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2014-02-02
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A friend booked this private kitchen for her birthday. She shared the menu with me, and I was excited. It's been a few years since I was last in NOLA, and I'm a huge fan of the Creole and Cajun flavors. The process is also unusual -- you show up at 8 pm and mill around in a common area downstairs while they pass the appetizers around. You're allowed to bring your own wine -- free corkage -- and they pour it for you. You have a view of the open kitchen (which you walk through to go upstairs). The
On to the food. First, some bread with a pesto-cheese spread. Very nice, but was that because we were hungry? Then a platter of crab legs -- nothing special. Finally some tiny jalapeno muffins which had no taste at all -- not spicy, not muffiny, nothing. But we were onto our second glasses of wine, so it didn't really seem to matter.
At 8:30, we proceeded upstairs. Our pary of ten had its own private room -- dimply lit, long table. Door closed. We sat. More wine was poured. We waited. First came the chicken-seafood gumbo. Over-spiced, no kick. Disappointing. Next, again after a wait, a small platter of crawfish (flown in to HK?) salad. The crawfish was friend in batter so it was crispy, but again -- I'd eaten a tastier cousin at a cha chaan teng the previous night.
Again a long wait, and then the main dishes appeared all at once -- the idea was to share, family style. There was a big bowl of white rice (which I did not taste), another of jambalaya (bland, sticky, short on sausage -- call it low-quality chow faan), chicken curry (tasteless), mustard greens with bacon (I guess no one's flying in any collard), a saucer of REALLY CREAMY and thick mashed potatoes (heart attack central?), and a HUGE stack of ribs in bbq sauce. I'll give them this -- the ribs were soft and fell off the bone easy. (Later, though, a friend complained that he only took one rib because the one he'd got was mostly fat. I actually like the fat, so I didn't care about that.) The sauce was also good -- not overpowering, not too sweet. There was also corn bread, which was soft and fluffy but unremarkable. It was small so I ate mine all at once (two bites). My wife, though, said she saved half of hers to end the meal with, and when it was cold, all she could taste was BAKING SODA. More on this below.
And finally, AGES later, slices of pecan pie. Clumpy crust, unsweet filling, but really nice crunchy pecans.
We finally left at 11. It might have been a good evening, but it took TOO LONG. And if the food isn't up to scratch, what's the point of dwelling?
But the worst was to come. Later that night, I started bloating. I couldn't sleep at night, for reflux. I was bloated all the next day. I met my friend, and he too had a similarly uncomfortable experience. All I can guess is, the ribs must have been tenderized with baking soda. Who knows what else had baking soda in it -- the curry, the soup, the so-called jambalaya? My goodness, we paid 500 + tips for this?? Never again.
Other Info. :
Perhaps the main chef was on leave because of the CNY? But that only excuses them from the lackadaisical dishes and general tastelessness -- not from the baking soda!!
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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