Randazzo’s Family Restaurant - Metairie, LA

Randazzo’s Family Restaurant is a restaurant that serves reasonable-priced food (American, Italian and Seafood) in a casual atmosphere. They have TVs, games and seating for any size group to help you feel at home in this family restaurant.

I ordered the Combination Platter with Fried Shrimp and Oysters. The seafood tasted fresh, wasn’t salty and was not heavy in batter so it was satisfying.

For my sides, I had a Green Salad and Potato Salad. The Green Salad is pretty self explanatory, but the Potato Salad was not to my liking. It was too mushy (I like large potato chunks) and had too much tart.

My boyfriend ordered the Fried Chicken Plate. It was good fried chicken but was nothing spectacular. It was right out of the fryer, which will almost ensure it tastes good. He ordered it with French Fries and Cole Slaw. The Cole Slaw was different than most that I have seen. It wasn’t overly sauced so it wasn’t bad but again was just pretty standard.

The food wasn’t amazing but good for what you would expect from a restaurant of this kind. The problem of the restaurant didn’t lie with the food though but the service. At the time we were dining, there were 2 other tables, one large group and two people working the table. The person I assume to be the owner was taking care of us and another table but once the large group came in, he completely forgot about both us. The other girl was taking care of the one table next to us and kept walking past without ever offering assistance and clearly seeing we were done and waiting. It’s one thing to not see us like how the other table was completely ignored because they were on the other side of the restaurant but you walked right next to our table several times and tried not to look at us instead of helping.

Poor service killed this place. There is no reason you have a virtually empty restaurant and not want to assist the few customers you do have, they will not want to come back.



Randazzo’s Family Restaurant
4462 Wabash St Metairie, LA 70001
(504)456-9069
eatatrandazzos.com

Mojitos Rum Bar & Grill - French Quarter New Orleans, LA

Although only a short distance from the French Quarter, Frenchman Street is like stepping into a different realm. It's only two-blocks long but full of life and non-stop entertainment and on any given day of the week, you can hear the live sounds of reggae to Latin to blues.

Frenchman Street Art Market

To kick off a night on Frenchman Street, it's best to do so on a full stomach so stopped into Mojitos Rum Bar and Grill on the edge of Frenchman Street for dinner and a warm up to a night out on the town.

Just like a lot of the other places in the area, Mojitos has their own live entertainment and if u stay late enough on Saturdays a Latin music party. All of this takes place on their beautiful patio but you also do have the option of indoor dining but I highly recommend that you do not do that. Even consider sitting at their large outdoor bar before doing that.

Going to a place called Mojitos means you have to get a Mojito. Due to their namesake, they have plenty of options from specialty drinks to the typical fruit flavor kind. I started off with The Frenchman which was amazing and thank fully strong.

Later on, I decided to get another drink and selected the Ultimate Mojito. I know it said mint syrup and I don't know what I was thinking but it was the ultimate fail. It tasted just like syrup, medicine syrup. If you 'bout that sizzrup, this may be the drink for you.

We order the Jerk Chicken Skewer as a starter and it was so unbelievable delicious! Do you know how hard it is to go to a place that doesn't specialize in Jamaican food and for them to actually get it right? The flavors were on point and the spice level was beyond expectations. To offset the spicy factor, the blackberry brandy sauce added just the right touch.

There are only four choices for main dishes, but they all sounded so good, I still had a hard time deciding. I ended up ordering the Aruba Scallop. It came with grits and I am actually NOT a fan of grits but these were well flavored and a great compliment to the delicate and well cooked and prepared scallops. A dish like this has potential to lack flavor, but it was really good and had a nice kick to it.

My boyfriend ordered the Lechon Asado or as the menu states, citrus marinated roasted Kurobota pork belly. The meal was served with rice and beans. He thought it was really good taste wise, but was disappointed in the portion size which I guess was a little small but I was full after eating my meal.

I was very satisfied with the food, service, atmosphere and entertainment. It is a great place to hang out, to drink or eat food. It's a great place period. I will be back.



Mojitos Rum Bar & Grill
437 Esplanade Ave New Orleans, LA 70116
(504) 252-4800
www.mojitosnola.com

Don Fortunato's Pizzeria - Metairie, LA

Lately I am always on the go so almost everything I have eaten recently has been out of a box or bag. Despite this, I hadn't had pizza in a while and a quick search led me to Don Fortunato's Pizzeria.

When I arrived at the restaurant it was raining hard, so I ended up calling to place the order over the phone in the parking lot. The man on the phone was very nice and told me about the specials they were having. I ended up getting two large pies for a great price and they were ready quite quickly I might add. 

When I went inside to pick up my order, I was greet by the owner (he was also the one who took the order over the phone). He was so nice and welcoming! He generosity was really what made me want to come back regardless of how the food even tasted (sort of). Luckily though, the pizza was delicioso! 

Despite the time it took to drive home, the pies were still super hot when I got home! The pizza was so good and the crispiness of the crust killed it. I am so glad I found this place!


Don Fortunato's Pizzeria
3517 20th St Metairie, LA 70002
(504) 302-2674
www.donfortunatospizzeria.com

China Rose - Metairie, LA

What do you do when it is one of those lazy days, the weather sucks, it is raining hard and you are hungry? I don't know what you do, but I order Chinese takeout for delivery. I did a little searching and came up with China Rose.

I couldn't seem to find a menu, so I called to see if they had one online. The person on the phone kindly gave me their website address which for some odd reason didn't pop up in the search. In any case, I scanned the menu and saw that the first three pages of the menu were pretty typical but the fourth page was listed as the Authentic Chinese Menu. I figured it would probably be best to order off this menu, so I ended up choosing and selecting the China Rose Special Duck. The duck was really good; the meat was tender and the flavor was nice (although I would have liked a little more spice). The only thing I didn't like was that the skin was still attached and I am not a fan of the fatty thick skin of duck (especially when it's not crispy and fried).

The American in me wanted to try something off of their regular menu, so I ordered the Combination Fried Rice to go with my meal. It was pretty good for takeout standards and I would have no problem ordering it again.

I was not only satisfied with the food but also satisfied with service. Ordering on the phone was easy, the food came pretty fast and the gentleman that brought the food was a surprisingly cherry fellow. China Rose was a saving grace on an otherwise lackluster day.


China Rose
3501 N Arnoult Rd Metairie, LA 70002
(504) 887-3295
www.chinaroseno.com

Shogun Japanese Restaurant and Steak House - Metairie, LA

Shogun is a big restaurant separated by two dining area: Hibachi and Sushi. I was in a sushi kind of mood so with their direction, we seated ourselves near the sushi bar.

The inside of the restaurant matched the outside of the building. It was a bit dated and a little run down. It was clean but dark with poor lighting and visually not the nicest of places.

The staff was very attentive which is normally nice but it became annoying when several different people constantly stopped by the table and when they were not at the table they were stationed nearby staring at you waiting for you to need something. Bad service is one thing but being stared at while eating isn't a good feeling either.

We ordered three Maki rolls: Crawfish, Crunchy and Spicy rolls. The roll were fairly small and taste wise were just average. Nothing stood out so there is not much to say, but I did enjoyed the Crunchy Roll the most.

We also ordered the Rainbow Roll. Despite the larger price tag, it too was nothing special. However, I will say that the fish tasted fresh.

Although the sushi wasn't spectacular, it was good. It was good enough that I would be willing to come back and try the Hibachi. My only complaint would be that they just need to work on the presentation of the restaurant.


Shogun Japanese Restaurant and Steak House
2325 Veterans Memorial Blvd Metairie, LA 70002
(504) 833-7477
www.shogunneworleans.com