Yes It is the same company as the one in NOLA. The Reginelli's on Chimes street is in the old Tiger Bar location.
I do. Good for you. So what? No, I think you have been roundly disagreed with on this. Whatever you say, bud.
I would say there are three truly great restaurants in Baton Rouge. There are also several pretty good bar grilles in town. My problem is most places that people rave about in Baton Rouge aren't any good and have not been in years. Nothing is as good as advertised in this town. Red raves about the burger at Georges. I have not had a good burger there in six years. You mentioned Juban's. To me that place is a knock off of New Orleans cuisine, and they don't do a good job of it. Poor boys are pretty terrible here. BBQ is below average. Pizza is awful. A few good Greek and Lesbian places. Good pub fare. Poor fine dining. Miserable tex-mex. Seafood is very hit and miss. Overall I find it remarkably below average.
LSUsupa, What do you consider to be those 3 good restaurants? I'm not that impressed with most places here, either. My fiance and I are big foodies, but I don't fault Baton Rouge for its lack of gourmand fare, but simply for the fact that most of the food that is available here is just a sub-par version of the real thing. ETA: ok, above is a bit harsh. Baton Rouge does have some decent food. I think there is often a lack of consistency with many places, and while there may be a HUGE number of places to eat, it can be difficult sifting through them to find the quality.
Galatoire's Bistro, Bistro Byronz, Mansurs. I have never had a bad meal at any of those. Everything else is hit and miss.
I guess it's all about taste but I would take Parrain's over every restaurant in Dallas, Washington, Houston, or Philly. (Places I've spent a lot of time in) I'd put Baltimore on there too except for one restaurant that serves the best crab cakes anywhere. New Orleans and NYC do win out overall though. Compared to what? New Orleans? Yeah there are better places in New Orleans as I stated. But outside of New Orleans, where have you had better? If in any of the cities I mentioned please let me know. I agree poboys could be better. There are some pretty good Pizza joints. It's bot NYC but BR holds it's own against most towns. I never said it was the best at everything. I would never go to eat BBQ or Tex Mex in Baton Rouge anyway. Go to Texas for that. As far as fine dinning goes, expensive and fancy does not correlate into "fine dinning." More often than not its the opposite. Again compared to what? I travel a lot and eat all around the country and I find BR fare quite above average.
I haven't been everywhere,and Parrain's is a place I have been told I should try. I find their prices a little high, but I'd give em a shot. It meets my first requirment for restaurant consideration... not a chain. Better than Juban's? Pretty much any restaurant with a similar menu is better. I have never spent much time in Houston or Baltimore, but I could name tons of restaurants in the cities where I have spent time that would blow Juban's away. And don't get me wrong it has some good dishes, but they reach and fall flat on a lot of things. For example order shrimp and grits from Juban's then go order it at Galatoire's Bistro. Do the same thing with Trout Almandine. You just reminded me. Oscars Pizza and Ice Cream is pretty awesome. Other than that pizza is awful. I eat Shlitz and Giggles because I like New York style pizza, but it wouldn't even be top 50 on my best pzza places list. I understand this, but Baton Rouge has abuncha expensive places. And some really fancy ones too. What it lacks is restaurants that deliver consistently great food and service. The town has a lot of good options for bar food and fried seafood, but if you want that white table cloth experience there are very limited options. If you put me in the geographic center of Baton Rouge and told me to get the best anything within 100 miles, I would do a lot of driving.
I do not. I rave about the shrimp po-boy at Georges and the chicken fried steak on Wednesdays. It's a good burger, but Brubachers is better. Poor seafood retaurants don't last long in this town. The established places all have very good seafood for a non-fishing port city. I'm talking about seafood restaurants. The seafood offered by bar-and-grills and steak places is hit and miss everywhere.
