Cafe Belle Epoque — Restaurant in Saint Joseph

Cafe Belle Epoche was once our favorite restaurant. We have been going there for years and loved the ambiance and the wait staff. I loved how you could get any side dish, soup or salad with any main dish. Two of my very favorites mains were the shrimp pasta with asparagus and the shepherds pie. These and most items were no longer on the menu. We went back to Belle Epoch after a trip to England and we’re surprised to see new staff. We were presented with new menus and told by the server that he was busy but would come back shortly. A female server showed up after about 5 minutes to take our order. I said we weren’t ready as we came for a specific menu item but in was no longer on the menu. The server said there was a change in ownership. We settled on some pumpkin biscuit ham sliders and the pear fig and burrata salad. The server asked us if the waiter told us we were out of the sliders and we said he did not. She said he should have. We then ordered the bacon melt on spent bread with our previously requested salad and waited about 10 minutes and the female server told us she had bad news. They were out of the bacon melt. She asked what else we would like and we said we would like to leave. We arrived at 1:00 pm which we thought was a reasonable time for lunch so did not expect shortages. We also noticed that the restaurant was fairly full yet only one table had food, everyone else seemed to be waiting. I told my sister in law who was a big fan of the original restaurant also. We have decided not to go back😢. I rated the atmosphere as I did because I thought what the server said was rather rude. She should have just informed us that we’re out of something, not blamed the...

This was a favorite place for me and a friend last summer. The food was divine and portion sizes were respectable, while wait times were very reasonable. We just had lunch there yesterday and a few things seemed different. The parking lot was not full. Great for us! We seated ourselves and I noticed a cocktail menu on the table that wasn't there before. Fabulous! We're "brunching" and adult drinks are perfect with brunch. We're greeted with the friendliest wait staff and receive our menu's. Uh oh....everything has completely changed. Where's the Shepard's pie!? In fact, there are very few items that involve a fork, as this has changed into a sandwich-style of menu. I'm having a difficult time picking out what I want because the changes here are pretty big. I ordered the breakfast burrito and a side salad. It took a very long time for our food to arrive. When it did, I couldn't believe how small the burrito was, which would be okay if it were actually good. I was underwhelmed and still hungry but figured in 20 minutes, this will subside. My friend wasn't hearing it and offered me a taste of her slider, which wasn't bad. After reading other reviews, I learned it was under new ownership, which now makes more sense as to why it was so different.

The good. -the ambiance and music -the service -the cocktail selection

The bad. -the menu selection -the long wait times -the exquisite taste of their dishes...gone, and now just meh

My suggestion to the new owners would be to lower your prices to better represent your menu offerings and wait times. Keep the excellent...

We are visiting St Joe and we were looking for vegan options and this was one of the few places we found with a dedicated vegan menu.

First the good; staff was pleasant and attentive and the atmosphere is fantastic. We really enjoyed the vibe and for that reason 3 stars.

On to the not-so-good. The place has a vegan menu but when I went to order coffee I was told they don’t have plant milk options. I thought this was really strange as even most of my meat-eating friends opt for plant milk in their coffee; it’s really rare to find a place that only offers dairy with their coffee in 2022.

As to the food, we had the vegan shepherd’s pie and the vegan curry, with sides being split pea soup and hummus with pita. Unfortunately I had to send the shepherd’s pie back to the kitchen to be heated up as it was cold in the middle. I did enjoy the split pea soup and the curry was nice, but the rice that came with the curry was dried out and the pita that came with the hummus was served cold, which was somewhat disappointing.

All-in-all the food just missed the mark. Maybe it is because we come from an area that has a wide range of vegan options, but we came hungry and finished less than half of the food we were served. I’m a big eater and tend to clear my plate, but in this instance we didn’t even bother to get a box to take leftovers to the Airbnb.

TLDR; staff and atmosphere were fantastic, vegan food could use some improvements, and absolutely please offer plant-based milks for...