Cafe Degas
French restaurant · Fairground
3127 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA 70119
Highlights
Romantic French bistro with tree growing through dining room
Romantic French bistro with tree growing through dining room
"Cafe Degas offers a dramatic dining room for date night, more like an open-air patio, with a pecan tree growing in the middle of it and twinkling lights aplenty. Stroll along tree-draped Esplanade Avenue to reach your candlelit meal, a classic menu of French specialties with an occasional Creole and New Orleans flare — think escargot, steak frites au poivre, and mussels." - Clair Lorell
"Take a seat at 6 p.m. ($105) or 9:15 p.m. ($115 including a midnight toast), for NYE with live music and a French accent at Cafe Degas in Bayou St. John. Chef Joe Turley has a menu with options like foie gras torchon, veal roulade, and chocolate truffle mille roulade for dessert. Double Whiskey is both a drink order and the name of the band." - Beth D’Addono
"Owners Jacques Soulas and Jerry Edgar opened Café Degas in 1986 on leafy Esplanade Avenue. The Cafe, with its lovely tree growing through the center of the dining room, has drawn Francophiles ever since for its comforting menu of French brasserie food. Chef Joe Turley presides over the kitchen, which turns out savories like roasted quail over baby mixed greens and seared duck breast with blood orange basmati and wild rice. Always get the Ile Flottante — floating islands — if it’s featured for dessert: ethereal clouds of meringue floating on crème anglaise." - Beth D’Addono
"Cafe Degas sits on one of New Orleans’s dramatically tree-lined thoroughfares, Esplanade Avenue, just a few blocks from the house Edgar Degas lived in during his several-month stint in the city. The dining room, more like an open-air patio with a pecan tree growing in the middle of it, is the quintessential New Orleans setting for dishes like mussels and frites, escargot, French onion soup, and the seasonal soft shell crab dish, at surprisingly reasonable prices." - Clair Lorell, Eater Staff
"When a pecan tree is growing through the romantic dining room and quail, escargot, and ethereal Iles Flotantes (floating islands) are on the menu, Francophiles who lean towards the rustic will be over the moon. Cafe Degas serves first-rate French fare including specialties like steak frites au poivre, mussels with fennel and crispy frites, and a bracing salad of crab, grapefruit, and mint." - Beth D’Addono
