Café Louise

It took a lot of griping to get my (very cheap) dad to agree to come to this place instead of some cheap, mediocre restaurant, but finally he caved. We were in France after all, so we have to try authentic French cuisine.
I picked this place of all places because it had amazing reviews on both Unilocal and TripAdvisor. Needless to say, it had met and beyond exceeded my expectations! Seriously!
We arrived and the restaurant seemed pretty empty. However, when we spoke to Louise (yes, the one the Café is named after), she explained that the empty tables had been reserved and that normally you’d have to make a reservation at the restaurant. However one of the tables was just about wrapping up and she could seat us in about 15 minutes, which was extremely reasonable.
When we sat down, it was great to have her serve us personally. Not only because she was the sweetest lady ever, but also because she spoke English quite well and wasn’t put off by the fact that we didn’t know a lick of French. She explained the menu to us and gave us her recommendations.
The food came out pretty quickly and we dove in (after snapping a few pictures). Oh my goodness, it was delicious! I had the foie gras (for the first time in my life, since it was banned in California at the time) and the way it melted in my mouth will have me craving this dish for years to come.
For dessert, Louise recommended the chocolat et son cœur coulant, which was her daughter’s own recipe. Oh my goodnessss, it was amazing!
All in all, I had a lovely experience. I’d highly recommend this place!

Best. Meal. Ever. If you like authentic French cuisine, go here.
Did a tour of the Louvre and needed a place in strolling distance for dinner that wasn’t going to be a tourist trap. The café is set up so that there’s the typical outdoor (read: people watching) bistro tables, seating in a solarium, and a welcoming interior. We opted for sitting inside and were quickly greeted by a waiter who took our drink order and told us about an escargot special. We ordered a carafe of Sancerre (delicious) and noticed two women seated next to us. They apparently had been there the previous day and came back to have a final drink and to say farewell to Louise. This spoke volumes to me that tourists came back just to say goodbye and have a farewell cocktail.
My husband and I ordered escargot to start and I ordered beef tartare for my entrée. He had the nicoise salad. The escargot was divine… served with thin slices of baguette for dipping. We ordered a glass of Bordeux they recommended for the next course (equally delicious). The beef tartare was the best I’ve ever consumed in my life. I was in heaven. The hub LOVED his salad. Granted it’s hard to mess up a salad, but he was impressed by all the subtle flavors in it.
After our entrees we told Louise how much we enjoyed the food and then she pointed to a picture of her children on the wall. One of them is her daughter who’s now in her thirties and makes the dessert for the restaurant. So of course after hearing this we had to order a dessert. We ended up ordering a profiterol. It was filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce. So yea, it was GOOOOOOOOOD. Highly recommend this place for it’s warmth, service, ambience, and authentic French cuisine.

During my five days in Paris earlier this month in November, this happened to be one of my favorite restaurants that my friends and I dined at. Now before I continue, note: I am a traveling college student on a limited budget, who came to Paris with the decision of eating homemade breakfasts and sandwiches for lunch in order to spend a pretty penny on dinner. This means I haven’t had the most breadth of opportunities to explore Paris’ best when it comes to cuisine, but among what I did manage to experience, Café Louise stood out as a favorite.
On our search for «authentic French cuisine» nearby the Louvre Museum, TripAdvisor recommended this place as a great spot. The plates I personally sampled: foie gras with toast and jams, a pulled duck confit with mashed potatoes dish, and ratatouille. One plate that ended up on my table (which I didn’t try): steak tartare. We ordered wine, but as I am far from being a wine connoisseur, I ordered a random white wine and basically enjoyed it without much thought. Each glass of wine, as I recall, is about 5,50 EU so it’s not a ludicrous price. Or… it might just have been that I ordered cheap wine without knowing what the hell I was doing.
FOIE GRAS: First and foremost, this is meant to be an appetizer. If you thought, «Duh,» after reading that sentence, then you’re smarter than me because I made the grave error of thinking it would suffice as a main course (in retrospect, who thinks eating three, dense discs of cold duck liver would be a good idea?) and ordered solely that. The amount of regret I still feel is unexplainable… Nevertheless, this is an extremely rich plate and one or two toasts with pats of the pâté paired with some jam — one was sweet, another was more savory with onion flavors — should serve as a wonderful, totally French intro to the main entrées. I repeat: Don’t eat as your main course.
DUCK CONFIT: By far my favorite dish that I sampled. Served piping hot with chunks of tender, flavorful duck underneath a layer of creamy smashed potatoes, this is the sort of rich dish you want to eat after traipsing around all day in the Parisian cold. It’s incredibly filling, but sharing might not be an option considering how delicious it was.
RATATOUILLE: Another favorite, and a fantastic choice for vegetarians if they exist in Paris (if not, don’t blame you because the duck is something). The diverse medley of fresh vegetables cooked to perfection with their overall slightly firm textures made the meal feel sufficient for even the hungriest of a man.
STEAK TARTARE: Looks as raw as steak tartare can go, but according to my friend is rather picky about his food, he enjoyed it. I’m sorry I can’t say more on this.
DESSERT: Haven’t personally tried any (I was torn between having dessert and making more time for the Louvre) but according to many, it’s pretty darn great here.
Thanks, Louise for having us Americans one October evening. Your hospitality and charming, playful scowl when we declined dessert were memorable and I hope to come by again someday in the future.

