I've noticed a dip in restaurant quality lately...

quote:

---

Rocca

---

I don't go here nearly enough, and that's a shame. They are constantly changing up the menu and running specials. They basically add 5-10 items every seasonal change. It's impressive.

quote:

---

Mansur's

---

We went years kinda ignoring it, and now we go twice a month just to sit in the bar and have some snacks. Nothing misses here. My friend and I split the burger (which is double patty) the other day and they didn't want to just give us a knife, so they made us two single patty burgers with our own individual basket of fries. It's little things like that that keep me coming back to a place with loyalty. They could have handed us a knife and a plate like 90% of places would.

I'll add Cocha, Cecelia, Ruth's (just has never even come close to dipping in quality like corporate locations, so worth a mention), Umami, Modesto, Mestizo.

permanent food truck at the bar Pelican 2 Mars. It's called louisiana sandwich co. Solid sammies and the dude that runs it is cool.

I've never had a bad meal at Rocca, and I've had a great many meals there. They also probably have the best happy hour in town.

I'm sure I'm missing someone, but Zorba's for dinner comes to mind.

quote:

---

I don't live in Louisiana so I can't speak for local to you, but I'm seeing this everywhere. Service sucks, quality is going down, and the value for dollar just isn't there anymore.

It really forces me to go out less and less because I'm so selective now.

---

Glad we got to grow up in the 80's 90's and early 2000's. Seems like majority of everything in today's society is just much worse and 10x more expensive.

I agree with pricing but quite literally haven’t noticed a single change in quality in what’s usually a good restaurant

Wow if Louisiana’s dining scene is going downhill what exactly is there to offer anymore lmao

quote:

---

Wow if Louisiana’s dining scene is going downhill what exactly is there to offer anymore lmao

---

I mean, it's not specifically that.

A large % of the service industry left to pursue other things when their workplaces were shut down for months on end. When things went back to normal, we noticed a ton of places had almost an entire staff who had never waited tables before.

Just like.. not being able to speak to anything on the menu. No knowledge of what the bar serves ("Do you want vodka or tequila?" when someone ordered a martini). Kinda confused and not sure what to do. We helped multiple people open bottles of wine during this time because they were sent out to our table having never opened one before.

This has actually gotten a lot better now that we're several years out, but it was on the decline for a while for sure.

Post-Covid it’s rare that I feel good about the whole exchange after leaving a restaurant

quote:

---

Sunday Brunch at Jubans is another.

---

Did this one today.

Mimosa Bar:
Bottle of Sparkling, Fresh Fruit, Juices, Berries.

Starters:

Crawfish Wontons
Jalapeño Cream Cheese, Satsuma Pepper Jelly, Cilantro.

Blue Crab
Crab Fingers, Crab Beignet, Corn Relish, Blue Crab Butter.

Nola BBQ Shrimp Toast
Gulf Shrimp, Leidenheier French Bread, Nola BBQ, Dill.

Egg’s and the Duck Fat Hashbrowns!

Stuffed for sure.

For us, it isn't easy, but we have taken a lot of steps before and after our expansion to make sure our food quality is improving and we are staying on top of servers with training. Most restaurants that aren't high-end are buying frozen and prepackaged and reheating, which is why the food in most places tastes the same.

We hired a CIA-trained chef to create new dishes and keep up with a rotational menu based on the seasons and availability of ingredients. This is bringing new items online almost weekly and adding a variety so that regular customers always have new dishes to try when they visit.

Long-term servers help a lot, but when we have to add new servers to the team, we focus on teaching them not to be order takers and on interacting with customers. Some have it and some don't, and some don't make the cut, even for casual location, a restaurant can't settle for bad employees, especially when they are the face of your restaurant.

The reality is that it takes a hands-on approach to be successful in the restaurant business, day in and day out; strong owners and management have to be present and to keep the restaurant moving in the desired direction. Even then, a bad employee or two can crash a culture quickly and destroy years of work.