Petunia’s Restaurant

I’m originally From NOLA, but now reside in Tennessee. When I heard that Petunia’s has closed, I almost cried. I wish I knew why they closed. It wasn’t because of bad food. I absolutely loved Petunia’s. I’m praying they will return.

We went here at least 2 or 3 times in the 4 days that we were in NOLA. I cannot tell you how depressed I am because now I am not sure where to go to get, BY FAR, the best Bloody Mary known to man. The waiters were more than attentive… but most importantly if anyone knows where the bar tender from this place went you have to let me know. I’ll travel miles for another one of those Bloody Marys. RIP

What!!! Such a sad story!

RIP PETUNIA. I loved that bitch.
My heart kinda aches knowing this place is closed. =(

Petunias breakfast menu is now being served out of Oceana restaurant on Conti street! Same great taste but different location! I just went today and I was just as pleased as ever. For all you Petunia lovers go and check it out for yourself!!!

Wow… what a disappointment. I was really looking forward to visiting Petunias after seeing it featured on Food Television. When we arrived, we had to get the waiter’s attention to be seated — who by the way looked like he had just been beaten about the face with bruises and a black eye.
The state of the place was downright unacceptable. Of the dozen or so tables they had, half of them were covered in dirty plates while the waiter slowly meandered around the them without so much as picking up a single dirty fork.
Reluctant to stay, we decided to at least check out the menu. Determined that Giada DeLaurentis couldn’t be wrong by telling ‘me’ this place was awesome — my cousin and I ordered the crêpe with chicken, cheddar and spinach. When it finally arrived — yes, it was large. But it was also severly underseasoned… and well, completely underwhelming. The chicken was bland and flavorless — the cheddar was… well, cheddar cheese. The hollandaise tasted storebought and forgettable.
We decided to use the restroom before venturing back out and WOW. I saw Bourbon Street bars with cleaner facilities. DISGUSTING. They didn’t even have a soap dispenser. They just filled a plastic portion cup with blue soap. The garbage was overflowing, and there was no paper towels. We turned right out and walked away.
I shuddered to think the state of the kitchen after seeing the dining room and bathroom. I posted photos just to prove the point.
Avoid this place. Instead, go to Johnny PoBoys for a much, much better breakfast experience.
What a waste of $ 20.00. Giada must be smoking crack to endorse this joint.

Came here recently for nostalgia’s sake. We used to frequent this spot years ago, and the food was always solid. Coffee was good, service friendly nice atmosphere. You could be sitting by the window facing the street and witness a funeral band marching through the streets of the quarter. I have also witnessed a less fortunate person wake up off the sidewalk in front drop trou and take a dump, so be forewarned.
I have had some of the best lost bread or pan perdue here that you could ever put a fork to. Luscious flavor, crispy outside, eggy fluffy inside. This go around it was plentiful, but not quite the Unilocalgasim experienced in the past. What saved the day for me was substituting the bacon with boudin and getting an extra side of andouille. Both types of sausage were cooked perfectly, the andouille with just the right amount of snap and hardwood smoke. The boudin was fresh with just a bit of spice to offset the sweet egg battered bread. I also sampled the Benedict which was tasty, but not anything out of the ordinary.
I blame my ²⁴⁄₇ party mentality being a little rusty as there are some marvelous choices at this joint, I just did not make one.

This was the first place in New Orleans we stopped to eat, and what a great start. One of the waiters greeted us outside with a menu, and as they were just opening for dinner, we were seated right away, in a completely empty restaurant, which made us wonder. As we sat and ate, however, more and more people came in. Whew!
The three of us each got a cup of gumbo and then shared the banana’s foster crêpe. The gumbo was really tasty. Not too fishy, and enough rice and shrimp and sausage in each bowl to be really hearty.
Then out comes the flaming banana crêpe. We were very thankful we’d only had the gumbo, since that thing was HUGE. The three of us couldn’t finish it, but oh was it good. And given all the alcohol (rum?) poured on it, we didn’t need a cocktail to get the party started!
When we left, one of the waiters gave us some great recommendations for places to go, and cautions for places to stay away from. Definitely a big help and our stay in the French Quarter was all the better for having talked with him and eaten at Petunia’s. Don’t miss out on this jem.

