Little Gem Saloon

This place was quite a surprise. They had a live band there in a Friday night that was sooo cute. I’d like to hear them play again. I had the shrimp and grits. Super flavorful and tasty. I was a bit turned off by the head still in it but it was still very good and is order to again. Oh. And wine. They had a great selection of wine.

A review as a music venue or for the food and drinks? Both, an average sort of for both. I would sum this place up thusly. Overpriced tourist trap with average food and drink. I went on a Saturday night to listen to Kermit. I love Kermit. He asked everyone where they were from and no one seemed to be from New Orleans. No big deal but a huge group of them didn’t listen at all to the music and talked right over a local legend. Drag. I drank with dinner so I ordered the $ 8 bread pudding. It’s good but not for $ 8. For $ 17 you get in and a place somewhere around the bar for $ 22 you eat dinner and get a table. I saw a lot of folks fork over the $ 17 only to crowd around the bar area without a seat. We were lucky to get a table by the bar for our $ 17. I’m not sure Kermit wouldn’t put on a better or different show somewhere else. He was good but his song selection was weird. I’m not a big fan of this place overall.

Most of these stars are owed to the food and the band, which were just lovely. While the waitstaff was performing their best, having only two and one bartender on working Sunday for brunch seems silly. They were just spread too thin. Having one more sever would mean that we would have probably gotten a coffee refill. I feel this little gem is not fulfilling its potential.

Our final evening in New Orleans we decided to go see Kermit Ruffins at The Little Gem Saloon. Very good decision. Great show and fun atmosphere. We had reservations for dinner. Got seated at the back of the room and were able to both face the room. Best seats in the house. Drinks were good and a nice crowd on a Saturday night. We ordered a chef’s special filet mignon and something off the menu. Had to send back the menu entrée. The chef actually came out and apologized as it was bad. He bought us a glass of wine and checked back with us toward the end of the evening. It was a wonderful time despite the entrée snafu. The show was top drawer and just soooo New Orleans. There is standing room only at the bar which housed an enthusiastic crowd of fans. Kermit has a big following.
The historic space, now transformed into a taste of an Old New Orleans jazz club, is well worth the show cover.

I thought the burger was good. We went for the Saturday night show Kermit ruffins, who I enjoyed immensely. Nice little piece of New Orleans history and jazz. Service was good, and the crowd was enthusiastic. Overall I would recommend it but I wished they had posted something about the 22 $ cover charge. I called in the afternoon and nobody mentioned it and there was nothing on the website. Otherwise I would have given 5 stars.

The Shrimp & Grits and Fried Chicken are awesome. The upstairs atmosphere was great and the service was great. Would highly recommend!

My daughter and I ate here recently, because we had plans to go to another restaurant next door and the wait was too long. The décor and service was pretty good here. This is the reason I rated two stars instead of one.
We ordered crawfish macaroni for an appetizer. While the overall taste wasn’t bad, for $ 12.00 I was definitely expected more gourmet quality and not instant macaroni with crawfish thrown in. We also received a complimentary loaf of French bread with butter. It was hard as a rock and the butter wasn’t even soft enough to get on the bread. For our meal we decided on the Cobb Salad. I was expecting a large serving with a lot of fixings for $ 15.00.
The serving was large, but 99%of the salad was lettuce. Barely any chicken, half an egg, maybe a crumble of bacon, and a slice of avocado. So, after a $ 55.00 ticket I feel I could have made everything I ate at home and saved myself a trip. I will not be going back.

Horrible drinks!!! The Long Island was too sweet and the grapefruit and gin had wayyyyyy too much grapefruit juice in it!!!

We arrived too early for the music — primarily because we were walking around to find a place to eat and stumbled in at about 5:30 last week.
My wife (never the adventurous one, ordered a burger — well done. When the waiter looked at me, I said, «She wants it like a hockey puck.» I had the pan-​seared chicken.
Well, the burger was, at best cooked medium (pink throughout), and she nibbled around the edges. Though I suggested we send it back, she declined, and was satisfied with the meal. She says the fries were good.
But, the pan-​seared chicken! Fantastic! Just fantastic. The flavors that came out of that bird were astonishing. I wish I could reproduce it! The «root vegetables» that accompany it were also tasty, though I would have liked a side of rice, or some starch as well.
I’d give this 4 stars, or more, but the burger was a disappointment. Would I go back? Sure! my wife? Not so much.

