Beau Rivage, Biloxi MS

Beau Rivage Hotel Room, Biloxi MS

Our room at the Beau Rivage

Room: We’ve stayed at the Beau Rivage a few times now, and our room on this stay was exactly like the others. The room overall was average size, and comfortable. Internet cost about $12/day. The bathroom was a bit larger than average, and includes a separate tub. Av had to leave for a while that evening for some business, so my plans were to take a nice long bath, then get ready for a late supper. I started to fill the tub when I realized that the built-in stopper wasn’t making a seal, so water was leaking out of the tub as I was filling it. Then, I noticed that there was this white film all in the water, including specks of white powder-like clumps. I guess that the maid service cleaned the tub but didn’t rinse it properly. Needless to say, I didn’t get that bath. The shower was better, but did have some mildew around the bottom of the glass enclosure. Maybe local management has changed (it’s part of the MGM group) and things aren’t being looked after as closely as I remember from our stays here before. We weren’t originally looking to stay at the Beau Rivage, but they were having an internet special on their room rate, and it was comparable to most of the other hotels ‘on the strip’.

Lobby: The lobby is nice, although there isn’t much seating. Various shops line the lobby (see the pic at the bottom for a table I really liked), most with upscale items.

Service: Check-in had a long wait, but other than that we really didn’t have any other experiences with the service at the hotel.

Food: Av and I had a late supper at the hotel’s nicest restaurant, the Port House. It used to be themed as more of a seafood restaurant, which explains the four giant aquariums, it’s furnished with white booths, which have a certain 90’s flare. I started with the salad of curly endive (which was just okay), and Av had the lobster bisque (which was fabulous). Av had the NY Strip, and I had the small filet. Both were just above average. We shared a side of the lobster mashed potatoes but (and I know this is going to sound to Japanese Iron Chef, but….) the lobster was totally overpowered by the potatoes, so it was pretty much a waste. I had a cocktail and Av had a glass of wine, both of which were excellent. We didn’t order dessert. We thought the prices were much too high for what they were actually offering of the menu overall.

Also – this bothers me but Av says other places do it now – when we first sat down, the waiter asked if we would like bottled or still water. I requested still water (tap water), because I didn’t plan on drinking much of it, and I don’t believe in paying for bottled water at a restaurant. So the waiter comes back and pours us both water out of this blue glass bottle – and I’m thinking to myself (please don’t think I’m terribly cheap, there are just some things I don’t believe in paying extra for) ‘I know he just got that bottle out of the dishwasher, just like all the other blue bottles in this restaurant, and put it under the tap to fill it’. But when the bill came, guess what? There was a $7 charge for water. $7 for ‘still’ water. Blah! This bothered me but not Av, so okay….

BTW, Av and I dressed nicely for supper, but we also saw people there in tshirts and shorts. I am all about being comfortable at supper, but anyway….. We *won’t* be going back.

Spa: Av had a Swedish massage in the hotel’s spa; he said it was pretty average.

Extra: The on-site casino is **so smoky** – you can tell it right when you walk in.

Our experience is this: I think this is maybe our last stay at the Beau Rivage.

Dorignac’s and Joe Gambino’s

Dorignac's, New Orleans (Metairie) LA
Dorignac’s

Av and I love-love-love Dorignac’s. It’s the old-school grocery in Metairie (710 Veterans) that carries *everything*. There’s lots that we can’t get at home, so here’s what we bought:

Mayhaw jelly (not as easy to find as it used to be), muscadine jelly, Zatarain’s root beer extract (makes lots and lots of root beer), Old Bay Garlic and Herb (haven’t seen that before), Crystal hot sauce (just because), hot pepper jelly, Arnaud’s creole mustard, Dirty potato chips in spicy cajun, Boscoli olive salad, and Zapp’s in the new salsa flavor.

Joe Gambino's Bakery
Gambino’s
Goodies from Gambino's
from top left: Caramel doberge, lemon doberge, chocolate doberge, Italian creme, turtle from Gambino’s

Le Pavillon Hotel, New Orleans LA

Le Pavillon Hotel Lobby, New Orleans LA

Lobby at LePavillon

Room: This was our first stay at the Le Pavillon. On TripAdvisor, it’s the highest-rated hotel in New Orleans. The rooms are quite small (but that’s not uncommon in New Orleans – rooms at Hotel Monteleone are about this same size) but furnished comfortably.

