Henry Parsons Project

I spent many years living in Louisiana and while I do not miss the humidity or hurricanes, I will always miss the food. It's relatively rare to find very much cajun/creole food to begin with, and it's even rarer for it to be up to par. HPP was extremely above par. It's easily the best food of this style that I've had since I left Louisiana, including food I've made myself. I'm really mad that it never occurred to me to use duck in a gumbo, it's like the perfect poultry for it. It was so so so good. My crawfish Étouffée was perfect. They didn't skimp on ingredients in either dish, every bite was loaded up with meat. Our service was great. We were checked on a lot and our servers were super friendly. The inside is really cool and unique. Eclectic art and pictures are all over. Looks like they must have live music sometimes too! My only regret is that I didn't leave room for dessert.

Oh hell, I feel like I was transported to NOLA.Intimate setting, interesting art and decor, beautiful bar, friendly and prompt service.As a former New Orleanian, I can tell you this is the best gumbo I've had outside of New Orleans.The mocktails are awesome, if you choose not to imbibe. We had a biscuit, as well. It was perfect.I ordered the hanger steak and he ordered the crawfish étouffée. Everything was legit and delicious.We had no room for dessert, but based on the rest of our meal it would've been amazing.This place has amazing potential to be super popular, but the signage outside appeared to be lacking.We'll be back whenever we're in town!

This is an interesting place, it's mostly Southern with a bit of global influence sprinkled in. I think I was expecting more Cajun than I got, but I can't fault them for my own expectations.The space is itself is kind of weird? It looks like it's in an old office building. The decorations in the dining room itself were cool and very New Orleans-y. But the acoustics in the dining room are TRASH. There was a really large group in there and when they were talking it's all you could hear, we were lucky that they left soon after we got there but if they had stayed it would have ruined the mood as we couldn't hear each other talking. We ordered quite a few things as it was 4 of us and we were all sharing (which is the approach you should take as per our waiter).Brussel SproutsThese were perfectly cooked and seasoned, came with a cheeky little mayo to dip in. Delicious. Chicken PateSUPER delicious when paired with the fig jam or the caramelized onions. I love chicken liver pate, and this was dynamite.Fried Goat Cheese SaladFried goat cheese is a national treasure, I loved the crispy prosciutto bits in the salad as well. Pork Belly BingThis one confused me a little bit and was kind of difficult to share but at the end of the day, it was delicious! The spicy peanutty sauce was amazing the pork belly was fatty and tender. Crawfish EtouffeeThis is the dish I was looking forward to the most....and disappointed me the most. Our crawfish were really over cooked and rubbery and the gravy just wasn't as flavorful as I was expecting. Pork ChopsA touch on the dry side but seasoned nicely, the grits were a bit too solid for my liking and the cheese kind of congealed in them.OxtailsThe star of the meal. These were so, so tender and flavorful - could not have done this any better.Sticky Toffee PuddingA homerun. The popcorn ice cream and bits of popcorn were the perfect accompaniment. Really delicious!Overall, not bad! A solid 4/5

Came here with my family and was pretty excited to try some new cuisine. The servers were really nice and the ambience was quirky and interesting, since it looked like a Spanish building but there was really fun abstract artwork and candles lining the walls. Out of the appetizers we ordered, I enjoyed the crispy oyster and brussels sprouts, flavorful chicken pate platter, and the huge buttery and flaky biscuit. The gumbo unfortunately was very bitter, I only took one bite and couldn't eat anymore of it. And the jiang bing crepe was unique, very thick and creamy, but I only liked it cause of the potato chips. Out of the entrees, I thought the crawfish etoufee tasted okay. It had so much crawfish, but it was kind of bland, not spicy or flavorful at all. They did really well in braising their oxtails, but we didn't like the flavor that much. And lastly I regret not ordering the sticky toffee pudding for dessert. We ordered the dos leches chocolate cake and it was bad, tasted really weird.

I really wanted to like this place but left pretty disappointed. My partner and I cane here for dinner and ordered the biscuits, gumbo, and the roasted chicken.Biscuits: 7/10. This was good but nothing special.Gumbo: 6/10. This tasted off to me and was nothing close to the gumbo I've had in New Orleans. The smokiness overpowered the rest of the dish. I feel like the roux wasn't freshly made.Roasted chicken: 5/10. The chicken was cooked well enough and was tender but very lacking in flavor. The collard greens were also bland and would've benefited from the addition of a smoked meat. Service and ambience were nice. Prices would've been reasonable if the food was better. Sad to say we probably won't be back.

