Help there's an alligator on my menu!! (Old Orleans (Newcastle))

Member Name: Daisy

Product:	Old Orleans (Newcastle)
Date:	03/05/02 (588 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: decent food, resonable prices, city centre location

Disadvantages: none

Old Orleans is a chain restaurant, with it's menu content being loosely based on Cajun/ Tex-Mex food.

The Newcastle branch is very well located for the city centre, and close to the Haymarket bus station. We arrived about 12.30 on Saturday lunchtime and were seated straight away, although I noticed that there was a wait for tables later on. The entrance is straight into the pub area, and the restaurant is upstairs, although set around the large staircase, making the place seems very bright and welcoming. The restaurant walls are decorated in posters, banjos and other artefacts from the 'deep south'. This seemed a little 'twee' but not too over the top (other than the large alligator statue on entering the restaurant).

Anyway, on to the food. The menu is huge - both in actual size and the amount of items available! Basically it was your standard American type fare with a slight twist on some dishes (and I mustn't forget to mention that alligator was on the menu, although no one in our party tried it!) My partner opted for a salmon dish, served with herby mashed potatoes and barbecued vegetables (sorry I can't remember it's exact name). The portion wasn't huge, but everything was well cooked and the broccoli in a barbecue sauce, was surprisingly, very tasty. I opted for a Cobb salad, as I proclaimed not to be very hungry. Big mistake, as this was a huge portion, very well presented, and unfortunately I didn't do it justice.

The children's menu had a much greater choice than many restaurants. All meals were £4.25 but this included a drink and ice cream. My daughter was thrilled with her choice -which went by the fabulous name of a Ya Ya Platter! This was a combination of many of the other kids menu items (chicken strips, potato wedges etc), which I thought was an excellent idea.

We did not sample the vast dessert menu, but the kids were impressed with their ice cream, and the cappuccino wa
s one of the best I'd tasted in some time. The bill for 2 adults and 2 children including drinks was just over £25, which wasn't too bad.

If you plan to eat here (or any of their other branches) on a regular basis, you can apply for an Old Orleans Club Card which gives 10% discount of the total restaurant bill. Overall, the place was clean, food decent although the service a little slow. I'm sure we'll be back sometime, even if it?s just so that my daughter can have the thrill of ordering another Ya Ya Platter!

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