Cote Sud

Ollivier & Jacqueline Guillot are a salt-​of-​the-​earth family who have worked very hard to create and maintain a true French Bistro in NOLa. Different because it’s real, OK? Thank G*d we all survived Katrina together. Some of the most amazing times, and delicious, homey meals EVER with these wonderful people. Wishing you continued happiness & success — Geaux Cote Sud!

This is by far my favorite French restaurant in the New Orleans area. The blue cheese moules frîtes are so mouthwatering and delicious. Homemade fries=epic. The steak is fantastic as well, never overcooked. With each order, there’s plenty of food to be able to split a few items with other people. Also, this place used to be a pizza joint, so they still have pizza here! CASH ONLY

Cash only! Substitute the French fries for anything… basically five guys fries. Atmosphere sweet, wine selection very nice and affordable, food was very nicely prepared.
I had the mussels in a beautiful red sauce… the herbs and veggies were fresh! Lovely bread for dipping!
Enjoy a slow and bistro style evening.

I have been to this restaurant so many times over the past 10 years and had always loved and recommended it. However, tonight the majority of my meal was absolutely horrendous! I ordered their special appetizer of the night, the crab cakes. The dish consisted of 2 fishy, cold and bland crab cakes literally the size of a quarter on top of a very mediocre salad of greens. I took one bite and could not eat the rest. I let the manager know that I thought the dish was really bad and couldn’t eat it. They took it away but I was charged for it. I also ordered the mussels, a dish I’ve had many times before and had always loved. Tonight’s mussels were disgusting. They weren’t cleaned properly and many still had the beards attached and broken pieces of shell inside. I was putting a mussel in my mouth and then pulling out half of it to hide on my plate. They tasted mealy and gross. It was completely unappetizing. I didn’t say anything about the mussels after already complaining about the bad crabcakes. I was completely disappointed and left thinking that I probably would never return to a restaurant that had always been one of my favorites. The whole experience left a very bad taste in my mouth.

This is a full-​throated, thoroughly French restaurant. Food is well-​prepared with a light touch. Everything from fish to meats to poultry. Waiting staff are well informed about food and French wine pairings. This is a small place, off the beaten tourist path. I can usually walk in and see most tables filled with locals. One of my favorites in New Orleans, and not one I hear people mention very often. In a land of French-​Creole, this is more Provence-​French. The no credit card policy is pretty typical for many New Orleans small businesses, though a surprise if you don’t expect it.
This place matches my quirky personality.

I have been dining at Cote Sud for many years.
Let me start with the biggest negative first. DOES NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. This tells me two things. 1. You’re too cheap to pay the ~3% merchant service fee to make dining more convenient for your customers like EVERY OTHER restaurant in the world. or 2. YOU’RE CHEATING ON YOUR TAXES.
I used to think they had some of the best pizza in the city but I picked up a pizza the other night and it was average at best.
I brought a large group of about 15 here for my birthday a few years ago. The place is pretty small so we took up a good portion of the restaurant. We had along table that began in the window on Maple. Halfway through the meal my guests were were seated closest to the window started screaming because dozens of cockroaches from the storm drain in front were coming in through the building and crawling on them. The restaurant barely even apologized.
Other than that, it is a cozy little place on Maple that has decent food. A great date place for two couples.
However, I am pretty much boycotting this place until the owner starts accepting credit cards.

This used to be the perfect little French restaurant, but it has fallen off in the past year or so.
All of the familiar long-​time staff are gone, replaced with a mixed bag a little over a year ago. With one, you have to point to the menu so she can transcribe the dishes letter-​by-​letter. Forget about getting the same wine you ordered.
But my main disappointment is with some of the food items. Some are still strong — the filet, the hangar steak, the escargots, the pizza. Mostly the bolder-​tasing, simpler items. The more refined dishes have lost a lot. But I suspect they’ve changed seafood providers, or they’re not checking what’s delivered.
The worst is what’s happened to the mussels. I’ve eaten a lot of mussels, and these were the best anywhere — the blue cheese mussels were worth killing for. But the last several times I’ve had them, there have been a few stinkers in each bowl. I mean real stinkers — you could smell them when the bowl arrived, making me wonder how they made it out of the kitchen. Nothing’s worse than playing Russian roulette wondering which mussels are the rotten ones, except maybe for actual Russian roulette. And the blue cheese broth that the mussels are served in used to be sublime, with a perfect balance of delicate and subtle herbs and seasonings. Now it tastes like chicken broth with chunks of blue cheese added, plus a little funk from the bad mussels.
Still, if you stick with the meats, they’ll turn out good food. Not first-​rate anymore, but quite good. The escargots and frites have gotten better in the past year, so there’s still some hope. The ambiance is excellent when the confused waitress is not getting in the way. But after 10+ years of perfection from the kitchen and servers, it’s always a bit disappointing to know how good it was as recently as a year or two ago.

