Saveur Cuisine and Cocktails

I guess Chef Dominique has worked out the kinks, judging by the reviews since last year’s opening. My wife and I had a fantastic meal with another couple last month and I wish I would have reviewed Saveur sooner (details). I don’t recall specifics, so take this with a grain of salt…
Sorry for the lack of information, but we will be back and I will update.

Stopped in for some pre parade fare and drinks during Happy Hour. Great choice, Marissa is a great bartender and the drinks are awesome. Enjoyed whiskey sours and spicy tequila sunrise and a good sazerac. Good mussels and flatbread pizza for apps as well, oh and the fries were good too
Marissa alone gets 5+ stars

Stumbled on this great cocktail place while trying to avoid the rain. My group loved it so much we came back again the next day!
Chris the bartender was an absolute wizard with a cocktail shaker!

Wow… What a delightful dining experience! This is a hidden gem in the midst of many other restaurants on Magazine Street in Uptown. Surprisingly, the crowd inside was relatively thin for Mardi Gras weekend. Nonetheless, our party of 5 decided to dine and celebrate the festivities at Saveur. I started with their tasty libation called «13 Pennies» and it was wonderful! The blackberry rum, ginger simple syrup and fresh lemon were a nice apéritif. The bonus egg white foam atop this tasty cocktail added to its whimsy.
Next, we enjoyed the bold, acidity of their red wine herb olives as well as the decadent patê and crunchy crostinis. Really thoughtful appetizers with great texture and balance.
For my main meal, I was delighted to have their fresh pan-​broiled whole redfish. As long as you’re willing to work for your food (picking bones) then this is THE meal to get! Dominique Maquet, the Executive Chef, brought a fish that was nearly done to showcase it for our table. SOLD! The redfish was accompanied by Israeli cous cous and grilled vegetables. The fish was delicately prepared with simple ingredients: salt, pepper, lemon & butter. Why over-​dress fresh and well prepared fish?
Nikki was our server and she’s also a bartender, who was an integral part of the success of our culinary experience.
Additionally, Saveur has happy hour 6 days a week; Mondays thru Saturdays from 4:30−7. They offer half off wines, cocktails and bar bites. Plus, they even have a Sunday brunch.
This restaurant opened February 2015 an apparently had some «kinks» to work out. Clearly, they have overcome any issues of the past and are now poised as a restaurant to be reckoned with. I encourage you to give this place a second try or come out for the first time!

Fresh and fantastic! I agree with another reviewer– load up on apps and entrees as they are so good! Red Royal shrimp ceviche is tart and delicious. Tri-​cauliflower flatbread was visual interesting and a palate-​pleaser. We had enough from the two apps to share for three of us. Veal meatballs and pappardelle, seared duck breast, sautéed redfish! Nice wine list– interesting drinks like the Tequilla Sunset– fresh local ingredients with a changing menu, reasonable prices, nice atmosphere. You could bring well-​mannered children but this is a fine experience for adults. Dressy casual or better. They also offer Sunday brunch. EXCELLENT!

Absolutely terrific meal last night. We had a big group and A LOT of food and drinks. Highlights… elk carpaccio, beef roti, braised lamb shank, redfish, duck, NY strip, chocolate crème brule. From start to finish a wonderful experience!

Great local restaurant with an accomplished chef serving local seafood with local ingredients. My favorite apps are the flatbreads and the roti. My favorite entrée is the Sautéed Redfish. And the ceviche is the best in New Orleans.
Took a party of of 10 for dinner and all of us liked every course. I’m a lifetime New Orleanian and would recommend this restaurant to anyone.
And I can’t neglect to mention Nikki their great bartender. Great service and great conversation!

EXCELLENT! FRESH! FRESH! FRESH! This is our new «go to» spot in NOLA when wanting fresh fish. By far, Saveur serves the best fresh shrimp pasta in town. My hubby is a carnivore and has always been pleased. Portions are generous and pricing is reasonable! I always leave with leftovers. Interesting menu keeps us going back, usually weekly, sometimes twice in a week. Comfortable atmosphere — kind of comfy classy. Welcoming. Pleasing. Thank you, Chef Dom and Kimble!

First stop on the Restaurant Roulette Tour is: Saveur on Magazine. The Red Snapper Ceviche is very zesty but a good starter (beware the crunchy bread). The Prosciutto with Cantaloupe and Arugula salad was very tasty. The sautéed red Fish was very light and flavorful. Everything was quite heart healthy by the way! Great way to start the evening! Our servers were very friendly and provided excellent service!

