Herbsaint

We have been here last night for my husband’s birthday! I must say we had the most swell time. Right from the reservations, to accommodating small requests, to exceptional service and ofcourse the delectable food. They make the best Sazerac and do try their one of a kind small plates. The menu changes everyday but we enjoyed Butter Poached Gulf Tuna with Pickled Chilies and Mint and Louisiana shrimp with saffron aioli. It definitely is one of the best restaurants in New Orleans.

The food was very good and the staff was attentive. However, it did take some time to get the food and to receive the bill. Overall, I would definitely come here again. The coconut pie for dessert was excellent.

This review has been a long time coming. I’ve eaten here many times and have never had a bad dish or experience. I think that this is not only Donald Link’s best restaurant but one of my favorite restaurants in New Orleans. Lunch or dinner, it doesn’t matter. Yesterday for lunch I had the duck gumbo (have had this many times) and the fish of the day. It was drum over sweet potatoes with greens. The fish was perfectly cooked, the skin crispy and nicely seasoned. This was a terrifically balanced and tasty dish. Wonderful. The gumbo is some of the best in New Orleans and this version is my favorite. Duck with andouille and okra. Not slimy (thankfully), rich but not overly and perfectly dark. I hated to leave so we ordered decaf and a piece of coconut custard pie. The pastry was a little tough and lost a lot of texture in the cooler but we made short work of it! Without drinks it was $ 105 with a tip so it’s not an inexpensive place. Miriam had a salad and the drum. I would come more often if it were less and the portions are slight so you need a couple courses. We come back when we want a splurge and are always happy we did.

When I checked in here today for lunch, Unilocal prompted me to write a review. And it’s about damn time too, as this may be my favorite New Orleans restaurant. Of course, the next time I go to Cochon or a half dozen other NoLa haunts, I may say the same thing, but I really do love this place. The surroundings are simple and elegant, the service is friendly and helpful, and the food is always just right. They offer a gumbo of the day, and I’ve had the duck and andouille a few times. It’s one of my favorites in town. I tried the green salad as a first course today, and it was just perfect, with a nice mix of bitter and spicy greens dressed with a creamy vinaigrette and finished with goat cheese feta and perfectly thin coins of white radish. My main was drum, pan sautéed and served with a sweet potato purée and braised lacinato kale that was both spicy and sweet. Delicious. We split a coconut custard pie and had coffee to finish. The pie crust texture had suffered from refrigeration, which toughened it a bit, but this is my one complaint, and it really was a tasty pie. Their coffee is one of the best in town.

Food was top notch. We couldn’t get a table until 9:30 and the staff still delivered and amazing experience. We got all of the small plates and they were nicely delivered in two courses, pasta second. The ceviche was perfect. The homemade spaghetti incredible.
The setting and crowd were a bit formal. I wish I had been wearing a jacket, though I wasn’t the only man in shirtsleeves. Clearly, this is a place where serious locals come to eat — not just tourists.

My husband and I ate here on our honeymoon after a recommendation from a friend. It did not disappoint! The food was amazing and the service was great. We didn’t make a reservation (oops) and just showed up, but they were able to seat us quickly even though they were busy. They had a great wine and beer selection and although a little on the pricey side, it was worth every penny!

Great service, dynamite food, excellent drinks. We had the gumbo, Louisiana shrimp and the spaghetti with fried pouched egg… Scrumptious !!

I love Donald Links restaurants… This was a disaster.
Service was terrible.
The ceviche had way too much paprika on it. I could not taste the wonderful gulf shrimp and tuna.
The best part of my meal was the dirty rice. The duck was done well.
The dessert was sub par.
All in all I am in NOLA at a high end restaurant and I expect much better. Very disappointed.
The topper they did not even ask if we were ready for our check they just brought it like we were at Denny’s.

I once heard stumbling across a bad meal in New Orleans was like finding a unicorn. Well folks – herbsaint is the unicorn.
Pre-​dinner cocktails– flavorless. Apps– ceviche – too much paprika — over powered the beautiful gulf seafood. Short rib — over sauced and salted.
Both main courses were the beacon of our entire experience.
Desert – apple pie and coconut «cream» pie– terrible. Service was horrendous. We were often left re – filling our own wine and water. Also the waitress brought our check before we even finished our meal. Yes, this is extremely critical — but we ordered a $ 160 bottle of wine and had multiple courses… extremely disappointing meal and service experience in this city of culinary stars.