Lobby: The lobby is the best part of the hotel – just gorgeous. Several seating areas, lovely chandeliers, nice paintings. Every evening, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are served in the lobby.

Service: Although this is certainly a fine hotel, it isn’t the Ritz-Carlton. Everyone doesn’t know your name. The same level of service doesn’t seem to be there. Our reservation was *lost* upon check-in, and the error was blamed on Travelocity for not faxing them the reservation ((I’m not saying that’s not true, but Travelocity really faxes reservations to every hotel? I can’t imagine what would happen if a hotel’s fax ran out of paper, then memory, to retrieve reservations. Also: faxing?)). In any case, they were apologetic about it, but it took us about twenty minutes to check in, and we weren’t offered any upgrade or the valet service to be comped or anything. We didn’t ask for it, but I was thinking that if this kind of thing had happened elsewhere, that might have been offered.

Food: We didn’t order off the room service menu, but it seemed really overpriced (even at this level of hotel) without much in the way of choice. We instead walked to Acme Oyster House.

Extra: The hotel’s on Poydras, about four blocks from the Quarter – but it’s within walking distance of a lot of nice things.

Our experience is this: The Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans stays as our favorite hotel there; Le Pavillon was nice, but there wasn’t really anything about it that made us say to ourselves, “wow, I can’t wait to go back!”. On the other hand, the night we were there, rates at LePav – at just under $100 – were lower than many, many other hotels in town (including even a Hampton Inn in Metairie! cough!).

Hotel Room, Le Pavillon, New Orleans LA

Our Room

Bathroom, Le Pavillon, New Orleans LA

Rabideaux’s II in Iowa, Louisiana

There are actually two Rabideaux’s, one is more of a restaurant – and the other (Rabideaux’s II) has places to eat inside (and out), and is set up in a more utilitarian style. I would really like to try everything they serve, but pics are below of a meat pie…sooooo good, a pistolette, and a praline (which was darker than I like – I’ll post my recipe on my blog later).

Rabideaux's II, Iowa LA

Meat Pie, Rabideaux's II, Iowa LA
Meat Pie – this would be super-easy to make at home, and I’ve promised Av that I would…

Pistolette, Rabideaux's II, Iowa LA
Pistolette – a bread roll that’s opened and stuffed with meat – in this case, shrimp (but just as often found stuffed with crawfish tails) – and then either baked or fried. This one was fried.

Praline, Rabideaux's II, Iowa LA
dark praline

Hampton Inn, Houma LA

Hampton Inn, Houma LA

Our room at the Hampton Inn, Houma LA

Room: This was our first stay at the Hampton Inn in Houma, Louisiana. The room was average Hampton. Not great, not bad. There was no additional charge for internet service (I think this is standard now on all Hamptons – but there’s still a charge at their sister chain, Hilton).

Food: We didn’t try the breakfast, which was included in the cost of the room.

Extra: In Houma, you’re surrounded by bayous.

Our experience is this: There doesn’t seem to be a great number of options in Houma – a B and B, a Best Western, a Fairfield Inn, and a couple of lower-tier chains. Next time, we might try the Fairfield.

Prejean’s, Lafayette LA

Prejean's, Lafayette LA - Gumbo
3-time World Champion Gumbo

Prejean’s is *amazing*! Everything we had there was fabulous. From Av’s gumbo to my Catfish Oscar Prejean to Av’s Catfish Catahoula – was incredible.

We can’t wait to go back! More pics below.

Prejean's, Lafayette LA - Catfish Oscar Prejean
Catfish Oscar Prejean
Crispy fried Mississippi catfish topped with a jumbo lump crab and mesquite-grilled asparagus, set over a black butter wine sauce, drizzled with Bearnaise.

Prejean's, Lafayette LA - Catfish Catahoula
Catfish Catahoula
Fresh filet stuffed with shrimp, crawfish and crab. Baked and served in a puddle of crawfish and tasso cream sauce. Served with dirty rice, macque choux.