Cafe Du Soleil
“When I'm in New York City my shortcut to France is Café Du Soleil, easy to find on Broadway in the Upper West Side.”
“We had the Prix Fixe menu and we both chose the Hachis Parmintier du Beouf (short ribs and mashed potatoes).”
“And coq au vin for my entrée….also delightful, served with small onions, carrots and over fettucini.”
Cafe Du Soleil
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Coat Check: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Personally, I don't care that much about service as long as the food is good enough. However, this place is just too disappointing. I don't know if we are just unlucky. We waited over 50 minutes for our food. We had to wave constantly to the hostess to order food and get our check while she was chatting with other servers. The "owner", probably, came to let us know that our food was on our way. But still 50 minutes of wait for nothing special is what I would expect. Like other reviewers, the only French this place offers is the service. There are many other similar restaurants nearby. Don't come here hungry or with any a bit expectation.
We were in the city for a "salon" musical event and the restaurant was a great spot for the 17 of us!
Service was super friendly and outstanding. The menu is a prototypical French bistro lineup with everything from Escargots to Coq au Vin
The wine list is neat and reasonably priced and there is a solid selection from France's various producing regions.
Our small end-of-the-table foursome started with a house-made country liver pate (very good) garnished with cornichons, mustard and crostini, a lamb sausage (good)over cous-cous and some grilled shrimp (very good). This went well with a bottle of Provence Rose ($42)
For our entrees we were all over the map – from Les Moules Frites, $19 (mussels with fries) and some good fresh bread for dunking to a prime sirloin steak in a wine and onion sauce that paired perfectly with a 2012 Chateuneuf du Papes from Clos L'oratoire ($79).
The atmosphere is light and airy as the entire front of the restaurant is open to the street. the small bar also has a TV for a more casual hangout spot.
Charming little French Cafe on the Upper West side. Went for brunch, it was delightful. A real Parisienne French person charmed us and provided us some wonderful tips on Springtime en Paris. The breakfast choices were decent sized, fresh and tasty. My friends both spoke highly of the Challah French Toast, a classic NY breakfast item that comes with high standards and expectations.
What a great place! You know when you go traveling, in France or in Tuscany and you eat at little restaurants, and you're like its so good, we should just move to this country for the food? This is one of those restaurants. Except its on the upper west side! you don't have to move anywhere and can eat it all the time!
The food is basic french -duck a l'orange, coq au vin, steak frites, mussels and fries, but it's done so well.
There's a beautiful outdoor seating with scaffolding, and they've decorated the scaffolding with flowers, lights,white tarps, plants and a white picket fence.
As soon as you walk in, you smell the amazing flavors of the garlic and white wine mussels. It took everything we had not to order the mussels!
We got the trout and the duck a l'orange.
The duck was good, seared well, and the sauce was good, but oh my goodness the vegetables. The mushrooms were a medley, i definitely saw some oyster mushrooms, but it was just so good, I didn't even care what I was eating. The haricot verts were perfectly cooked, beautiful green and well seasoned. The rosemary potatoes were soft and together, each bite was just perfect.
But what was even more perfect was the trout dish! it was filleted beautifully with the head still on, pan fried to a crisp in a savory brown butter sauce topped with haricot verts. One of the best things i've had in a while.
We also had a side of spinach sauteed with garlic. What a perfect meal
For dessert we had the profiterole. The chocolate was warm, and the vanilla ice cream was milky and cold, the strawberry and mint were fresh, but the hazelnuts really tied the dish together. If you get every ingredient its the perfect bite
This dinner was just all around perfect
Highly highly highly recommended. There are lots of different specials on nights, and this will definitely be a regularly place for me!
Oh and there was live music to help complete the night. Just a perfect place!
Okay… Well I got the 3 course prix fix meal with the salmon burger and I thought it would be delicious… But honestly it just wasn't. It was over cooked and dry and just totally unappetizing. It tasted frozen and I honestly couldn't eat it. I told my waiter and asked for the sandwich my friend had, the chicken poulet. (Which I tried, and tasted much better) Next thing you know, the manager comes out and makes me feel terrible about not liking the salmon- he says that the chef makes these all day and that since it's cooked food he has to charge me for it and it's just going to be wasted.. And I just sat there like… Dude I'm sorry, I know food waste is a huge issue but honestly I personally did not like that burger, and I'm not going to eat it. At this point I felt like a terrible person but honestly it's a service industry and I feel like I shouldn't have to explain myself to them. If you look at my reviews I always give restaurants high stars and give the benefit of the doubt, but these 2 stars are solely for the chicken poulet which was actually decent. The salad was just lettuce and dressing and the creme brûlée wasn't so special. The manager is someone I never want to deal with again! If you don't like the food here, plan on just eating it anyway unless you want to wrath of the manager!
I had such a great meal here last week while visiting New York! I had the Salade de Tomates & Burrata as well as the Roasted Salmon with Ratatouille. Everything was perfectly cooked and the salmon was delicious. I had never had burrata cheese before and it was creamy and yummy. Service was impeccable and very friendly. The staff seem to truly enjoy working with each other. Maxime is the manager and he treated us warmly. I enjoyed the Cabernet with dinner as well. I loved the quaint atmosphere and would definitely go back on my next trip to NYC.
Came here for dinner. Service was okay. I had the coq au vin, which was smaller than I would have liked, portion-wise. My friend had a burger with fries – the fries were quite good. Cute little neighborhood restaurant, all in all.
I would give this place 3 stars for food, 2 stars for service, 4 stars for decor.
Food – the food was decent, but nothing spectacular. We came for lunch on a weekday and got an omelette and the mussels and frites. Again, both were very standard – nothing really stood out to me, good or bad. So, I would say that you can expect an inoffensive food experience when you come.
Service – it's hard to describe exactly what was wrong with the service here. I will settle on the word lackluster:
1. First, our food took forever to come. We literally were the second people in the restaurant since we had come just after opening, and we received our food way after the 5th and 6th parties had trickled in. Maybe there's a delay in the kitchen, but could you please let us know at least? Especially when we overheard that the chef "was feeling generous" with the next table over and comped them a side of fries for no reason. Good for ya'll, but you actually have something to make up for over here, and with no bread to start, those fries really would have come in handy next door. Common sense, people.
2. I noticed that the omelette said that it came with a side salad on the menu, but I only realized this later on, after the salad that came with the mussels and frites had arrived and been consumed. By that time, we just figured the main courses were coming soon so I didn't bring it up. (Oh how wrong I was.) I admit that we contributed to this particular problem by not bringing it up at the time, though the restaurant should know its own menu and have ultimate responsibility for not bringing out a dish.
I will say that I got a French vibe here. Not food-wise, but decor- and service-wise. Decor-wise, there were names of cute little French streets that brought me back to my trips to Paris. Service-wise, as stated above, just annoying and slightly careless. All that is fine is France, where no one is expected to tip, but I'm pretty sure that it would have been unacceptable for us not to tip here so… by that logic, it's also unacceptable for them to give crappier service.
Overall, mediocre to negative experience, and probably won't be back.