Doris Metropolitan has two other locations, Houston and Costa Rica, besides this location in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The climate controlled meat aging room can be seen from the street through some windows. It also is adjacent to the reception area that is on the end of the room which has the kitchen on the other end. In between is a curved bar that is as much about eating as drinking. At the front of the kitchen is a counter with cuts of meat for sale by the pound. Lights are on but not overly so and music plays in the background. The fairly large polished wood tables are closely spaced and set with striped cloth napkins and a large paper napkin. The server said the paper napkin was so your flatware would never have to be on the bare table. Some of the tables use bench seating and others are set with armless chairs. Wine bottles and art cover the walls, the floor is concrete, there is exposed ductwork all of which does not provide much sound dampening. Service was friendly and helpful in making choices. A starter menu included a choice of caviar and champagne. The regular menu has a number of starters but for main dishes there were lamb and fish options but otherwise everything was cuts of beef. They do offer A-5 Japanese Wagyu as well as there regular steak options aged either 21 or 31 days. They also had some nightly specials.
Bread service was 3 housemade breads – sour dough, focaccia, and feta and caramelized onion – with 3 butters – 2 flavored and one plain. There was also a large plate of olive oil seasoned with balsamic and tomato bits. The breads were all hot, straight from the oven and good. The crusts were not real crisp but the interiors were nice and dense. The seasoned oil was very nice as were the butter choices. You could easily fill up here.
We started by splitting a nightly special of grilled octopus served on tomatoes topped with grilled okra all on a tzatziki sauce. It was probably the most tender octopus I’ve ever eaten and the server admitted it had been pre-cooked in a sous vide. It had a wonderful char on the outside and blended well with the tomatoes. Its grilled flavor was wonderful with the sauce as were the tasty halved cherry tomatoes. Very succulent, this was a great start.
Another special that night was spinalis steak which is the marbled cap meat from a ribeye – an unusual find. It was served on a butternut squash and celery root purée and topped with bok choy. The meat was cooked just as ordered and tender and beefy. It was a large portion and pretty heavy with all the tasty squash underneath.
We ordered 2 side dishes to split. The Truffle French Fries were plenty to split. The fries also seemed to have a dusting of cheese. They were a small cut and fairly crisp but I couldn’t tell if they were previously frozen.
Asparagus Gratin were grilled medium sized asparagus covered with cheese and pinenuts. They were nice but the cheese hardened quickly and they weren’t peeled so some were hard to cut.
For dessert the server recommended the Chocolate Nemesis which had pistachio ganache, chocolate sauce, Amarena cherries, caramelized pistachios and pistachio ice cream. The main square of chocolate was dense, smooth and fudgy. It was good with the ice cream and the wonderful cherries. The pistachio ice cream was mildly flavored but mostly a vehicle to moisten the decadent chocolate. It was plenty to split.
