Brett Anderson slammed Dijon pretty hard in his review today... Anyone else...

I actually ate there last week and was hesitant to post a review because my experience was so pitiful.

Wife and I walk in, theres one other couple in the entire huge restaurant. We get seated quickly and ordered a round of drinks. Didn't hear from the waitress for a while, we could see her in the back preparing bread for God knows who.

Finally give our orders, food was completely meh, not one memorable taste or dish at all. I know I started with the pulled pork ravioli, everything on the plate was bland and white. My wife got the crab en phillo, was ok but had a bitter taste to it.

I got the duck entree, which they served pretty much well done, which is a shame because it actually had a chance to be decent. It had some type of mashed potatoes and string sweet potatoes with a corn relish, nothing special. My wife ordered a steak, medium rare, came medium well.

The one thing I observed that struck me the most, two couples came in after us and each had to stand at the front door for a while because the hostess was in the back bs'ing with the other staff. The owner came and talked to us after the meal and I didn't have the heart to tell him that his food was terrible and that his employees are not attentive, I just wanted to GTFO.

I got the bill and was pissed. No extra charges or wrong orders or anything like that, I just felt like I'd been had. I could have gone to Lilette, Gautreau's, Patois and a host of other restaurants and paid the same or less for an exponentially better meal.

TL;DR: it sucked

So much for my dinner plans at Dijon with drinks after at the Balcony tonight.

I would have rather paid double and eaten at August. I hate wasting money and time on blah food.

I read Anderson's article, and it's very similar to my experience. The building is really cool looking, but if you're from New Orleans, the location is a real head scratcher. You're not going to get any quality walk up or run off business there.

Damn, one of the first comments roasts it more, and coincidentally compared it to the same restaurants I did

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Would like to "add" to this excellent review with my own experiences and some thoughts. I've been there and know a number of people that have tried it. We all consider ourselves foodies as many of us have worked in some of the better rester aunts in NOLA , NY, LA. Some of us still do. From our experience I think this review is too kind. The food was moderately interesting to incredibly average to terrible. Anderson got it spot on with his "90's" comment, its as if the "chef" has a box of dvds (or vhs tapes given the style of food) from the cooking channel. Everything was like an old recipe from a failed once "hot" restaurant. Bluntly, Brodtmann (the owner) doesn't know anything about food, I mean that literally. As far as we could tell he has NO restaurant experience at all. We couldn't get him to say he has worked other than, "oh around". Again, sandwich shop, burritos fine, benefit of the doubt. But fine dinning? You can't fake or BS that and our take on him was literally that. He is the PT Barnum of resteraunteurs. It is a VERY hot trend right now to use local ingredients, vegetables, farms, meats etc. It allows the diner to be closer to the source, supposedly to guarantee quality and be able to "talk to the farmer, fisherman, the butcher" On his website the very FIRST line says "we embrace a true “Farm to Table” approach by utilizing the local farmers and fisherman to acquire only the most fresh & local ingredients". He came to our table and we all asked him questions ablaut the food and his experience. Questions like where the vegetables came from", where the seafood came from, what farms do you work with?. What are your favorite restaurants, what are your influences etc. These same questions asked at, Lilette, Couchon, Patois get REAL answers. Those owners and managers warm right up and you almost can't get them to stop talking. Not with Brodtmann, he suddenly started fidgeting and looking around as if he had to take care of other tables (which was funny because the room was virtually empty at 7:45) With Brodtmann we got "oh its all very fresh, we work with different farmers, trying to find who's best, depends on who has the best produce. etc. etc..He CLEARLY was lying, ...this has been proven by the trucks that pull up to the building (don't forget we live here, walk our dogs, our children)...Sysco the suppliers of schools and cafeterias nationwide, unloading guess what? Fish, meats vegetables. Small town Brodtmann, don't tell us you are doing something you are not. He also doesn't know anything about wine, big shocker. Same BS answers. The point here is don't try to masquerade as a "fine dinning, knowledgeable, and cutting edge business model" in a town FILLED with people and businesses that are the REAL DEAL. You get caught. He should sell used cars, that's how you feel when you leave. Buyers remorse.

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The owner was straight roasted, made me feel uncomfortable for him.

I heard that the chef has turned in his notice.
Chef Cody is too talented to be caught up in such a bad situation. I hope he turns up somewhere good and it works out for him.

That place will be closed within a month.

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and was trying to jump straight on to the farm to table trend without a well thought out product or the understanding of what he was doing.

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By all accounts, that was just a front and there was nothing "farm to table" about the operation.

Fitsmorris went to Dijion recently and said he got up and left without ordering after hearing the owner run his mouth.

Big fan of Appolline, I ate there for my birthday. I was also a huge fan of its predecessor, Dominique's on Magazine (RIP).