Ze Café

i’m so sad at the thought of ze café now being closed. i absolutely loved the french country ambiance and the nondescript exterior. it was literally a hidden gem in my neighborhood.
i had the most divine dish of long island duck breast and leg accompanied by roasted carrots, mushrooms, and pearl onions — it was like eating my way through a garden. my boyfriend also loved his very fragrant mushroom soup. sure, the dinner menu was on the pricey side, but this was the perfect place for a special dinner. the fact that i was sick when we came here did not put a damper on the amazing food and adequate service.

I happened to discover this place for brunch, and had a great meal here only to discover that it is closed all summer! I will be anxiously awaiting its reopening in the fall.
The location is off the beaten path, and the space is beautiful. It’s in an old carriage house, and there are beautiful flowers everywhere. The brunch menu isn’t huge, but has a variety of unique choices that are all delicious. Everything was fresh and seasonal, and I loved my meal here!

**3.5**
Definitely more of a brunch venue. Cozy, bright lighting, and the space feels light and airy. Food was just mediocre, service wasn’t bad. As many have already mentioned, the real reason to come here is the ambiance. the food was pretty forgettable.

Very calming and beautiful garden theme resto, not very big. Very good French based food, esp brunch

I went there for lunch for three times and their food is very good. Since it costs $ 20 or more for lunch, this is not the place I often come for lunch. But I wish I can come here more often. They use fresh and high quality ingredients.
This place is not so big, so I recommend you to make a reservation if you go as a group, in case. I love their French ambiance. I like how they decorate the place with live flowers. So pretty. How they display pastries is fancy, too.
I had a Croque Madame with salad and French fries ($ 19) last week. I liked it so much.

If you come here for brunch, you are basically paying $ 20pp (pre-​tax/​tip) for ok eggs or a sandwich with nice ambience. I would consider the place very overpriced, but the décor is exceptional. So if you are on a first date and want a nice ambience it is an ok move; although only if you live in the area, it’s definitely not worth cabbing to from somewhere else. Also, there are countless places with great brunch deals in the city, many of which have nice ambience (Saxon & Parole for instance). Basically it’s a good spot if you don’t care about value and live in the décor/​food wasteland that is midtown east.

I really liked this place. Came for brunch because I wanted to try something new. Space is beautiful, well decorated and upscale but relaxing.
My fiancé got the Bouchee Au Crevettets Et Champignons. In English, shrimp and mushroom in a lobster bisque atop of a puff pastry shell. He enjoyed this a lot, but there really was no bisque, so don’t hold your breath for that.
I ordered the Vol Au Vent Au Oeufs & Salmon (scrambled eggs, asparagus and smoked salmon in the same puff pastry shell). I enjoyed this a lot; very good flavors and fresh fish. Not a huge fish person, but I liked the dish very much.
The coffee here was also delicious. My fiancé got the hot chocolate, which was fresh but too bitter for our taste (like literally not sweet at all).
Our server was very professional, but not in an off-​putting way, and efficient.
The place is a little pricey for brunch but a nice change and we will come back again for sure.

For brunch items, this little bistro deserves $$ IMHO, with items ranging from ~12 — 16 dollars per.
Had the Croque Madame, which is excellent. Lighter on the béchamel but with a nice amount of ham and gruyère, and a sunny side up egg on top that didn’t disappoint when penetrated.
The crepes are excellent, rich for the most part, but excellent paired with more savory dishes at brunch time.
The mimosa was average IMHO and the Bloody Mary as well, though no special requests were made. Drinks weren’t overly stiff but nice and satisfying, balanced throughout.
Upscale, young-​to-​old crowd frequents this spot, primarily New Yorkers. Busy, with waits as the norm on weekends. I’ve heard excellent things about the American Breakfast, the French Toast, and the Eggs Benedict. No pancakes featured on the menu during my visits unfortunately.
Recommended!

