Orléans Food Spot Review - St. Martha's Brasserie

Almost everyone in Orléans has heard about St. Martha’s Brasserie. It’s often mentioned on lists of where to go for some upper-scale dining. We had been here a number of times with family, for date-nights and a few other occasions that I can’t recall at the moment, and each time the experience and food was nothing short of excellent. But this recent visit definitely fell below that lofty standard that had established itself in our minds as to the quality of food to expect.

THE SPACE

From the perspective of decor and atmosphere, there’s no doubt about the fact that St. Martha’s Brasserie is more upper-scale and deserves the accolades afforded to it by many patrons who have left glowing reviews across the web. It’s cozy, intimate, clean and kind of what you’d expect for how the restaurant presents itself. Also, bonus points to a very unique-looking ceiling that adds a touch of interest to the space.

The only minor hiccup on our recent visit that pierced this veil of greatness somewhat was the realization that the restaurant doesn’t have any A/C or it wasn’t working at the time, making our mealtime quite warm as it was over 25°C outside.

A small but lovely outdoor patio which is now open.

A very nice, albeit somewhat small bar area perfectly suited for casual drinks!

THE MENU

St. Martha’s Brasserie menu is fairly limited, but that’s no surprise given the fact that this is, after all, a fine-dining establishment. Their dinner menu consists of:

Appetizers include:

• French Onion Soup

• Mussels Mariniere

• Crab Cakes

• Golden Thai Chicken Soup

• Calamari

• Fries

• Guokui

• Chef Salad

• Escargot

Entrées include:

• A variety of Pizzas

• Veal Chop

• Streak & Frites

• St. Martha’s Fried Chicken

• Peking Style Duck Breast

• Duck Fat Burger

• Black Tiger Shrimp

• Tarragon Salmon

• Fish & Chips

• Citrus Crab Spaghetti

I should also mention that they do have a breakfast and lunch menu which you can see here.

WHAT WE HAD

The five of us had the following:

• Crab Cakes

• Della Carne pizza

• Fries

• Tarragon Salmon

• Black Tiger Shrimp

• Steak & Frites

• Raspberry Cheesecake

• Vanilla Creme Brûlée

Because there was five of us with varying opinions, I wouldn’t say that there was a consensus on the quality of the food, but I did go around the table asking for opinions on each dish. Here are the scores out of 10:

🦀 Crab Cakes - 7.4 / 10

🍕 Della Carne Pizza - 8.5 / 10

🍟 Fries - 7 / 10

🍣 Tarragon Salmon - 10 / 10

🍤 Black Tiger Shrimp - 7 / 10

🥩 Streak & Frites - 5 / 10 - Ok, let me explain this one. I hadn’t had a steak in quite some time and to say I was excited for this one would be a major understatement. So it pains me to say that it was fairly disappointing. First, the steak was not cooked to my preference which is medium rare. Second, the sauce… well, let’s just say that it wasn’t great. Third, although the fries were rated a 7 out of 10 by my daughter, I’d say they were closer to a 5 / 10.

🍰 Cheescake - 3 / 10 - Once again, perhaps my score for the cheesecake comes from how excited I was to have some high-quality… NEW YORK STYLE cheesecake. But let me tell you, what came out was a) definitely not New York Style cheesecake, b) covered in way too much graham crumb and pistachios, and c) too mushy and frankly not so great tasting.

🍮 Vanilla Creme Brûlée - 9.5 / 10 - most generous portion size of Creme Brûlée I’ve ever seen, and it was extremely delicious.

So as you can see, there was definitely some real variance in what we thought about each dish.

THE ORLÉANS CONNECT RATING

⭐️ 3.9 stars out of 5

Great atmosphere, nicely decorated, some food items are great, others not so much.