vpFREE2 Forums

Dining in New Orleans

#1

This place sounds great...explored their website and menu and promptly wrote
the info down in my travel notebook. I may possibly get to New Orleans this
month, if so, this is going to be a dinner stop. Thanks for the heads up!

Sandy

In a message dated 1/1/2009 3:10:37 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
vegasstl@charter.net writes:

— In _vpFREE@yahoogroups.vpF_ (mailto:vpF…@…com) ,
"jackessiebabe" <jackessiebabe@jac>
wrote:

I'm sorry that I can't identify your great oyster diner. But
there are so many superb eateries in NO, that it's difficult
to find a really poor one. New Orleaneans are very fussy about
their food. The bad places would not stay in busines very
long.

I've made it a point to hit most of Harrahs partner restaurants in
NOLA. My personal favorite is Cafe Giovanni at the corner of Canal &
Decatur...within steps of the casino.

I was introduced to this eatery from another VPFree member and I've
been addicted since my first visit. Giovanni offers a six course
tasting experience which produces a response which can best be
described as a culinary orgasm. The typical six courses are oysters
Giovanni (lightly fried and plated with a mixture of six sauces),
spicy crap caprese salad, freshly prepared veal ravioli in heavenly
Bolognese, catch of the day followed by Giovanni's filet and home
made tiramisu.

The dining atmosphere is casual so when it's 95 degrees with 90%
humidity you can arrive in shorts and not receive the
pretentious `tude that some white table cloth joints in town suffer
from.

Cafe Giovanni happily accepts Harrahs dining vouchers and they also
offer a variety of packaged sauces and apparel if you end up with
extra on your voucher that you don't wish to waste.

**************New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making
headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#2

Cafe Giovanni does sound great except for this
dish mentioned "spicy crap caprese salad".

Is this Italian menudo salad?

···

--- On Thu, 1/1/09, SAbramo102@aol.com <SAbramo102@aol.com> wrote:

From: SAbramo102@aol.com <SAbramo102@aol.com>
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] Re: Dining in New Orleans
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 4:42 PM
This place sounds great...explored their website and menu
and promptly wrote
the info down in my travel notebook. I may possibly get to
New Orleans this
month, if so, this is going to be a dinner stop. Thanks
for the heads up!

Sandy

In a message dated 1/1/2009 3:10:37 A.M. Eastern Standard
Time,
vegasstl@charter.net writes:

— In _vpFREE@yahoogroups.vpF_
(mailto:vpF…@…com) ,
"jackessiebabe" <jackessiebabe@jac>
wrote:
>
> I'm sorry that I can't identify your great
oyster diner. But
> there are so many superb eateries in NO, that
it's difficult
> to find a really poor one. New Orleaneans are very
fussy about
> their food. The bad places would not stay in busines
very
> long.

I've made it a point to hit most of Harrahs partner
restaurants in
NOLA. My personal favorite is Cafe Giovanni at the corner
of Canal &
Decatur...within steps of the casino.

I was introduced to this eatery from another VPFree member
and I've
been addicted since my first visit. Giovanni offers a six
course
tasting experience which produces a response which can best
be
described as a culinary orgasm. The typical six courses are
oysters
Giovanni (lightly fried and plated with a mixture of six
sauces),
spicy crap caprese salad, freshly prepared veal ravioli in
heavenly
Bolognese, catch of the day followed by Giovanni's
filet and home
made tiramisu.

The dining atmosphere is casual so when it's 95 degrees
with 90%
humidity you can arrive in shorts and not receive the
pretentious `tude that some white table cloth joints in
town suffer
from.

Cafe Giovanni happily accepts Harrahs dining vouchers and
they also
offer a variety of packaged sauces and apparel if you end
up with
extra on your voucher that you don't wish to waste.

**************New year...new news. Be the first to know
what is making
headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#3

This place sounds great...explored their website and menu and

promptly wrote

the info down in my travel notebook. I may possibly get to New

Orleans this

month, if so, this is going to be a dinner stop. Thanks for the

heads up!

Sandy

I'll recommend also Sandy, though I missed the "spicy crap" salad;-)
Had a small problem there when we were still learning the comp system
in NO. We were dining on points rather than a coupon and had them fax
Harrah's for the comp. From then on if we were sans coupon we just
brought receipts back to Harrah's and were reimbursed.

