Carpe Diem

Stopped in on a rainy Thursday night. I wanted to enjoy a nice French meal. The waiter announced the special, salmon Oscar, a crab covered Salmon in a maple glaze with crab meat and asparagus over risotto. Sounds delicious, right? Well I thought so until the dish arrived. The salmon was dry and fishy tasting leading me to believe it was not fresh and probably frozen. The crab was absolutely tasteless. I am not one to return food to the kitchen for fear of retaliation by the kitchen staff. I pushed the salmon aside and basically ate risotto. I decided to order dessert, since I basically had not eaten my entrée. I ordered a French classic, the poached pear. This should have been poached in brandy or champagne and served covered with honey. To my surprise it was served covered in chocolate syrup, the kind you buy in the supermarket. It was gross to say the least. The only thing going for this restaurant is the location. Without the constant flow of new customers strolling down Atlantic Avenue, this restaurant would have closed long ago!

We used a Groupon to eat here. I love French cuisine and hoped for an enjoyable evening. The décor is fashionable, the Foie Gras was really good. Served with a salad, apples and toast. Our entrees started a precipitous decline in out culinary experience. My friend ordered the filet mignon which was so dry you could literally hear it being cut. My salmon was also overcooked. We called the server over and explained that we were unsatisfied with the filet, and her reply was, «Really, I just ate it for lunch». That was it. No apology, no offer to switch it out for something else, just she liked it so why don’t we. I worked my way through the salmon, though it was very far from our server’s description that it was excellent. We should have realized the quality of this restaurant was diminishing when there were only a few people eating dinner at 7:30 PM, and all of the other restaurants were quite busy. Probably the reason why they are now offering Groupons.

Please read this review before you go to eat here. My husband and I are locals and now that we have a little one don’t get out to eat much. We had a babysitter for the first time and were really looking forward to eating out and trying a new place. We had heard okay things about the place before going, and had a coupon from the Palm Beach annual coupon book, so thought we would check it out. We made a reservation for 8 p.m. and they acted like we hadn’t and were not very nice as they were looking for it, they found it and begrudgingly sat us down outside on the porch. The atmosphere was nice, right on the ave., they do have a nice assortment of wines. My husband ordered on their special menu which included and appetizer, main dish (the filet) and dessert and I ordered a salad entrée, Salmon and brie. The appetizer was tomatoes & mozzarella which ended up having a long hair in it-​hey it happens. However, the server she was the french blonde, acted annoyed and asked us what she should do– we said remake it please. They did and it took 20 minute to remake, second time around it was fine. We got our meals shortly after the appetizer came out and my husbands steak was overcooked and had no flavor tasted freezer burned & my salmon had no flavor and also tasted like it was frozen as well. So, we told our server we were not happy with the meal and just wanted to pay for what we ate and drank and leave. She said fine, until we showed her our coupon and she freaked out saying we COULD NOT use it, even though we were whiting our right according to the stipulations on the coupon. We asked to speak to the manager or owner she said fine and 20 minutes later said she couldn’t find them so she will just take the coupon as long as we never come back. Such great customer service. So she took the money and the manager or owner brought us our change back– but not all of it. On our way out my husband said we were going to write a review about our terrible experience as we were told to never come back, he was speaking to the owner (unbeknownst to us) and the owner told us to never come back, looked at me and told me to get a new boyfriend. My husband corrected him saying I am her husband and the owner said do you want to take this over there and work this out like men? (or something to that effect) and wanted to kick my husbands butt– which was not only laughable but embarrassing for an owner of a restaurant. So if you want terrible food and terrible service this is your spot! Otherwise avoid at all costs and spread the word if anyone mentions going here.

Food is ok. Service is awful. The owner is the first to be rude and his staff follows suit. It’s a shame. Could be a nice place to go

I love the salmon and Brie sandwich from here. It’s one of my favorite sandwiches. But nothing else on the menu peaks my interest. The French bread here is delicious.

My family brought me here for the first time. They tried it and fell in love. I see why. The food was excellent. The service was friendly and excellent. We all had the prix fixe menu. It was well priced, app, main dish, and dessert. I will come again!

