Bywater American Bistro

5/5 in all areas. A must eat in NOLA. Service and ambiance were also 5/5. Great place that is causal, good parking, and outstanding food.

Probably our favorite restaurant in NOLA. Food is excellent as is the service. Really nice ambience good for a special occasion. Love this place.

BABs was a huge disappointment. The happy hour was decent and the octopus was good, but otherwise all the other dishes were boring or downright bad.I visited on a Friday night with an early reservation. They have daily aperitivo hour from 5:30 - 7 PM throughout the whole restaurant, which was nice, so we got one dish and all of our drinks from this menu.To eat: Mozzarella en Carozza ($12), a new dish for me; I learned it's basically fried mozzarella grilled cheese sandwiches. It was fine, boring, not what I want at a restaurant. Then we had the arancini with caviar ($12) and Octopus with sweet potato ($17). The arancini was good and the octopus was the best dish of the night. For entrees, we had the beef lasagna ($31) and the gnocchi a la nona ($24). These were both a huge let down, but the lasagna was a bit better. I wish the menu (or waiter) had warned us about how similar these dishes are because they are both very cheese baked pasta dishes. I also wish I was warned the gnocchi was eggplant (fine) and olives (yuck). If the restaurant was better about explaining their food, we would not have ordered the gnocchi. Both dishes were boring.Our drinks were also just fine. The Dua Maria ($10), Herbis Vermouth and Soda ($8), Aperol Spritz ($9), and Rouge Vermouth and Soda ($8) were all standard. The prices were good.Service was adequate but they did not acknowledge that we visited for a special occasion. There is a 4% fee for the kitchen. As for decor, I liked the structure and lighting but not all the art on the walls.

Great service. Incredibly friendly wait staff. So close to where I'm staying in New Orleans that I could actually connect my Wi-Fi. The food was amazing, and I even got to meet Nina Compton. Ricky was great!

The service was amazing. Our server was so nice and accommodating. She paid special attention to our allergies and we felt safe. The ambiance was cozy and welcoming. And the food. AMAZING!! I got the wagyu lasagna and it was so light. It was the perfect portion. My friend got the pasta which was so flavorful. We ended with apple olive oil cake. Apple ice cream could have been more apple fowars but the cake was moist. Would absolutely return!

Nina Compton can always be counted on for tasty and unique flavors of her cuisine, I've dined here more times to count but I must say I was a bit underwhelmed this visit. The service was amazingly great as always so no issues there.We ordered the octopus as an appetizer which was tasty and flavorful, not to mention how tender it was. For our main entree' I had the Capellini shrimp pasta. It too was good and flavorful and the shrimp were a nice size but cut into bites within the pasta. My partner had the whole gill fish, which I don't recall what type of fish it was. The fish was cooked to perfection. Lastly, we ordered the chocolate cake ganache. The underwhelming feeling comes by way of portion sizes. The fish was just that, fish with a side of cherry tomatoes and the capellini was very shallow in the bowl. I understand with fine dining portion sizes are a bit smaller but it wasn't consistent to what I had experienced here previously. The cake wasn't a slice but crumbs. It literally was like taking the remaining crumbs from a sheet cake and garnishing it with mint leaves, drops of Nutella and a small taste of the toffee bites and ice cream . The waitress asked how everything was and I gave honest feedback. They were nice enough to take the chocolate cake off though not expected or requested but we were grateful for it. Overall the experience was good and the food and service was good, however it was a different experience from what I had encountered previously.

Octopus - divine. Coconut puree was so delicious. Smoky flavors. The scent hit my nose first. Cooked well and not chewy. Shrimp Camarillo - good, but a little underwhelming after having the octopus. Chicken - really good. A bit saltier after having the Cavatelli. Fresh basil. Really tender chicken thighs. Semolina gnocchi was good. Not chewy either and tasted so fresh. A tiny bit of a kick. Cocktail - strong but not overbearing Romantic vibe. Good for a date night but I saw lots of groups there as well. Dessert- WOW. That and the octopus 10/10. Salty caramel. Brittle. Rich ganaches. Coconut sorbet. Crunchy hazelnuts. All the flavors went so well together

Nina Compton in NOLA does not need an introduction but in case you do not know, she is a James Beard award winning Saint Lucian chef currently serving New Orleans.BABs did not disappoint. We made resys for 6 pm and was not aware they had a happy hour from 5-7 so that was a plus. We tried a little bit of this and that, and everything was wonderful and service was great. Gorgeous restaurant with plenty of parking.

Wow wow wow! After days of exploring the best of Creole cuisine, we were interested in trying something different. We knew that Bywater was featured in the NY Times article on the 25 best restaurants in New Orleans so decided to give it a try. The service was great, our waiter walked us through his recommendations for drinks and it was cool to see the staff making all the meals in the kitchen. We got a round of apps for the table, butternut squash salad, burrata, and blackened octopus and everything tasted super fresh and delicious! I don't really eat octopus but I enjoyed this one!For the main dishes we had, spaghetti, eggplant parm, cavatelli with shrimp, and wagyu beef lasagna and we all loved our dishes. We were a table of NJ/NY folks so we had a ton of great local Italian food but this was by far one of the best meals we've ever had!!We wrapped up with chocolate ganache and apple bread pudding. Both were good but the savory dishes were better in my opinion.

Outstanding dinner here tonight! https://blainerestaurantreport.com/2024/12/21/babs-new-orleans-la-report-787/