| rev:text
| - I was really excited to come upon New Orleans cuisine in Pittsburgh, but I should have known: good Creole cuisine is hard to find outside of the Big Easy. Having been to New Orleans, I had an idea of what the food should taste like, and was sorely disappointed. I came around brunch and was really excited to see beignets with a chicory coffee dip as an option. That was an obvious choice. But as a main, at the recommendation of one of the waiters (not the one that was helping me), I decided on the shrimp and grits (was thrilled to see they use Anson Mill grits!) The shrimp and grits came first, smelled amazing... and that's where the excitement stopped. It was four small pieces of shrimp, swimming in a pool of spiced salt, with a small cake of grits hidden underneath. The salt content was unbelievable. It's been a long time since I've eaten ANYTHING that salty. And when I mentioned it to the waiter who had suggested it, all he had to say was "Oh, that's why I like it". Great. I didn't even finish it.
Suddenly I was really looking forward to the beignets. But the first course should have been an indicator of the quality I was going to get. The beignets were soggy, with the icing sugar just soaking into the dough... not hot and fluffy, like they do in New Orleans. This was a very poor imitation.
The icing on the entire meal, though, had to be my very unenthusiastic waiter, who clearly would have rather been anywhere else but there. Aside from introducing himself, very little was said and not once did I see even a hint of a smile. After receiving my food, he disappeared for a long while, I even had to go inside (I had been sitting outside) so I could ask for my bill because I didn't know where he'd been. All in all, a very disappointing experience from start to finish.
|