(650) 328-2722
Parking: street parking, nearby parking lot
http://www.nolas.com/
Last Visited: August 1, 2015
Food: 1-2 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 1 stars
Price: $$ to $$$
Bertilla recommended Nola because of her previous positive experience, so we decided to bring our party of six here to enjoy a nice night out. Although the menu specifically says that it's not all authentic, the food and service experience is so awful that you'll find numerous reviews on yelp where the restaurant apologizes for the experience. Rather than giving out more gift certificates to compensate for bad reviews, it would be better for Nola to fix its problems and train their staff better.
We arrived a few minutes before our 6:30p reservation and since we had more than half of the folks present, we were promptly seated. This is one of the two highlights of the meal.
- Chicken Andouille Gumbo - Roasted chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, holy trinity, okra, slow cooked dark roux - When the gumbo arrives at the table, the server pours a metal container of soup over the shallow bowl containing loose white rice. It's done so quickly that you must be paying attention right when it arrives, and it splatters onto the plate that is under the bowl. Pictured here is a cup serving. A triangle of corn bread is served on the side. Although there was a good amount of ingredients in the bowl, the soup is served lukewarm and that immediately makes it less satisfying. The flavor is also so mild compared to the deep rich flavors that gumbo should have. I was disappointed by this dish because of the temperature - it could have been a decent soup, but it was just too cold. The corn bread was okay, but nothing to write home about. Cup $5/Bowl $9
- Mama's Mac and Cheese - The mac and cheese comes in a little skillet and by far, this is the best dish that I tried this evening. The cheese sauce is super creamy and each bite is rich. If you choose to eat, this is the dish to get. This is the reason why the food rating was given two stars instead of just one star. $5
- Cluck and Oink - Mary's buttermilk dipped free range boneless chicken and half a rack of slow cooked baby back ribs glazed with Tam's sweet and spicy BBQ sauce, mardi gras slaw. When we asked our server about the fried chicken, we were told that there was a choice of dark or white meat. However, when we ordered this dish, we weren't asked what we preferred. After asking about this a few minutes after our order went in, the server said that it's automatically white meat, but that he would have it changed. This was the second high point of service all evening. It's a bit confusing to have a choice for one fried chicken and not for another. Also, knowing that we had asked this question, it would have been good for our server to mention the type of meat if we didn't get a choice. The batter on the chicken doesn't stick to the meat. The ribs were pretty disappointing - the bbq sauce tastes ok, but the ribs are completely dense and lack flavor. There's no smoke, no falling off the bone, just blah. The only benefit of getting this dish is that you get your choice of sides. The cole slaw is just ok. $24Service was disappointing. Our table of six ordered and received food roughly at the same time. When four people finished first, their dishes were cleared from the table which is fine, but who hands out dessert menus to the four people rather than waiting for the other two to finish eating? Nola does. There were empty tables around us. Why the rush?
Also, when it's more than 70 degrees outside and you use short glasses, please refill the water. We had to wave someone down to get them to stop and when she asked for water, the waiter filled her glass only despite all of the glasses being empty. He didn't bother to ask anyone else if they wanted water, and he took the carafe of water with him. They seemed to leave the water carafes with other tables, but not with ours.
As we left, none of the staff thanked us or said goodbye despite the fact that our waiter walked right past us.
Nola seems like a popular place to get a drink - there was a lounge area in addition to regular seating. Security shows up outside the door as the evening wears on, but as for food and service, I was thoroughly disappointed and don't have plans to return.