We were very happy to get a seat about 11 am on Saturday brunch. The place is small and the décor was very unique. Our waiter was okay, he seemed nice he just needs to project his voice better. I couldn’t hear him with everyone else in the restaurant talking. I kept saying I can’t hear you, he didn’t get any louder, I think I just ignored him after that and stopped trying. I wanted the yogurt, they were out. I wanted a croissant, they were out. I ended up getting oatmeal crème brûlée style which was very good for steel cut oatmeal. He got the omelet of the day which was gruyère and mushroom which looked really good. It came with some golden fingerling potatoes. Which were cooked in butter, yum!
This place has been bumped down to 3 because if you are going to serve brunch until 3, why are you out of pastries and yogurt by 11? I couldn’t hear the waiter. We got the wrong bill and they didn’t tell us until after they charged our card, so they had to void and charge again which is just annoying. And after asking for seconds on coffee, it took 15 minutes for another. And if you are going to mess around with me and coffee you have another thing coming. Out of all the places in Manhattan, this one can be missed sorry to say.

Unilocaled this place after filming in nearby park.
Small & compact but very busy it seems. Server was polite & quick.
Menu has all day breakfast and lunch.
I got Ze Burger and it’s petite but richly favored. Beef was tender with nice french bread (Brioche) Came with some fries and vignette Spinach salad. Fries was thin and kinda reminded me of McDonald fries.
I guess I should get something more French. :) but it was a decent lunch but not worth 4 stars as it is rated currently.

3.5 stars for a pricey french brunch in an indoor garden & they offer brunch on weekdays which isn’t common
entrees were $ 20 on average, although to be fair, the portion sizes are larger than most places
—croque madame: not bad but a pretty heavy dish, but the bread wasn’t toasty enough & the egg on top was overcooked. the side of fries were nice & salty but soft
—tuna nicoise salad: nothing too special
—Oeufs & salmon on pastry shell: not bad, a lighter option than the croque madame
THERE’S NO MORE BANANA MARSCAPONE STUFFED FRENCH TOAST … i was sad to hear this since I wanted to try it
NOTE: unfortunately i noticed a few fruit flies, but i guess we were sitting by the window

Came here for brunch around 1:30 on a Saturday with no reservations. Luckily we were able to grab two seats at the bar. I’m so glad we sat at the bar, forgot his name but the bartender was super nice. He kept us laughing throughout our meal and forced alcohol down my throat.
We decided to go halfsies with the madame croque and the burger. The bread on the madame croque was perfectly buttered and toasted and remained that way till we finished. Mmm I wish I had some right now. The burger was your average burger, nothing special about it. Both dishes came with a side of salad and deliciously seasoned fries. To drink the bartender made me a peach/​mango bellini mix while my friend ordered the bloody mary. The bloody mary was huge, came with a ginormous pickle and olives.
Cute restaurant with tasty food, good spot to meet up with friends or for a casual date. I would definitely come back for the madame croque and fries!

Went to brunch here on hump day. We were surprised that we were the only people having brunch at the time. Others were busy going to work. We enjoyed a nice breakfast… Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce with country ham and English toast… it was good not the best… came with arugula salad and potatoes on the side. Kate got the french toast with walnuts and maple syrup… it was good but very sweet.
The real shining star of this place is the ambiance– you sort of feel like you walked into a European château the brick walls embrace you with warm and the beautiful freshly cut flowers greet you with open arms. The natural light from the outside adds to the overall warm of the place… love it! The service was good our server was friendly. We liked the
Overall! brunch was decent and with the typical NYC brunch prices. I recommend coming here. You will love the ambiance. a fairly good brunch selection. A place to chill and have a quite quaint brunch in midtown east.

Baby Shower Review: This place is perfect for a bridal/​baby shower. I actually found this spot via Unilocal for one of my friend’s and what a perfect place. The place fits anywhere from 30 to I’d say 50 comfortably, they have huge fresh flower arrangements already so no need to decorate and lots of natural light. Super charming, super chic.
To be honest, I didn’t love the food. The lobster salad was a bit fishy, the little quiches weren’t too flavorful and the mini grilled cheese bites were drenched in butter (and therefore delicious). I’ll give it up for the desserts though. The fruit tarts and the truffles were very delicious. I definitely ate a few too many of those. Damn you, Ze Café.
Service was impeccable.
I definitely recommend if your looking to host a somewhat casual private event of some sort; this charming café fits the bills.

