08/22/09

Pretty good

by LaCavaStar

My girlfriends and myself were looking to have brunch but the one place we wanted to was an hour wait so we walked a block down and stumbled upon Chez Le chef. we walked in and we saw two tables right by the door and thought whoa super small but then read the menu and said ok well give it a shot. The bus boy brought us up stairs where there were a few people and then said the chef will be up to take your order.A few minutes later I was startled as this man walked up to us. He is something you see on cartoons he was so awesome!! He took our order and then a little while later we had two sandwiches a chicken salad and banana french toast and a pretty good fruit juice which had about 10 different fruits. Our experience was overall good. We even took a picture with the chef hehe for me.

• Pros: Awesome looking chef,
• Cons: cluttered, overpriced

08/15/09

Terrible food, bad service, do not go

by YM84

The food here is quite awful and the chef is a little crazy. The hot chocolate tasted like it contained spoiled milk. We sent it back and said we did not want another one. The chef made another one and insisted 1) there was nothing wrong with the first one and 2) that we must have the second one. We tasted the second one and though it was slightly better than the first, we didn't want it anyway and sent it back again. The chef then climbed up the stairs to where we were sitting on the second floor and got in our face and told us there was no spoiled milk in the hot chocolate. It was just that the first one had melted whip cream. We told him that either way, it tasted funny and we did not want it. He left huffing and puffing.

Then we realized that everything else there tasted funny too. The croissants were sour and seriously undercooked in the middle. Our two-year-old, who normally eats everything, had a bite and aggressively tried to cough it back out. We also ordered the house special and we could not eat it because the eggs were entirely undercooked.

Yikes. We decided not to complain further but got up to pay for the check. The chef gave us the check, growled at us once again about the hot chocolate and told us he took it off the bill, even though we had "no reason to complain." Shocked by the rudeness, we informed him that the rest of his food tasted pretty awful too. He did not give us a further discount but told us that if we did not want raw eggs, we should have asked for them to be well done.

Oh, well. We would have been more upset had the whole incident not been so absurd. The chef obviously takes his cooking very seriously, but reading the other reviews on here, we are not the only ones who believe that his cooking leaves a whole lot to be desired.

It's too bad because until he got all in our face, we found his restaurant to be perfectly pleasant. The decor is quite charming and the waiter was very nice. The chef, with his funky accent, originally even added some character to the restaurant. But all that is useless if you can't offer halfway decent food or service.

• Pros: live accordian music for Saturday brunch
• Cons: nasty food, psycho chef

07/02/08

Terrible restaurant, do not eat here

by temptress

Going to Chez le Chef was the single most bewildering, awful restaurant experience I had in my life. It looked like a cute little French bistro from the outside - went in and the place was completely empty (bad sign). The chef (as evidenced by his full chef's uniform and hat) told us to take a seat upstairs. The place looked like, as my friend put it "a Hallmark card" with Christmas and Valentine's day decorations everywhere and a mural on the wall with a tree and an owl. There were also pictures on the wall of the Chef - Chef Frederic. He himself took our order - we ordered a coffee, a cafe au lait, a croissant, and two fruit salads. We got the croissant and it was totally undercooked in the middle. It came with some kind of preserves and they smelled awful. Then we got the fruit salads, and the fruit on top tasted fine, then I got a little further in and the fruit started to taste really odd - turns out there was some kind of syrup/liquor in the dish, really over-the-top sweet and cloying. Then, my friend put milk in her coffee and the milk actually curdled. A busboy then came over and I told him the croissant was undercooked, and he replied "It's fresh!" "It may be fresh," I said (although it clearly was not), "but it's undercooked." He responded, "You can pay downstairs" and took the croissant away. He did not bother to ask us why we did not eat our fruit salads or drink our coffees. Then we went downstairs to pay, and they charged us THIRTY DOLLARS for this meal of which we barely even took four bites. My friend paid the bill as she was in a rush and just wanted us to get out of there. Oddly enough, the chef seemed oblivious to the fact that we did not eat/like our items, even offering us two small cookies on our way out (which I declined). The whole experience was best characterized as extremely strange.

