Ernest's Orleans Restaurant

Review summary

1. S

   Sharon

   Shreveport

   11 reviews

   5.0

   11 reviews

   Dined on February 2, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   As always, wonderful food and excellent service by the staff!
   

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2. s

   saralyn

   Los Angeles

   1 review

   5.0

   1 review

   Dined on January 30, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Excellent in every way. Can’t wait to return next time I’m in town.
   

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3. E

   Erik

   VIP

   Washington DC

   44 reviews

   4.0

   44 reviews

   Dined on January 25, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 3

   We had a wonderful evening and meal at Ernest’s Orleans! The dishes were delicious and creative and the service was very good. My only complaint was that the restaurant was very dark! It was hard to see our food and menus. I recommend the staff turn up the lights just a bit.
   

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4. T

   Teresa

   Shreveport

   1 review

   4.0

   1 review

   Dined on January 25, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 3

   The service was excellent. The food was really good. It was a little dark in the restaurant but we enjoyed the experience.
   

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5. L

   Larry and Lina

   Shreveport

   1 review

   4.0

   1 review

   Dined on January 25, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 3

   I recently dined at Ernest about 2 weeks ago, and I have to commend the team for their dedication to creating a welcoming experience. From the moment I walked in, the ambiance was warm. Some of the staff was attentive, very friendly, and nice. Our server did a great job—friendly, knowledgeable, and genuinely tried his hardest to provide a great experience. I feel that he may have been overwhelmed with his tables or maybe had too many, which I know is hard, however this did effect our evening and the dining time ended up being about 3 hours, when we were hoping to be finished in less than 2 hours with a reservation. Our server invested in making our visit enjoyable. While I truly appreciated the effort put into the dining experience, I found the food didn’t quite meet my expectations, especially considering the price. The presentation was lovely, and I could tell that quality ingredients were used, but the flavors and execution fell a bit short. I had hoped for a more memorable meal given the cost, and I left feeling that the value wasn’t quite aligned with the pricing. That said, I do recognize the passion behind the restaurant, and I believe there’s potential for growth. With a few adjustments in the kitchen and more staff development, this could be a fantastic spot. I’d love to give it another try in the future and see how it evolves!
   

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6. D

   David

   VIP

   New Orleans

   8 reviews

   3.0

   8 reviews

   Dined on January 24, 2025

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   It's been approximately 5 years since I visited Earnest's. The quality of the food compared to the value has decreased in my opinion. It almost seems that some of the recipes have changed (ie Earnest Limestone Salad) and the taste is different. I used to crave the Earnest rolls and the Remoulade sauce and fried shrimp and now the rolls are replaced with a baked bread drenched in olive oil or butter that tastes greasy and the remoulade is different and so is the batter on the shrimp. Sometimes changes are good, but in the case of this staple restaurant the changes made are not.
   

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7. B

   Brian

   Shreveport

   5 reviews

   5.0

   5 reviews

   Dined on January 18, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 2
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Seafood gumbo (a bowl) was not up to the quality standard as it has been in the past. Some type of seasoning in it was overwhelming. We ended taking half of it home. We simply did not like it. Everything else we had (marinated crab claws, shrimp appetizer, bread & wine) was perfect & delicious. The service was OUTSTANDING. Jordan was very attentive. We did not complain to him about the gumbo as it was probably only a one time occasion that that happened. We will be back again.
   

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8. C

   Christopher

   Shreveport

   4 reviews

   4.0

   4 reviews

   Dined on January 11, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Overall we had a very pleasant experience. The service was outstanding. My only complaint was my ribeye had way too much fat on it. It was a poor cut of meat. I should have sent it back.
   

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9. J

   J

   VIP

   New Orleans

   7 reviews

   2.0

   7 reviews

   Dined on January 9, 2025

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 3

   Quality of food is subpar and cost of overall bill was absurd. Would have been nice to be informed that requesting Oscar style for steak was a $70 up charge… high end steak restaurants such as Flemings and Ruth’s do not even charge more than $20 for Oscar style- that was an insane rip off!! Besides a few other up charges the server managed to swindle in.. crazy, never again!
   

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10. J

    Jason

    Nashville

    1 review

    3.0

    1 review

    Dined on January 1, 2025

    1. Overall 3
    2. Food 1
    3. Service 2
    4. Ambience 3

    We visited on New Years Eve for a dinner for four and celebration of my wife's birthday and having had previous meals at Ernest's, we were expecting a high-end experience and a great meal. I understand that this was an incredibly busy night, but the difference between our last visit and this one was night and day. Our waiter didn't introduce himself and in fact I never learned his name, he came to the table right after we were seated asking if we were ready to order, having assumed that we'd looked at the menu while waiting in the lobby for an hour past our reservation (there were no menus in the lobby to even look at). We ordered our drinks and everything from brewed tea to soft drinks tasted like they ran it through potting soil (Ernest's, please check your water supply, something is WRONG). We ordered one of our favorite apps, a large marinated crab claws, and the claws were neither large in quantity or size. While he brought plenty of bread, the experience of the waiter cleaning the table before bringing entrees out didn't happen, we had to do it ourselves. We ordered a filet, a ribeye, a snapper, and a pasta dish. The steaks were barely cooked, and not like ordered rare, like barely cooked. Cold. Rushed out the door. They tasted like they were cooked over charcoal briquets that had not yet ashed over for BBQ grilling, there was a chemical flavor to them. My pasta was bland, completely. No flavor at all to me. Another person tried it and said they tasted the same potting soil water in the noodles, like they'd been boiled in it, but I didn't detect it. The snapper was okay, but nothing great. No wrapped lemon like past visits, our mushrooms on the steaks were bland and flavorless. Onion rings were good though. We didn't stay for dessert at all. This was a $350 birthday meal of four entrees and an app that could have been beaten handily by Olive Garden. We'll probably come back in the hopes that this was an outlier and not a trend, but it will probably be a while.
    

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