Since I'm off today, the wife and I decided to take a trip to New Orleans for the long weekend. We left Saturday morning and our first stop was at Sylvain. We had never been there before and I had read a lot of great things about it on here, so I was really excited to try it. We ordered the chicken liver crostini and fried eggplant apps, the chicken sandwich, and a salad special that featured mixed greens, radishes, strawberries, and pecans.

After we ordered we waited... and waited... and waited some more. After about 3 minutes a guy (not our server) brought the chicken sandwich and salad to our table. We informed him that we never received our apps. Within a few minutes our female server came and apologized and said they'd be out in a minute. No problem. However, 10 minutes passed and they still weren't there. This led me to believe that she forgot to put in the order for the apps. My fears were confirmed when she finally showed up with the fried eggplant, but no crostini... instead she had chili-roasted almonds. She said, "Hmm, oh, I'm thinking it was sent to the wrong table" and she retreated to the back. So, we sat and ate the other stuff, which was all mediocre at best. We were done eating and ready to pay the check, when she arrived with a box with the crostini inside and told us we wouldn't be charged for them. Still, it was a very disappointing experience. When she went to charge my credit card, I opened the box and had one of the crostini, and it was the best thing we had there. Unfortunately, due to this poor experience, I doubt I'll ever go back.

That evening we headed to my wife's favorite New Orleans restaurant, Ralph's on the Park. They had a special cocktail, a King Cake Martini, which sounded good so I decided to give it a try.

It was OK, and packed a surprisingly decent punch. We then ordered our food. I ordered a City Park salad, and a Louisiana Legacy NY strip w/ bacon béarnaise. The wife chose the yaka mein app, and the shrimp and grits which are her favorite dish there.

My wife absolutely loved everything that she ordered, as usual. Mine, however, was simply OK. The salad was alright, and the steak, while it looked great, had an unusual amount of fat and gristle. It didn't seem like a prime steak, that's for sure. I was disappointed when I left, but I've had good meals there before and we are always treated like royalty, so I'll let it slide this time.

On Sunday we woke up and decided to try brunch at Patois, another restaurant we had never been to and that we've heard rave reviews about. We were given some complimentary muffins (lemon-almond and blueberry) with homemade apple butter that were awesome. I ordered the rabbit and biscuits w/ Italian sausage gravy, with a side of hogshead cheese grits. My wife had the chicken fried steak sandwich w/ pimento cheese and sage gravy, with a side of bacon braised greens. Everything we had was superb. My rabbit dish was truly one of the best things I've ever eaten. I was really impressed with this place; it definitely lived up to the hype and skyrocketed up my list of favorite places in the city.

Sunday evening we had reservations for Adolfo's. This was another first-time visit. I've heard mixed reviews about the place but it has always intrigued me so I decided to finally give it a shot. We had the crab and corn cannelloni as an app. I ordered the rack of lamb, and the wife had Veal Ocean (veal topped with a 1/2 crabmeat, 1/2 crawfish and shrimp cream sauce). Everything was really, really good. The standout was the veal dish, it was superb. The only bad thing is that we had an obnoxious group of drunks at the table next to us who were yelling and hollering the entire time and really spoiled what was otherwise a really nice meal.

For Christmas I had received a gift card for The Cheesecake Factory so we decided to use it today for lunch. I know this place receives a lot of hate, but I don't care. It is perhaps my favorite chain restaurant. I've never had a bad meal there and today was no exception. We ordered the fire-roasted artichoke for my wife, and I ordered the sweet tamale corn cakes, a French country salad (mixed lettuces, asparagus, beets, goat cheese, and pecans with vinaigrette), and the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp (a Thai curry dish). Everything was amazing. The salad was one of the best salads I've ever eaten, if not the best. The tamale cakes were a great combination of flavors, and the chicken-shrimp dish was fantastic. The biggest disappointment was the cheesecake. I selected the lemon cream/raspberry cheesecake, but it really wasn't all that good. The raspberry sauce on top was overkill.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend. There was some swings and misses, and some home runs.

Life's a feast... eat it up!