• Pros: NONE
• Cons: Most awful restaurant in possibly entire world

08/19/07

A pleasant dinner

by kurt43

My girlfriend and I had the prix fixe dinner. Frederic took our order and chatted with us amiably. The soup course was good, and it came with a basketful of warm bread - also good. I ordered the Bratwurst, which was quite tasty and came with garlic mashed potatoes, pickles, and mustard. My girlfriend ordered the Coq Au Vin, which was also good, although there wasn't a lot of chicken. The dessert was a disappointment, especially as Chef Frederic is a pastry chef. It was an assortment of little treats, but some of them were stale, and it seemed like it was preassembled days before. We don't recommend the prix fixe dinner as the dessert and soup do not make it worth the price.

• Pros: good entrees, pleasant chef
• Cons: prix fixe dessert was stale

05/06/07

funky looking chef, super nice guy, very european bakery feel

by carlosaraujojr

i was visiting an apartment that i may rent on this block and saw the chef sitting on the sidewalk. he has this white beard, moustache that curls up on the sides, very unique looking. the place looked very franco german inside, i felt like in a french bakery or butcher shop. apparently the reviews say the food is not good. i'll still check it out for the place is VERY unique looking and the atmosphere is really euro cool.

03/04/07

Crazy chef - disgusting food. do not go, you will regret it.

by laurentbourg

I am French and I can say this place is truly bad. EVERYTHING IS DISGUSTING. it is a disgrace to French cuisine. the chef is actually not even pure French (has some kind of German accent). the food is not fresh and badly cooked. the croissants, pain au chocolat...seem like they are baked once a week because of poor business. on top of it, he doesn't treat his staff well (I obviously understand what he tells them in his awful german French accent). I just don't see how much longer before he closes. and I hope that will be soon, cause I live in the Gramercy area, and there is a line of great people waiting out there that can do so much better than this guy. Frederic, casse toi, tu nous fais honte!

09/28/06

Service, Food -- Both BAD

by ebappel

Okay, the german potato pancakes were not good -- too many dried herbs, not enough focus on potato, and cooked too long, too dark. The accompanying yogurt was curdled. The applesauce was good. I was going to give it another chance though because of the peaceful atmosphere - with Umbrellas of Cherbourg-type music. The menu I ordered from priced the pancakes at $8.95 (maybe $9.95, he refused to let me look at the menu again) when I went downstairs to pay, the bill I was handed said $11.95 + tax + tip. When I argued my point, I was told, haughtily in my opinion, that the pancakes were being removed from that menu and the price was $11.95 -- so I left, unhappy, ill-fed, knowing I would never ever return. Were it a staff member who wouldn't adjust the price, I could forgive it but it was Frederic himself. Bah! Nicht immer!

• Pros: Ambience
• Cons: Arrogance, too many dried herbs, not a gentle touch with frying

11/13/05

the worst eggs benedict I ever had

by peanut75

Yuck.

Really, really bad. Not even recognizable as eggs benedict.

And the french toast was bad (and late arriving to our table) too.

I'd never go there again.

10/01/05

It was an amazing discovery!

by fasolasi

Although it is somewhat out of place-located in "little india", this french oriented patisserie was a very pleasant encounter after walking several blocks in a cold day. Even though the place is under staffed, the bit of waiting time was quenched by the charm of the place and the kindness of Frederick, the owner and chef. The dessert selection is great and my girlfriend and I recommend visiting it without hesitation.

• Pros: Charming, Romantic Gem
• Cons: Bit slow

05/08/05

Bewildering

by jellimonki

We ordered "french toast with egg and spinach," expecting to get regular french toast with the egg and spinach on the side. What came out were some mushy slices of bread COVERED with a spinach goo/sauce and a fried egg. It tasted awful, and my coffee was weak. It took us over 30 minutes to get our food, and saw others waiting about the same time just to order. We saw some people leaving after they ordered, obviously fed up. To make things worse, the prices are not cheap and they already include 15% tip on the bill. The thing is, I saw three francophone parties dining there, so I'm wondering if I just "don't get it." The whole place is run by one chef (who take the orders and runs downstairs to cook it), one waiter (who delivers the food), and one bus boy, so they are definitely understaffed!

• Pros: cute atmosphere
• Cons: slow service, bad food