This place has HUGE plates of food. I would recommend having one plate between two people. My sister in law had a plate of very tasty and filling french toast. I had a white omelet and my brother had the Cajun eggs. All very good and lots of food left over. Some of the best grits ever tasted too.
We were there early on Sunday — no waiting for a table. Coffee refills kept coming no problem. Interesting — it took a long while for our food to come. We think the chef might not have made it in early enough to get the breakfast started. Luckily, food service picked up as we were leaving. Overall a very good place and would go back!

We had: St. Francis crêpe, and Maw Maw’s jambalaya.
Jambalaya was full of seafood and tasted very fresh. Crêpe was equally fresh tasting with lots of real seafood and ridiculously huge –14″ across!
Prices are high ($ 19 for the crêpe) but the ingredients are quality and you’re getting two meals in one. We saved half of ours to eat later.
Service is very good, and coffee is super strong. And the whole place is very pink, even the business cards.
This is one of the few places in the Quarter that I’d eat at again.

I went here for breakfast and LOVED it.
We walked around for a while looking for a place to serve breakfast around 11am on a weekday and finally ended up here. It’s the best breakfast I’ve had in New Orleans yet.
I will definitely be going back.

What a shame: Another NOLA disappointment. We decided to try Petunia’s based on reviews. When we arrived that morning the line was out the door and about a 30 minute wait. Several people in line had visited before and swore by the place so our hopes were up. The interior is cramped but cozy. We were seated, gave our orders then waited quite a while for our food. When it arrived it was room temperature! 2 out of 4 at our table had to send our food back, the solution was to toss in the microwave. Great. I ordered the St. Louis eggs benedict but was disappointed in the flavor. We all split the bananas foster crêpe, which was good but not amazing. Maybe Petunia’s is a victim of over-​hype. Have low expectations and you won’t be disappointed.

Hey do you remember that date back in college, with the guy you didn’t really have any sparks with but you knew her was really a great guy for somebody. Wheeww, finally got my feelings for Petunia in perspective.
We went for a later breakfast on our trip last week. Everyone that came out said Wow, this place is worth the wait. Well we didn’t wait that long.
We sat down and looked over the menu, asked the waitress for aDiet Coke while we were looking. It’s in a can. Bleeh, off putting.
We spy the crepes which we had seen on Giada’s Getaways on Food Network. Yummm good choice. We order two kinds so we can compare. While waiting for our food we had a few flies that kept landing on us ick! We were surprised by the sassiness of the waiter at the table next to us. I felt uncomfortable. Our waitress was okay but could have been a lot more helpful. We waited for long amounts of time for her to show up for water refills and the bill.
Our Crepes came quickly and were huge. They were filled with cheese, shrimp and depending on the crêpe different veggies.
The taste was very rich, cheesy and unique. I enjoyed it. My husband felt the cheese was too much.
We looked at other tables as we ate, the place is small so you are really close to the other tables. We saw delicious Eggs with Hollandaise, pancakes, and a scrambled egg item that looked wonderful. We were so close I wanted to ask for a bite .
The most delightful treat came out for another table, a flaming Bananas Fosters crêpe, it was huge and looked wonderful. We wished we weren’t stuffed so we could try one too.
Overall I wasn’t as pleased because of the atmosphere, attitude from the wait staff, flies buzzing and diet coke in a can.
Would I go back again? If I was in New Orleans I would want to try agian and see if this was a one time experience. And of course I would go straight for the Bananas Foster Crêpe.