This place was great! They had a live band, it was conveniently close to my hotel (Le Pavilion), and the food was delicious. I was able to get a free glass of wine because I checked in and it was delicious as well. It was a little pricy, but it’s a classy restaurant. The hospitality was excellent as well. 5 star service!

This review is based on the upstairs music venue only. I went to see a concert but didn’t get the chance to eat downstairs. The upstairs venue is pretty nice and very intimate. I’m not sure how many people were up there but I’d say maybe 200. We were in the standing room section as the seats were limited and very sold out. Those padded seats looked pretty comfortable though.
The sound quality was good, drink prices were a little high but certainly not outrageous and the specialty cocktail that I had was a citrus vodka based concoction that was creative, tangy and delicious. I liked that the doors to the balcony were open. It wasn’t exactly easy to hear the music out there but it was nice to step out and get a little fresh air when the room wS feeling a bit stuffy from being so full. I’d go back there for another intimate show or to try the food downstairs.

The entertainment was 5 star! The service was excellent, but the drinks were made inconsistently, and the food was just ok. You can go online to purchase tickets ahead of time and save on the door price.

What a great low key, authentic restaurant! Our waiter, Geo was great. Actually, he wasn’t supposed to be our waiter, but another waiter was cut for the evening. Geo noticed we haven’t been served, so he ended up serving us. Because we waited so long he gave me a beer on the house for the inconvenience. Later on after we ate, I asked Geo how they got their grits so creamy. To my suprise he asked the head chef to speak with me. Chef Michael Shelton came out and entertained at least a 15 min conversation with me about culinary topics! What a humble gesture! The place is unpretentious, however still classy.

I visited here for lunch, I could not have been more disappointed.
Service was slow. It took over an hour to get our food.
I ordered the chicken Caesar salad, the chicken must have been cooked with fish as it had a VERY strong fish taste.
I also ordered the mac and cheese which never came.
I left hungry, and the rest of the people in my party were disappointed in the quality of their meals.
In Louisiana you would expect hot sauce options… we were given tabasco sauce.
I would never return here again based on food quality, and extremely poor service.

Before heading out to the Smoothie King Arena to watch game three of the NBA playoffs, Warriors vs. Pelicans game, my friends and I decide to grab a quick dinner.
Upon entering the restaurant, I was the only one in the restaurant decked out in Warriors apparel. Even though I was rooting for the away team, the restaurant was very welcoming. There was a live jazz band performing for the evening festivities. When we were seated, our host provided us our menus and our server for the night will be with us in a few.
While waiting for our waiter, we browsed through the menu offerings. The menu was very simple to read, but was a little on the pricey side. I just had to experience some good ol’ NOLA food since I’m here! I decided to go with two items from the menu. I went with the following:
— Smoked St. Louis cut ribs — flavored with peach-​mustard BBQ sauce and was accompanied with cole slaw
— Baked gouda macaroni & cheese
The restaurant was fairly busy, but our food came out in a timely manner. The ribs were full of flavor, smokey, and tender! To make things even better is that the meat was fall of the bone good! The veggies in the cole slaw were fresh and crispy. Lightly dressed with dressing, not drowned. As for the baked gouda mac & cheese, I enjoyed it very much. The macaroni were cooked just right and drenched with a creamy gouda cheese sauce. I’d say it was one of the best tasting mac & cheeses I’ve ever had!
Great service, food, and entertainment!