This was my favorite restaurant during a recent trip. After all the heavy cajun food I was eating, this was a really refined break. Someone once told me the way you judge a French restaurant is by the butter. First if it’s served room temp and second it should be homemade to reflect the technique/​skill you should expect for the rest of the meal. the bread and butter here I could eat endlessly if it weren’t for impending obesity.
I’m not one to gush about salad. I avoid salad at all costs. But this salad was banging. The dressing was light and balanced, and the walnuts added great crunch. If all salads were like this I might be able to convert to vegetarian. But I’d change my mind about it cause of the short rib small plate and pork belly.
The short rib is cooked to perfection, beautifully charred on the outside, tender on the inside and full of meaty flavor with just the right amount of salt. The pork belly, also executed perfectly. Even though it’s a really fatty piece of meat, when cooked properly it tastes light and clean.
Wish I had found this place earlier to try all their other offerings!

We came here for desserts. The desserts are to die for. We got the flourless chocolate cake, and the apple pie profiteroles! Decadent and amazing. We are from out of town, and highly recommend this to other tourists. Appears all the locals come here too. Reservations are recommended, we lucked out and got an outside table.

Another fine meal out in New Orleans. The thing that holds Herbsaint back from being a 5 star experience is the service. It was warm so we decided to walk to the restaurant and it didn’t take quite as long as expected. When we showed up the hostess said, «looks like everybody is early tonight, we’re not ready for you.» How about, «would you like to grab a drink in the bar» instead?
We had great drinks at the bar, a Pimm’s cup that was heavier on the cucumber, but still had some of fruity notes that you expect with a good summer drink, and I had a Sazerac. I’m not sure why they vary so much from place to place, but this was a very good one with a hint more sweetness than many of the ones I tried around town, but not enough to overwhelm the bite of the rye.
Eventually our reservation time rolled around and we were shown to our seat. We decided to split a small plate and to have an entrée each, along with a tasting flight of wine.
For our appetizer we shared the homemade spaghetti with the fried poached egg. It was a really nice blend of flavors. The pasta was in a creamy, lemony sauce. It was actually a perfect pair for the lightest wine, really bringing out the tartness of the lemon. The egg was cooked perfectly and spread all over the past when we cut into it. There wasn’t really much guanciale in the dish, though, so we had to fight over the little bite that was in the dish.
For our main course my wife had their steak with their frites. It was a nice sized piece of steak cooked to perfection and drizzled with a nice olive oil and a dash of sea salt. Every bite with the salt really brought out the flavor of the meat. A really nice dish!
My entrée was the orange glazed shrimp over some rice. Sounds very simple, but there was a good amount of shrimp and the glaze had a different amount of coating over each bite, so sometimes the orange really came to the front, other times it was the flavor of the shrimp. Every bite was slightly different in its balance, which made every bite unique.
Back to the service, the staff never checked to see how the meal was or if we wanted anything else to drink. That made it a pretty easy choice for us to finish our meal and call it a night at the restaurant.
The atmosphere was surprisingly casual and a bit noisy with the big crowds. Not really a complaint, more of an observation, but for one of the nicer restaurants in the city I expected a bit more formal dining room.
I’ll pass off the service issue as an off night and would still recommend Herbsaint to a friend looking for a delicious, but casual dining spot outside of the French Quarter.

Yum, yum, yum!
Think this place is definitely Top 10 Restaurants of All Time. Yeah, it’s that good. And not ~that~ expensive. Steak was the most expensive at $ 36. Duck at $ 30.
I went there on a date, and we started with the House-​made Spaghetti with Guanciale and Fried-​Poached Farm Egg. WOW! It was AMAZING! Could not believe how rich and satisfying the cream sauce was on the spaghetti. Then to add that yummy fried Italian pig meat and the FRIED poached egg… Mind and mouth explosion. Literally, one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.
The Beef Short Rib with Potato Rösti was another mind-​blowing experience. Tender and meaty, the rib was perfectly seasoned and cooked. I could have eaten that the rest of the night and been happy.
I kept on thanking my date for introducing me to this place. How could *this* place exist here in New Orleans– a new standard to eating and the marriage of tastes and combinations?
He laughed and said they were celebrating their 15^th anniversary this year. I said I will definitely be back.
Especially since our entrees arrived, and I had to do my happy dance.
We split the Muscovy Duck Leg Confit with Dirty Rice and Citrus Gastrique and Twin County Dorper Lamb and Mushroom Lasagna. The duck was another AMAZING dish! So rich and flavorful, every bite was a party in my mouth!
I wasn’t a fan of the lasagna. The lamb was overpowering and it should have been served separately– not cooked into the pasta. It was way too gamey for my taste. He finished his plate, having no problem with the taste. I ended up not eating mine after that one bite. Wanted to save room for dessert!
The Banana Brown Butter Tart with Fleur de Sel Caramel was the perfect ending to a fantastic meal. As we sat back in contentment, I looked around the filled dining room. Everyone’s food look amazing. Most people ordered the duck and the pork belly. That thing looked great! My date said that’s one of his favorite dishes in the world. A close contender to everything we already had.
I will definitely have to come back to try it!
You’ll need reservations– especially on the weekends. We were there on a Saturday night at 6 pm and by the time we left at 7:30, there was a wait. After this experience, I can see why.