I was here for dinner but in hindsight, I suppose I should’ve gone for the breakfast. It’s a cute little place that makes you feel like you’re eating in someone’s house. The servers are very nice and the menu is simple and straightforward. But the night we went, it was very, very hit-​or-​miss.
Gumbo was so-​so, fried oysters pretty good. The fried okra looked really, really good (huge portion) but they forgot to bring ours. I had the cajun-​seasoned scallops special. My scallops were undercooked and lukewarm. My mom had the catfish, which was flavorless and also lukewarm. We asked them to nuke both plates, and they did with their apologies. Fiancé had the cajun pasta, which had so much parmesan that it tasted like cheese with a side of pasta; this was too bad as otherwise, it would’ve been pretty good. Dad had the fried drumfish in a special curry sauce special, which was the best entrée. The sauce was light and excellent.
Each entrée came with a side of mashed potatoes and broccoli. We were supposed to get a choice of mashed or baked but were never asked, I think because they were so overwhelmed that they didn’t want to bother. Some of us were also supposed to get a side salad appetizer, which they forgot until we reminded them after our entrees arrived.
So why even both with the 3 stars? Because I can see why on some nights and mornings, this place can be out-​of-​this-​world. Perhaps on a day where a big convention is not in town and they’re not understaffed (people were waiting outside even though there were several tables available). And also because of the best-you’ll-ever-have bananas foster. It may seem expensive ($ 16) but it can literally feed 5 – 6 people (in our case, 4 who were still a little hungry after not finishing the entrees, but walked away stuffed after scarfing down dessert).
Service is pretty slow but we didn’t mind since we’d expected that, although it did border on incompetence with all the mistakes.

GREAT BANANAS FOSTER! My Mom, sister and I came here because we heard about their flaming bananas fosters. We ordered it. It was $ 15 and it can feed 4 people. Too bad that we had already eaten dinner somewhere else, but this place looked like they served some pretty darn good dinner specials.
I would definitely recommend this place for their bananas foster.

I truly had the best Etouffe of my life here. It was a crawfish Etouffe and it was fresh and delicious. This place blew away my expectations. We arrived early for dinner on a Monday and started are meal with crab claws and gumbo. I have to mention that the bread was amazing as well. It was the hard baked baguette type that is so hard to get outside of France. Fresh and a truly fantastic complement to our meal. We split the bananas Foster crêpe for dessert. It was so huge, tasty and filling… (really I do need to hit the treadmill badly)…
Our waiter, Alexander, was wonderful. He really treated us well.

We showed up for dinner and the server told us they would be slow because they were short staffed. As we were in no hurry, we decided to sit down and be patient. Judging from the other reviews, I would expect this situation often and plan accordingly. If you gotta get somewhere or are starving, move on!
All that being said, we really, really enjoyed our meal here. I had some kind of red fish topped with a sauce of some nature and crab (I really painted a picture there, didn’t I?). My lady had an okra-​thickened gumbo that may have changed my mind on that slimy stuff. Yum yum.
We weren’t really hungry after scarfing our meals down, but we decided to try their bananas foster. Good golly — that thing is a monster! It’s definitely a dish to share. Holy smokes.

I visited Petunia’s on a recommendation from a friend of a friend. I went with two friends and, as the seating order seemed to be quite disorderly, we volunteered to share a table with a lady who was on her own. It made for interesting conversation (she was the wife of an International Police Chief’s conference attendee), but the hosts’ attributing the slowness and disorganization to Southern service seemed a little weak.
But see, it’s right off of Bourbon Street, and so you know, come on folks, you should know: there’s going to be a little wait. Also, because it’s right off of Bourbon Street, you get to chat with people from all over while you’re standing on the stoop waiting. But because it’s so good, you’ll be just as likely to run into local or near-​locals. When we were there, one couple had come over from Lake Charles just for Petunia’s.
So anyway. Here you’ll get a happy mouthful of solid breakfast flavor, and spunky service. And with so much food, you won’t likely be joining the clean plate club here.

One of the best brunch places in the quarter. Cute, pink walls, and clean. I usually split a meal with someone else because the portions are so large. Sometimes the service is over-​the-​top quirky. I’ve just come to expect attitude from the waiters. The grits and grillades are fantastic. The crepes are HUGE-I’ve tried them all and you won’t go wrong by ordering one.

Aw crap, you guys found out about Petunia’s…
I love this place. When we visit New Orleans, we’re here at least every other day for lunch or dinner (who wakes up in time for breakfast?!). Their crawfish étouffée is the best I’ve ever had. The gumbo is also delicious. I love their fresh bread, too! Sure, the wait can be a pain sometimes, but it’s totally worth it. Lunch is less expensive than dinner if you’re on a budget. This is my favorite place in the city, so please go there all the time when I’m not visiting. :D