We love Cafe Lafayette! Wonderful food and well made, quality drinks. The staff are always friendly and welcoming and the service is stellar!!!
Pragnya Ghosh
We went in with great expectations but were disappointed with few of the dishes. We did not receive the French taste we were expecting but received the French price tag. The duck was chewy with a red center, the duck skin wasn’t crispy; the pork dishes were cooked in Barbecue sauce, which is southern style and not French. The mousse cheesecake had melted. To add to all this, the air conditioning was not good. It was 81 degrees inside, we couldn’t be seated out as it was occupied for a birthday party. Our server was sweet and very apologetic, that’s why the 4 stars for service. We spent $330+ for a party of 6, we expected a better experience.
Dietary restrictions: They were considerate about dairy restrictions for one in our party.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 4
Maria Brown
Loved this casually elegant cafe. The food was delicious and service friendly and helpful. The bakery goods were delicious and my family loved them.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Leo Kepple Borba
The restaurant look nice. Unfortunately they do NOT have any vegetarian options. Seems like their website had not been updated for a while too, so you can't trust it.
Mandie Michelle
My favorite Fine Dining experience in the Central Valley. Food is always consistent, friendly, happy service and the best Espresso Martinis I’ve ever had. Fine food, wine and cocktails. 10/10!
Allison Lebo
Hosted a baby shower here and everything was PERFECT! The cutest set up, delicious food and the service was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Bob Lamoureux
Amazing restaurant hidden in this small town. The lamb was amazing and a great wine list. Service was also excellent. If you are visiting Exeter it is worth a visit.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: French Onion Soup, Australian Rack of Lamb
Michael Languein
Beautiful establishment. Friendly atmosphere. Food was terrific. The chef even came out and asked us on how our food was. I recommend this place to everyone.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
A T
This place is a hidden gem! All around amazing service, beautiful atmosphere, and quality food. Definitely the best way to spend a Sunday morning.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Anita Wigman
If you are looking for a delicious diner with great service in a lovely setting then Café Lafayette in Exeter is the place to look for. We were pleasantly surprised to find this hidden gem. We loved the delicious food and enjoyed the great hospitality with a personal touch of chef Fred and his wife Ashley. We think the high quality food meets Michelin standards. The name Lafayette is well chosen as it symbols the best of both the American and the European cuisine.
This place could use some nice romantic French music like Armstrong's, La Vie en rose. Otherwise the atmosphere is clean and pretty nice.
It's a hit or miss experience - a big disappointment for the prices they charge (beware, including BREAD).
SERVICE is slow and even if you order first you may be served last -- badly managed.
If you are unhappy with food or service -- the staff is not trained to waive price or offer free dessert or etc...like in big cities of the world.
Service staff need help in making the client feel more special because a place so highly priced is for special occasions....of course if the food and service and management always were a big hit, I would come here regularly. I came for Valentines day last year and this year -- NEVER AGAIN. Very sadly disappointed and hurt by poor experience like being served last, items on menu on available, menu not matching food, etc...
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 1
lyndabug g
Kid-friendliness: Not really sure, but it seems like it is not really kid friendly.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: French Onion Soup, Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb
Ken Pulverman
We booked tonight as a special holiday dinner at the end of a cross country drive. We aren’t fancy or fussy people, but we generally feel that if you put on fancy airs, you have to deliver. We ended up spending $159 for dinner which is generally 3x compared to our typical simple dinner out consisting of some well scouted authentic ethnic eats. While this is certainly harder to do post pandemic, we generally succeeded over the last 9 days crossing the country.While the food was good here, for the price which included a basic bottle of wine, two dishes and a cup of soup, we could have done better in San Francisco in an experience that would have included appropriate service.Again, we aren’t fancy and generally aren’t bothered unless your inherent promise isn’t met. Here the setup is really a farm town bistro. For the price, however, a table cloth would generally be expected. Slightly loud rock music was playing over the speakers, songs I liked, but neither the volume nor tunes you would expect at a French style bistro. We picked the lamb special as one of our two dishes. The waiter thought it was $36.50 which sounded suspiciously cheap. When the bill came, it was $54.50. The waiter never acknowledged this change. My wife was never asked how she wanted it cooked, and it came out bloody, which just isn’t how rack of lamb is served. We sent it back for more heat, which is something we haven’t done in probably 15 years. The waiter did ask if my shrimp could be blackened at my request, and they came out nicely done. The young waiter seemed to not know the tradition of tasting the wine, serving women first, adding water to the ice bucket to transfer the cold temperature to the wine, and serving with a cloth to wipe the bottle so I wouldn’t have had to wipe the ice cold water on my pants.On net, pretty clunky. This would all be ignored at a different price point or if the restaurant wasn’t putting on airs. I left 15% which pained me as it is the holidays and I wanted to be more generous, but this was more than it warranted. There was also a 3% credit card surcharge which is definitely a restaurant outlier practice, even post pandemic.If I was to pass on a tip, it would be to decide what your implicit promise is and deliver on it. If you are a cafe, you can be casual, have lightly trained staff, simple tables, rock music, and simple dishes at affordable prices. If you are a fine dining restaurant, you do need to train your team, know your prices, and deliver on your fancy airs. Here the implicit brand promise comes wrapped in metaphorical newspaper, and it just doesn’t work.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 2
Dale Forsyth
Very disappointed in the French dip sandwiches. The salad was a wedge of Lettuce with a stinky dressing on it, Roquefort or blue cheese, which I don't like. My fault, I should have asked.French fries were awesome!
