This restaurant is located in the Royal Sonesta Hotel in the heart of the French Quarter. It is an ambitious but needed addition to the dining scene there. A large restaurant divided into several smaller rooms with attentive yet casual service. In fact I found us often involved in lengthy conversations with members of the serving team.

It is a bit of eclectic menu and may try to do too many things but perhaps over time that will evolve. Most of the items would seem conventional offerings but the chef has chosen to put his own twist on the final product. Sometimes that was good and other times not so. One major shortcoming is the bread service which came out hard and cold and was so unpalatable we didn’t even touch it. Based on the crostini that came with the bone marrow, the place is capable of much better.

The meal started with a small amuse that didn’t spark any fires but it provided something while we made our choices. The staff was very willing to split most any of their things so we were able to try more stuff and that was very nice but we did have to cancel a couple of our accompanying vegetables because even splitting orders the portions were large and we just filled up too fast. The “Death by Gumbo” is one of their trademarks and was quite tasty but a very different presentation. The crab beignets were delicious and really didn’t need the variety of sauces beneath them. They were filled with sweet and wonderful crab meat – not filler. The bone marrow was very tasty and as I said the crostini an excellent medium for serving. They actually had real marrow spoons but since it was a cross split they weren’t really needed. I found the addition of pickled vegetables annoying as it dwarfed the marrow taste but they were easily removed. The pasta was delicious and was a most lovely creamy mushroom taste. The veal chop was huge and cooked nicely but seemed to need something. Maybe that was just me being really full at that point, though!