Coté Sud is a dainty neighborhood restaurant located in East Carrollton. This is part of New Orleans that I have only lived in for the past sixteen months. And quite by accident I have become aware of this gem in my back yard.
It is French. It feels French. The artwork and the music most of the time is French. The staff is French. The food is French. I love it.
We started off at a great table by the front window. It is right under the speaker but the music was great if not a bit loud for the location of the table. The Kir Royale and the Kir Pêche were prepared nicely. My wife was concerned about the Kir Pêche being too sweet but it was just right for my taste.
Since service has been addressed in other reviews it must be stated that the restaurant is small and it does fill up with diners. The wait staff appears to be two people. This is not the place to go to expecting to sit, order, eat, and leave. Rose and Ariel were great and both ladies took care of us. We are so looking forward to our next dining experience at this elegant place.
As for the food the Oysters baked in a blue cheese butter sauce are excellent. Felt like I should have order two appetizers on this one. One of the best selections on the menu and a must order upon a return.
The Mussels baked in garlic, parsley, and butter were a close second. The Chef knows what he is doing and he does it well.
The one disappointment and this is minor and does not distract from my rating was the Soup de Jour. It was a Corn and Crab Meat soup and did not rise to my expectations. Too much corn and not enough crab meat. Made me want to go back and try the Onion soup next time.
My wife went with the intentions of trying out their pizza. She has heard nothing but good things about their pizza. She ordered the Napolitana. She enjoyed it thoroughly and their small pizza is not small. Be prepared to take some home. Had some the next day at home and it was delicious. My mind was all French and so pizza was not on my list of things to enjoy.
The Filet de Porc Dijonnaise met all my expectations of what I expected from a Chef who produces delicacies in his or her kitchen. This selection had my taste buds dance up, down, and all over my happy tongue. I requested the meat to be cooked medium and it was perfect. The dish is served with steamed carrots, haricots vert and their pommes frites. The sides without the meat were a pleasure to consume. The veal was so good that I started to cut the pieces on my plate into smaller pieces of meat to make it all last longer.
Being a gentleman I did offer my wife a small cut of the veal for her own enjoyment. She did love it too but that one offer was all she was to receive that night.
The wine selected was a Domaine Raymond Usseglio Châteauneuf-​du-​Pape 2009. The type of wine that is very good with or without food. And it went so well with our selections even my wife’s pizza. The wine list is impressive and the cost for most is reasonable for a restaurant. That is a big plus here and made me particularly happy.
Let me not forget the bread that is placed on the table. Just too good and it takes a bit of will power not to munch too much on this bread. You know you desire to save room for all that is going to come.
Desserts for us had to be for another visit. Very good coffee to finish a fantastic meal and we left happy thinking about a return visit.
Parking was easy on the street. This is a no credit card business but they will accept your personal check with no problem. So if you do not wish to carry cash out at night just bring a check.
This place has my Seal of Approval!

