Fellini's Cafe

I was excited to try Fellini's today because I had noticed that a lot of yelpers check in here and it sounded like a good location for lunch.

So, I went today for lunch and the place was pretty empty. I ordered the ham and cheese sandwich which came with a side of pasta salad. Ok, so the sandwich wasn't anything amazing and I've had better pasta salad, but for lunch it wasn't bad.

I'm giving this place four stars for a few other reasons. There is outdoor seating on a lovely patio. It seems like a great place to have lunch with girlfriends, sip wine and watch the world go by. Another good thing about it, although the place is small, there is a nice size parking lot. One of my biggest pet peeves of other "cafe" type places is lack of parking or super small lots.

Yeah, service was slow, but that's not a huge deal. I sat at my table and read the latest issue of the "New Orleans Levee".

Fellini salad with homemade vinaigrette was delish as was so warm muffaletta the crayfish pasta not too spicy wonderful with fresh bread and the artichoke spinach pizza was wonderful. Nice to sit in the patio in the sun for lunch. Beers were cold. Good service. Beer wine only and no separate checks. Did divide the check in thirds for us.

I went for dinner last night, with an advance warning that the food was pretty good but the service was glacial. There was only one waitress and I felt bad for her. It wasn't super busy but she seemed a little overwhelmed.

I ordered a chicken parmesean lavash wrap with Caesar salad and it was great. My friend had the spinach lavash and it looked good, but she said the accompanying pasta salad was bland and dry. My mom got the shrimp kebabs which were disappointing. The shrimp were dry and unseasoned, but the Fellini's salad was good (all according to her).

The worst part was that shortly after sitting, the crew started sweeping the floors in the kitchen with straight bleach!! It was hot and the doors were closed so the smell grew to be overwhelming quickly. My eyes were burning and watering. If they were trying to clean before closing, that's a pet peeve, especially since they were supposed to be open another 4 hours. If there was a sewage issue or something, it made me wonder if my food was safe and clean!!

The patio area looked great. If I go back, I will definitely sit on the patio and order a lavash wrap.

So I don't care what everyone else says, I'm a fan of Fellini's Cafe in Mid-City. Yes, it's exactly like Fresco and Angeli on Decatur, and this is part of the reason I go here. All three of these restaurants have one thing in common: an amazing spinach and artichoke sandwich, which is the only thing I ever order when I go. To Fellini's, that is. Sometimes at Angeli I'm pressured into ordering pizza. The spinach and artichoke kind.

This is the second time I've eaten here in the last few months, and today I was actually en route to Little Tokyo for sushi when conversation turned to the fabulosity that is the weather in New Orleans right now, and I realized that we should totally go eat outside instead of sitting in the dark at Little Tokyo. Thus, I did a dinner plans redirect and headed to Fellini's so we could hang out in their giant courtyard and eat dinner.

No, scratch that. It wasn't dinner. It was lunch. Just remembered we were there at 4:30 pm, and unsurprisingly there weren't a ton of people there yet. That's even too early for my grandfather, who insists on having dinner at 5 o'clock sharp, and if we happen to be running late he'll usually refuse to eat. Makes for interesting family meals. But I digress. Anyway, I bring this up because 1) I noticed what time it was when we got there, because for a moment I felt a little silly eating dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon, until I remembered that it was actually lunch and 2) technically I also had Fellini's for dinner, since my sandwich was so enormous and tasty that I ate it for dinner a few minutes ago while amusing myself by reading the latest on Yelp Talk New Orleans. (This is getting rather meta, eh?)

The other odd thing I noticed at Fellini's this afternoon was that there were kids everywhere. It seemed like every table except our own had anywhere from 1-5 children sitting at it, to the point that I began to wonder if it was kid's day at the restaurant or something. Pretty sure the reason I even noticed kids in the first place was because of the Yelp survey question "Good for Kids?" Kind of like I noticed, and remember, what time it was because I thought we'd arrived for dinner just in time for the senior citizens early bird special.

Bottom line: They have great sandwiches. They have a huge courtyard. They're open all the time, it seems, and only occasionally get so busy you're forced to wait for a table. The service is usually pretty good. Our waiter today, William, was excellent. It's one of my favorite neighborhood places, and a frequent source for my fix for those spinach and artichoke sandwich cravings. Like Fresco and/or Angeli? You'll like this place, too.

Its Italianish meets Middle Easternish food here with ok results at a decent price. There never seems to be a lot of people in here so you usually get pretty quick service. The location near City Park is nice along with having a nice patio seating area. You can definitely get better Italian and Middle Eastern food at other restaurants in the area but I guess they must have something that they might do better here... maybe their salads are a bit better... maybe... sometimes.

Generally most things are ok and they have some interesting specials but I'm definitely not a fan of their lasagna. Nothing awful here with many decent items (like pizza) but definitely not my first choice most of the time as it is mostly all a bit blah and bland here and there are just so many better options in the area for my taste. The food here reminds me of a blander version of Fresco Cafe and Pizzeria on Maple Street.

The draft beer prices are crazy as draft beer should be cheaper than bottles but Abita beer bottles are like $3.50 while draft is $4.25 so that makes no sense.

Fellini's is a casual dining spot and it's one of my "get out of town" places, meaning that when I'm leaving town, it's a good place to stop and get lunch before my plane leaves because it's got pretty good food and it's location makes it pretty easy to get my rental car back to the airport in plenty of time before a flight.

