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I know it has been a ridiculously long time since this blog was updated, but we are in the process of relaunching it. Look for new reviews in the near future along with the latest news and happenings in the Baton Rouge food scene. Thanks for your support!

Nino's Italian

Nino’s Italian

7512 Bluebonnet Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA
225.757.9300

www.ninos-italian.com

I often visit other blogs and read online reviews of area restaurants to get an idea of new places to check out.  A reviewer of Nino’s on Urbanspoon.com did a great job of describing Nino’s, so I had to quote him.  Eric says, “If you love Olive Garden, you will probably hate Nino’s”.

Hate is seldom used within the context of a compliment, but here it clearly is.  Chef Elton Hyndman uses fresh ingredients, and makes everything from scratch.  From the hot, fresh sourdough bread you receive at the beginning of your meal to the fresh pasta and sauces, everything is house made, and you can taste the difference.  And it’s something he is proud of, as well he should be.  A visit to the restaurant’s website doesn’t just give you a scanned copy of the restaurant menu.  Each item on the menu is photographed and described in detail, down to the steps taken in preparation.

The restaurant is small, and serves as a good setting for an intimate romantic night out without the kids.  That’s exactly what my wife and I did to celebrate her birthday.  We made a reservation (which is a good idea given its limited seating capacity), and were seated promptly when we arrived.

We first sampled the gnocchi appetizer.  Fresh potato pasta dumplings topped with a basil cream sauce.  When prepared properly, these are extremely light and delicate and just melt in your mouth.  Nino’s nailed it, as these were easily the best I’ve ever eaten.

Gnocchi

Caesar salads followed, and were fresh and tasty as well.  An excellent example of the care Chef Elton puts into his food is shown in the crouton for the salad.  A thin slice of homemade sourdough bread is topped with pepper, olive oil, and parmesan and toasted in the oven.  This type of attention to detail is what separates good restaurants from great restaurants.

For entrees, we had the lasagna and gorgonzola pasta.  The lasagna is filled with marinated and grilled zucchini and summer squash, along with seasoned ground beef.  The beef is browned and seasoned using a spinach-basil-lemon juice puree that really helps to alleviate some of the heaviness often associated with lasagna.  The pasta and marinara are of course house made and as fresh as you can find anywhere.

Lasagna

The gorgonzola pasta was very delicious, consisting of sautéed mushrooms and peppers swimming in a brandy-gorgonzola cream sauce atop fresh fettuccine.  Eating fresh pasta is kinda like seeing HD television for the first time.  Once you have experienced it, what you knew before vastly pales in comparison.

Gorgonzola pasta

Of course we had to try dessert, and typically we would have opted for a traditional Italian favorite, especially given the fact that I had been told the tiramisu was outrageously good.  However, I am fanatic about chocolate chip cookies.  They are one of the greatest things ever produced by man.  When I saw them on the menu and read the description, I was sold.  These are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, baked to order, and served with fresh cream and cold milk.  It would be an insult to even try to put into words how good these cookies are.  You just have to check them out yourself.

Cookies

Nino’s is not to be missed.  It is among the best restaurants our city has to offer.  Period.

Portico

11777 Coursey Blvd. (near Sherwood Forest)

Baton Rouge, LA 70816

225.778.7746

http://www.porticoetc.com

Portico is one of BR’s newest eateries, housed in the former Calendar’s restaurant near the very busy intersection of Coursey Blvd and Sherwood Forest.  While the look and feel of the restaurant as well as their website is nicely polished and quite appealing, the service and food are sorely lacking.

The layout is very open with an outdoor patio area complete with misters adjacent to the bar.  The décor is modern and very appealing.  I visited on a Saturday evening and my party was seated promptly.  Our waiter seemed a bit stressed but got drinks going pretty quickly while we looked over the menu.

The menu is fairly straightforward, consisting of mostly bar type food.  Nothing really stood out as unique or special.  They offer a variety of common appetizers such as spinach and artichoke dip, chips and queso, cheese fries and wings.  Pizza is on the menu as well, a variety of sandwiches and burgers, steaks, salads, very common items you would expect to find at an average eatery.  We opted to skip the appetizers and just order our entrees.

I ordered the flatboy, a meaty, pressed sandwich that sounded right up my alley, complete with a variety of meats that included pork, ham, turkey and roast beef, covered in Swiss cheese and served with barbeque sauce and gravy on the side.  I ordered the twice baked potatoes as a side item.  The sandwich was good, but the potatoes were cold and had little flavor.  Overall all of our food was cold, which implies that it sat too long waiting to be served to us.

Other food sampled by members of my party included the turkey & avocado club, spaghetti & meatballs, and grilled chicken sandwich.  The sandwiches and spaghetti were reported as good, but the fries were cold and soggy, and the presentation very sloppy.