So, it was good, not great. We reserved a table for 2 near the front window. A couple before us was lingering so we were seated deeper inside this one-​room shop. They accommodated us by moving us to our preferred table when it became available. «You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.» –Jerry Seinfeld. Normally this is the place for my rant about the not-​so-​complicated science of restaurant host/​hostessing and seating, but this place is really small and, frankly, I feel fortunate anymore just to get a place to hold a reservation even if the «special request» part isn’t possible because it’s a busy Friday night. I swear I won’t become complacent about this though. Compared to the typical bimbo hostess platoon at most chains that somehow manage to bungle seating at least half the time, this was pretty acceptable. But it stuck with me so maybe I needed some caffeine or booze for my mood. So, we’re off to a pretty mediocre start, Cote Sud. Service was very good, the food was tasty and comfortable, but not too memorable. I can’t comment on their famous pizza because we didn’t try it. It’s a pretty long cab ride from downtown/​FrenchQtr, and we could not catch a cab on the way back so we walked a couple blocks and rode the local trolley/​bus system which was a treat. The neighborhood has a couple of popular bars, and is really cozy. The dining room is small, cramped, and nice and dark. It’s a good spot for dinner, but with so much great food in NOLA I would need some special reason to come back to Cote Sud. Wifey enjoyed their wine recommendations and the crème brûlée was excellent. Looking over the menu the beer list is impressive for such a small place.

I enjoyed a lovely, lovely meal here. I love how the restaurant is hidden away, off the beaten path, yet just one or two blocks from Carrollton. The restaurant is cute and cozy. The waitress was warm and friendly.
I started off with a crisp, light and refreshing Kir Peche, which is a peach-​flavored champagne cocktail. The waitress brought warm crusty bread and garlic butter to the table. All butter served with bread should be garlic butter, it was so good.
Next, I had a goat cheese salad. It was lettuce, tomatoes and onions in a vinaigrette, topped with crostini spread with warm goat cheese and chives. The salad was huge, so if you are ordering it as an appetizer then you can probably split it.
Since my salad was large, I just ordered an appetizer as my entrée. I had the blue cheese oysters — six chargrilled oysters bathed in a garlic, blue cheese, butter sauce. This was so decadent and rich, it was totally amazing. I don’t know if it was polite to use the bread to sop up the sauce in the shells, but this dish’s flavor made me throw etiquette to the wind.
I wanted to try one of the desserts, such as the apple tart or crème brûlée, but I really didn’t have enough room left.
The only drawback was that the prices on the bill did not correspond to what was on the menu. It’s also cash or check only, but for me it was not a problem as I came prepared.

Great food! I enjoyed my meal in this cozy space. Its a nice low-​key spot! I love it. Would recommend the Salmon with the crème sauce topping. My fav there so far!
The only thing they need to do is upgrade to credit cards instead of cash & checks only.

This place has been open a while, at least 15 years or so. During that period the quality of the food has never wavered but the level of service has. Several years ago I gave up on the place after a 3.5 hour meal where our table of 8 was drunk and exasperated after waiting for so long for everything. Anyway, the point of these reviews is what the restaurant is like now, right? My wife and I had an excellent meal here recently, sitting outside on a nice evening. She had the fish special and I had a chicken dish and I was eating the food and thinking that we needed to come back soon. Give it a try, un-​fussy food in a cozy setting.

I used to live right around the corner form this place when I was in law school, and this was our very favorite spot to go for a fancy dinner. Now a few years later and a few miles west, we still love going to Cote Sud and can always trust that it will be a fantastic experience.
The service isn’t the fastest in town, but the food is phenomenal and the ambiance perfectly quaint. I’ve never gotten the pizza, but the kids raved about it once when we ventured to take them with us. They have among the BEST escargot that I’ve had in the city, and the mussels in blue cheese sauce is INDESCRIBABLE. YOU MUST GET THE BLUE CHEESE MUSSELS AND FORGET ABOUT YOUR WAISTLINE FOR A BIT. Trust me. The pasta dishes are great, and I’ve always enjoyed the entrees. We started with the cheese plate the last time we went — a great choice.
BRING CASH OR CHECKS! They do not accept credit cards, and a good meal for two with wine & apps will run you $ 100-​$ 140.

Great rustic French food and shockingly good pizza, maybe the best pizza in town. That’s a seemingly odd combination, but it works. The moules and frites are some of the best, in particular their version with blue cheese. One caveat: no credit cards.

Probably the best food I’ve had recently while in New Orleans. Good French with a souther twist.
It is a bit removed from the beaten path… then again, the good ones always are.

