Three Southern Girls — Review by Gordon Ramsay
New Orleans, United States — Southern/Cajun
Chef Gordon Ramsay visits Three Southern Girls, a Southern-themed restaurant struggling with quality control and inconsistent food preparation. The kitchen lacks freshness, relies on frozen and pre-made ingredients, and executes dishes poorly with excessive salt, bland flavors, and mushy textures. Despite the restaurant's significant debt and passionate ownership, fundamental issues with food quality, kitchen management, and cooking technique need immediate attention.
What was great: Fried chicken was crispy, homemade hushpuppies
What could improve: Food was bland, oversalted, undercooked or overcooked, mushy textures, soggy fries, watery crawfish, frozen ingredients used despite claims of fresh food, poor kitchen management, slow service, inconsistent cooking, dry chicken, microwaved waffles, overly salty seasoning blends
The Dishes
The menu featured a variety of Southern comfort food offerings, but nearly every dish fell short of expectations. The Captain Platter arrived with in-house made hushpuppies that were acceptable, but everything else lacked freshness. The shrimp and grits were overwhelmingly salty to the point of being inedible, with uneven temperatures - hot in the center and cold on the outside. The Cajun fries came swimming in sauce, while the raw oysters appeared poorly cleaned and improperly shucked. When char-grilled oysters were brought out as a replacement, they were overcooked and rubbery. The burgers presented a cascade of problems: raw centers, burnt exteriors, and when finally cooked properly, they were drowned in excessive sauce. The barbecue shrimp was excessively peppery with visible fat and pepper residue on the bottom. The signature Flounder Lafitte, promoted as a 30-year staple, was utterly underwhelming and indistinguishable from any other fried fish. The Big Boy seafood platter was described as an embarrassing fried mess where everything tasted identical. At the companion Three Southern Girls establishment, veggie spring rolls tasted like frozen Costco products, yucca fries were clearly from a frozen bag, mac and cheese was mushy with overcooked pasta and processed cheese sauce, and nachos were bland with bagged guacamole instead of fresh. Crab cakes were mushy and dense. River Bend fries with crawfish resulted in a watery mess with soggy fries and bland crawfish. A Cajun pasta dish was intolerably salty and spicy. Cornbread was crumbly and tasted pre-made. The fried chicken, while crispy, needed better seasoning on the breading. Mac and cheese tasted like processed cheese with spaghetti. When the gumbo finally arrived after being forgotten, it tasted like a shortcut version, clearly rushed rather than properly slow-cooked for hours. Chicken and waffles featured dry chicken and strange-tasting waffles that were microwaved rather than properly prepared.
The Experience
The service was painfully slow, with orders taking over an hour to arrive. Staff appeared disorganized and overwhelmed. At the first restaurant, a manager named Bonnie seemed to control ordering and ingredient purchasing, creating bottlenecks. Orders were forgotten, such as the gumbo being omitted from a complete order. The kitchen operated with minimal communication and appeared understaffed. At Three Southern Girls, the team seemed tired and defensive about criticism. The owner, Connie, appeared present but struggling to maintain control. One customer was observed becoming ill during the visit. The overall atmosphere reflected a restaurant in crisis, where basic operational procedures were breaking down.
Value and Pricing
While specific prices weren't heavily discussed, the poor quality made any pricing irrelevant. Chef Ramsay noted that five local restaurants served superior gumbo at better prices. The restaurant's struggles were directly tied to customer dissatisfaction - they're $600,000 in debt and not meeting monthly bills. Customers were clearly not receiving value for their money given the poor execution and long wait times.
Notable Moments
The oysters served to Ramsay weren't even shucked properly, and he humorously referenced his newborn son, saying he'd like to be around for the child's first birthday, so he'd skip the questionable raw oysters.
When Ramsay discovered the waffles were microwaved, he made a joke about Chef Mike working in the kitchen, then realized Chef Mike was the microwave.
A customer famously spit out a raw burger into server Sammy's hand in disgust.
The kitchen staff became defensive about criticism, with one chef telling Ramsay to come back and cook the pasta himself, and another telling him to grow vegan balls.
Connie admitted the restaurant was $600,000 in debt and struggling to meet monthly bills, questioning how long the business could sustain itself.
The Verdict
Three Southern Girls is a restaurant in crisis. Despite owning what should be a charming Southern dining concept, the execution is fundamentally broken. The kitchen relies on frozen and pre-made ingredients while claiming everything is fresh, oversalts nearly every dish, cooks inconsistently, and operates with chaotic management. The staff appears defensive rather than willing to improve. With $600,000 in debt and unable to meet monthly bills, the restaurant needs immediate intervention in every aspect of operations - from ingredient sourcing to cooking technique to kitchen management. This establishment is not recommended for anyone seeking authentic Southern cuisine or quality dining. The only path forward requires complete honesty about the problems, willingness to accept criticism, and major operational overhauls.