After reading your posts, it was obvious that Giovanni is very popular, but for whatever reason I didn't like the atmosphere as depicted on the website. After passing by and looking in on Saturday, I changed my opinion and thought it was nice and look forward to eating there soon. Eleven 79 is a place I would really like to try also, but in the end we chose Maximo's. Reservations for 7:15. Here is my humble opinion:

Atmosphere: B+
I liked it and so did the wifey. We were pretty dressed up for the occasion and felt comfortable even though others were much more casual. Nothing really to write home about but no complaints either. Dim lighting, small place but not too cramped. Decent bar. Young people and old people. I had a view of decatur so it was funny watching people walk by and peek in. Bathroom is upstairs and I didn't get to see too much of what was happening there. A large group of Asian people were staring me down and I didn't want to break up their party so instead of exploring I just went in to the bathroom and left.

Service: C
Our waiter had potential but he was struggling. Too many tables for him to really deliver a good performance. He did have some bus boys backing him on the water, but once the place got busy, you could tell he was struggling. His lack of attentiveness probably dissuaded us from getting coffee and dessert. But all in all it didn't downright suck.

Food: B
Appetizer was a saucer of pesto, slices of a hard dry cheese that had the consistency of parmesean (I forget what type of cheese) and the house bread. It was very fresh and about what I would expect but definitely no wow factor. My wife wanted a ceasar salad and they were charging $13 for a salad with crabmeat, but she doesn't eat meat or seafood so she asked for a ceasar without the crab so long as he wouldn't charge her $13 for it. He said no problem and they still charged $10 for what amounted to whole leaves of ramano in a light dressing and parm., and for croutons they toasted the house bread and put a type of flavored cream cheese on it which was pretty good. All in all, I liked the simplicity of the salad and the use of the bread for croutons with the addition of a homemade spread. . . but the 10 dollar charge was disappointing.

For entrees, she got alfredo and penne. Keep in mind,she is pasta alfredo fiend and one of the deciding factors to go to Maximo's, as silly as it sounds, was because the menu states that many sauces are made fresh daily including Alfredo. So she thought, okay . . . it won't be out of a jar and maybe the chef can put a little pizazz on the sauce. She liked it, but again, no wow factor. I was not impressed as I found it to be more buttery than creamy (maybe just a preference thing). For my entree I got (drumroll . . .) Chicken Marsala. Yeah, I know, but to mix it up I also got lamb lollipops which is offered as an appetizer. The marsala was $16 and the chops $10. The marsala sauce was very good, the chicken was thick and juicy and heavy on the mushrooms which I liked. It also came with a side of angel hair covered in a butter garlic sauce which both my wife and I agreed tasted better than her entree. I had the lamb cooked rare and it came with two interesting mint or sweet sauces (I couldn't really tell) one of which was red and the other green. It was very good and cooked to perfection.

Overall Grade: B
The atmosphere was probably our favorite part about the Maximo's. We both enjoyed the dinner, but we will definitely try other places the next time we head to New Orleans. All in all, I need to try a few more dishes there to really know how good the place can or can't be. But it was nice. We are both from New Orleans (she from Lafitte) and we live in Lafayette. We stayed at the Columns which was really the highlight of the weekend. Nothing but great things to say about the Columns. I have been to the bar a few times, but staying there was awesome.