8 Block Kitchen & Bar

Pretty good if you’re on the go and need something readily prepared. They have a lunch buffet that is better than your average buffet. No wait necessary. Fresh soups. The tomato basil was so great i could taste how fresh the tomatoes and basil were. The gumbo or red beans and rice wasn’t too shabby either.

Great buffet for breakfast or lunch. I love the option to have steak or seafood custom made. Gulf shrimp was my fave!

Was at a concert last night at Champion Square, and a few friends said they’d received a promotion about a special happy hour here after the concert. You received a special price by showing your concert ticket to the server.
We walked the few blocks to the hotel and stood next to an unbussed table for a few minutes. We finally pushed the plates and trash to the side when we realized no one was coming by to clear it off. A waitress did come by and pick up some of the glasses, but she left the rest of the plates with food still clinging to them for us to look at for the rest of the visit.
After an excruciatingly long wait, she came back and took our drink orders, only to inform us that they were no longer servicing the drink specials. We’d missed it, somehow, by walking three or four blocks directly after the concert ended.
They had food, but nothing looked overly exciting, and since it was clear that we weren’t even going to get bus service without explicitly saying «Hey, can you take these dirty plates from the previous diners away,» we piled back out into the night and drove to the Quarter to see what we could drum up there.

Buffet of ALL THE THINGS! The whole buffet was amazing. They will make any kind of omelette you’d like and had fun things like boudain, shrimp, and alligator sausage. It gets packed and they didn’t have enough staff, so that’s why I can’t give it 5 stars. The cost was good considering the amount of offerings. Having it at the hotel where we stayed was also nice as we came down and there it was! I’d completely go back just for the buffet!

Solid place for lunch while staying at the hotel. Helpful staff. Ask for Hector!

This place is located inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel. It has a great breakfast buffet that offers just about everything you would want and also the local foods. Like beignet, grits, etc, you can t go wrong to eat here. The cost is $ 21 dollars and tax for the buffet and coffee which is better than the 30 plus you pay in New York. If you want good value good food then this is the place to eat when you stay here.

Came here for the lunch buffet this Friday. It came out to be $ 15 with the government employee discount. It was a good deal. The buffet was totally worth it. They even have a section that’ll cook you a hanger steak to order. They have a good selection of food items and it was good quality. Even the dessert was good.
I would come back here every Friday for lunch.

One person made this experience the most rewarding: Darnelle Saunders! She singlehandedly turned our frowns into smiles with her stellar service and attention. On the day we got here we made a reservation that happened to be later than their opening hours. She offered to whip us something up. But of course we couldn’t make them do that. On the 2^nd day, we made another reservation, but due to a miscommunication we ended up standing in line! When she found out, she decided to make our breakfast on the house!
For me, it wasn’t about the freebie. It was the gesture, the attention we received! I will definitely be returning to this place, and recommend it to anyone!

I went there for the breakfast buffet. My omelette was excellent, but there were a bunch of empty/​old items at the buffet. With as many items as they are serving, I know it can get overlooked but that was ridiculous. My waiter was very slow and inattentive. I had a better experience eating local as you would imagine.

A little bar inside of the hotel where I ended up meeting with people a few times. Despite the number of times I ended up in the bar I never once had food or beverages. It ended up serving as a rendezvous point for people in the conference and we would then go elsewhere. Oh well… perhaps next time!

Buffet style hotel breakfast — it was quite good — I really enjoyed the Biscuits and Gravy! Nice atmosphere and attentive staff. I would definitely go back!

8 block is an interesting place. It’s a breakfast and lunch restaurant, but on weekend nights it becomes a jazz club with a chocolate bar.
This is a review of the jazz show. Before you ask, I have no idea what a chocolate bar is. I decided to drink beer instead of chocolate so you’ll have to use your imagination.
The stage is located towards the front of the restaurant area. It is raised fairly high, but there is a large wall in between the stage and the tables. That wall seriously obstructs your view of the stage. Sure you can see the singer, but it feels awkward. If the wall were removed it would feel a lot more intimate. As is, the performers seem almost disconnected from the audience.
Anais St. John was the artist performing and she was incredible. Her voice was soulful and powerful and she did amazing renditions of many Nola classics. She also did a good job connecting with the crowd despite the odd stage wall setup. At one point in the set she took her microphone and roamed through the crowd stopping at each table. If you’re a guy, she will likely stop and sing to you which reminded me of the old jazz clubs you see in movies. It was really a great show.
Service was very poor. Despite many of the tables having guests, there were very few servers. Ordering and receiving a beer took upwards of 15 – 20 minutes. Getting the bill took the same amount of time.
In summary, the venue was funky, service was poor, but that show was excellent. If you’re staying at the Hyatt or just want to see a great show, I encourage you to check out 8 Block on Saturday nights.

