The location, interiors etc are probably the main advantages of Nola. Oh, the service wasn't too bad - they knew how to handle annoying laowais ;]

My friends and myself (two vegetarians, one meat-eater) ordered a spinach and a green salad, and they both were rather good, very nicely dressed (tossed-dress).
Then, we had the only two vegetarian dinner options that are available there - gnocchi and risotto. As for the gnocchi, I can't recall having anything as inedible as that in a long time! For my veg friend is was even more challenging to swallow the bit she had, and she ended up spitting it out! The idea (using pine nuts and dates) was good, but the execution - well...
The risotto looked nice (served with reduced balsamic sauce), but it was under-seasoned, overcooked and watery! My non-veg friend had gumbo, which he wasn't that much happy with, but he emptied his plate. It had chunks of tune fish in it, and I wonder whether it was fresh or canned. They say they don't use any canned foods. Hmmm...
Then my friend had a smoked tofu sandwich. The first attempt was a total failure. Despite the fact we told them we are vegetarians, and we wanted the food to be thus, the veggie sandwich had something that resembled fois gras in it. And it made my friend feel sick again. Of course, they replaced it with a new one. I couldn't have even a bite - the tofu used in it was salt as the Dead Sea.
To finalise our Nola experience, we had apple and raisin tart with house-made ice cream, and that was simply delicious!

Although I really DISLIKED the food, I am going to give the place another try - this time drinks only! The cocktail list looked rather inviting to me :)

I come here at least once a week for lunch because it's near my work. I can only vouch for the salads, the weekday lunch buffet, and the duck dinner entree, but all are really, really good. They have AMAZING beignets during the weekday brunch. I also think they make some of the best salads in Beijing--simple, no romaine or iceberg lettuce (mixed greens or spinach), and fantastic housemade vinaigrettes. The manager is also courteous and helpful, and all the staff are remarkably attentive and polite for Beijing.

Went there this morning. Was not impressed. The coffee was terrible and clearly Canyon Creek or whatever that 28 kuai bag at April Gourmet is, only they charged 25 kuai a cup for it.

The weekend brunch menu is on the regular menu and the daily breakfast is on a little pamphlet (which should be the opposite). When I came in I glanced at the menu and saw it had Eggs Benedict, so I ordered that, then it was pointed out to me that the menu I saw was the weekend brunch menu and I could buy the weird looking daily buffet or choose off the regular breakfast menu handed to me by the waitress only then. Of course she then ALSO pointed out two or three things on the daily menu that they didn't have today.

I finished my coffee, left and ate somewhere else. Too much BS and lousy coffee for one morning. Didn't want to risk the rest of the menu.

I'll give it a 2, cause the waitress was very nice and the decor is relaxing.

I'm a big fan of New Orleans food so I was excited to try this place. Even though the space is small, it's still hard to get the attention of the waitstaff. They only gave us one menu to share between 8 people. They didn't have strawberries so they made me a mango daiquiri, which tasted like mango and vodka with poorly crushed ice. They didn't have 3 types of po' boys, and the ones they did have were dry, bland, and completely underwhelming. The burger tasted weird and didn't taste like meat, and the dressing on the salad tasted like salted oil.

The most disappointing of all was the lack of beignets! How can a New Orleans restaurant not have beignets?? I will not be coming back to this place.

I have never reviewed a restaurant but I am compelled to write this one.

We've always passed by Nola's and last week we decided to have lunch there. There was a buffet and went for it.

I was disappointed with the food. Gumbo was of nondescript ingredients, and chef poured in a whole packet of salt. Am not exaggerating. I tasted it twice. Ribs burnt? Oh, they were dredged in very dark cajun spices, the only taste was chilli. Quiche was okay, nothing to write home. The bread pudding was alright though.

Will go back for drinks and outside seating but not for food.

Patrons that think Nola is the best place, should think twice and begin to consider finding a new place to go. Although the atmosphere is great, the service is less than exemplary. Today, on Thanksgiving, the waitress took 15 minutes to take our order and by the time the food came, we only had 5 minutes to enjoy our dinner. We continually to complain and the waitress turned to rude. She wanted us to sympathize with her in how she was overwhelmed in having to serve only two people, my friend and I. Finally, our thanksgiving dinner arrived. Up until that time we were calm and collected, even though, we had repeatedly told her to hurry. She brought two soups and only 1 serving of everything else - this was the 180rmb price. Poor service, extensive delays and attitude of the waitress prompted me to call the manager. Immediately. we requested to speak to the manager, who did not come; but, 15 minutes later, the owner showed. All she could say was, "Bu hao yi si." Then proceeded to charge us the 180rmb per person for the lunch. Since we were so late for lunch already, we requested that everything be packed up to go. We barely touched everything and had to go back to work. At that time, the waitress said she had told us from the beginning, but in fact, had been rude and everything but nice from the beginning. While they packed our lunch, it took over 5 minutes. We had to leave and return to the office.

The only thing that I want to say to Nola is - I hope your service improves in order for you to stay afloat. Your service needs vast improvement and your managements also needs to be revamped to meet everyone's 'professional' standards. If you do not, you are not far from failing and you will hear from everyone, "We told you so."