Hätte nicht gedacht dass es hier schmeckt, hab mich getäuscht-​ist wirklich zu empfehlen. Die Steaks waren perfekt und unsere wünsche (Zwiebelringe an die Seite) wurden gerne erfüllt. Tipp: auf den Sofas außen ists besonders bequem und man hat das Treiben der Straße im Blick.

Everyone talking about the service is insane– we LOVE the service. The food was spectacular. The drinks were too good. So friendly. We felt like family. We had so much fun. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would go again.

We have been at this restaurant several times in years past. Service is wonderful but the food is so so at best. Onion soup all cheese in a lump, a few onions. Had two bottles of wine. One was definitely corked. Manager offered a 20% discount not going back

Unfortunately this review is for the service NOT the food. The chefs did a fantastic job, however the service is 100% the reason we will not be coming back. I didn’t catch our waiters name and I really wish I had.
We were looking for a new spot to try and we were set on Italian, however the young lady at the stand really sold us with her charm, and great detail to everything. They had the 25 $ special running all night and we learned about a 32 $ special as well from her. When we were seated, everything seemed find we were greeted with water and the waiter took down our drink order (I had a mango mojito) a bit strong for my taste but it was good.
When it came to ordering, my boyfriend ordered the 32 $ special, so he had the app tomato and mozzarella, his entrée was the lamp chop, and desser crème brûlée. I ordered «frenchie» which was a flat bread for my entrée and a Ceaser salad on the side of my entrée. The waiter began to argue with me how I wanted my salad, I told him «along with my entrée» and he kept insisting I put it with the tomato mozzarella, however I told him I wanted it with my entrée. He didn’t explain to me that my entrée would be brought out w the tomato and mozzarella he just walked off and said «she wants what she wants» or something in that tone. When my boyfriend tried to defuse the conversation, he tried himself exhaling what I meant. And the waiter for more frustrated and shrugged it off and just said ok. When the app comes out we get one plate of mozzarella looking stuff wrapped in prosciutto I presume. And another plate of what looked like chunks of tomato on a thin crust so we guessed that that’s what they meant by tomato and mozzarella. I let my boyfriend eat most of it bc I thought it was just the appetizer and was still awaiting my entrée. When his entrée came out, I only had a side Ceaser salad and that’s all. And that’s when we finally realized what the waiter was attempting to poorly say. And instead of him explaining it properly we were left confused and I was left with pretty much nothing to eat.
Although the food altogether was amazing the reason I’ll not be returning is bc of that waiter and his rudeness. So sad. This place has so much potential if they just hired a nicer staff

When dining at the carpe diem it wasn’t just brunch, it was an event. I truly felt like the only table in Josh’s section. He was such a magical server that he even knew what I wanted before I ordered it. It was my friends birthday and the Sunday brunch was nothing but perfect. We had a perfect meal, and amazing service. I can’t wait to come back and request my favorite server.

Visited with a Groupon. We sat inside on a lovely day, cause my wife dislikes sidewalk dining. It was so poorly lit I had to use my phone to read the menu. Very Parisian in décor. Recorded crooners provide the sounddrop. The food, nevertheless, was quite good and the service attentive. Bread was fresh, crusty the basket frequently refilled. A appetizer of coconut shrimp was crisp and tasty, but overpriced at $ 9.99 for three finger-​size crustaceans. Warm Goat cheese salad was largely a plate of greens adorned with walnuts, grape tomatoes, raisins and craisins with a sliver of goat cheese atop a slice of bread — $ 10.99. Roast duck, I’m told was meaty, but the potato gratin accompanying with was starchy, and dry from overcooking. For me the boullabaisse was a huge bowl filled with shrimp, manila clams, moules and a small slice of fish filet. The fennel accented broth was flavorful. The wine selection is fair, I paid $ 12 for a a glass of the very good Château d’Esclans Whispering Angel Rose, or about 2.5x retail. Corkage is $ 20 a bottle if you BYOW. Worth another visit, but only with a Groupon.