Turkey & Avocado Club with Grits

  

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Flatboy sandwich with Twice-Baked Potatoes

Brownie (with whipped cream in place of melted ice cream)

The service was very lacking as well, as I asked for a beer prior to receiving my entrée and did not see it until I was nearly done eating.  Halfway during the meal, the table behind us was bussed and cleaned in a procedure that sounded like a bull passing through a china cabinet.

Service continued to go downhill when we were done and it came time for the check.  My wife asked the waiter if they do anything for birthdays, since it was mine, and he replied that he did not know but would check with management.  He then mentioned something about dessert, not specifically indicating that it was complimentary, but nevertheless, I decided to try the brownie with ice cream. 

He returned a short time later to inform me that all of the ice cream had melted, but if I still wanted the dessert he would get it.  So, he proceeded to bring it to me, sans ice cream.  It was decent, but nothing special. 

When the bill came, we were somewhat surprised to see a charge for the dessert, first given the fact that most restaurants will comp that for a birthday, and second because one key component of it was missing.  I was not in a mood to argue, but my wife did speak with the manager who informed her that the freezer was low on Freon and the ice cream had melted.  He did offer his apologies and said to ask for him on a return visit to “make it up to us”.  Later when giving this more thought (and ironically watching an episode of Restaurant Impossible) it occurred to me that if the refrigeration was not working properly then perhaps food safety was jeopardized. 

All in all, issues like this invariably point to bad management.  A responsible, competent manager is accountable for all staff, and communicates basic information to them to enable them to do their jobs properly.  Additionally, the manager should visit all tables to follow up and ensure that the customer is happy.  In this modern day of social media it is too risky to chance upsetting a customer and have that bad experience spread virally across the internet for thousands to see.

It’s a real shame that Portico doesn’t match its sleek, modern look with excellent service and an innovative menu.  Perhaps a few more negative experiences will kick start a much needed change.

Podnuh's Rib House and Grill

9655 Perkins Rd. Suite A (at Bluebonnet)

Baton Rouge, LA

225.215.1730

Since 1977, Podnuh’s has operated several barbecue restaurants throughout Louisiana, serving cafeteria style barbecue favorites in a serving line setting.  This new establishment is modeled more around a typical full service restaurant with a wait staff to take your order.  In addition to the Podnuh’s favorites like brisket, chicken and rib platters, the menu features soups, salads, steaks, seafood and desserts.

On my visit I sampled the chicken platter, which includes ½ a chicken smoked, along with two sides and Texas toast.  The chicken was tasty with good smoke flavor, but some bites came across a bit dry for my taste.  The sweet potato fries were excellent, crispy outside with a soft center, not soggy and very flavorful.  Also, the potato salad was very good, with a good tang from the mustard and slight sweetness from a small amount of relish.  It’s a bit creamier than other potato salads I’ve had, but personally I prefer that.

The sauce is served on the side, and personally isn’t my favorite.  It’s more of a Carolina type sauce, with a vinegar base and a thin consistency.  I prefer the thicker, sweeter barbecue sauces.  Still, it did have good flavor and complimented the chicken nicely.

My friend had the brisket platter and was quite pleased.  His main report was that it tastes just like the Podnuh’s he is used to eating.  The beans are interesting in that they are served with small bits of brisket in the sauce.  Something that I’m sure very few people complain about, as they are quite tasty.

The restaurant is very clean and laid out nicely, with a nice full bar and plenty of TVs.  The service is great, and wait staff seemed knowledgeable about the menu, able to answer several questions.  The prices seemed a bit more than I remembered from the old Podnuh’s but understandable, given the fact that it is a full service restaurant.

All in all, I would recommend giving them a shot.  True barbecue purists may not find it quite up to par, but for the average diner it is a good destination for tasty eats.

Brisket platter with baked beans

Chicken platter with sweet potato fries and potato salad

Tommy's Fish House

37306 Old Perkins Rd. (near Airline Hwy.)

Prairieville, LA 70769

225-325-3911

http://www.tommyfishhouse.com

For over three decades, the Delaune family has been in the seafood business, providing the South Louisiana area with fresh seafood direct from their own private dock at Bayou Bienvenu.  After Hurricane Katrina displaced the family from their home in St. Bernard Parish, they came to Prairieville to seek out a new start.

They started humbly, selling fresh seafood from a truck parked near the intersection of Airline Highway and Old Perkins Road.  Before long business had increased and ironically just one week after Hurricane Gustav hit the area, Tommy’s Fish House was opened.

Tommy’s houses a seafood market and a restaurant offering a variety of great local seafood, as well as other tasty items.  All the staples are here;  poboys, soups, stews, étoufées, as well as a variety of boiled and fried seafood favorites.  Boiled seafood is done well, with seasoning that delivers great flavor without being overly hot.  I had the crawfish, and it was done well, easily peeled and adequately seasoned.  Another highlight from the menu that I sampled was the Pepper Jack Crab Dip.  Jumbo lump crab is mixed with a pepper jack cream sauce to create a flavorful appetizer.  For the non-seafood folks, Tommy’s serves up a good burger as well as a few tasty chicken dishes.  They also frequently offer house specials where chef Michael Summers showcases his culinary skills.

