Café Degas (#307, 9/12/14) – 71
Made a Friday evening visit to Cafe Degas on Esplanade Ave in Mid-City. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and actually think I may have gone years ago, but never had it listed. It’s advertised as the longest running and most Gallic French Bistro in New Orleans. I wasn’t really sure what “Gallic” meant, but some wikipedia research leads me to believe it’s just an ancient name for the region of Europe which is now France.
We had 7:30 reservations for the dinner and I was very surprised to find the average age in the place to be about 65. It wasn’t THAT early! We were seated at a good seat on the “porch” area, which is an enclosed area at the front – they can open the windows, or plastic curtains or something. That would have been nice so we could watch the people and the street outside; of course, it would have sweated out the place, so not an option.
For food, I had…yikes, I can’t actually remember. It was the fish special with a tasty light/white fish, but I can’t remember what kind..perhaps amberjack. I know it was pretty good, but not a good sign that I don’t remember it. The perils of ordering a special, you can’t refresh the mind with a trip to their website. It came with squash and potatoes which were decent as well. We also had a cheese plate which was pretty good. They brought bread (I don’t like hard bread as much) and butter. Overall, I am going to rank the food as a 35, even though I don’t remember it!
For service, it was interesting. On some level, we definitely felt like outsiders. Almost like it was only a neighborhood place and we weren’t completely welcome. They weren’t rude, just not friendly. We chalked it up to being a “French” style thing or something, but who knows. Food and drinks came quickly, but refills were a little lacking. I’ll give it a 13 out of 20 for service.
The atmosphere was somewhat covered above with seating and the age of the other customers. I liked it; I like the old-house style and casual atmosphere. I really think it would be nice on a cooler day if the front was open air. Overall atmosphere is a 23 out of 30.
Final score = 71.