This place is actually a great little French Bistro that also does pizza. They would get a higher ranking except they make things very inconvenient by only taking cash/​check and that greatly reduces my ability to enjoy this place. I just don’t like to carry lots of cash around, as although this place isn’t terribly expensive it would take a bit to have a nice meal and drink some good wine for a couple here, so they really lose out on money I would spend if I could use my debit card. The atmosphere here is very cozy and it is a great spot to bring a date. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten here and I’ve always had decent if a tad slow service. I would frequent this place much more but for the large inconvenience of them not taking credit/​debit cards.

I chose Ciro’s Cote Sud for my birthday dinner this year since we hadn’t been in years. The food is just as delicious as always… why do I forget how much I love the pasta fruits del mer with a curry cream sauce. E had a pasta with shrimp & veggie dish that was also tasty with lots of garlic. My poached pear salad was tasty although the pears were really different from how I’ve had them before. We finished by splitting the profiteroles… which were perfect. I’m not sure when it became OK to serve profiteroles the size of your fist, I still prefer the golf ball sized ones. These were perfect.
Oops I almost forgot to mention my yummy kir peche & E’s well made sazerac. The wine list is pretty good too… as is only correct in a French restaurant.
Ciro’s isn’t great for a large group as it is a tiny restaurant and only has a dozen or so tables, but is perfect for an intimate meal. It is still cash/​check only, but don’t let that deter you.

Nice little neighborhood restaurant that serves French food and delicious pizza. Ciro’s Cote Sud is tucked away on Maple Street. It is fairly small, and there are a few tables outside. This would be a great spot for a nice, yet not terribly expensive, dinner date.
Ciro’s Cote Sud serves a variety of French appetizers such as Moules Gratinees– mussels baked in garlic, butter, and parsley. Yum. It serves all your favorite French entrees such as Moules Frites (4 options) and Steak Frites; there many other tasty sounding entrees– including salmon, duck, and pork tenderloin. Ciro’s Cote Sud also serves really good pizza, made with fresh, homemade, no sugar added dough. I like the Bianca– mozzarella cheese, garlic sauc, feta, artichoke hearts, spinach, tomatoes, onions, and pesto. You may be tempted to order the large since it is only $ 2 more, but the small serves at least two people, if not three.
I have heard complaints about the service, that it is stand-​offish. I don’t find that to be a problem but it is possible they are understaffed.
It is important to note that Ciro’s Cote Sud is cash & checks only.
If you are near the Riverbend and are looking for a nice French meal OR a great pizza, look no further than Ciro’s Cote Sud.

Don’t let the iffy reviews fool you. This place is wonderful.
If you’re looking to get in and out of a restaurant quickly, Cote Sud is not the place for you (obviously not for one of these reviewers, either, whose review led me to believe he or she kept a timer on the table). If, however, like most serious diners, you’re looking to take your time, enjoy good wine, good food and good conversation, then by all means stay a while. This place singlehandedly changed my mind about oysters (I thought they were disgusting until I was served a most divine plate of oysters baked in the half shell with a butter and blue cheese sauce). The duck is unbelievable. The pizzas are pretty good, too.
The owners and servers are honest to goodness real French people. You may have to repeat your order, but they will eventually get it. The dining room is tiny. They don’t take cards, only cash.
All in all, this is one of those little known, «locals only» kinds of restaurants. I’ve been going there for years and have never once walked away disappointed. It’s the best French cuisine in the city, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to bring back the «BOOOOOOO»
I think I will start with the service: Our waiters were very much authentic, but they spoke broken English, were not attentive, and did not have good knowledge of the menu. Our waiter forgot to tell us the specials and instead of telling us about the desserts, just handed a menu to a member of our party.
The food: Though the prices are better than the crêpe nanou, there is a reason for the differential. My pork smelled and tasted like fish. It was also the thinnest pork chop i have ever seen in my life. The hanger steak lacked flavor. And the tomato mozzarella salad was ok, but the waiter didn’t even offer fresh cracked pepper. BOO!
Positive: Cote Sud is open on Mondays, but so is crêpe nanou… SO, pay the extra $ 5 per person and go to the better restaurant.
I hope I don’t have to go back.
Footnote* The chicken and duck entrée’s are decent