Primitivo

Everything here is original and unique. I had the candied pecans. Very good. The smoke beef coulette with pimento cheese grits and scallion jus. It was very very good. It was unlike anything I’ve ever had. In addition, I had a nice cocktail, house made ginger soda and house made almond soda. This restaurant is a very unusual and pleasant surprise. I plan to return.

Been wanting to try Primitivo for a while now and finally got the chance when some friends came to town. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Ambiance is great. Staff is friendly and enthusiastic. The food is excellent. Primitivo’s hook is that almost all the food is cooked on the large brick hearth and smoker in the kitchen. It makes a real difference. The kitchen staff in more than happy to show you how they do it. I’d recommend a meal at Primitivo to even the most discerning palate.

I was less than impressed with this place. I expected Paleo style food cooked over an open fire as was advertised. This restaurant appears to be in the middle of nowhere is very far from the usual tourist beaten track. That would not pose a problem if the food was extraordinary but it wasn’t. The ceviche was not particularly tasty and contained pickled elements that were reminiscent of a jar of anti-​pasta. Other dishes seemed like glorified bar snack. The salad dishes were uninspired and lacked any fresh and interesting ingredients. It seems that this restaurant charges quite a lot for serving up platters of pickled or cured meats and other pickled or preserved items at what must be enormous mark ups.
Definitely not worth the journey into this rather remote area.

We had a large group of about 14 eat and it’s didn’t disappoint. What was really impressive was the service and ability to get a lot of food orders out to our group very timely — almost too fast since it was so much food. We had a very enjoyable experience.

I gave Primitivo 3 stars. It really was a solid restaurant. I kind of feel bad for rounding a 3.5 down to a 3, but then again, not that bad.
I met two buddies down here for a Saturday meal. I was not thrilled about the location. Primitivo is in central city, so finding a nearby parking spot was key. No big deal.
Restaurant was hipster and handsome. Concept seemed to be meat and fire. Recipe for success if you ask me. The menu was simple with strong options. We started with smoked mullet and duck wings for apps. The duck wings were the best thing I had that night. Big hit with the table ⁵⁄₅. Great flavor with nice meat to sauce ratio. Mullet app was decent, maybe a ³⁄₅. It was served over pea purée and had lettuce/​croutons.
We did 2 mid courses, 1 dish from the hearth and 1 side. They were all served together which made for a lot of food to come out at once. Our mid courses were smothered catfish and smoked beef coulette. I could have done without the catfish, but that’s a personal preference. The beef coulette was served over pimento cheese grits. I don’t like pimento cheese unless (just found out last night) it is served in grits. Great dish with the beef on top. Good marbling and nice smoked flavor. ⁴⁄₅.
The chicken was our dish from the hearth. It had a great flavor, but I found it a bit dry. It was served over some veggies and greens, which didn’t add anything to the dish for me. ³⁄₅.
I was pumped about ordering a side of biscuits with butter and preserves. This side was kind of a let down. Some other Unilocalers have raved about it. I suspect, our biscuits were overcooked. They were dense which I like, but the outside was a too hard. The butter and preserves saved the starch — hard to go wrong with those two.
Overall, Primitivo was a solid dinner option in not my favorite part of town. Still, good restaurants are popping up in central city, so I go. I will repeat this spot, and I’m betting I’ll have to upgrade these guys to a ⁴⁄₅.

The only reason I’m giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I thought the cocktails did not taste as unique as they sounded on the menu. I got the Grand Backpack (I think?) which was, as the waitress confirmed, not that sweet. But, it tasted more like a diluted version of the spirit, instead of a mixed cocktail.
The food was excellent! The candied pecans had a good orange flavor and just the right level of spice. I had the pork cheek and dumplings which had a great depth of flavor. The sauce also has a subtle orange flavor which went well with the pork. The pork was tender and fell apart extremely easily, which made mopping up the sauce all the easier. Although, I think I would have liked the dumplings to be more dense to balance the pork’s tenderness and give me more resistance: the feeling of sinking my teeth into something would have made the meal feel more satisfying (although it was still extremely delicious). The small amounts of fresh slivered green onions (maybe they were pickled) were a nice fresh flavor to cap off every bite!