I always look forward to New Orleans but dining here reminded me of exactly why its one of my favorite places to visit. The food is A M A Z I N G! There is a lunch buffet that boasts all of the cajun favorites and although it was very tempting I decided to have the shrimp, andouille sausage and fried oyster poboy. Best decision of the day! The only downside to this is the fact that the restaurant is located inside of our hotel. I’m destined to be 10 lbs heavier before I depart. Two thumbs up!

I met two friends here for lunch at 12:30 p.m. on a recent Friday afternoon. I had no trouble finding a parking spot at a meter.
When we arrived at the restaurant, there was no hostess at the front for a good 15 minutes, despite it being the peak lunch hour. Finally she appeared and we were seated.
I ordered the buffet and my two friends ordered off of the menu. It was taking so long for them to receive their watermelon salad, that they urged me not to wait for them and to go ahead and make my salad at the salad bar. By the time I got back from the salad bar, they had received their salads.
The buffet had an excellent array of items for the price of $ 13.95. The highlight of the salad bar for me was a delicious cold pasta salad that I could not get enough of. The hot bar had some nice gumbo, fish, stewed chicken, jambalaya and pizza, plus maybe a few other things. The dessert station was okay, the only item that was rave-​worthy was the moist, tart lemon square.
Service was somewhat spotty. Our server disappeared halfway through our lunch and then someone else waited on us.
Overall, the buffet was pretty high-​quality for the price, and I enjoyed it. The atmosphere was swanky. Would go again!

I’m really particular about my my cocktails, so a well crafted cocktail is very important in my line of work… Okay maybe not my line of work but in my life. I was waiting to have dinner in the Hyatt and decided to visit 8 Block for a cocktail with a friend. I wanted to try one of their specialty cocktails, but they were out of the original ingredient and that particular ingredient was extremely high up on their fancy shelves and they seem not particularly too thrilled with the possibility of having to get that missing ingredient down. So to cut down on the headache I decided to ask for something with Champagne and St Germain. Normally, I like to leave it open to the bartenders creativity, but he decided to just do Champagne and St Germain. It was delicious just the right parts of each but definitely not as creative as I expected. My friend I was there with wanted a specific cocktail, that they never heard of and which they told him that must be a specialty somewhere specific. They pretty much just would not agree with him on this. He actually called the bar where he received the original cocktail and was told what exactly it was and this was a pretty well known cocktail.
Maybe, it was just a off night for them, but just not too impressed by the creativity of the bartenders at those prices. Overall, the product was good, but the service wasn’t my favorite.

I’ve only been for the lunchtime buffet, but I think it’s well worth the price. Each time, I go with a party of 10 people on a week day as the lunch buffet is open M-​F 11a-2:20p. The cost is great for the food + dessert + drink (non-​alcoholic — the arnold-​palmer is the best!) at $ 12.95. It’s also never all that busy, so we have gotten good service.
They usually have a nice salad bar, a bread bar with sides + finger sandwiches, a few main dishes (like 3 or 4 such as pizza, ribs, chicken, steak, or gumbo), a few sides (like veggies or potatoes), some sort of bread pudding, and a nice array of small/​fancy desserts. I have to be honest, the desserts are my favorite part and I usually leave lunch with a food coma.
The Hyatt is a gorgeous hotel and it’s a bit fun to play tourist and walk all around since I wouldn’t normally be able to afford to stay there. A nice bonus is that you can eat lunch and then enjoy the view from the top floor. I’m not sure if you’re supposed to go up there unless you’re a guest, but we’ve never had a problem. The view of the city is fantastic and it’s a nice place to chat. The area is probably a nice place to hold lunch meetings I imagine.
All in all, I would recommend here if you’re looking for a new place to try for lunch one day if you’re feeling hungry/​undecided about what you want to eat. I don’t feel a real urge to have to repeatedly go back here, my friends and I just do so out of 1) convenience to where we work and 2) we are really hungry and cheap — so buffets are a great way to satisfy those problems.