On a warm spring night I found myself in downtown Delray Beach alone. I was hungry. I walked down Atlantic Avenue and I was faced with many choices of great food. I came upon a rather small beautiful restaurant that had wonderful smells of steak coming out to the sidewalk. I knew what I was going to have. It’s called Carpe Diem. A very friendly lady offered me a table inside or out. I took a seat outside near the sidewalk because a nice cool breeze was blowing and made it very comfortable. I looked at the menu and ordered a new york strip and a beer. It arrived a few minutes later and I immediately knew I had made a great choice. It was very tender, cooked perfectly and the ice cold beer complemented it just right. It was one of the best steak dinners I’ve ever had. The waitress was very attentive and made sure I enjoyed my meal. I would highly recommend Carpe Diem if you are alone or in a small group. It was just fantastic.

Tried Carpe Diem for the second time (the first time was 3 years ago when they were called Café de France). My husband and I stopped in for lunch on a Wednesday after coming from the airport. The time was about 12:15pm, and what was weird was that the place was completely empty. We walked inside, and there was no one around. We walked back outside and saw a server setting some of the tables, so we asked her if they were open. She said they were, and told us we could sit anywhere (Duh — There was no one else there).
If you live in, or have ever been to Delray, you KNOW how crazy busy it gets… even when we’re not in season. The fact that no one was there was a little weird, but we had a coupon so we were set on going, and it’d been 3 years, so we were due to check them out again.
Pricing here is so ridiculously high, and there’s no reason for it. There’s nothing exceptional to warrant such exuberant pricing. My husband ordered the Seafood Crepes, which he said was really good, but small. I was surprised he said he was full. It appeared to be more of an appetizer size, but it was an entrée.
Service is fine, but again, there was nothing exceptional about it.
Again, this place is priced so silly high that I cannot imagine dining here again unless I had another coupon.

Unfortunately, front of house/​«maitre’d» is helping to keep the rude French stereotype alive and well.
Have lived close to Atlantic Ave for 14 years now, frequenting all of the restaurants on a regular basis, and have never walked away because a Manager’s attitude, until now.
Ate there before (for lunch), and it was «ok». So decided to try for dinner.
Never again. Food overpriced, average and horrible service. Many other (better) options in Delray!

My dining companion and I secured a streetside table on the porch for a late lunch yesterday, which was a beautiful day to dine outside in Delray. The staff were wonderful. The bread as other reviewers have mentioned was perfect, served with an olive tapanade that sadly was not refreshed with the bread basket. I was somewhat surprised by the little foil wrapped pats of Land o’ Lakes butter that came out with the bread. Come on, please. This is supposed to be a high end restaurant. A European style cultured butter, properly triangled and plated, was more what I was expecting, but this was not a big deal.
The waiter steered me to a nice Sauvignon Blanc which I was sipping when he took our order – for both of us, the salad Nicoise. I was surprised that he asked how we wanted the tuna cooked, so I asked if it was sushi grade tuna and he said yes, so I said, «seared and rare.» Well, the outside of the tuna was grey and the inside was not ruby red. Not a big deal. This isn’t even how the tuna on a salad NIcoise is supposed to be – big slices of tuna like that, but anyway, I started to eat.
When I’m paying $ 17.99 for a salad, it should not look as if a salad mix were shaken from a bag into a bowl, but that’s exactly what it looked like. (Bless the HIllstone chain for serving salads that never have to be wrangled with fork and knife.) This salad conversely had these ungainly large lettuce leaves that required a lot of cutting up. The promised kalamata olives were really ordinary black olives (like Lindsay black olives, from a can), and the hard cooked eggs had that unattractive grey-​green coating around the yolk. The menu-​promised anchovies were nowhere to be found. Again, this is an $ 18 salad served at 3 p.m. on a weekday afternoon. Only 3 other tables of diners were eating at the time. The salads should have been perfect.
The best part of the meal was the bread, the wine and the people watching. The salads were so-​so. I doubt I’ll go there again, but I’ve certainly had worse.