The duck confit was out of this world… Truly perfect in every way. But I am getting ahead of myself…
The appetizers we shared were the fig salad (yum), a shrimp dish (also yum), and a melted cheese that you scooped out of a small bowl and put on toast. Sooooo good.
The duck, as I mentioned, was incredible; it was so tender that it literally fell off the bone. Divine.
The desserts were also pretty amazing.
The ambience and the waitress we had made us feel right at home. It definitely feels like more of a locals spot than a tourist place. The waitress also told us that Herbsaint was one of the first restaurants to open back up after Katrina hit to help get the community back on its feet. I can believe it. It really speaks to the people behind this business as well (and they have several other well know local restaurants, but this one was the first).
Loved this place, it is really special. I hope to come back next time I am in town.

Good service, high quality cocktails, quiet ambience in the late afternoon. Started with a cocktail and the fried oysters, which had a fantastic hot sauce. For entrees, I had the fish of the day– drum with a white bean purée topped with radishes and another delicious root vegetable– maybe rutabaga? It was amazing. My husband had the hanger steak with roasted potatoes and chimichurri sauce. The steak was cooked well and the chimichurri was unusual and tangy.

A group of us came here as the restaurant was highly recommended by the President of our company, who is most definitely a foodie. :-)
The appetizers were incredibly tasty, including the crab beignets which lasted only a few minutes before 2 orders completely disappeared! I had the duck confit with dirty rice and it was delicious! The duck was moist and juicy with a crispy, seasoned skin which I very much enjoyed, along with the citrus gastrique. And I love dirty rice to begin with, and the side portion here was a great accompaniment. For dessert, we shared the chocolate malted mouse which was delicious as well as the chocolate hazelnut ice cream… but the star of the show was most definitely that banana brown butter tart! That is a MUST ORDER!!! Delectably buttery and laden with brown sugar, it was hands down the best dessert of our week-​long stay!

A lovely dinner at a lovely place in NOLA. I had heard about Herbsaint on an earlier trip to NOLA but I was unable to get here so imagine my delight on this go around when they had an open reservation for my group.
We arrived to what we thought was going to be a disaster. There was a large convention in town and most of the tables were huge groups of 10 and 13. The hostess just pointed us to the bar area to wait, telling us our «table wasn’t ready». Okay. Let’s see how this goes.
The bartender was great and made us an «elder mule» which was a light and refreshing take on a Moscow mule. Since we had a party to go to that night, we gave ourselves a 15 minute time period for our table to be ready or we were going to have to eat at the bar.
Well the restaurant gods were smiling on us as those big groups left and we got a table right in the center of the action within our time limit.
Our server, Lauren, was great. Smiling, personable and with a great laugh that she could still muster after dealing with all those large groups! Hats off to you, Lauren as you made our night.
The menu has starters, small plates and main courses. We started with the watermelon, crab gazpacho. Light with large pieces of crab, this was a great way to start my evening. Other starters included a fig salad (also quite good) and a baked cheese.
For our entrees– I had the roasted shrimp and corn (wanted the highly touted risotto but it was not to be) but this was a wonderful choice. So flavorful with a touch of spice. And the other entrée was the pork belly– equally as tasty.
The wine list is nice as it has several great selections by the glass.
Definitely one of our best dinners while enjoying this wonderful city!

