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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

starstarstarstarstar
Among the best locally.

starstarstarstar
Excellent and ambitious.

starstarstar
Worth crossing town for.

starstar
Recommended.

*
Acceptable.

No star
Unacceptable.

Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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Olive Branch Cafe

Pizza. Pasta.
Mid-City: 3700 Orleans Ave.. 504-302-1220. Map.
Marrero: 1995 Barataria Blvd., 504-393-1107. Map.
Algiers: 5145 Gen. de Gaulle Dr., 504-393-1107. Map.
Lunch and dinner continuously seven days. Sunday brunch.
Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
This locally-owned chain of three pizza-and-pasta cafes has one thing going for it: when it needs bread for anything, it bakes it. Near as I can tell, they use the same dough for everything, but fresh-baked bread is better than any other kind. This enhances all the pasta entrees, because they come with a small, sauceless cheese pizza right out of the oven. It's everything in the pizza entrees, of course. And they even turn the bread into a few appetizers.

WHY IT'S GOOD
The good hot bread and pizza was not quite enough to distract from the fact that the pasta and other entrees I've tried were not especially good. The pasta itself seems either of mediocre quality, or cooked too long or too little--but the texture and sauce-collecting abilities of the stuff is sub-optimal. Neither the red and the white sauces are enough to keep it all together. Everything is servied in titanic portions at small prices, which shuts a lot of people up.

BACKSTORY
Rusty Autry opened the first Olive Branch on the West Bank in 1997, adding a second location on that side of the river a few years later. After Katrina, he took over the former Sun Ray Grill in the American Can apartment building.

DINING ROOM
The American Can location is very cool, with the big spaces for which old warehouses are celebrated. The West Bank restaurants are more utilitarian, especially the one in Algiers. Service at all of the Olive Branch's branches is something less than immediately attentive, but the attitude is good once they get around to you.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Artichoke salad.
Caesar salad.
Italian salad.
Greek salad.
Hummus.
Pasta jambalaya.
Spaghetti and meatballs.
Chicken parmesan or Alfredo.
Beef or spinach lasagna.
Muffuletta sub.
Pizzas.

FOR BEST RESULTS
One word: pizza.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The salads would be much better if they'd toss them with the dressings. And the pasta would be better if they'd toss them with the sauces. I never thought plopping chicken parmesan atop a pile of pasta was a good idea. It ought to be on the side, but the pasta-fill plates leave no openings.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

*Mid-City branch only.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 2/3/2010.

A list of over 300 full, current reviews is here.