The best feature is the building and interior design. It's a relaxed setting, especially when the weather is nice. This would be a good place to get a cup of coffee on a fall afternoon.

Anything more, not so much. I ordered grits and eggs benedict for brunch. Both dishes were undercooked. The grits were very crunchy. About half of the egg white hadn't solidified. The eggs benedict was little more than tapas sized and only about a tablespoon of hollandaise made it onto the dish.

The service wasn't great. Here's the order that things arrived at my table: food > utensils > coffee, with about 5 minutes between each arrival. A couple next to me asked if the umbrella could be opened over a corner table so they could sit there. The waiter told them the umbrella was broken. About 15 minutes later, another waiter opened up the "broken" umbrella and seated a new set of guests at the table. But mostly the service was just inattentive.

Beijing could really use a good Cajun restaurant and my hat is off to anyone willing to put one here. I may try NOLA again, but I think they need time to get their act together.

I'm sure that every place has hard to please customers, but I'm surprised by the harshness of the last review.

I love Nola's location in a gorgeous, leafy, secluded part of the Embassy area, their food menu offers a good variety of authentic dishes, and their drinks are extremely reasonable (35RMB for a kir royale!)

As for service, the staff bent over backwards for a recent dinner I had out on the terrace (I booked in advance), not in the least bit phased that I wanted them to craft a bespoke set menu (they even tailored the drinks to match every course, and did a drinks tasting beforehand). Dinner went wonderfully, great food, unobtrusive service, glasses topped up, all courses served at the same time, no muddles with food choices.

I'm also a daytime regular, and service is prompt, polite and efficient.

Nola is a gem.

Just had the BeijingKids Family Foodie deal at Nola. I want to root for this place - I really do - and I give them props for great coffee, delicious duck confit and a fantastic looking interior (mahogany themed, naturally-lit second floor with a pleasant terrace). My wife enjoyed her traditional breakfast (two sunny side up eggs, bacon, grits and a bagel that in my mind was a bit off) and we ordered the ham and cheese quesadilla for our daughter, who was hungry enough to wolf it down. The quesadilla was a bit too mushy for my taste, but it was otherwise fine. My main course consisted of a slightly spicy shrimp pasta that was decent enough. Although in retrospect, I wish the meal deal would have included an option of the delicious looking po-boys the people at the table next to us ordered.

Unfortunately, the service was tortuously slow, enough, I'm afraid, to almost ruin our meal.

Business was good, but not crowded enough to explain the slowness. But I gather they were down to one cook in the kitchen. Perhaps today was an exception, but for their sake - I really hope they hire more kitchen staff.

But to be fair, I'm still giving this place three stars - it's evident from the owner's attitude (she was gracious enough to offer us free bread pudding - because they had disappointingly run out of beignets - and a 20% discount for being so slow) and the general quality of the food itself that they are serious about doing good business.

I'll give this place a second shot at some point soon. Hopefully next time I'll find faster service, and enough beignets to go around.

This place blew me away.

the interior is lovely, the service was perfect, no hovering, no screw ups, just the right amount of attention and the meal was perfectly timed.

We ate at 2pm and chose the weekday lunch special. 55RMB each, it goes from 11am to 4pm.

I chose the gumbo starter, the chicken and dumplings main and it came with a warm apple pudding dessert and a coffee. My partner chose the broccoli balls starter, the meatloaf main and with the coffee and dessert as well. We also ordered olive tapenade and crackers.

Glasses of water were put on our table immediately without asking and filled up regularly but not obsessively. The waitress asked when we would like our coffee, we asked for it first and it came quickly and with complimentary ginger snap cookies. The starters came and were delicious; the stew was full of different meats and was a thick and delicious gravyesque soup with rice, the broccoli balls came as a serving of 6 wonderful, golden crumbed balls of cheesy deliciousness with 2 dipping sauces and the black olive tapenade was complimented by a sweet caramelized onion topping.

After the starters were done, the plates were taken away and a short while later our mains arrived. the portions were not huge but satisfying and perfect considering we were having 3 courses and a drink for 55RMB. The chicken was tender and juicy and had an amazing salty crunchy skin. It was on a bed of brussel sprout leaves, creamy sauce with delicate moist flour dumplings. The meat loaf was baked in a pocket of flaky, golden pastry with mashed potatoes and mushrooms sautéed in a sweet brown sauce. all of the dishes complimented each other, the flavors were unique, delicate and fulfilling.

After the mains we received the standard dessert which was a small slice of a spongy, warm, apple pudding served with home-made apple sauce.

We were more than full after our meal and vowed to return again soon. The menu is amazingly reasonably priced for such a quality experience, the starters all began at about 23rmb and the mains were no more than 100rmb. they had bottles of wine starting at 110rmb coffee from 12rmb but the standout thing - and reason i will return for dinner very soon- was the cocktails starting at 28rmb for a hard lemonade. Most cocktails were 30rmb and they had a great selection.

I dont know a lot about New Orleans Creole cuisine and many of the things on the menu were new to me, but I cant wait to go back and try the catfish, the shrimp and the steak.

get in there before it gets too popular and prices go up!