Bayona

“A true Quarter gem. Stellar courtyard, memorable down to the bathrooms, exceptional staff, exquisite cuisine, high caliber guest experience. I try to vary my dishes knowing they'll all exceed expectations, but I am infatuated with the sherry mustard sweetbreads. Quail salad, duck "pb&j," rabbit dishes are always a fave, you can't go wrong with the menu. Solid wine list, rotational crafted cocktails, in a beautiful, clean French dining area. As high caliber as all above, the best is and always has been the service. Today was Sarah and Parker, with another brilliant Sarah behind the bar. Attentive and friendly without being overbearing, definition of service balance. I've had only magnificent experiences as a guest here and would recommend to anyone.”

“Love love loved everything about this meal! Our waiter, Peter was great with suggestions. The goat cheese appetizer and quail salad were excellent. We get to NOLA once a year and Bayona is always on our list.”

“We discovered Bayonne in 1996 during a road trip from Florida to New Orleans. We met a random person at an ATM, struck up a conversation, made friends, and as it turned out, he, Dimitri, was a chef at Bayona. He invited us to have lunch and the rest is history. We returned last week, same road trip to celebrate 30 years (of the road trip), and had dinner again. Same table, #14, and let me say, Bayona didn't disappoint. We started with a glass of white. Next came the Cesar Salad, followed by the Gumbo d' Zherbes. Then sweetbreads, which were divine, prepared to perfection. Lamb loin for the main, and ending with house-made cheesecake and a baked apple in a cloud. The atmosphere, service and quality of food were top-notch, all the way. We hope to do it again soon, hopefully not waiting 30 more years!”

“We had high hopes for Beyona, but unfortunately the experience fell short. We arrived about 30 minutes early for our 8:00 pm reservation and were happy to wait, but ended up having to remind the hostess at 8:10 that we were still there before being seated. Service was slow to start, as it took quite a while for our server to greet us. We ordered the turtle soup and the stracciatella to begin-both were disappointing. The soup had large, chewy chunks of turtle that weren't very enjoyable, and the bread with the stracciatella was hard and difficult to eat. We couldn't finish either dish. For our entrée, we had the redfish, which was decent but a bit overly salty. Portions overall felt small for the price point. Toward the end of the meal, service dropped off again—we sat for about 15 minutes without water refills or being checked on, and no one offered additional drinks or even water. We likely would have stayed for dessert if the experience had been more attentive. Overall, the meal had some potential, but the service and execution definitely didn't match expectations.”

“We visited this restaurant for our anniversary. And you shouldn’t! The steak was cooked to medium rare, which was tender, but it lacked flavor compared to Kenji’s reversed sear method I use at home. It was plain and soulless, and the sauce couldn’t help. My homemade steak is juicy, sweet, salty, and flavorful. Why is your steak $$ and tasteless? Am I missing something, or do I not know how to enjoy high-end steak? I had high-end steaks at a few places. They had done so so well. Not with Bayona! The scallop was okay, but it was also tasteless to me. The duck pate was very animal-like, with a strong duck smell and taste. It was wild, earthy, and smelled like raw duck. I would vomit there. IMPORTANT: There were rats or mice in the restaurant area. Why are they so common? There were multiple of them, and the kitchen door was open. The servers said they were normal and wouldn’t enter the kitchen, but my girlfriend was scared. The server guy was pretending to be nice? Not helpful. Not even try to help. Felt sad. He might need a vacation. He made the atmosphere sad and fancy at the same time. Overall: not recommended!”