French Roast Downtown

We often go to French Roast on W. 11th for brunch and love it BUT this last time we had terrible service. Our waiter was rude and tried to hurry us out though we were still finishing our brunch (and had been there for less than an hour) and there were many open tables. He came to our table three times within 20 minutes to ask us if we had paid the bill yet. When we replied that we were not quite ready, he then asked the hostess to come over and ask if we were done. He was unprofessional and unapologetic for rushing us -- if brunch now has time limit at French Roast, we'd like to know before we sit down.

We arrived for a late breakfast on a very slow Tuesday morning. The hostess was no where to be found, so we had to ask a server if we could be seated. The server seemed to be annoyed that we asked her to seat us. Once we where seated at our table, the server came over. While the sever was attentive, he was a freaking snob, and he did not have a personality what so ever. It is shocking to me that a server could be so rude and snotty. He was a rude when my father asked the server to hold the onions in his omelet. When the food did arrive, my fathers omelet still had the onions; however my father just ate it anyway. The food however was very good, as was the coffee, and cappuccino. I was a sever for many years of my life, so I was very shocked at the level of rudeness exhibited from the staff. None the less, I decided to leave a 50% tip as I usually due when dinning out, because of my previous serving experience, and the server never once thanked us for our business or for the generous tip that we left him. The owners need to take note of all of the negative server reviews, and take action.

I have been to this place two times, and have had mixed experiences... neither 'bad' persay but not enough that I would recommend this restaurant over so many others in NYC.

The first time was for lunch where I had a croque and coffee. Said croque was dry and somewhat over done, and I would not have come back but that I noted they had affordable gratins for dinner...

That was the second time. The gratin, containing gruyere cheese, braised endive, and ham, was quite tasty I'll admit, and since every meal is served with a small basket of bread, filling enough. I also did enjoy the expensive but tasty chocolate cake with hazlenuts (indeed, I understand that many go to this restaurant solely for dessert.)

The atmosphere is... alright. Mismatched chairs, French posters on the dark walls, some outdoor seating... It is very tight in there, and can get noisy. At night though, when they bring out candles and unscrew lightbulbs to darken the place, it is fairly attractive.

Service though, especially this last trip...
Don't get me wrong- the servers are generally friendly and fairly polite for the most part. The problem is that there is a tendency for the servers to vanish after giving you your food. Want dessert? Refills? ...the cheque? If you're me, you'll have to harass the nearest busboy\manager for any of the above.

The other thing needing mentioning is that the coffee, though not bad, is certainly not worth $2.75...with a limit of 3 mugs. I was not informed of this when ordering the beverage, and, since I was waiting forever for any one to serve me in the first place, drank far more than 3 cups and thus got charged twice!!!! When I asked the server about it, she took on a very hostile tone as if daring me to argue with her. I didn't bother; $3 isn't worth a heart attack. However, I'm not planning to go back any time soon.

I have been there twice and i can say that the place itself is nice.However,food quality and the service is something that you get from an average place.

My wife and I recently took a trip to the city for the day. We happended along the little french roast cafe quite my accident after exiting the subway. To our delight, we found the food to be of gourmet quality, the service exceptional, and the prices quite resonable. My personal favorite touch was the fresh sourdough bread served with breakfast. Our server told us that it is delivered fresh from a bakery in the village. The atmosphere is funky, but still dignified, and we both agreed that we would fly back to the city from southern california just to spend the morning in the french roast cafe.