20+ min). Not bad, but not at the level one would expect for...

I made a reservation for my birthday brunch here and it was my first time at this restaurant. I have heard so much good about ludivine, so I was excited to try it. We had ordered a regular coffee and i asked about brunch cocktails. Emma told me they only have mimosas or bloody marys for brunch, I went with a mimosa. I thought they would have a better selection of brunch cocktails, but it was fine... can't go too wrong with a basic mimosa. His coffee was served in a very tiny mug and wasn't given cream or sugar with his order. We had to flag down emma for some. We ordered the lox Benedict and told her we would be sharing the dish so we could save room for something sweet after. When the dish was served to us it had not been divided in the kitchen and we had to ask her for a second plate. Half way through eating the first dish we both finished our drinks and my husband had to flag down the hostess for a refresh of coffee. My husband and I checked the menu out before visiting and we had our hearts set on the foie gras waffle. So we ordered that to share after our lox Benedict. After awhile of waiting, Emma came over and told us that the chef could not do the foie gras today and wanted to know if we wanted anything else to go with the waffle. Now we were both disappointed as that was the main attraction for us. We still enjoyed all the food. The dishes were lovely, but the horrible service and lack of care left a horrible taste in our mouths. Then, the bill came. We were charged $12.00 for my husband's 2 tiny cups of coffee. Supposedly, they do not have regular coffee or offer complimentary refills and only serve Americanos. The lack of communication in this made receiving our ticket a total shock. Before this experience we were planning on trying a tasting menu for dinner, but I don't think we will ever be returning. The service the entire time was aloof and Emma did not seem to know the menu very well. It seemed to me like she was a hostess and maybe they were short on waiters for brunch. Extremely disappointing. Also, not a huge deal, but when making the reservation it asked if it was a special occasion and I checked that it was a birthday. Why ask if you don't even mention it during our...