Props also to Kingfish who clued me in to the charbroiled oysters at
Drago's. Could not get enough.

Chandler

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, SAbramo102@... wrote:

#4

Charbroiled oysters at Drago's are absolutely heavenly.

HET NOLA comps do NOT currently work as noted above. They no longer
allow you to bring receipts back to get reimbursed in cash off your
Reward Credit bank. Some local sharks were BUYING receipts at the
eateries then bringing them back to Harrahs for CASH reimbursement off
their RCs. This essentially made RCs worth nearly 1 or 1 in cash.

As for the "crap" vs "crab" comment....do I really need to clarify?
See the time stamp of that original post and think typo.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "cmayhem2001" <chandler_re@...> wrote:

I'll recommend also Sandy, though I missed the "spicy crap" salad;-)
Had a small problem there when we were still learning the comp system
in NO. We were dining on points rather than a coupon and had them fax
Harrah's for the comp. From then on if we were sans coupon we just
brought receipts back to Harrah's and were reimbursed.

Props also to Kingfish who clued me in to the charbroiled oysters at
Drago's. Could not get enough.

Chandler

#5

Charbroiled oysters at Drago's are absolutely heavenly.

HET NOLA comps do NOT currently work as noted above. They no longer
allow you to bring receipts back to get reimbursed in cash off your
Reward Credit bank. Some local sharks were BUYING receipts at the
eateries then bringing them back to Harrahs for CASH reimbursement off
their RCs. This essentially made RCs worth nearly 1 or 1 in cash.

The possibility for this kind of abuse occurred to me at the time. So
this leaves getting the comp ahead of time from the vip desk or having
the restaurant fax the request at the time of the meal as the only
options? Do you know if airfare is still reimbursable with receipt?
I may be through there again this spring.

As for the "crap" vs "crab" comment....do I really need to clarify?
See the time stamp of that original post and think typo.

You don't have to explain the typo if I don't have to explain my humor;-)

Chandler

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "hockeystl" <vegasstl@...> wrote:

#6

Mothers Restaurant: An historic and famous place.... across the street from Harrahs on the corner of Poydras and Tchoupitoulas. The best of Crawfish Etouffee, fried shrimp, fried oysters, gumbo, Po Boys, fried scallops and more!! It is the the original restaurant started by a family of US Marines and now owned by the Omato brothers. http://www.mothersrestaurant.net/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#7

Mothers has been around for a long time. If you would like to stand in a long line, experince rude service, high prices and mediocre food, then, Mothers is for you. Speak to the people in line and you will learn that everyone is a tourist. Locals know better. The Harrah's seafood restaurant on Fulton Street served superior food and much of the same menu as Mothers.

···

________________________________
From: Kathy <kc42223@yahoo.com>
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 4, 2009 4:32:04 PM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] Re: Dining in New Orleans

Mothers Restaurant: An historic and famous place.... across the street from Harrahs on the corner of Poydras and Tchoupitoulas. The best of Crawfish Etouffee, fried shrimp, fried oysters, gumbo, Po Boys, fried scallops and more!! It is the the original restaurant started by a family of US Marines and now owned by the Omato brothers. http://www.mothersr estaurant. net/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#8

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Annechino <floridagambler@...>
wrote:

Mothers has been around for a long time. If you would like to stand
in a long line, experince rude service, high prices and mediocre
food, then, Mothers is for you. Speak to the people in line and you
will learn that everyone is a tourist. Locals know better. The
Harrah's seafood restaurant [GRAND ISLE] on Fulton Street served
superior food and much of the same menu as Mothers.

I'll second the rec on Grand Isle. It's moderately priced and both the
food (I enjoy the redfish and freshly cut fries) and service was
excellent. We hit GW Fins one evening based on Chowhound reviews and
were very unimpressed. For straight seafood a Harrahs NOLA visitor
can't go wrong with GI. Another positive with GI is they're tied into
the Harrahs system so you can charge to your room or swipe your TR card
at the eatery.