I had a salad, artichoke soup (from the specials board that day), and the Crawfish Monica pasta when I was there. The salad was fresh and a good starter and the artichoke soup was okay; it had a little too much lemon juice so it was a bit tart for my taste but it's so rare to see artichoke soups in restaurants that I had to try it - the best artichoke soup I ever had was in Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero, CA. The salad and the soup would have been enough for a light lunch since I got some fresh bread rolls with it though I don't remember which it came with.

At any rate, I kept seeing calzones the size of compact car hubcaps going by while I was eating so I will have to try one the next time I'm in town. The Crawfish Monica pasta had a butter and garlic-based sauce that went perfectly with the pasta and crawfish. I knew that I would only eat a little bit of the pasta at lunch and had a gallon-size ziplock bag for the leftovers to eat on the plane trip home. I finished the rest of the pasta on the plane, much to the envy of my fellow passengers who had peanuts, pretzels, and soda for their dining experience. There was more sauce and crawfish left so when I got home, I boiled some angel hair pasta so the sauce made for another satisfying meal.

I'd come back to this place.

I liked the place. After reading past reviews that ran the complete gamut, I was a little hesitant to try this spot. Previous reviewers seem to either love or hate this place. We decided to brave it anyway and left glad that we did. My kiddos and I were looking a quiet spot to ready and eat lunch after an adventurous day in City Park. I immediately liked the ambience of this place. The interior is light, airy and clean despite the historical feel of the building. The patio looked warm and inviting, but my fatigued prodigy would have revolted if I tried to deprive them of 'much-needed AC'. Oh, and they are dog-friendly which is a major plus considering proximity to the park.
Service was good, but nothing that blew me away. Our server was polite and attentive, checking on us like clockwork and quickly bringing back anything requested. It took a bit of time for the food to come out, but they had warned us before we sat down that the oven was acting up and out server did continue to keep us in the loop. It wasn't a terribly bad wait, especially considering the restaurant was about half full shortly after the lunch rush.
My oldest son ordered the Chicken Parmesan on Lavash roll. On paper, it sounded like a weird combination. However the lavash bread perfectly complemented and contained all that chix parm! And his pasta salad, the default side for most items, was pretty good. It was moist but not extremely flavorful, which suited kid who loves bland foods perfectly. The youngest man cub ordered BBQ pulled pork sandwich plate, which was a special for that day. I thought it was pretty tasty, but my son couldn't stop raving about how 'amazing' it was. Lastly, I got the Fellini's Special sandwich and paid $1 more to substitute their house salads, just so I could show my kids that even adults eat vegetables. The salad ended up being the best part of my dish. It was a basic spring mix with artichoke hearts, red onions, tomatoes, cucumber, etc mixed in and served with their delicious house balsamic vinegarette. Even my son enjoyed his salad and he can be kinda picky about all those extra veggies thrown on top. My sandwich wasn't bad but it was pretty forgettable for something bearing the restaurant's name. The best part was the focaccia bread, which tastes like it might be made in house or at least local. The chicken was well seasoned but very dry, which I noticed on my son's sandwich also. His just had a nice sauce to balance it out but mine left me wanting to add some kind of condiment, just to help wash the meat down with. All in all, it was a pleasant meal but nothing that blew me away. We will probably be back on another day when in the area

I LOVED Fellini's Cafe. We went one Sunday afternoon--the service was quick and great. I am a vegetarian and I ordered a vegetarian sandwich that was delicious. The price was also great for the service and amount of food. The food had a ton of flavor, and I was overall extremely satisfied with this place. I look forward to returning!

Food was good and service was fast. I ordered a chicken pita roll, and my friend ordered a sandwich. We each spent $9.25. It was a big portion of food, so the food is definitely worth the money. The grilled chicken in my pita roll tasted great, and the pasta salad that came with if was nice and fresh.

So.....I was going to give Fellini's only one star, but they do actually have really delicious food! I have been here a handful of times and have always loved the food, but HATED the service.

I wanted to highlight some of the positives before I moved on the to hard part. The Greek salad is very good, and its huge. I always ask for the dressing on the side. You can't go wrong with any of the Lavash Rolls! They are so cheesy and delicious, that's what I usually end up getting. And the calzones are good too.

So, on to the hard part. The service. There is only one way that I can think to describe the service at Fellini's, HORRIBLE! Every time I am there, it's so bad! I really like the food, so I keep going back thinking that the service might improve, but it never does. This weekend was just the icing on the cake.

I went for lunch on Saturday with my girlfriend, her parents and her sister. Her mom ordered a sandwich with some potato wedges. And when it finally came out, the wedges were soggy. We all tasted them, and they were pretty bad. So, when the waitress came back out, we asked if should could bring some more crispy wedges out. She said no problem and went back inside.

A few minutes later, a different waitress came out and in the middle of her mom taking a bite, picks up the plate and says "I'll get you some new more crispy potato wedges" and WALKS OFF! Yes, while she was in the middle of eating, she picked up the plate and walked off with it! We are all in shock, because we had never seen anyone do anything like this, that words would not escape our lips.

And wait it gets better! The waitress takes a few steps and then stops. She turns around and comes back to the table and says there are only six potato wedges on the plate and asked where the rest of them where! What, really? We said that we all tasted them to see if they were any good. Then we told her to put the plate back down on the table, that you don't pick someone's plate up while they are in the middle of eating! She then drops the plate on the table and we told her not to worry about getting us anything else.

I have see a lot of crazy shit happen, but I was in shock over what she did! I have never been treated so poorly at a restaurant! I think the management here really needs to step it up and get it together! They are not going to earn anyones business on good food alone. People want to be treated right when they go out to eat.

After writing about this, it has gotten me worked up about the whole thing again, so I'm bumping them down to one star. Get it together Fellini's and maybe you will get better reviews.