Indeed a fan of the place
AMBIANCE
very fit for brunch– exposed brick wall, central display of hearty pastries, comfy chairs and green plants, and light-​hearted lightening– a Great way to wake up your stomach for the weekend!
FOOD
first of all, do not miss their complimentary SCONES! the accompanied jams were great too
as for entrees, I had an EGG SALAD TARTINE. the bread and side salad were solid but the egg salad was seriously TOO salty to a point it tasted bitter in some parts. chill out guys…
my friend had the DUCK BAH MIH and she MUCH enjoyed it. It was a generous portion of juicy duck meat, pickeled raddish and other really falvorful ingredient.
LATTE– this is also a win!
so recommendations: stick with café items and the BAH MIH and you’ll have a wonderful experience!
This is really like a neighborhood gem with nothing much around though.

This has to be one of the BEST brunches that I’ve ever had in nyc by far.
Ze café has not only a beautiful garden-​esque atmophere, but also an internationally embracing menu with classic English breakfast, French croque monsieur, extremely unique grilled cheese, and house invented omlette, etc etc. Their coffee, OJ, scones are all house-​made, fresh and clean. Typical European fare? probably, however without any pretentiousness.
If you ever want to try a top-​notched authentic yet still interesting brunch, I highly recommend this place!
Thumbs up.

Had a very mixed experience at brunch. Their pastries are great, and the oatmeal may have been the best I have ever had, which would justify paying $ 10 FOR OATMEAL, if the serving size hadn’t been tiny. Come on, $ 10 for oatmeal and you are only going to give me a little ramiken of it. The ingredients cost almost nothing, so that is kind of rediculous.
Service was pretty bad. Took forever to order, and then our food took forever to come, with no update from our server. Then the bill came with an automatic gratuity of 20% (we were a party of 6). I had bought dinner the night before, so I wasn’t paying, but if I were, I absolutely would have agrued about that.
Also, coffee wasn’t very good, which kind of ruins a brunch spot for me.

Got a nice breakfast here after a quick walk from the Waldorf Towers. Not a lot of places are open in this part of town for a classy breakfast, luckily this place was here.
The location is in a quiet part in Midtown near the East River, and the ambiance and environment of the restaurant was very comfortable; very European on the inside, like an Italian courtyard (never been to Europe or Italy, but something that I would imagine being European).
The restaurant was not very crowded (my guest and I were one of three pairs of patrons at the restaurant). Given the number of guests, I was a bit surprised how slow it took for the food to come out. Luckily, I was very happy with the breakfast I was served.
I got a very pretty looking English breakfast. The colors were great, with beans, bacon, scrambled eggs, fingerling ‘tatoes, and a salad on the side. The food tasted as good as it looked.
The slow service may have been a fluke that morning, but it didn’t spoil my day. Check this place out!

a pretty and cute place with lots of pretty and fresh flowers! They don’t take reservations but we were seated quickly.
I had the spinach omelet with home fries. The home fries were very good. crispy on the outside and nicely flavored. the omelet was yummy as well but the portion was a bit small. I had a bite of our friend’s french toast, it was very very yummy
very good service. Good coffee
Good looking european waiters
Will be back again! :)

I dropped in Ze Café for lunch and I think this place is better for Breakfast or Dinner. Lunch was not that great and I had one expensive sandwich. The roast beef baguette with tax and tip was $ 20+, let’s just say Subways $ 5 sub are much tastier and a fraction of the price. I’ll be happy if it was pricey and actually a tasty sandwich but it was not the case.
The atmosphere is so relaxing and smoothing and looks like it belongs in a spa. I wish my room had the décor of Ze Café. This is a great place if you’re the only customer to read a book or work on something as it has the type of atmosphere that allows you to think and clear your mind or to just dazed off. Overall, pretty décor but okay tasting food. I have to give their breakfast a try, which looks yummy.