NOLA on 5th — Restaurant in San Diego

I was REALLY hoping to enjoy the food here. Guy Fieri can't be wrong, right? Unfortunately, they need to add a server because the bartender was either WAY over her head to serve the dozen or so people that were here, or she was not competent. I arrived at 5:05 pm and ordered a tap beer. Shortly after that, I ordered 6 wings. They are $1/each during happy hour. Once finished my first beer, I sat for nearly 15 minutes before she asked if I wanted another. I figured wings take some time to cook, there were a few tables there as well, so I didn't ask about my wings. I figured they would get there soon. Shortly after that, a guy just down from me at the bar ordered wings. He got his wings in about 10 minutes or so. A couple that ordered food behind me got theirs. The guy that got his wings must be a regular, because he eventually moved his stuff to the other end of the bar when the bartender asked him to "come down and join the party". A couple of young girls came in, asked a guy to slide over so they could sit at the bar together. He slid over. They sat down and waited. About 7 minutes went by and they got up and left because they didn't get served or even acknowledged. After an hour and a half of service that was GARBAGE, I decided I was going to get an Uber and find somewhere else to eat. While I was waiting for my ride, the bartender came over and I told her I needed to cash out. She asked if everything was OK, I said, YES, except for the wings I didn't get. She offered to put them in for me. I declined. I would have ordered the PO Boy thing that they recommended after the wings...the thing Guy Fieri featured, which is why I came there. Very disappointed! I may try this place again if I am back in San Diego for a few extra days, but based on my experience, try it at...

I hate to rate this restaurant so low as the food was incredible but the service was some of the worst I have ever had. My friends and I had lunch on 10/27. When we entered the restaurant, no one greeted us. We had to ask at the bar whether to grab a table or wait to be seated. We were directed to grab a table by someone seated at the bar and they would be right with us. I'm assuming he worked there but maybe not as I never saw him move from his seat. We seated ourselves on the patio. It took almost 15 minutes before anyone came to the table. A young woman dropped off menus and walked away. No inquiry of whether we wanted to order drinks. She came back about 10 minutes later with a pitcher of water, filled glasses for each of us and walked away. We tried to let her know we were ready to order but she ignored us. She returned again when another table sat down near us. We again indicated we were ready to order. She nodded her head our way but instead went to the other table. When I saw this person had zero personality or pep in her step, it's no exaggeration. We finally ordered and our food came very quickly. It was absolutely delicious. The server never refilled our waters or asked if we wanted any other drinks. The food is appropriately spicy for Cajun food and we certainly needed additional drinks. She never returned to clear our empty dishes. I had to go find her server to request the check. I found her hanging out behind the bar. We waited more than 10 minutes for her to return to process the check. My friend again had to go look for her and found her hanging out behind the bar doing absolutely nothing. Sadly, even though the food is great we will never return or...

If you’re wondering why there is such a discrepancy in the reviews for NOLA (they skew either super-positive or super-negative), it’s because there is ZERO consistency in the kitchen. We live nearby and have given them about 10-12 good tries. 3-4 of them were good, and the rest were awful.

You can order a fried shrimp po-boy one day and it’s delicious, walk in the next day and order the same thing and it’s like a completely different restaurant - different bread, different fried breading, different shrimp, dressed differently, weird fries, etc…

I’m a native of the Deep South gulf coast, lived a few hours from New Orleans and recently moved to San Diego. So I know my way around Cajun and creole food pretty well. Some of the food at NOLA tries hard to be authentic, but every dish seems to be missing that real authenticity you are used to when you eat it regularly. They also have a huge problem with over-salting their food. I had a cup of gumbo one day that was so salty it slapped the spoon. Asked the waitress to taste it in the kitchen, and gumbo was quickly 86’d off the menu that day. This is a very common and recurring issue here.

In short, it’s really hit-or-miss. If you catch them on a good day, it’s acceptable to good. Other days, it can be anywhere from pretty rough to simply awful. (And I’ll go to my grave saying I love remoulade, but theirs is trash. I have NEVER tasted “remoulade” like that anywhere in Louisiana at any time in my 48 years. There’s something very odd that I can’t put my finger on, but it needs to re-tooled.)

Enter at your own risk. You might be one of the luck ones! If so, go buy a lottery ticket...