Cafe Degas — Restaurant in New Orleans

Rarely is a dining experience so bad that it prompts me to immediately write a review while everything is still fresh in my mind, but here we are. I've lived in New Orleans for over 24 years, half of those while working in the food service industry myself, and I can say without a doubt that this was simply bad.

So let's get into it. I had high hopes for Cafe Degas. The restaurant's menu reads charmingly French, and the space itself is very cozy and quaint. It has a warm, neighborhood vibe that makes you not mind the slightly crowded floor plan. Four of us, including my husband and my parents, went on a Friday night and while it was busy, it did not feel hectic in any way.

We began with cocktails, which were decent--probably the best part of the meal to be honest. We each then ordered an appetizer and an entree. Two of us got the escargot which were basically flavorless. They weren't inedible, but somehow they avoided tasting like anything at all. I had the pâté plate, which I was excited about because I absolutely love pâté. One of the selections on the plate was fine, the other was almost inedible, as if there was something off about it. I did not finish it, not that I had the chance as our entrees came out while our appetizers were still on the table. Luckily the rest of the table had finished their appetizers, and I had no desire to eat any more of mine, so it was cleared and we got our entrees. My mother ordered a fish special which smelled and tasted so fishy that I wasn't sure whether it was safe to eat. She sent it back and requested a sweetbread mousse instead. I had the niçoise salad which had perfectly cooked tuna on top of a relatively basic salad, all of which was bizarrely served in a bowl far too small for the entree. My husband ordered lamb which was fine, lacking in salt but still edible--which I learned is kind of the bar we had to lower ourselves to--but decent aside from that. By this time I had also requested a wine list, which the waiter brought and then never returned to take an order. In fact, he never returned at all except to bring my mother her replacement entree, and even then he did not ask about the wine. My husband, father, and myself were all planning on having wine with our entrees, but never got the chance. I also ran out of water mid way through my entree, and it was never refilled the entire time. Nobody's water or drinks were ever refilled throughout the entire meal. The only time the waiter asked my father if he wanted another glass of wine was when he cleared his plate, but the wine had sat empty through the entire entree, and while he had originally planned on having another glass, there was simply no reason at that point. My mother's replacement meal of the sweetbread mousse was also terrible. It had an intense metallic flavor that bad organ meat dishes can have. We did not send this back because it wasn't inedible (like the fish), just not good. I tried one bite, and without any water or drinks to clear my mouth, I had to suffer its taste until I was able to get home and brush my teeth. It's worth pointing out that we saw our server maybe four times throughout the entire experience, and no manager ever came by to check on us even though we had to send back an entree-- which, as a veteran food service employee, I would never normally do except in an extreme instance such as this when I seriously doubted the safety of eating that fish.

All in all, I can say that this is one of the worst dinning experiences, from the food to the service, that I can recall in my over two decades of living in this city. I am shocked at the high rating that this place has, and maybe we just came on an off-night or ordered the wrong things, but I don't think I'll be back to test...