My friends and I went to Primitivo on a Monday night. We had made a reservation, but probably didn’t need to. It seemed like a slow night, with several empty tables. There has been a lot of buzz and a good friend highly recommended it, so we were excited! The restaurant is very nicely designed, with a long bar on one end of the restaurant and an open kitchen. Even with the few groups in the restaurant, it was on the louder side. We had the charcuterie board and fried duck wing confit to start. The charcuterie board had a good variety of meats and was easy to share. It could have used a few more pieces of bread to go with the large amount of liver pâté and head cheese. The fried duck wings were the best dish of the night! Great flavor and good texture, perfectly fried and not too heavy on the sauce. The dish came with about 10 wings. For the main course, I had the smoked beef coulette and pimento cheese grits. It was nicely cooked and the portion of meat was generous. Everyone said the beef was their favorite main dish. My friends had the roasted shrimp with boudin rouge dirty rice, braised pork cheeks, and smothered catfish. I only had a bite of each and my favorite was the braised pork cheeks. The boudin rice was full of spices, but was on the dry side. If I come back, I’d definitely get the fried duck wing confit, pork cheeks, and beef coulette. Overall the food was a solid 4 stars, but the service was poor. We waited a while to get our orders taken and even longer for our main course. Our waitress did not check in with us at any time during the meal except to take our orders and bring our drinks and food. The entire meal took us around 2.5 hours and this was not a busy night. I would consider going back for happy hour, but it seemed overpriced for the quality of service that was provided.

I honestly wasn’t that impressed with Primitivo. It had that raucous «it» restaurant vibe, but the food was just very solid. Nothing crazy though. I’d go as far as saying it was overpriced for the quality. The atmosphere annoyed me more than anything.
Duck wings for appetizer… my date crowed about them, but I didn’t see the appeal. BWWs is just as good or better, and I say that as someone who doesn’t even like BWWs. So, guessing it was just pretension.
Had pork cheek & dumplings… pretty good. No complaints, but I guess was expecting to be blown away because of the hype.
Gal had the ribeye. Again… good and cooked perfectly, but as long as you have good meat and it’s done correctly, there’s no real showstopper to be had here.
The s’mores were cleverly plated, but… just s’mores. Not as good as you remember from camping.
Biscuits were damned good, though. I’ll give em that. Drinks were strong and well done. They didn’t screw up the French press, but it didn’t change my world. Like the rest of the meal… solid.
Overall…7.5/10? Overhyped, overpriced, but still pretty good overall. No need to go back with so many other places to try, but I certainly would if someone else was paying.

I greatly appreciate my friend for suggesting Primitivo! We spent an enjoyable evening celebrating the bf’s 31^st birthday chowing down on the beef rib special of the evening.
Love the open setting with stylish morse code (we are guessing it spells out the name of the restaurant) on the wall. The pork cheeks dish was literally the best thing all evening! I would totally go back just for that dish. Otherwise the field peas were a tasty starter. The beef rib was huge and delicious, although a bit too fatty for our taste. I kinda wish our server would have mentioned that it was $ 48 since I don’t think I would have ordered it over another entrée.
Sorry, minus points for inattentive service after sitting down. Also, whoever confirmed the reservation told me that they be able to bring out a candle with dessert. Despite being stuffed, I half forced the dessert order (who really forces someone to get a wonderful ice cream sundae??), but nothing came. Not that it’s even a deal, but the little touches matter — especially when you say you are going to do something.
All in all, I’d probably go back for another quiet evening… and that pork cheek dish.

I’m going all in on Primitivo. Its a great space on O.C. Haley with an intriguing wood heart cooking concept that really pays off. The menu format looks expensive at first glance but actually delivers amazing value for very high quality food. The key is a willingness to share — entrees for the table such as the excellent 26oz ribeye and choucroute garnie are more than enough food for two and the result is a top notch meal for much less then you pay at other restaurants of comparable quality in the city. It pays to be a little adventurous with the appetizers. The smoked mullet is excellent and well worth trying. Drinks program is strong with a fairly extensive list of cocktails and wine list. I also like that they have a bank of raised seats overlooking the open kitchen — a nice touch for solo diners. Next stop will have to try their happy hour — have heard some rave reviews.

We joined a large table for a birthday celebration. The service was detailed and very attentive for our loud table of twelve. The bottles of red (cotes du rhone and carmenere) continued throughout the evening and were perfect pairings for all of the dishes introduced to the table.
First class to this new find! Glad to be a NOLA local to have this restaurant in my city to recommend to others!

I feel like I should wait to write a review until I’ve had a full meal, but I figured I’ll just write an update then.
I finally made it to Primitivo for a happy hour and was able to try those $ 1.50 ribs. Amazing. I also enjoyed a special cocktail called La Botanica, with pisco.
We were a pretty large group and service was impeccable.
Can’t wait to come back for dinner one night!

