Louisa's Cafe — Restaurant in Cape May

Louisa’s Café is a dining experience that will make anyone’s visit to Cape May even more memorable than it otherwise would be. The ambiance of this little BYO bistro that specializes in fresh farm-to-table fare is in perfect harmony with the quaint Victorian setting that is Cape May. The menu being written on a chalkboard hung on one wall only adds to the charm of the place. The intimacy of the dining room is reminiscent of having breakfast at an Irish B&B, where you frequently meet and chat with fellow diners and compare notes on Cape May.

Every meal begins with fresh farm-to-table appetizers that are tasty, healthy, and imaginatively presented, such as the pork and turkey meatballs, leeks bruschetta with gorgonzola, radish toasts w/herb butter & radish top pesto, spinach dip crostini, mussels, etc., not to mention the usual varieties of salads.

A unique aspect of Louisa’s is that every entrée is served with the same starch (short grain brown rice) and veggie (chopped cabbage with slices of red onion). The culinary simplicity of this menu approach is both tasty and healthy in its own right, and it actually becomes a more attractive feature of dining at Louisa's with each successive visit. Each fresh seafood entrée is served with different homemade sauces that accentuate the flavor of the fish.

Last, but certain not least, are the decadent homemade desserts. The desserts alone are “worth the price of admission”. Fortunately, the healthy dining up to that point allows one to splurge calorically on dessert and not leave the restaurant feeling guilty.

Finally, the staff creates an environment that make you feel more like a friend than a patron.

There are many fantastic restaurants in Cape May to be sure. But the hidden gem of the entire lot is Louisa’s Café. For those gastronomically inclined, dinner at Louisa's Cafe has to be on your Cape May bucket list.

EDIT: For out-of-towners, as described above, Louisa's is a BYO. But there is a good liquor store (Collier's) located at 202 Jackson Street, and Louisa's is at 104 Jackson Street. So they are literally 167 feet apart.

Louisa's is also 'cash-only', but there is an ATM right...

I have to say, we have been going to Louisa’s for quite a while now! It has been a staple to my wife and I when we go down to Cape May on vacation. We got pregnant and were super excited to bring our daughter here now that she is 5 year old. Made reservations a month or two before going as its always hard to get a seat in there. We said it was for 3. The booked us with no questions asked and we were set. The day of our reservation they called to confirm, we were delighted and said it was for 3. The host (or whoever) was the person that day calling to confirm the parties said if you are bringing children we cannot accommodate menu items to children. We don’t have children’s menu. If you want to have something somewhat for children you can get a pasta that they may likes buts it’s 28.00. We were taken back a bit from that statement. We said all our daughter needs is pasta and butter. On top of that we said, nowhere in your site does it state that you don’t accommodate children’s menu or somewhere where it states “we don’t have a children’s menu” Cape May being such a family oriented town we did not expect this. Not even down the road at the trendy Ebbit Room where we ended it up going. No children’s menu there either but accommodated a delicious pasta with butter. I asked the host to make it a priority for future guest to know that you do not accommodate children’s menus that way a family full of kids don’t book a seat at your restaurant. I believe the initial call or on the website it should be stated clearly that you are not kids friendly Restaurant. The food is delicious and the desserts are always heavenly. This is mostly to educate a bit your host of communications and website visuals for families to be well informed. The host should be a bit more kind and have empathy to families instead of not giving options for us. He quickly showed us the exit...

We went with two friends, have literally went here since the nineties. Unfortunately not much has changed on the menu although desert has vastly improved. I will go by my experience I got the sesame peanut noodles app was a good start kinda small for the price not much involved noodles covered in peanuts cucumbers and green onion in a sesame dressing. I liked it my companions enjoyed their salads. My main I went with the jerk chicken really bland. You would think for jerk chicken the flavor would be more pronounced. Side of basicly raw cabbage masquerading as Cole slaw and undercooked rice masquerading as rice. My wife got the salmon weird thing they gave her bbq sauce where as mine had a red pepper sauce I used it for the coleslaw because of its mayonnaise type consistency I gave it to my wife for her salmon and told her my coleslaw idea which she thanked me for, she said hers was good except the bones she encountered in the salmon and I'm gonna say people do miss bones in a fish I was a chef at a restaurant in Philly I know I did. Besides that mains were a bit of a let down. Now desert I stumbled on a home run it was a mint chocolate Pot de crème my wife had the key lime pie and our friends apple crumb w vanilla ice cream and chocolate pie they looked great and from the looks went down great too. Our server was so nice and accommodating kept my ice teas filled. The outside on an early sept night couldn't be beat. We will prob be back because it's a tradition with us like I said the 90s but it'd be great to see them step it up and try some new things. I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it but it's the same menu I remember from thirty five years ago. There are too many new places to try and if it wasn't our friend's favorite we would not go. Sorry not sorry.did I mention how nice our server was awesome. Got the third...