Dinner at Herbsaint resulted in having one of the best bites I’ve ever had in the rabbit fricassee. I went from being rather pensive about the idea of eating rabbit to wishing we had ordered another one individually rather than sharing it. Having read a little bit about Herbsaint, I knew going in that the food was going to be outstanding. Here’s what my husband and I ordered:
Appetizers:
— Rabbit Fricassee with Garganelli, Bacon, Pumpkin and Madeira: I hope they never take this off the menu. In fact, I hope they turn this into an entrée. If they did, this is one of the first places I’m going to when I come back here. The amount of flavor that’s packed into this little pot of gold is outstanding.
— Louisiana Shrimp with Calasparra Rice, Artichoke and Maitake: The shrimp dish didn’t really stand a chance after the fricassee showed up, but one of my favorite things about this dish was the spicy rice and mushrooms that came with the shrimp.
Entrees:
— Twin County Dorper Lamb and Mushroom Lasagna: The dish itself is huge, maybe even share worthy. My husband ordered this and had a hard time finishing it because of how much food there was! With the lamb being the big highlight, this is definitely a very rich dish and requires a completely empty stomach if you want to finish it.
— Muscovy Duck Leg Confit with Dirty Rice and Citrus Gastrique: I selected the duck leg, and I really enjoyed all of items that came accompanied with the duck like the delicious dirty rice and the absolutely amazing eggplant. The duck itself got better as you got closer to the bone, and the skin was extra crispy and went really well with the citrus gastrique!
Dessert:
— Greek Yogurt Cheesecake with Roasted Peaches: I thought this was just OK. Maybe since it was blended with greek yogurt, it didn’t have the same cheesecake consistency that I’m used to. At the same time, with all the eating that we had just completed, a lighter and more refreshing dish was probably for the best, and I really enjoyed the peaches that came with it. Anything that was based in butter or chocolate probably would have resulted in needing to roll me out of the restaurant on a stretcher.
Service wise, our server was a little on the loopy side, if not a bit awkward. She was nice and gave some good recommendations, but didn’t really make an attempt to engage in small talk or conversation. Presentation of our dishes to our table was a little lackluster too. Our dessert sort of just plopped onto to the table without any explanation or addressing. Not a huge deal, but with having had a lot of really outstanding restaurant service, this sort of fell short of outstanding. Most definitely come here with an empty stomach and a lookout for the rabbit fricassee!

This place came highly recommended By some NOLA natives. In short, Herbsaint delivered a solid Saturday dinner.
My girlfriend and I had 3 small plates and split an entrée. We had the fish special, a very fresh piece of red snapper filet. The filet was a really pretty piece of fish. The way it was cooked left a little to be desired. I felt like the chef left some seasoning on the shelf. Of course, they may have just left such a good piece of pisces alone on purpose. I ranked it a ⁴⁄₅.
For small plates, the spaghetti with a fried poached egg was killer, total 5. The sauce was rich and delicious. It was a heavy sauce but the portion was appropriate so it kept me and my GF from overeating. Easy thing to do with delicious pasta. The shrimp creole dish was ok, ³⁄₅. It was seasoned well but it was a bit too liquidy. Little too much moisture left in the rice made for a wet plating.
Our salad was kind of like a Caesar with fresh Parmesan. It was great. I’m a fool for freshly shaved Parm. Nice helping so my GF and I split it.
Service was decent. The waitress was prompt, hit all her marks and was polite. No real complaints. She didn’t give us next level service, but she was good.
The atmosphere was classy but lacked character. For a city full of style, I thought Herbsaint was a bit muted. Still, the place was clean and classy. Easy place to take a date… or a client. Either way really
GF Quote: «That fried poached egg was everything»

The hype is real, y’all. Four and a half stars to the best meal we had on our trip. The sides were the least interesting things, which is understandable. Green beans were grilled and seasoned lightly, and the pimention aioli with the fries was just okay. Cocktails were moderately potent and pleasantly balanced; all the local classics were available as signature options.
Special of the day was fried whole soft-​shelled shrimp: evenly coated in a light batter, protein cooked properly, although a touch more moist a coating than you’d expect. Lamb neck was an exquisitely flavorful masterpiece: fork-​tender meat mounted on a plateau of creamy saffron fideo, capped with seasoned tomato confit. Kurobuta pork belly was a close second-​favorite at the table– tender sliced meat needing a little more sear on the outside, perched on a similarly petite plateau of Cajun-​seasoned risotto, and conservative on grilled greens and broth. Compared to these two all-​star plates, the beef short rib that would wow at most other venues was almost a tiny letdown: definitely more traditional flavors that weren’t nearly as robust, with a slightly smaller portioning of properly cooked meat.
Service was polite and attentive throughout a busy afternoon despite our party being clearly underdressed. I’d happily come back to devour more of their menu: gumbo, gnocchi with pancetta and parmesan broth, shrimp and fish ceviche, crispy goat, braised chicken with polenta, duck leg confit with dirty rice, jumbo shrimp and grits with tasso-​stewed collards, rabbit fricassee, lamb and mushroom lasagna, bacon braised field peas.