Perfectly Romantic Cafe Amalie, New Orleans, LA
Perfectly Romantic Cafe Amelie
New Orleans, LA
A Restaurant Review
What a lovely night we had! Immersed in the French Quarter of New Orleans, is the beautiful Cafe Amelie with a modern approach to Louisiana fare. I found this restaurant to be cozy, welcoming and comfortably elegant. Whether you dine inside as we did or outside in the beautiful courtyard, the atmosphere is completely enchanting.
The restaurant is set in the historic 150-year-old Princess of Monaco Courtyard and Carriage House on Royal Street in the French Quarter and offers a beautiful open air courtyard as well as an air conditioned dinning area in the Carriage house. The Carriage house also has an upstairs dining area called the Blue Room. This dining area has no elevator so keep that in mind when making reservations if this is an obstacle.
The carriage house is very cozy. It does have seating for larger parties and the restaurant may be booked for special occasions, weddings and receptions.
The entrance to Cafe Amelie is accessed on Royal Street through the gate you see above that enters into the Princess of Monaco Courtyard where you will find a fabulous fountain area with seating for a waiting area and a hostess station. We tried to stop in for lunch one day just to see if it was possible and it was if we had time to wait 40 minutes or so for a table. Unfortunately we were not able to wait at that time so we made reservations for dinner a few days later. If you have the time you may be able to get in without reservations but if you think your schedule is limited be sure to make reservations, especially if your party is more than 2 people.
Cafe Amelie Courtyard at lunch time.
Princess of Monaco Courtyard at Cafe Amelie, waiting area.
Petite Amelie
We opted for lunch at Petite Amelie on our first visit. I've eaten here twice and really enjoyed it. It's also very popular with the locals as well as tourists.
The food is prepared at the Cafe Amelie kitchen and served in this quaint lunch spot on the corner of the block. It has wonderful lighting, antique tables and counter service. It's a great place to grab a pastry, salad or sandwich and they serve coffee drinks, beer, wine, iced tea and soft drinks.
We returned to Cafe Amelie for our dinner reservation a few nights later. The courtyard is transformed by light and the atmosphere of New Orleans after dark. It's a bit magical.
We were seated in the Carriage House downstairs after a very short wait, I believe we were a touch early. We just had time to wander over to the bar on the right of the picture above for a glass of wine before we were seated.
One of the larger tables and the stairs up to the Blue Room.
Service at Cafe Amelie is welcoming, unpretentious and professional. We enjoyed both the friendly staff and the delicious meal.
You can see from the picture of the menu below there are some gorgeous choices and there's definitely something for everyone here.
Cafe Amelie is really a farm to table style restaurant and uses local ingredients whenever possible.
We started out with the brussels sprouts a la planca. Some of the best I've had!
I had the oven roasted salmon with horseradish cream, fingerling potatoes and asparagus. That was one very large piece of salmon I assure you! It was fabulous and the horseradish had some bite to it. Yes! They did very well.
My husband had the double cut pork chop with corn maque choux served over creamy old mill grits with green beans. He didn't complain at all! The kitchen here really knows their stuff.
I opted to take some of my salmon back to the hotel with me so that I could enjoy a few bites of this heavenly desert. A berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.
This is a special place indeed.
Here is a link to their sample Menus.
Cafe Amelie 912 Royal Street New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504-412-8965 Fax: 504-412-0198 Email: info@cafeamelie.com
Cafe Amelie is located at 912 Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Cheers!
~Melisa