Here' your entree, what's your hurry? We came to Cafe Degas because we are moving out of New Orleans next week. We've always enjoyed Cafe Degas and wanted this to be one of the places that we hit one last time. We both ordered the onion soup. It arrived just as our cocktails arrived. I get that the soup is made....all you need do is add the cheese and broil it. But people are coming out to have an experience, an evening. I get that the soup can come quickly, but the server should be timing the table. Our reservation was for 7pm. By 7:15 the soup had arrived. Our entrees arrived at 7:37. I still had my soup spoon in my hand. I still had half a cocktail. The runner seemed unsure what to do with the entrees, so he shifted the plates and removed my soup, before I finished it, and dropped the dinner plates. I mentioned we wanted to order some wine to go with the entrees..... which continued to sit in front of us as we finished our cocktails. I got the attention of a woman I believed to be a manager only because she wasn't dressed in head to toe black. I explained that we hadn't finished our soups when dinner was delivered. I said we wanted to finish our cocktails, I said we were feeling extremely rushed. Again, I thought I was speaking to a manager. She removed our plates, actually offering to make new plates. That's wasteful, and not necessary. We agreed to simply rewarm them but return them when we were ready for entrees. Again, I thought I was speaking to a manager. Turns out the manager was a guy walking around the restaurant in a sweater and long black apron. We watched her repeat the entire situation to him. He never approached our table. He knew we were unhappy yet never once made a glance my way. We ordered a couple of glasses of wine. The server dropped the wrong wines. A couple of minutes later, our entrees were returned to us. Mine was on a hot plate, my husband's wasn't so hot. We ate and drank our wine. Still nothing from the manager. After our meals, we decided on dessert. I said 'we'll have the chocolate cake and 2 bourbons'. We were served 2 slices of chocolate cake and the bourbons. I thought they might have split the cake between 2 plates. Most people split dessert. Not the case here. We got 2 separate slices of chocolate cake. Then, mid dessert, the server is back, asking if we want anything else before he brings the check. To be clear, the food is wonderful. To be clear, I was utterly disappointed with the service on a $171 tab. I know this review isn't going to change anyone's mind about going to this restaurant. I'm just tired of paying $$$ for a meal that just doesn't seem worth it. Restaurants just don't seem to care about the service any longer. Everyone talks about how hard it is for a server, and I completely agree right up to the point where the server is not qualified to serve a meal that is going to cost almost $200. Sorry, but that's not chump change. If I'm going to be spending $200 on a three course meal, it really should take close to 2 hours. And the last thing I want to do is come home and write this. I thought I spoke to a manager. I guess I didn't. However, the manager was made aware of our situation and simply blew us off. Shame on him. Not an I'm sorry, not a let me get your dessert, not a single word, just avoidance. Restaurants, if you want to charge what your meal is worth, you better be able to match your service with...

I’ve heard great things about Café Degas, so that may have made my disappointment in the service and professionalism of the staff that much greater. Let me also state that I was once a waitress and I normally don’t complain when small things go wrong, but this was a start to finish fiasco of a meal. It started when they crammed six of us into two tables put together, we arrived at 530 the place was empty, and later six tops were given larger tables, my poor friend was sitting in the aisle and was kicked and bumped the whole time. Then the waiter sat down at the table next to us and spent ten minutes writing the desert menu on a white board before taking our drink order. When he finally delivered our wine he preceded to spill it all over me, with no apology I might add, he wrongly assumed that because I was wearing a purple shirt it wouldn’t stain, no club soda offer either. He then proceeded to show us a red leather jacket that he found in the trash, as he handles our food it was not very appetizing. We finally placed our order for our food and when it came out five dishes arrived and he said mine “would be just a minute,” so my friends waited, but after five minutes I made them eat so their food wouldn’t be cold. One of the chicken dishes also appeared undercooked and dripping blood. After ten minutes we asked the manager and he said there had been a mix up in the kitchen, “didn’t your waiter tell you,” no he didn’t, the waiter then tried to offer me soup, but I can’t eat seafood and it was lobster bisque. My friends finished their meal and even shared their leftovers with me, then I received mine about twenty-five minutes after they had theirs. There were no apologies from the waiter or manager! The fact one person watched 5 eat their entire meal, and then 5 watched one eat her meal with no apology or smoothing over was as bad of service as I’ve seen in a long time. The waiter came over and tried to explain once my food had arrived that they cooked the wrong dish, but did they try to offer me that dish instead no. I think he just lied and didn’t put my order in at all. So we finally get our bill and not only did they charge me for my meal the waiter rang up erroneous items and overcharged us by $25, thankfully one of my friends has the eagle eye and called him out on it, but it still took three attempts to provide us with the correct bill. The consensus at the table was that the waiter may have been drunk, high or really hung over, he smelled bad and he spent more time dabbling with the desert menu board, than waiting tables, continually going to it and adding dots and such, very strange. Despite the waiter’s unprofessional behavior and bad service the management should have stepped up and acted. I will not be eating here and again and caution others against eating at this...