Excuse My French
“The LES is filled with cozy little wine and cocktail bars, but this definitely one of the better ones.”
“Gavroche beer, Foie Gras Lollipops, Steak Tartare, Stuffed Portobello mushroom – I'm in Heaven…..”
“What a gem in lower east side.”
Excuse My French
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
7 reviews
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We stumbled upon EMF while walking around the LES last weekend, and made it a point to come here immediately.
The LES is filled with cozy little wine and cocktail bars, but this definitely one of the better ones. The decor is amazing, the food is fantastic, and the portions are generous!
They have a happy hour until 8p, and we happened to arrive a bit before that and ordered a few glasses of the Beaujolais which was fantastic! Of course, this was accompanied by cheese and charcuterie, including Camembert, Ossau Iraty and Parisian Ham. The portions were HUGE, but being a cheese and bread monger we took this down with ease.
Great ambience and lovely hospitable service, will certainly be back soon!
We were in town for my Bday and after a hair-raising ride through the worst rain and wind we've ever driven through- well, let's just say we were ready for adult beverages. We stumbled upon this place and love all things French, so it seemed perfect. The only downside was for my "hangry" teen son, who was in no mood for tapas portions. Oh well…once he finished his sliders and dove into my crepe, all was well. Hubs had a tasty Gavroche beer to quell his nerves We then inhaled salmon, Brussels sprouts, duck confit, scallop ceviche and crepes. Everything was really good and our servers were warm and friendly. The decor is just damn charming! Nice spot!
KenScale: 7.5/10
New York City has seen a growing number of gastropub style bars/restaurants that serve serious food as well as drinks at the same time. It makes a lot of sense. When you go on casual outings/dates, you don't want to break the bank but at the same time you want to have memorable experience with food while imbibing some creative cocktails put together at the bar. The catchy Excuse My French had that promising outlook where I absolutely loved the cozy space that makes you feel like you're at an exclusive lounge somewhere in Paris. On the other hand, my meal had a lot of mixed results.
The menu at Excuse My French is what the place calls "French tapas," focusing on shareable small plates, starting with various charcuterie and cheese options. Iberico ham that my dining companion and I had tried was pedestrian, and the tartine of figs and goat cheese wasn't particularly memorable either. Some dishes had bold flavor that worked quite well. Sautéed Brussels sprouts with lamb merguez which the bartender highly recommended as the signature dish had nice touch that would make for a nice vegetable meal, and my favorite menu of the night was organic Cajun chicken with ratatouille and quinoa, with the chicken more or less cooked quite well and working harmoniously with the texture of quinoa for definitely an above-average dish. On the other hand, I couldn't finish sea scallop carpaccio with salmon caviar and yuzu as the freshness was quite lacking in the seafood, and boudin blanc sausage with caramelized apple came out in unexpectedly lukewarm temperature with soggy texture. It is a bit unfortunate that the dishes didn't quite have the imagination or creativity to be extra special, and the execution tended to be more often inconsistent than I had hoped.
Excuse My French doesn't take reservations, and the adorable space is tiny, so I would suggest showing up early. There is full bar with some happy hour discounts for wine, but my suggestion is to sip on one or two cocktails that the bartender quite aptly put together. I would definitely come back here to try more drinks, and the vibe of this place will definitely invite me back. For serious dinner, however, I might reconsider trying other places in the bustling LES neighborhood.
Loved this place. It's downstairs, so you might miss it walking by. The interior was cute, the food was delicious, the service was good, and drinks were interesting. I got the photogenic Hibiscus Champagne with the edible flower, the Butterfly Salmon, and the Watermelon Salad. This was enough to fill me up. The food was great, no complaints there. The salmon was flavorful, moist, and tender and the bed of ratatouille (stewed veggies) that it was on was equally flavorful. The portion was a good size for me, I tend to like smaller portions or sizes that leave me feeling content. This is a tapas place, so the portions will be smaller. The drink looked great, it was a bit sweet so be warned. It was on their happy hour, so I also got to try their Lavender version. They have a few options to choose from and the cool thing is they extract the essence from the flowers in house. For dessert, I had to get the Nutella Crepe since everything else tasted so good. It was a bit bigger than I expected and would be good to share between two people. It had a nice crunchy texture to it, but had a bit too much nutella for me; you can ask to have less or just press it out before each bite. Overall, this place is great for a couple that wants to share a few items and have a drink or two. The drinks appear the be the only things on their happy hour though.
Cute and cozy. lovely bartender who is full of knowledge to help guide you along their menu. i loved my hibiscus bubbly drink that even came with a new hibiscus flower in side- totally edible and delicious!
Excuse my French is a great ambience with friendly staff.
The meals are tapas style and I would argue even the "big plates" aren't entree size (though my steak tartare was a large sized portion as was the duck confit.
We tried the four cheese plate which came served with bread (and consistent refills), fig jam, and grapes
Beet small plate was good but nothing out of the ordinary. Better when paired with the goat cheese we had from our cheese selection 🙂
Steak Tartare with quail egg. This was a 'simple' dish that was good and quite filling. Again paired with the blue cheese from our sampler and a slice of bread (and red wine) really made this for me.
Foie gras lollipops- as another reviewer mentioned aren't much like lollipops and more rare than some may prefer. They had a sweet after taste.
Duck confit- very good and excellent presentation I recommend this
Happy hour has 2-4-1 wine !
Also, although I didn't order any of the cocktails I really liked that the bartender explained the meaning behind each of the cocktails the other customers ordered
When I saw this purple drink in Time out I got really excited! I went last night with 2 friends. We sit at the bar and order 3 different drinks.: The lady in blue ( beautiful and sweet drink) , l'aviateur ( a sweet blood cocktail) and L'ANTONIETA which I would recommend to everyone who like bitter but not too much. I usually avoid mezcal but I imagine that adding the butterly pea flower syrup makes it drinkable. The bartender tells you the story about this drink and make the cocktail "magic trick" …. It's pretty cool. If you like art and cocktail, this is the perfect place for you! highly recommend it!