Cafe du Soleil — Restaurant in New York

It's been a long time since I have reviewed a restaurant (in the past on Yelp, never on Google). I use both Google and Yelp for reviews, addresses, hours, phone numbers, etc. They are great resources for a hungry Manhattanite. But today, I felt I had to write about a really disappointing experience.

Breakfast meeting with an old friend and influential lady in my business (fine arts). I convinced her to visit my neighborhood, instead of heading down to her's and having breakfast at French Roast Uptown, our usual spot and a great place. (Try the Salade Lyonnaise.)

She wanted a good cup of coffee, so my neighborhood fav (the best diner in New York IMHO) was out of the question. (Even a great diner can have terrible coffee, by coffee -lover standards.) So Cafe Du Soleil it was. A block from my house, pricey, but at least the coffee is fine.

My friend ordered the American Breakfast, me the Parisian omelette. Our food arrived. Her American Breakfast was more than ample and she shared her sausage with me. One bite and I noticed the interior was cold. I spat out my bite and looked at the uncooked pink interior. Pork, unlike beef and good fish, can never be eaten raw or undercooked, it would be inviting serious trouble. I called over the manager and explained the issue. I didn't want my omelette, which I hadn't started and had the spat out sausage on it, and I had lost my appetite. "Please bring me another coffee," I said. "And can you just comp me my omelette?" After all, I wasn't going to eat it.

Bill comes and we are charged for the omelette. I approach the manager and he responds that I didn't order the sausage in question (remember it was my breakfast companion's), that if I don't eat pork (something I never said) I shouldn't be eating sausage anyway, etc. I don't lose my temper, and I am generally a polite, well-manered customer. I tell him that at this point, he should probably just comp us the whole meal. He tells me not be rude (basically to go fly a kite) and then informs me that the owner is over at the bar, but that I shouldn't bother him, he's a busy man after all.

Forget that. I walk up to the owner and tell him my story. He reacts as if I am a pitiable simpleton. Fair enough. But I tell him this, "I grew up in my parents' French bakery in California. From a young age I worked the front counter under my father's guidance. When a customer had a complaint I did whatever was in my power to respect him or her, listen and remedy the situation. If somebody were to get a bad croissant [which never occurred in 20 years of business], I wouldn't give them the keys to the castle, but I would certainly do what I could to make them come back and tell their friends what an amazing experience they had had. To me that is customer service 101." He brushed me off and I left, my friend paying the bill (minus my coffee and the omelette).

So in the end, I usually don't write about restaurant customer service unless it is really above and beyond. I like to focus on the food. But comps, how you treat customers, what is an acceptable loss, these should never be a simple calculation of instant profits from the establishment's perspective. Sometimes you have to take the $10 loss and live to fight another day, rather than alienate someone who is a current customer and whom you really don't know. Instead, if you decide that it doesn't really matter, that that $10 profit is worth never seeing that person again, then, I just have to assume that at some point it will catch up with you. If it were a simple matter of bad staffing (at the managerial level) then maybe I wouldn't have written this review. But when it is the owner, it gives me pause and motivates me to really call it out and question an establishment's commitment to its profession.

Cafe Du Soleil: food ok, prices high, service leaves a lot to be desired.

Definitely not going back, would never take a friend or party there (their loss I suppose).

And I would recommend that you look twice before swallowing your sausage....

We were pretty much ignored during our entire meal unless we waved down a waiter to get attention when something wasn't right or sufficient time had passed and we hadn't received any food or drink.

I suppose my first warning sign should have been when I asked for a Diet Coke or Coke Zero and I was brought a generic ‘diet cola’, tasting entirely different from Coke. I was not warned that they did not have coke products, and if for some reason they have Coca-Cola products on tap something is wrong with the Diet Coke, it tasted revolting like flat RC Cola.

When the appetisers arrived, my calamari were so overdone the burnt breading was flaking off, displaying the paper thin, overcooked, desiccated squid. It was truly revolting, and no one bothered to come to our table after appetisers were brought out to ask how our meal was in fact, our waiter was MIA for a significant amount of time following dropping of the appetisers at the table. Everyone else was enjoying their appetisers such as the French onion soup and the escargot and seemed to enjoy them, while I sat looking at my disgusting overcooked pile of garbage. I'm not one to send back food but this was unreasonable, and I did send it back even though they put it on the bill at the end and I had to ask for them to remove it because it was garbage.

To be fair, if I was the waiter serving the garbage, I would have hid too! Talented waitstaff should know better than to serve garbage food to customers paying extravagant prices.

One of my companions ordered the ‘grilled asparagus’ which should have been called ‘chilled asparagus’ as it pretty much came out cold, apparently from a can – just dumped in a plate and served. It looked stringy and disgusting. The person who ordered it couldn’t eat it.

The one redeeming factor, besides the wine, was the steak which was delicious. To be honest I don't know if the steak (Rib Eye) was worth $40, but I can tell you that I could have gotten a much better meal with much better food at Outback Steakhouse.

If you like good service good food good drinks and good wine might I suggest Old Homestead, which dwarfs this awful place with their...

I've been a customer for many years, I moved into the neighborhood 4 years ago. Today they lost a customer. They could not accomodate me (by myself, so party of 1) for lunch at 12:30 pm on a Tuesday because they had 2 pm reservations for a World Cup game. Empty tables and bar stools everywhere. I was told to move from the bar and ask the manager if I could be sat. I will no longer order take out, delivery or much less walk into their establishment again. So dissapointed. Honte à toi Cafe du Soleil.

UPDATE 11/19/2023 **

I live in the neighborhood and know better than to sit in the restaurant. I didn't feel like sitting in a bar stool today, so I gave the restaurant seating a chance, which was a HUGE mistake. For not being very busy, I waited 20 min before I had water on my table and another 10 on top of that before I had any interaction with a server. I waited way too long for my drink and for my RARE steak to come to my table. I purposely ordered this temperature because my drink had already taken a ridiculous amount of time. The server was unfriendly and acted bothered when I asked for anything ie extra napkins, ketchup for my fries. I worked fine dining to put myself through school and the service today was way below subpar. I usually sit at the bar, where Max (bartender) gives the service I was taught as a server, and the service ANY restaurant should give when putting 25% as an option for tip on a check. The service today deserved 10% but I don't ever tip under 20%. Not surprising, the only time the server was prompt, was when it was time to pick up the check. Infact 3 min after it was placed on my table she came back and told me I had to pay because they were closing brunch. I will NEVER sit in the restaurant again and you guys really need to hire trained servers, this girl was completely clueless. DO BETTER! My steak was also extremely tough, I understand it was a skirt steak and not another cut, but again....I ordered rare, I should not have had so much trouble...