"Disappointed is an understatement. I have been visiting New Orleans for 25 years, so I was thrilled when my father told me he wanted to take me to Galatoire 's for my 40th birthday dinner. I had never been before, and it 's a New Orleans institution. I made our reservation online two months in advance and let them know in the notes that we were celebrating my 40th birthday. We arrived on time for our Wednesday at 7pm reservation if not 5 minutes early. The host did mention that he saw we were celebrating my birthday and welcomed us. Then he said that the main dining was full but they had room in the back dining room . We saw several open tables in the main dining, but we followed him back anyway. After a few minutes, we noticed that there was no dress code in this room. We had dressed for the occasion: I was in a dress and heels, and my father was wearing a dinner jacket when the weather was 90 degrees outside. This room wasn 't nearly as beautiful as the main dining room either. This was not the dining ambiance we were hoping for. The server took our order at reasonable timing, but otherwise, he was inattentive at best. Our bottle of wine and escargot came out fairly quickly, but there was almost an hour wait for our entrees. We were so hungry that we kept asking for more bread so we could at least dip it in the leftover garlic butter from the escargot. At least the escargot were good and are the reason for a 2-star review instead of 1. When the entrees did come out, the server dropped them off at our table and walked away. He didn 't ask us if we needed anything, and we did in fact need refills on our water. I had to call him back to the table. At one point, he was just standing in the dining room and staring off into space. I had been waving at him for several minutes when he finally noticed and walked over so we could ask him for the check. We had initially planned to get a dessert, but we were so full from filling up on bread that we hardly had an appetite for our entrees. Both were a total waste because we were traveling and had no way to re-heat leftovers. We would have spent more money if the timing on our meal had been better, so this is a big miss all around. I spent many years working in food service (quick service and sit-down dining) in high school and college, so I get that things can happen. The supply chain can mess up food orders. The kitchen or waitstaff can be short-staffed or inexperienced. There can be a communication breakdown between the reservations and the host stand. But in this case, it seems like the perfect storm of everything going wrong at once. After I came home and looked at the receipt, I realized that they sat us in Galatoire 's 33. This is not where we wanted to dine and not where our reservation was for. All in all, this was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had in New Orleans. At this point, I don 't even think I 'll try Antoine 's. It 's apparent that they are trying to coast by on their name. But in a city with tons of amazing dining options, I truly hope they read this review and attempt to address some of the issues we experienced this night."