We love Cafe Lafayette! Wonderful food and well made, quality drinks. The staff are always friendly and welcoming and the service is stellar!!!
We went in with great expectations but were disappointed with few of the dishes. We did not receive the French taste we were expecting but received the French price tag. The duck was chewy with a red center, the duck skin wasn’t crispy; the pork dishes were cooked in Barbecue sauce, which is southern style and not French. The mousse cheesecake had melted. To add to all this, the air conditioning was not good. It was 81 degrees inside, we couldn’t be seated out as it was occupied for a birthday party. Our server was sweet and very apologetic, that’s why the 4 stars for service. We spent $330+ for a party of 6, we expected a better experience.
Dietary restrictions: They were considerate about dairy restrictions for one in our party.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 4
Loved this casually elegant cafe. The food was delicious and service friendly and helpful. The bakery goods were delicious and my family loved them.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The restaurant look nice. Unfortunately they do NOT have any vegetarian options. Seems like their website had not been updated for a while too, so you can't trust it.
My favorite Fine Dining experience in the Central Valley. Food is always consistent, friendly, happy service and the best Espresso Martinis I’ve ever had. Fine food, wine and cocktails. 10/10!
Hosted a baby shower here and everything was PERFECT! The cutest set up, delicious food and the service was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amazing restaurant hidden in this small town. The lamb was amazing and a great wine list. Service was also excellent. If you are visiting Exeter it is worth a visit.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: French Onion Soup, Australian Rack of Lamb
Beautiful establishment. Friendly atmosphere. Food was terrific. The chef even came out and asked us on how our food was. I recommend this place to everyone.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This place is a hidden gem! All around amazing service, beautiful atmosphere, and quality food. Definitely the best way to spend a Sunday morning.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
If you are looking for a delicious diner with great service in a lovely setting then Café Lafayette in Exeter is the place to look for. We were pleasantly surprised to find this hidden gem. We loved the delicious food and enjoyed the great hospitality with a personal touch of chef Fred and his wife Ashley. We think the high quality food meets Michelin standards. The name Lafayette is well chosen as it symbols the best of both the American and the European cuisine.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
everything in here is fascinante ? %
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This place could use some nice romantic French music like Armstrong's, La Vie en rose. Otherwise the atmosphere is clean and pretty nice. It's a hit or miss experience - a big disappointment for the prices they charge (beware, including BREAD). SERVICE is slow and even if you order first you may be served last -- badly managed. If you are unhappy with food or service -- the staff is not trained to waive price or offer free dessert or etc...like in big cities of the world. Service staff need help in making the client feel more special because a place so highly priced is for special occasions....of course if the food and service and management always were a big hit, I would come here regularly. I came for Valentines day last year and this year -- NEVER AGAIN. Very sadly disappointed and hurt by poor experience like being served last, items on menu on available, menu not matching food, etc...
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 1
Kid-friendliness: Not really sure, but it seems like it is not really kid friendly.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: French Onion Soup, Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb
We booked tonight as a special holiday dinner at the end of a cross country drive. We aren’t fancy or fussy people, but we generally feel that if you put on fancy airs, you have to deliver. We ended up spending $159 for dinner which is generally 3x compared to our typical simple dinner out consisting of some well scouted authentic ethnic eats. While this is certainly harder to do post pandemic, we generally succeeded over the last 9 days crossing the country.While the food was good here, for the price which included a basic bottle of wine, two dishes and a cup of soup, we could have done better in San Francisco in an experience that would have included appropriate service.Again, we aren’t fancy and generally aren’t bothered unless your inherent promise isn’t met. Here the setup is really a farm town bistro. For the price, however, a table cloth would generally be expected. Slightly loud rock music was playing over the speakers, songs I liked, but neither the volume nor tunes you would expect at a French style bistro. We picked the lamb special as one of our two dishes. The waiter thought it was $36.50 which sounded suspiciously cheap. When the bill came, it was $54.50. The waiter never acknowledged this change. My wife was never asked how she wanted it cooked, and it came out bloody, which just isn’t how rack of lamb is served. We sent it back for more heat, which is something we haven’t done in probably 15 years. The waiter did ask if my shrimp could be blackened at my request, and they came out nicely done. The young waiter seemed to not know the tradition of tasting the wine, serving women first, adding water to the ice bucket to transfer the cold temperature to the wine, and serving with a cloth to wipe the bottle so I wouldn’t have had to wipe the ice cold water on my pants.On net, pretty clunky. This would all be ignored at a different price point or if the restaurant wasn’t putting on airs. I left 15% which pained me as it is the holidays and I wanted to be more generous, but this was more than it warranted. There was also a 3% credit card surcharge which is definitely a restaurant outlier practice, even post pandemic.If I was to pass on a tip, it would be to decide what your implicit promise is and deliver on it. If you are a cafe, you can be casual, have lightly trained staff, simple tables, rock music, and simple dishes at affordable prices. If you are a fine dining restaurant, you do need to train your team, know your prices, and deliver on your fancy airs. Here the implicit brand promise comes wrapped in metaphorical newspaper, and it just doesn’t work.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 2
Very disappointed in the French dip sandwiches. The salad was a wedge of Lettuce with a stinky dressing on it, Roquefort or blue cheese, which I don't like. My fault, I should have asked.French fries were awesome!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
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