Interesting flavors in a colorful and fun setting. We came on a Sunday evening and the restaurant wasn't very busy. The service was attentive and the server gave great recommendations. In fact, we should have just kept to his recommendations- when we started, it was a mistake. We would come back for the fried goat cheese salad with crispy prosciutto. It's a great balance of textures and flavors. We would also get the shrimp and grits again. The shrimp is well-spiced (stay away if you can't handle a Cajun spiciness) and the grits have rich shrimp flavor that pairs exceptionally with the mushrooms. The biscuit was a disappointment. We expected something flaky and buttery but instead got what we thought was more of a large bread roll with a nice crust. Had they called it a bread roll, we would have been more satisfied.

Had high hopes for this place, but it fell short. The menu is seasonal and changes all the time. The porkchop was spicy and had a weird texture. The spicy tomate sauce/paste was not good. However, the cheese grits were well cooked and delicious. That was the only thing we liked. The biscuit that they rave and convince you to buy was baked to order and took so long to come out. It literally came out after our entree. I give it a 1/10. It was cakey and raw dough in the side. They told us they will remake another one, and that took even longer to come out. The kids were getting fussy and hungry, so I asked them to remove it off the check so we can go. The only option for kids were pasta with butter. I thought I could have fed the kids' porkchop with grits, but it was too spicy. She said no and came out with the toffee cake. She sang happy birthday to the wrong person ( my husband). My son had such a sad and sour face. When they walked away... we sang happy birthday to him, and he blew out the candles. Do not get the toffee cake. It came with a strange sour ice cream and sticky popcorn that .gets stuck in your teeth. The cake was dry vs moist. It definitely didn't hold up to a toffee cake. I honestly didn't like anything we ordered beside the fried oyster on toast (1 tiny piece for $5) and cheese grits. The chicken with chickpea and burnt sweet potatoes was OK. Definitely wouldn't give this place another try.

I just had one of the best meals of my life at Henry Parsons Project. The grits alone were like angels singing. And then I bit into the luscious smoked pork chop. Sheer bliss on a rainy evening. My husband's shrimp and grits were equally delectable: juicy and flavorful. And we ended the meal with a to-die for chocolate brownie. The restaurant itself had a great artsy vibe, and the service is attentive but not intrusive. And one more thing: HPP is owned by a great, community-oriented guy who's been busy feeding Eaton Fire survivors, despite losing his own home. We'll be back, and we'll see you there.

I reserved a 7:30PM dinner as a Valentine's Day surprise for my wife.I had extremely high hopes for this place to be "our place" as it isn't a super mainstream place, but most people who reviewed this place had nothing but good things to say. It seemed like a place that only people in-the-know knew about and I wanted to be a part of that.Firstly, I had reserved about a week or two before 2/14 for 7:30PM.They called me a couple days afterward saying their system had a glitch and were overbooked for that time slot and asked if 7:45PM would work. No biggie, we'll just leave 15 minutes later. Plus, the girl on the phone was very apologetic and nice. Now, with high expectations, we arrived for our reservation and were quickly checked in and seated. The place was pretty packed so I saw it as a good sign that the food was fantastic. However, the place being packed worked against us as there was about a 15-20 minute wait until we got our water. Understandable as there weren't too many people on staff, but 20 minutes for water..We ordered fried oysters, gumbo, pork chop with grits, steak frites, and the fried milk for dessert.Everything was okay. Not bad, but not mind blowing as the reviews had me expecting. But maybe I shouldn't have placed that kind of expectation on them, that's my bad.The fried oyster, though, was unacceptable. It was the first thing we ate and really set up every following dish for failure. It was beyond fishy and every bite included a helping of sand. I tried, really tried, to finish it, but I felt if I ate one more bite I'd gag out loud in front of everyone. The piece I had cut in half exuded the scent of the ocean and it lingered until the end of the meal. We explained to the waiter it was inedible and asked it to be taken back. I expected at least an apology, but none was offered. They didn't even take it out of the bill until I asked them to.I did hear the owner provided food and support for the victims of the Alta Dena fire and praise him for that. They were also taking donations as well. You can really tell he cares deeply for the community, major respect. The servers were also very nice for the most part, they were just spread too thin.Tl;drHad high hopes, failed to deliver.Don't get the oysters.

Thai was our first time to this restaurant, the food and service were great! The menu had an interesting New Orleans flair. The Vietnamese crepe was tasty! We enjoyed sharing several dishes. We went for Valentine's Day dinner. Staff, Chef and Manager were all very friendly. We'll be back!