Had the soup and salad and it was delicious. Cream of tomato soup absolutely perfect, creamy with a hint of basil, not too acid, not too sweet. The fresh baked French bread was the best I’ve had in a long time. When you taste really great food it makes you realize how accustomed we’ve become to mediocre. For example, I thought the French bread at Panera was pretty good… but it’s nothing in comparison to this bread! Hubby had steak and eggs and loved it. The honey mustard dressing was the first I’d ever tasted where it was apparent there was actual honey in it, the consistency was practically straight honey, very thick, a great flavor but a bit overpowering. Will definitely be back!

Two mistakes. Two apologies
1. Their websites says they. Close at 11:00 not 11:30
2. I uploaded these pics from my phone so it was difficult to see the pics
The picture that says «Inside2» is not from Carpe Diem but another restaurant.

I have been wanting to try this place for months now and finally one night we went. It was very, very good! We sat outside and started off sitting together on the suede love seats, but it was super hot. (right idea for romance, wrong fabric for south Florida!) We quickly changed sides and sat on the chairs. It was still a little warm and I think they need to work on the ventilation on the outside area. There were ceiling fans, but we are about to enter into terribly hot weather and I can’t imagine sitting outside there!
They have a very nice French eclectic menu. We chose the 3 course dinner so that we could try a myriad of dishes. Really, a great deal! We got a Mediterranean dip for 2 and then each had an appetizer. I had the French onion soup (of course!) and my husband tried the escargot. Both were very good. My husband didn’t care for the escargot because they were not prepared in a traditional way… they tried their own recipe and he said there was nothing wrong with them… just not his preference. The soup was AMAZING.
The entrees were SUPERB. He had the weiner schnitzel and I had the chicken cordon bleu. Both were fantastic and absolute must haves again! I must say though, that if you are counting calories… don’t go here… everything was dripping with sauce and butter… but that’s just the way I like it! We each had a decadent dessert and they were excellent.
I really liked the place and will definitely go again. There was so much more on the menu I want to try… but I may wait until cooler weather… OR sit inside!

I absolutely love coming here! My boyfriend and I live down the street and have been here many times for late night dinner and happy hour. They have a late night happy hour that starts at 10pm with inexpensive yet delicious small plates and drinks that are always excellent.
The regular menu is consistently delicious… I have never had anything I didn’t enjoy. Especially, I can personally attest that the crab cake, the Brie, the salmon, and the duck are fantastic! I also love the olive tapenade that comes with the bread at the beginning of the meal :-)
The owner is always here and greets us personally and remembers our names. The service is always excellent and the food is consistently fantastic! Romantic setting where you can watch people on Atlantic walking by and still feel like you’re having a private meal with your sweetheart. I highly recommend this place! :-)

I really hate to give one-​star reviews, but this is a warning to all vegetarians. I came here for happy hour on a Saturday. We had a seat at the table outside and looked over the menu. We were excited to see the happy hour had some decent deals.
As I searched over the menu, they have a little green leaves to denote the vegetarian options. However, they all were not vegetarian. First, they noted that the caesar salad is vegetarian. For those who do not know, caesar dressing has anchovies.
As I looked over the menu some more, the Chevre Chaud salad (labeled vegetarian) has goat cheese. Almost every time, goat cheese contains rennet. I asked her if the goat cheese had this. The server asked me what rennet was, so i explained it to her. She said oh no it does not, our goat cheese is pasteurized. Ummmm. She also never entertained the idea to please me by asking the kitchen. I am pretty sure she even said they wouldn’t know. I decided to choose another item.
We ordered the cheese platter, which was also labeled vegetarian. It was five cheeses with cranberries and walnuts. The cranberries and walnuts were in the center with the goat cheese. On the side, we received a pâté to mix with the cheese. My friend tried it first to see what is in it. She said it tasted a little fishy. The server came back, and we asked was in it. Anchovies were one of the ingredients.
After we finished our drinks, we decide to just pay the bill and go somewhere else to eat. They label numerous items as vegetarian, but they are not. I just don’t trust this location. Even my friend, a meat eater, had a weird vibe there.