| rev:text
| - Dined here recently with friends, and had an enjoyable experience, but not so great food.
The pros:
Inviting and cozy atmosphere.
Really friendly and attentive service.
Excellent live music.
Great cocktails, ok wine list.
The cons:
The food was boring and inconsistent. We had the artichoke hearts, crab puffs, and escargots for appetizers. I didn't get the sense that the seafood was fresh. Rather it was definitely of the frozen variety. And everything was made with frozen puff pastry. Even the escargot were covered with puff pastry. I think it was to cover for the frozen seafood? Anyway, the appetizers reminded me of Pinterest recipes.
A big red flag for me is when there are too many components in a dish. That usually means that the ingredients aren't good enough to stand out on their own or the chef doesn't know how to edit. I think we experienced a little of both.
My husband and I both got the special. It was a blackened pork tenderloin with shrimp accompanied by mushrooms in a sherry sauce with red potatoes. Each component sounded good. However, the presentation and preparation was a train wreck.
The tenderloin came on skewers. What? The shrimp were over cooked. The meat and shrimp were served in a jumble of quartered red potatoes and mushrooms. Everything was covered in some sort of Cajun seasoning that was reminiscent of Durkee or McCormick. Then it was all topped with some sort of cornstarch thickened sherry sauce. The whole thing tasted like it was straight off the Sysco truck and reheated.
One of our companions ordered the filet. She let us have a taste, and the steak was good. But it came with a buerre blanc dipping sauce. I'm not sure what chef would pair buerre blanc with steak to begin with, but just like my meal, it was clear that the buerre blanc was another corn starch imposter.
Dessert was a dark chocolate creme brûlée. It was dry and pedestrian.
Really I think this place deserves 2.5 stars, but Yelp doesn't do half stars, so I'll be generous. Lousiannes clearly has a loyal customer base and is a popular place. I would definitely go back for the cocktails and even the appetizers because the price point wasn't outrageous for all the puff pastry and I could still enjoy them now that I know what to expect.
But I would not return for dinner. If I'm going to spend $30 for an entree, I expect fresh ingredients, sauces made to order, and a chef that knows how to cook. Madison has too many restaurants that offer far superior food to Lousiannes, and that's what will drive my future dining decisions.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)