Café Normandie — Restaurant in New Orleans

12/25/2021 As a hotel linked to the WW2 Museum and coated with war memorabilia, history & pride, I would expect a sense of American pride. I don't know if you get a different service/experience if you're a veteran or a civilian, but if you'd like to eat here as a civilian, be prepared to be let down and waiting for longer than expected for a 4 star hotel. I certainly hope our veterans get a better experience than what I got.

The cafe has maybe 22-30 tables, split into 2 sections with 2 servers, a hostess and someone that looks like a manager but is more of a food runner. The kitchen staff is 2-3 cooks and 1 busser. The food items are relatively simple, what you'd expect for breakfast: eggs, toast, coffee, tea, bagel & cream cheese, and a southern staple, grits.

My boyfriend and I saw a larger table get water, coffee, tea, and their order taken before we got acknowledged or given water. Table was not prepped for another guest during turnover as it was missing sugar and the salt & pepper didn't appear to be wiped down. We had to ask twice for sugar. When we were served water by the hostess, we stated we were also ready to order, she didn't acknowledge nor state that she was not our server or that she would send our server to us. We waiting another 5 minutes for our server and sugar. He ordered the omelet with spinach and American & Swiss, with white toast. I had the farmer's breakfast which is 2 eggs with bacon (ham or sausage), toast & grit. I substituted the grits for avocado slices. And then waited... The larger table of 6 had their food and was about half-way through their meal. My boyfriend got his plate and the omelet did not look appealing, and missing spinach, and the wrong cheese. My plate came with the 2 eggs and bacon, another plate for the toast and butter, and missing the avocado slices. The avocado came and it was sad. It was cubed rather than sliced. He stated that his omelet was incorrect and was not acknowledged of the error, instant blame and recovery mode fell on our server's face, whom I don't know her name as no one had a name tag nor was greeted "welcome to Cafe Normandie...Merry Christmas...my name is _ and I'll be your server. Can I start you with coffee? Water? As you two decide what you'd like?"

I now know why the Rosie on the Roof is the only restaurant advertised on the hotel's website & in-room tablet.

Am I expecting too much for Christmas? I don't think so. Did this establishment miss the mark and the opportunity to make more money on a holiday? Yes, absolutely. Will we be...

We needed some breakfast before touring the WWII Museum. It was the closest spot. (Or so we thought) We walked in and were seated right away. The place is very nice inside. We ordered pancakes and a BACON po boy to split. The food that came out looked like it was from a high school cafeteria. Food from Denny’s looks better. The pancakes weren’t soft and they were very greasy. The po boy was $20 and the SAUSAGE (not the bacon we ordered) looked like it from a frozen box. I’m pretty sure the cheese was melted with a microwave. I had 3 bites of pancakes asked for the check (the server did not ask if anything was wrong or ask if I needed a box) I paid for this awful food and left. Don’t eat breakfast here. There are plenty of other spots around the city that a 100x better...

Visited on 05/06/23 around noon..With bad weather outside I ended up eating here for lunch..I wasn’t expecting much since the star rating is average.. but my server Anna was really wonderful, so courteous and attentive. I got a bread basket to start with house made cornbread and focaccia both were fresh and delicious.. it came with a fig butter with balsamic which was too adventurous for my taste but Anna quickly brought regular butter out. I order the steak frites and again still not expecting much but it was so tasty, cooked perfectly and the Chimichurri was so fresh and delicious. Fries were above average in taste. All in all a very satisfying meal and very affordable. I wish I took a picture because it was also plated beautifully but it looked so good I couldn’t...