A party of 6 of us went for the chocolate buffet on Saturdays from 9 to midnight.
Dont be fooled my anything you find on google because they have downsized quite a bit. Its now $ 9.95/pp
There is about 12 different options, all richer than the next. We all made a plate of personal selections and we all felt sick afterwards. Only because of the richness. Beware!
The drink menu was disappointing. They were out of the top three options of champagne. They were asking $ 50 for a bottle that cost $ 5 in the store.
There was one server for the entire restaurant. We waited and waited for our drinks the first round, second round and the check.
The live music was so-​so. They kept taking breaks and ended up leaving early.
Sorry but we all agreed to not do that again.

The hubby and I thought this place was great! We came for the lunch buffet two times while staying at the Hyatt. The lunch buffet was a great deal with a great selection and the food was very good. After leaving our room to checkout we decided to stop here and eat one more time before leaving NO, parked our luggage at the hostess station. Tried to checkout on my iphone and received an error so the hostess called the front desk for me so I could checkout by 12:00 p.m. I was really impressed!

Bleh… what a disappointment! I was expecting a lot more out of this place.
I went for the lunch buffet with 2 coworkers. Maybe we should have known something was up when we showed up and there were 4 – 5 people standing around bored and waiting to greet you. There was no lunch crowd at this place. It was not packed at all. Some of these greeters should have been in the back cooking instead! Then they proceed to seat us at the furthest table away from the buffet. By the way, there are stairs at this place mind you. So you must be able to balance and carry strange «tray» plates as you go up and down the stairs to your table.
As for the food… it seemed like it was basically good quality food. But, there was not a whole to choose from. There is a very limited selection of choices. There was a sign offering salmon with a crawfish tail sauce, but the pan was empty. I asked someone if they would be bringing more soon. She said she would check. When she got back to me she told me that they would have some more out shortly. Well, after waiting 10 minutes, the cook puts out sausage instead. (!) He proceeds to leave the salmon sign up still. I asked him when the salmon would be up and he told me they were all out. (!) So much for waiting around wasting my time for that. (By the way, I don’t like sausage… so couldn’t eat that.) Since there wasn’t much else to eat, I got myself a bowl of the strange looking light colored gumbo. I’ve never seen a gumbo that looked like white gravy before. Even though it didn’t look right, it tasted fine. One of my coworkers gave me a piece of her beef since I was not able to get any meat. We all agreed that the beef tasted good, but it was cold. Cold food. O… K…
We felt bad for the people at the table next to us. They kept asking to speak to a manager because they had been waiting over 30 minutes for their meals that they ordered off the menu. For some reason, no one could get a manger to them and when she finally did arrive and they told her their story, all she offered was a free dessert. Kind of strange that it would take so long for their food to arrive when the place was empty. (Like I said… send the greeters to the back to get cooking… geez…)
I don’t think I’ll be coming back here anytime soon. They have a lot they need to work out still. Also, drinks are not included with the buffet price. I figured as much… but just a warning to those that are used to drinks being included with your buffet meal.

I went here for the Breakfast/​Lunch buffet the past 2 weekends and have to say it was pretty good. The buffet prices are $ 17 for Breakfast and $ 14 for Lunch, which is weird for me coming from Vegas.
The types of food offered and the quality is very high given the reasonable pricing. 8 Block wins hands down compared to what they offer at the buffet in the Crystal Room at Le Pavillon, the price is better and the food is better.
Some of the fancier/​unique things offered at 8 Block:
— Lox & Bagels (all the trimmings)
— Cured meats & cheese (Prosciutto, Salami, sheep milk, gouda, bleu, trimmings)
— Omelette station
— Multiple fruit bowls (berries)
— A large variety of desserts
I think drinks (juice/​soda) are included in the pricing, juice is for sure. I honestly can’t see them keeping the prices where they’re at, unless the buffet is different on weekdays or take away some of the fancier things.
Highly recommended. I’ll be back for sure.