Great food, even worked with my food allergies! Awesome band and great service. Food was really quick too

5 stars for the entertainment tonight. 0
Stars for the service. Party of 5 with a 3 year old and we’ve been waiting 2 hours for dinner and had to ask 3 times for the 3 year old’s meal to come out. Had to track the staff down and ask for bread, drink refills. Should have read the reviews about the slow service. Kitchen staff needs some help. Bummer because it started out as a rocking night with the band!
Ended up leaving after 2 ½ hours with no dinner. With my almost 70 year old parents and 3 year old nephew who were in town visiting. Epic Fail Little Gem.

Came in with a party of 5 for an early work lunch. We were the only ones there for a solid 45 minutes, but still experienced slow service and more than one of us got the wrong order.
The food (when they got it right) was good, but not great. We didn’t order drinks.
I have been here for music and drinks and I would say stick to that! Kermit Ruffin is always a treat.

Kermit Ruffins & the BBQ Swingers. One of the highlights of my time in NOLA, this time hurr.
I made my dinner reservation well in advance of the show since I wanted a table, instead of being a peasant in the standing room only part of the Ramp Room. However it was not incredibly clear if you needed tickets for the show in addition to the dinner reso. You need the tickets, the dinner table reso just makes sure you get a table rather than being segregated back behind with the peasants in standing class.
You enter through the courtyard, they check off your name, and you buy your tickets for Kermit (or whomever if on a different night.) Then you go in, up the stairs to the left to the second floor, then you enter the Ramp Room which is basically a speakeasy club. There are high tables and low tables, plus the bar around back. The high tables are where it is at so you have a clear line of sight in case an inconsiderately tall person sits at the low table in front of you, if you were at a low table too then you just see the back of that jackass’s head. Nobody pays $ 20 for that. Get the high table.
The men’s restroom is actually impressively clean. Someone spent some time in there with a toothbrush. Unlike other bars I visited there weren’t 3,000 cigs in the urinals and condom wrappers strewn about elsewhere — it was impeccably clean all around.
Our waitress was also fantastic. She honored the Unilocal check in app deal, and then some. The current deal is a glass of house wine, but the prior deal was a free maple bourbon cocktail the last time Shamarr Allen was around these parts. Free drinks make everyone happy, but the maple bourbon cocktail makes everyone pretty dang happy because it is perf.
I was ambivalent about what food to order, so I waited a bit and watched other tables order food so I could see what was what. The table next to us had a middle aged dude and his college aged son, I am guessing, not a date. The older guy ordered the ribs I was considering — when they came they looked excellent. The guy bit into one and liked it so much he offered one rib to his younger companion. The younger companion enjoyed it just as much — the kind of visceral «this is good food!» you can spot from a distance. So it was set, I wanted the ribs too.
The ribs are amazeballs. For a «small plate» at $ 11 it is quite a lot of food, and it is all good stuff too. The peach mustard BBQ sauce is quite refreshing when mixed with the cole slaw. The meat falls off of the bone easily with a fork and it is hot and juicy. I am not the biggest ribs person in the world, but these ribs could potentially make me into a fan boy for ribs.
Little Gem is a cool, clean, basically upscale place to catch some great amazing live music like Kermit or other fantastic artists they book. Put this on your list to come catch a show — and get the ribs, at the very least you now know of two tables that were extremely satisfied by the ribs

Come for the music, not the food. Dined here twice and both times the entrées were less than impressive. Pork porterhouse from last time was way too tough. Ordered the «Handmade Ravioli» this time and it was pretty bad, too salty, sour, and heavy. The texture of the filling was very strange and the whole ravioli was undercooked, like well below al dente. I told the waitress this when she collected my half eaten plate since she asked how I liked it. «I didn’t really» and etc, etc but they didn’t do anything about it on my bill. Whatever. Chocolate grand marnier ice cream was bleh. It was runnier than gelato, heavy, and the flavor was too sweet even for chocolate. Fail.
HOWEVER, the musical talent that they book there and the servers, now THEY are impressive. Super friendly table service and they book some of the best musical talents in NOLA. The venue itself is well ventilated so it doesn’t get stuffy and the stage is lit nicely. Street parking is slightly easier here than in the FQ itself so I would come back to listen to the music which will usually run you $ 10 in advanced +$ 2.50 service fee or $ 15 at the door.