#9

Yes, they still offer airfare kickback with receipt. Be careful with
the funny business on travel reimbursements here. I heard a well known
video poker author got himself in some hot water trying to double dip
on his airfare. Oops. :slight_smile:

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "cmayhem2001" <chandler_re@...> wrote:

The possibility for this kind of abuse occurred to me at the time.
Do you know if airfare is still reimbursable with receipt?
I may be through there again this spring.

#10

Guess I'm not smart enough to try to double up on that benny...
Sweet. It's an excellent deal if you have the RCs.

Chandler

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "hockeystl" <vegasstl@...> wrote:

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "cmayhem2001" <chandler_re@> wrote:
>
> The possibility for this kind of abuse occurred to me at the time.
>Do you know if airfare is still reimbursable with receipt?
> I may be through there again this spring.
>

Yes, they still offer airfare kickback with receipt. Be careful with
the funny business on travel reimbursements here. I heard a well known
video poker author got himself in some hot water trying to double dip
on his airfare. Oops. :slight_smile:

#11

<<Yes, they still offer airfare kickback with receipt. Be careful with
the funny business on travel reimbursements here. I heard a well known
video poker author got himself in some hot water trying to double dip
on his airfare. Oops. :-)>>

When we were in NO on Brad's 7 Star trip for which Harrah's had made (and paid for) our airline reservations, we also had coupons from another mailing for airfare reimbursement for the same time period, but we did not try to use them. Double-dipping is one of my pleasures but this would go over the black/white line I set for myself. However, we did use several coupons for cash/free play which were for the same date range and for food which we did use to save RCs. That seemed to be morally acceptable in my book and not even a gray area.

Everyone has their own standards, of course, and I am not judging others who have different ones from mine.

···

________________
Jean $�ott, Frugal Gambler
http://queenofcomps.com/
You can read my blog at
http://lasvegasadvisor.com/blogs/jscott/

#12

Naah, this is what happened with Famous VP Author. He got the offer
for himself, and his wife was granted an exception for the same offer
as well, but without the airfare reimbursement coupon. The coupon is
for $800. So, FVPA shows up to the VIP Total Rewards booth with an
airline receipt for some four stop monstrosity on Southwest which
almost certainly never happened. It coincidentally priced out at I
think $807.

Unfortunately, the player development exec who was handling things
that weekend knows a thing or two about how to get to Vegas from MSY
(New Orleans-the airport was apparently on the grounds of Moisant
Stockyards, hence the unusual airport code); he's seeing lots of
LAS-MSY reimbursements (if you ask me, there are way too many people
with NV driver licenses playing in NOLA these days, I thought I was at
Green Valley on 5x day, but I digress). He also happened to know
exactly who FVPA was, and being Asian, I'm guessing he's an expert at
acupuncture. So, he pretty much laughed him out of there.

If you ask me, FVPA got lucky. What he did was likely criminal fraud.
I'd have cuffed him myself. But when you're a FVPA, the world is your
oyster.

Yes, I believe the incident went upstairs, and they still welcome his
presence at NOLA. They are hoping FVPA will write something nice about
their property in one of the magazines he writes for. As if getting
the FVPA seal of approval is going to bring in business (ROFLMAO!).
But the rest of you Vegas folks, they really don't care for you at
all. Not so much the results, but your conduct, you're apparently as a
group very difficult to deal with, with all the complaining and shot
taking the Vegas folks are known for. What happens in Vegas should
really stay in Vegas. Works for me :).

See, I'm going to suspect that someone at Harrahs will have a problem
with me, and not with the incident. i'm just the messenger here, you
know.

That's the way the world works,but what do you expect? It takes genius
to take a company private at
$92 a share and watch it lose 85% of it's market value in 15 months.
Sometimes, it does pay to know a flush beats a straight.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Jean Scott" <queenofcomps@...> wrote:

<<Yes, they still offer airfare kickback with receipt. Be careful with
the funny business on travel reimbursements here. I heard a well known
video poker author got himself in some hot water trying to double dip
on his airfare. Oops. :-)>>

#13

It takes genius to take a company private at
$92 a share and watch it lose 85% of it's market
value in 15 months. Sometimes, it does pay to know
a flush beats a straight.

Amen brother. The only money I ever made at
Harrahs was buying their stock in the mid-70's
and selling my shares in the buy back. Those
were easy $$$'s.