BLUF: Awesome all around. Amazing service. nice atmosphere. Amazing apps. Amazing cocktails.
Not many people for a 7pm Thursday reservation which was nice. Atmosphere is very nice and modern but not pretentious. Waitress was very nice and helpful and she was perfect the whole night. Really great service.
We started with cocktails and really liked them both; don’t remember what they were.
We thought we were going to go slow and get a couple apps and then move to a main course but the apps were so good we just kept getting more and never made it to the main courses. We did not regret our decision.
Redfish ceviche: Amazing. Tons of fish and awesome lemon juice. So good that we drank the juice when done with the fish.
Tacos: I don’t think they were called tacos but they basically were tacos. The curried beef was out of this world good. The pork was also really good. She said they were small but they are standard size and fully loaded. Very very good.
Shrimp wraps: Shrimp with a sause and some pico on lettuce. Very very good.
Crab meat over quinoa: Lots of crab over lots of quinoa and it was worth the price. It was very good and original.
Dessert: We got dobage (I cant spell) and a chocolate crème broulee — both were very good. They weren’t as good as the apps we had been getting so I wouldn’t not be opposed to just getting more apps and skip dessert next time.
Overall the place is amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat. I’d love to try a main course next time but I loved trying lots of different things.

Just stopped in for drinks and an app. Ceviche had so much lime juice in it that you couldn’t taste the shrimp or anything else. Craft drinks were on happy hour for half price. That got the extra star. Too many other great places to eat in Nola.

Had the «We Live it Eat» week prix fixe menu.
Ceviche was delicious. Very acidic, fresh tasting.
Beet salad is always a good bet. Saveur’s was good. I love manchego, but I think the classic of goat cheese is a better pairing with beets.
Entrée was roasted pork, tender inside, crispy outside. Served with middle eastern tasting rice; long grain Rice, black eyed peas, coriander. The cucumber and tomato salad served with it wasn’t my favorite, unsure what it was seasoned with, it didn’t mesh well.
Dessert was key-​lime doberge cake. Debbie Does Boberge is the shop that makes them, great cake, but who isn’t a sucker for key-​lime pie anything?
Waitress was friendly and sociable, but a little forgetful.
Overall solid place. Not best meal of my life, but I have paid more for worse.

Yum. We chose this place based upon availability and info on Open Table. It filled up by 7:30. We eat Paleo and found the menu accommodating to our needs. We liked everything– cassoulet, venison, pâté, peach salad, strawberry jalapeño margarita… Yum…

Really cute place! Drinks were great, wine selection was good.
Appetizers were VERY small– not great for sharing unless you want a bite each. But good! Flatbreads weren’t super impressive– felt like something I could whip up at home– but still good.
Ceviche was amazing (the tile fish and also the red shrimp kinds). Definitely worth trying!
Mussels and pommes frites were also on point, as well as the duck entrée. Duck is easy to mess up and they really nailed it.
This place has great potential but is still definitely getting on its feet. I didn’t feel like I wasted my money here– come check it out and support local business! Everyone was really sweet and helpful, and the service was good contrary to other reviews. Enjoy

Ok so I intentionally wanted to try this place because of all the mixed reviews. In summary, they would get 5 stars except the other reviewers are right, the service sucks.
A friend and I went on a Saturday night, well really late afternoon since our reservation was for 5:30pm. We were seated immediately. There were about six other tables, (amounting to less than 20 customers) seated and approximately 8 front of house staff (don’t worry I counted). Yet somehow it took us over 10 minutes to even meet our waitress, in fact it took so long that the manager did a drive by promising that we would see her soon. Throughout the meal she did her job, but it was on par with her timeliness getting our table the first time.
My only other issue was the time it took the food to come to the table, 20 minutes is a bit much when your restaurant is only at 30% capacity.
Drinks — 4.5
Crawfish app — 5 stars
Duck — 5 stars
The food is absolutely amazing, the drinks are really, really good. But when the waitstaff is that bad, it brings things down a notch. Hopefully they figure things out soon, cause I’m rooting for Dominique.

We were excited to try this place but were super underwhelmed. We ordered the pork confit and goat cheese apps after being told how fabulous they were by our waitress. For 3 people they gave us 3 small crostini and acted like it was shocking when we asked for more (and brought us 3 more small ones). Both apps were terrible and bland (and somehow basically the same). We had already all 3 ordered the soft shell crab special because our waitress had raved about it as though it was the most fantastic dish on the planet. The ss crab was the worst I’ve ever had and came with some really boring undercooked rice, but the whole thing was so doused in lime sauce that it was completely overwhelming.
The space itself is pretty, but it is so loud you should be prepared to yell to your dinner mates all night.

Stopped by because our first choice was full.
This should tell the whole story, but I will go on…
We sat at the bar, mostly because booze was more important the food. As always, i wanted to nosh, so I tried the paté. Smooth, rich and slightly decadent, I was happy I didn’t have to share. What made me unhappy was the fact the staff didn’t want to give me any crostini to eat with the paté. I had to request three times; each time, it was as if was a huge chore.
The wine list was a downer, too. The stemware I know helps oenophiles capture every nuance; these heightened the fact that we were drinking overpriced wine that didn’t quite highlight the food. The price points of the menu suggested fine dining, but based on this quick visit, I could spend it elsewhere.

