Galvez Restaurant - Gourmet Supper Club September '13 outing

One night last December, a group of friends were sitting around enjoying a wonderful evening...eating, drinking, laughing, drinking, laughing, drinking....you get the picture...hiccup.

We began to lament the fact that we're blessed to live in a city with so many wonderful dining options, but so little time to try them all.  

Well, one drink thing led to another and we decided to form the "Gourmet Supper Club".  We each put the names of restaurants we'd like to try in a bowl and picked 11 of them, and once a month we go together to these wonderful restaurants.  Why 11 you ask when a calendar clearly has 12 months?  No, it was not the alcohol....we saved our December outing for a special Reveillon Dinner to be determined at a later date.

During my absence from blogland, we tried quite a few wonderful restaurants....too many for me to go back and review, so I'll just start with September's outing....Galvez Restaurant.

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor and offers amazing views of the river and railways below.  As we dined and the sun set, the Crescent City Connection bridge lights came on and lit up the night sky and steamships and locomotives went about their daily business adding a wonderful soundtrack to our evening.  

It's a gorgeous restaurant in a quiet area of the French Quarter.  I am always fascinated with the statuary in the area. Apparently, so is our friend Mike....to avoid confusion....Mike's the one on the left.

But back to Galvez.  The restaurant is really beautiful and completely appropriate for special occasions or just a quiet dinner with friends.

We started our evening with a few pitchers of Sangria.  While it was very tasty, I have to admit I wasn't a huge fan of the fruit with rinds still on it. Just not my thing. Please peel the fruit...thank you.

I started my meal with the Manchego Bombas appetizer (a traditional Spanish dish of potato croquettes stuffed with manchego cheese, deep fried and served with quince sauce) This was okay....eh....kinda like fried cheese....overpriced fried cheese.  I wish I'd taken pics of everyone else's food, but I didn't want to be "that person"...ya know?  Our friend, Thorkil, had the seafood gumbo and it was delicious.  I think we all wished we would've gotten that.   

I figured if you're at a Spanish restaurant, ya gotta eat paella, so I went with the Paella Valenciana as my entree (served with mussels, shrimp, chorizo and chicken).  Again, I was underwhelmed.  On the plus side, it's a healthy portion and when I reheated it the next day for lunch it was much tastier than I remembered...seemed more flavorful.  

...and of course, I had to have dessert, so I got the Flan Estilo Galvez (classic Spanish custard with Caramel sauce topped with figs).  This was your basic flan....not bad....just basic flan.  

...and as I said, the view....well, it's hard to beat this.  

All in all, I'd give Galvez Restaurant a "C".  The food was just okay, but the views and atmosphere are "A+".  Some of our Supper Club group gives this a higher grade, and some a lower grade, so the reviews were mixed.

If I ever return, maybe I'd request a table outside on the 2nd floor balcony and just order tapas and drinks and enjoy a quiet, beautiful night in the French Quarter.

If you found this post helpful, please feel free to click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+.