Not located in the recommended area but I was really curious about their menu and went any way. The food did not disappoint me.
We tried appetizer «tripe, tomato, grana, chili, croutons», tasted rich but not overwhelming, tender but not overcooked or chewy, with a bit of bite from jalapeño and spice… Boar ham oatmeal, one of the day special, got layers of tastes from ham, veggies, oatmeal and pickled mustard seeds, tiny bit too much salty for me but yummy! «pork & dumpling in carbonara» tasted as good as it looked– pork was cooked to perfection and dumplings just the right softness.
Not sure these dishes are southern style or not but definitely different, and more importantly good!

My wife and I had just arrived in New Orleans for some much needed R&R. It was our first time to the city that we had longed to visit for some time. The reviews on the this looked very good and the food out of the ordinary, so we decided to try it out. We had the tripe starter to begin. My wife loves tripe, but I am not a big fan. However, I found this to be very good. Well worth the exploration already. Next, I tried one of their specials, Boar Ham Oatmeal, and a side of kale and a side of the home made Biscuits. It was amazing. I did not want to stop eating.
This place is a little off the main road, but the neighborhood is coming back and this restaurant is well worth the short walk! I have never had anything like it before, but I definitely want it again!

Found this gem near our hotel in the Garden District. In an up-​and-​coming neighborhood, it easily ups Cochon (where I ate earlier in the week) in my opinion.
Great atmosphere and a happy hour worth making (my husband had the HH ribs– one for $ 1.50 each, except they’re HUGE!), house-​made cocktails– go early! Then we had dinner… more food than two people could possibly eat, but so many things sounded good we had to try them all. The good news is that the portions are incredibly generous, so we now have lunch for tomorrow as well.
Seriously, worth the trip and worth every penny. Excellent experience after coming all the way from Oregon!

Thanks for a great meal and cocktails last night!!! Jeff. Ross. And Kelly (your first open table reservation)

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to review my lovely dinner at Primitivo. I guess I was just trying to figure out how to put such an amazing experience into words (see what I did there?).
We stopped in fairly early on a Friday night, with zero reservations, and had no problem grabbing a table. I started with a cocktail that was named after me. Ok, not really, but the «Marie Louise» is awful close to «Marielle Louise», so let’s just pretend, shall we? It was some kind of citrus soda that was really tasty and refreshing. I’m not even sure if it had alcohol in it, but I really liked it.
I knew exactly what I was going to order before I even got here: I had read nothing but raves about the braised pork cheeks, so that’s what I got. They came with smoked pork butt and dumplings in Carbonara. WOW. This dish was delicious and really exceeded my expectations. The meat was extremely tender and cooked perfectly and the dumplings were amazing.
For dessert, my companion and I were able to split a sundae, even though I was pretty full from the delicious dinner. The waitress was extremely attentive and everyone made sure that we had everything we needed and were enjoying our meal. As the night progressed, and more people came in, we did notice that it started getting a little loud. Other than that, the experience was perfection and I would return.

I went here today with my boss for lunch. I got the lamb slider with homemade potato chips. The slider was on a homemade biscuit. It was really good and enough food. My boss got the chicken with oatmeal special. It sounds very odd and didn’t look appetizing, but was very tasty. Everything was fresh. We decided to get dessert and got the rice pudding and crème brulee together with sliced grapes on top. Very strange, but it worked. The rice pudding cut the sweetness of the dessert. I will be back to try other things on this creative menu!

I never thought I’d say this, but I want to eat cornbread salad every day. It sat under our amazing roasted chicken like gifts under a Christmas tree. I know it’s hard to flub chicken, but Primitivo hit it out of the park. The skin was perfectly crisp and every bite of it was moist and rich almost as if cooked in bacon drippings.
For starters, we ordered the smoked mullet and the ceviche with watermelon. I’d absolutely recommend them both.
The owner and staff were very warm and knowledgable.
Will definitely return, preferably for happy hour.

Have been away from nola less than 2 months and this place has opened up in the BOOMING — O.C. Haley area of town. Beautiful finish out, great music and friendly staff make this place a WELCOME addition in my neighborhood.
Turns out after talking with my highly competent Bartender… Travers, that this place is owned by Adolfo Garcia (of too much fame to mention in this review). Makes sense because like all of his spots, this place subscribes to a Culture of Excellence.
The majority of thier food is cooked over an open flame (hence the name «Primitivo») and I gotta give a shout out to Alex and Eric who sit in the hot seat (900+ degrees) and do it with the greatest attitude in the world! It’s nice to see such pride and craftsmanship.
Do yourself a favor and check this place out asap. Travers says that the Happy Hour is off the chain. I can’t wait to come back and bring everyone I know.
Came in for 1 drink… stayed for 3, plus a Small Plate.
Cheers! (Pictured are the Duck Wings and Boulevardier)