We were so excited to try this restaurant, but unfortunately it did not live up to expectations. My fiancé got the mussel, flounder, and kale soup which just appeared to be broth. There were no mussels, flounder, or kale in the soup. We also got the prosciutto flatbread which was basically a tortilla microwaved with cheese, green onions, and prosciutto on it. Underwhelming. We were still hopeful for our entrees, but they also disappointed. I got the mussels, and I have never had a less flavorful sauce with mussels before. It was essentially a milk broth. My fiancé got the steak and according to him, they ruined a perfectly good cut of meat by slicing across the grain then putting it back on the grill. We had to get a second dinner somewhere else the food was so bad.
The one good thing was that the service was excellent! Hopefully they were just having an off night in the kitchen.

Here is a rundown of my experience:
–baked goat cheese app, don’t even bother. It was a clump of goat cheese, baked (in some type of wonton wrapper-​esque deal), but not even really crisp or anything. Served haphazardly on a bed of greens (arugula if I remember correctly), which seems to be a theme here
–octopus and redfish civiche, the leche de Tigre had too much chile in it, to the point that it drowned out all other flavors. F Octopus had a good texture, although cut in small, hard to manage pieces. Served with a single, tiny crostini.
–duck breast, EXTREMELY underseasoned, along with the beans on the plate. Beans were slightly undercooked. The skin on the duck was rubbery, nit crisp. Duck cracklin was soggy, due to being buried in the pile of beans instead of being placed on top. Nobody wants to eat soggy fat. The dish was plated horribly, it looked like someone took an arugula salad and just dumped it on the plate. At first, I thought they forgot the butter beans until I dug through the pile of arugula thrown on top. I guess you could say it was «rustic.»
–black drum, probably the best thing we ordered. Still was not seasoned well, but it was cooked properly.
Paired with a lackluster bottle of wine, this meal was pretty atrocious, especially for being around $ 50 a head. Hopefully Chef Dominique can actually find more motivated people to staff his restaurant, because there are several places around that are cheaper than Saveur, yet much better. It was more than just a matter of taste, the menu itself actually looked very good. However, the dishes were executed horribly. Especially after seeing the degree in which Mr. Dominique regards himself in the «About» section of Saveur ’ s webpage, one would think that someone with so many accolades would take a little more pride in quality control.

So, I’m a big fan of trying new restaurants, but I don’t usually write a review as newly opened places are still trying to get it all together. All that being said, a new restaurant needs publicity, and the general manager, who greeted me at the door, encouraged me to write a review on Unilocal,since as of my check-​in, there were none.
First, the food is fabulous, it’s classy characteristic cooking of the chef, Dominique Maquet (spelling?). I’ve eaten his food off and on for 15 years and it is always outstanding Caribbean cuisine with the French, Spanish, Indian and other influences. (Think West Indies.)
The baked goat cheese with the honey balsamic was tasty and filling as an appetizer. Surprisingly, it was served on a bed of greens which included my favorite arugula. The honey comes from a local producer, Dr. Brobson Lutz. My friends enjoyed their appetizers as well (1 had the same as me and the other had the arugula salad). The chef uses many local farms for his ingredients as was evidenced by the menu descriptions.
Next, our «main» courses were also very good. One friend had the arugula salad for her main course and the other had duck which came with mashed potatoes and more. He emptied his plate! My main course was to be the Tile Fish Ceviche. Initially, they served me the Tile Fish with Couscous entrée. So, they whisked it away as I pointed out their error and then, a few minutes later, I thoroughly enjoyed my tangy and spicy flavorful ceviche. It came with aji amarillo, cilantro and tigre de leche, plus a few more tasty ingredients. The crunchy airy toasted baguette slice was excellent for dipping into the «sauce» for the ceviche. The ceviche was served in a glass teacup, so at the end, I drank the broth, err… sauce? Yes, it was that tasty and savory!
Then, to our surprise, our server brought us a Key Lime Pie dessert. She said it was to make up for the mixup with my main course. She said it all with a smile and was very sincere. This was no ordinary Key Lime Pie! It was very good. I swear the crust had a little nutmeg in it and there was something intriguingly good in the texture of the crust. I’ll post my pic in a sec from my phone, but this was just a very unique Key Lime Pie. It was almost a mousse! We didn’t see a dessert menu, sort of regretfully, but the staff were very nice about everything, even giving us 3 spoons to share our 1 complimentary dessert.
The wine list by the glass is a bit short, but still good. There is no bubbly by the glass, which I would have loved with our meal. However, my Argentinian Cabernet was smooth! Prices were reasonable, and there are cocktails, which no one in my group drank, incidentally.
The only downside is that it is noisy in the space. With high ceilings and few marble slabs adorning the walls on one side, the acoustics of the room left us speaking quite loudly at each other in order to be heard. Maybe in time, they will add some sound-​absorbing artwork on the walls?
Either way, it doesn’t matter, I’ll be back for more of Chef Dominique’s wonderful cooking!