Cafe Lafayette — Restaurant in Exeter

We booked tonight as a special holiday dinner at the end of a cross country drive. We aren’t fancy or fussy people, but we generally feel that if you put on fancy airs, you have to deliver. We ended up spending $159 for dinner which is generally 3x compared to our typical simple dinner out consisting of some well scouted authentic ethnic eats. While this is certainly harder to do post pandemic, we generally succeeded over the last 9 days crossing the country.

While the food was good here, for the price which included a basic bottle of wine, two dishes and a cup of soup, we could have done better in San Francisco in an experience that would have included appropriate service.

Again, we aren’t fancy and generally aren’t bothered unless your inherent promise isn’t met. Here the setup is really a farm town bistro. For the price, however, a table cloth would generally be expected. Slightly loud rock music was playing over the speakers, songs I liked, but neither the volume nor tunes you would expect at a French style bistro. We picked the lamb special as one of our two dishes. The waiter thought it was $36.50 which sounded suspiciously cheap. When the bill came, it was $54.50. The waiter never acknowledged this change. My wife was never asked how she wanted it cooked, and it came out bloody, which just isn’t how rack of lamb is served. We sent it back for more heat, which is something we haven’t done in probably 15 years. The waiter did ask if my shrimp could be blackened at my request, and they came out nicely done. The young waiter seemed to not know the tradition of tasting the wine, serving women first, adding water to the ice bucket to transfer the cold temperature to the wine, and serving with a cloth to wipe the bottle so I wouldn’t have had to wipe the ice cold water on my pants.

On net, pretty clunky. This would all be ignored at a different price point or if the restaurant wasn’t putting on airs. I left 15% which pained me as it is the holidays and I wanted to be more generous, but this was more than it warranted. There was also a 3% credit card surcharge which is definitely a restaurant outlier practice, even post pandemic.

If I was to pass on a tip, it would be to decide what your implicit promise is and deliver on it. If you are a cafe, you can be casual, have lightly trained staff, simple tables, rock music, and simple dishes at affordable prices. If you are a fine dining restaurant, you do need to train your team, know your prices, and deliver on your fancy airs. Here the implicit brand promise comes wrapped in metaphorical newspaper, and it just...

Me and my husband had an incredible delight to have dinner at Lafayette and now it’s my favorite French restaurant! Starting with atmosphere, outdoor seating is magically beautiful, great music puts you in a right mood and omg the food! Yes prices are on higher end but we live in Los Angeles and tried a lot of expensive restaurants there where we never got to experience such an incredibly kind and attentive service/food and atmosphere, our waitress Ashley was just an angel and even though we were trying this place for the first time we didn’t have much expectation food came out like in the best restaurants in Europe, and we traveled a lot and had many great dinners there, didn’t expect to find such a high quality European experience here. I ordered filet mignon which was made perfectly and mash potato and veggies on the side were all complimenting each other, my martini was perfect and dessert! Wow, this creme brûlée was to die for♥️ I would add also that my husband is VEGAN and chef kindly offered couple options that included vegetable gnocchi and garlic French fries and it was just perfectly made and well balanced. And we very much appreciated their attitude about this and making him this delicious food even though it wasn’t on a menu. Overall we truly felt like we are having dinner somewhere in Europe, with great tasting food, nice stuff, music and clean atmosphere. My congregations to the chef ( who is himself French)for creating this beautiful dishes and truly making them with knowledge and love🙏🏻 We would be back again and wouldn’t hesitate to drive here from LA for this...

Nice place to eat french food in the valley. Glad to have a departure from the normal choices. Our server Chris was very attentive and hospitable! The atmosphere was simple but warm. The prices were high but expected. The food was underwhelming not only because of the high quality reputation of the restaurant but for the prices. I had the baked brie to start and the rosemary overpowered the cheese. The french onion soup, an annual favorite of mine, had too much bread, not enough cheese but the broth was very good. The Ratatouille was not very flavorful. The tomato sauce was cherry tomatoes not cut or simmered down. The pesto on top overpowered the stew and no eggplant either, a Ratatouille staple. I did like the gnocchi as a fill. It tasted more Italian than French. Oh well. My wife had the chicken cordon blue, which she said was very flavorful. The garlic potatoes were overpowered by the garlic. All in all, a good meal but for the price, I expected better quality from the chef. Our bill with one desert and tip but no drinks was...