Pepper Jack Crab Dip

In my opinion, the real thing that sets Tommy’s apart from the plethora of seafood restaurants in our area is the service.  Manager Chalin Delaune is committed to customer service, and is heavily involved in ensuring that the customer has a great experience.  He’s well plugged into the social media aspect of modern business and fully realizes its importance in maintaining customers.  No negative opinion or experience gets past him without a sincere effort to make it right for all involved.

By the end of the year, the business will split into the restaurant fully taking over the current building and the seafood market moving into the building next door.  The seafood market will be expanded into a full service fresh market offering an even larger assortment of fresh seafood as well as house made sausage and other specialty meats.  For the hunters out there, Tommy’s will also have facilities available for cleaning and prep of wild game.  But the biggest addition will be the installation of a crawfish holding system.  Tanks are being installed along with a complex aquatic system that will facilitate the holding and cleaning of up to ten thousand pounds of live crawfish.  This will ensure that customers have access to the freshest, cleanest, and best tasting crawfish in the region.

So whether you’re looking for a great meal or fresh ingredients to prepare yourself at home, give Tommy’s a try.  They are located in northern Ascension parish, in the Oak Grove area, across Old Perkins Rd from the Prairieville Wal-Mart, and are open for lunch 6 days a week (Tues-Sun) and dinner 5 nights per week (Tues-Sat).

Gulf Coast Seafood & Tourism Bash Dine Around

Say what you will about BP and the oil spill that affected the Gulf in April 2010, but it should definitely be noted in your assessment the effort put forth after the fact. As part of their very extensive and highly ambitious campaign to promote gulf seafood, BP put together the Gulf Coast Seafood and Tourism Bash, strategically held to coincide with the Allstate Sugar Bowl and BCS National Championship games, happening this week in New Orleans. The event featured gulf coast seafood at official football galas and pregame parties, as well as vacation giveaways to prime gulf coast destinations.

As a part of the overall bash, I was privileged to be a part of the Dine Around event held Friday night. A mixture of state and local officials, bloggers and media people boarded two coach buses for a culinary tour of the city. A typical New Orleans party atmosphere was present immediately upon boarding the bus with music blaring and dancing in the aisle. An NOPD police escort promptly delivered us to our first destination, Borgne restaurant.

Named for Lake Borgne, this is the latest addition to Chef John Besh’s growing arsenal of great eateries. Its focus is to celebrate the great coastal seafood of Louisiana, and that’s the only seafood you’ll find here, because thankfully, it’s all they use. Also, the restaurant features a menu with an Isleno influence, something that as a former president of the Canary Islanders Heritage Society of Louisiana means a lot to me. Borgne is located next to the Superdome in the Hyatt hotel, and welcomes you with a spacious and welcoming atmosphere. My favorite aspect of the décor are the many references to the lake and its surrounding communities, and the columns made of wire mesh filled with polished oyster shells. Of course the real highlight is the food, and as we have come to expect Besh does not disappoint. Alongside his executive chef Brian Landry, Besh offers some very tasty items. I sampled a variety of things, from the rich, decadent oyster stew, meat pies with white bbq sauce, duck poppers with jalapeno and bacon, and fried oysters amandine everything was excellent. I look forward to making a trip back there very soon.

So then back to the party bus and off to our next stop, Café NOMA. Located in City Park at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Café NOMA’s food has an artistic flare that matches its environment. We were treated to beautiful appetizers of yellowfin tuna tataki, deviled shrimp with truffled eggs, crabmeat caprese, and Citron oyster shooters. Lt. Governor Dardenne gave some remarks regarding the Louisiana seafood industry, we had more drinks, and it was off to the final destination of the tour.

We traveled back to the French Quarter and were deposited around the corner from Muriel’s Jackson Square, where a jazz band greeted us. Upstairs at Muriel’s more drinks and food were flowing. Fried oysters with remoulade, seafood beignets, mini crab cakes, and chilled jumbo gulf shrimp were just some of the tasty items being passed around.

While it was impressive to meet some big name Louisiana people like Chef Besh and Lt. Governor Dardenne, the real star of the evening was the food. Food that featured the best seafood anywhere, Louisiana seafood. I’m sure being raised eating it makes me a bit biased, but I’ve eaten lobster in New England, crabs in Maryland, and clam chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and nothing compares to fresh seafood from the gulf. And if there’s anyone out there who doesn’t think New Orleans isn’t resilient and isn’t back better than ever, you obviously weren’t there this weekend.

Chef John Besh's latest restaurant, Borgne

Quick Bite

Just a quick note about a new place in Prairieville. Stopped by the Santa Fe Cattle Company NYE and had some drinks and apps. Cheap drinks and good service! Will check it out further and do a full review in the near future.