My hubby and I just returned from our first visit to Paris this past Oct, 2014 and I have nothing but GREAT things to say about Café Louise!!! The owner/​hostess was awesome, realllly friendly and made us feel very welcome and at home here! THE FOOD WAS AMAZING and we had the best salad-(w/ lobster) and the best chicken sandwich, along with the best Profiterole dessert we have EVER eaten ANYWHERE!!! Plus, her waiter is excellent, very attentive and extremely efficient and pleasant! Louise’s food is phenomenal and my hubby was raving about her beef burgundy, saying that IT also was the BEST he had ever eaten! Louise and her café are an ABSOLUTE PLEASURE to dine with and we decided that, being we were soooo pleased and loved the food, service, etc soooo much — we wound up GOING BACK TO DINE W/​THEM TWICE! Go there when you are in Paris as I assure you, you will be very, very glad you did!!!

I visited this café today. The service was wonderful the best I’ve experienced during my entire stay in Paris. I had scrambled eggs with foie gras and toast it was excellent. My daughter had a lobster avocado sandwich that she loved. Desserts were very good — panna cotta and chocolate mousse. The hostess checked in on us frequently and made suggestions that were very helpful. She made us feel very welcome. If I ever come back to Paris I wii definitely return to Café Louise.

My husband and I were visiting the Lourve, so we decided to visit one of the top rated restaurants nearby. This café came up and served authentic French food. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, so we were excited.
When we walked in, there were only a couple tables being used. Since we had a baby, we wanted to make sure he had room on the couch area, so we moved to sit in a table that fit four as technically we were a party lf 3. We immediately were told to move and said that we cannot sit at a table that can fit four, so we forced to sit in a 2 seater with very little room for our 8 month old to move around. We ended up passing him back and forth and eating with one arm holding him at all times.
The owner did make up for it a bit by giving us an extra stool to place our belongings on since we had no where to put them. She also helped us select off the menu and was quite friendly overall.
We ordered the steak tartare (medium rare) with ratatouille as the side and the baby grilled ravioli. My husband’s dish, although very French and unique was a little too much in portion size to eat of rare meat. It was overwhelming and actually might have been better served in a smaller portion. The ratatouille was good. To be fair, we don’t have a lot of experience with this dish, but flavor wise it was just ok. My ravioli was good. The grilled and baked it, so it definitely stood out. It isn’t served in typical ravioli fashion and it is definitely tasty with all the cheese.
Overall the place is just ok.

Mon Dieu!!! C’est la vie!
Yes, we are considering moving to Paris so we can frequent this unbelievable estblishment.
Thank you Louise. We loved every morsel of food we ate. You definitely make your food with love and it’s an incredible experience. Special shout out to the Ravoili Soup.

Dmg personnel desagreable

Je suis totalement fan de Louise, pour les soirées tranquilles par exemple en tête à tête avec une amie.
La petite terrasse au bord de la rue du Pélican est parfaite, avec ses arches de lierre et ses petites tables rondes.
Coté carte, des plats faits maison «avec amour». Je penche systématiquement pour la ratatouille accompagnée de son oeuf poché. J’en ai l’eau à la bouche rien que d’en parler tiens!
La patronne, Louise, veille au grain et a toujours une attention ou un mot sympathique, ce qui donne envie de revenir.
Seul bémol, ça ferme tôt (vers 23h30 je dirais) mais on né nous met heureusement pas non plus à la porte!
Je recommande donc!

Happened upon this place while wandering the streets of Paris. The employees are nice, the desserts are homemade, and the atmosphere is cute. The food is decent. The traditional beef with pasta was a bit lacking in the beef department. The leg of lamb was huge and quite tender. The coq au vin was good.
However, my complaint is that the food came out way too quickly — within 10 minutes of ordering. This shows that the food is not prepared fresh, but rather is reheated. The leg of lamb was even cold on the inside. Not okay!

This is officially my café in Paris. Every time I visit the city I come back here for a coffee or bite of pasta. They accommodated my vegetarian needs, and didnt laugh too much at my limited French speaking abilities. Centrally located and kind staff; couldn’t ask for more in this city!

Si seulement c’était ma cantine… :)
En fait, j’y suis allé presque tous les midis pendant quelques mois, ce restaurant est une tuerie :). Pour avoir goûté à tous les plats de la carte, aucune erreur. Gros coup de coeur pour les ravioles (du Dauphiné évidemment), ainsi que pour la crème caramel faite maison… Service très agréable ! Ouvert midi et soir.

Came across this nice little café by accident. Staff were very friendly (as with all things Paris, it’s better to attempt to speak French). The food was delicious and very well priced considering it’s in the 1^st arrond. Wine selection was good. The chocolate mousse is very good, and they do a pretty decent crème caramel too.

Un des premiers restos qui m’a plu en arrivant à Paris.
Typique français. oui, mais plus typique parisien. On s’y sent bien, La patronne prend soin de nous et nous conseille très bien sur les délicieux plats qu’ils font, bons et frais. Et c’est sa fille qui fait les desserts. Tarifs abordables.
Une petite brasserie agréable, légèrement excentrée du monde du louvre, plus calme.
Quand on sait pas ce qu’on veut manger, quand on est indécis, quand on a juste envie de manger aussi bien que chez maman, dans une ambiance simple mais où on s’y sent bien. on va chez Louise!

Si vous faites la visite du musée du Louvre, je vous recommande d’aller ensuite manger au «Louise Café «, un sympathique petit restaurant, situé à quelques centaines de mètres de là. La cuisine y est simple et très bonne, et les assiettes copieuses. Les tarifs sont aussi très abordables pour le quartier, entre 8 € et 16 € le plat.
En revanche, si vous souhaitez juste boire un verre ou un petit café en terrasse, c’est aussi l’endroit qu’il vous faut. De plus, l’ambiance est très chaleureuse, tout comme la patronne, Louise, qui né manquera pas de venir voir si tout se passé bien, et si vous né manquez de rien. En deux mots, je vous recommande le «Louise Café «.