Cafe Lafayette

If for some reason you find yourself in Exeter you must eat here. Very intimate environment with excellent food. It put Exeter on the map for me. If I find my self within a reasonable distance, I will detour exclusively for The Lafayette! The service is a+ professional!

If I had to pick one place when I’m in the area as my favorite… I always tell people; hands down this would be it!
Always fantastic personal service at lunch or dinner. Food quality and presentation is consistent.
Everything I have had (and it’s most of the lunch and dinner menu) has been excellent. Salads are consistently fresh with great homemade dressing options.
French Onion, Mushroom, Split Pea, Lobster Bisque, ALL of the daily soups I have had are amazing.
Escargot is on-​point, Coquilles St Jacques are superb, crab cakes are always a favorite, pick an app you won’t be disappointed.
As far as the entrees, I always say go with the specials (they are called «specials» for a reason). Seafood is fresh, steaks are seared to your desired temp. All are served with either a veggie, fingerling potatoes sautéed in duck fat or potatoes dauphinoise. Splurge & get either of the potatoes!
For a finish lets just say all of the desserts are indulgent ;)
There’s also a bar/​lounge area, they have great wines/​premium liquor and they know how to make real drinks!
Give this place a try; lunch, dinner or bar bites & cocktails. You will be pleased with your choice!

Nice little café in downtown of Exeter. There are actually quite a few lunch places to choose from, and this is on the pricier side, but the food quality is also pretty good. Service was attentive, the interior of the restaurant is really nice, and they have a good happy hour.
I had the Lafayette Burger, which is a buffalo patty with caramelized onions on a freshly made brioche bun. While the burger was solid, it was not $ 16 solid. I give it ³⁄₅ stars.
My father had the French Dip, which was AMAZING. The au jus was perfect, there was a ton of meat (tri tip) on the sandwich, and the salad that came with it was huge. I give this one ⁵⁄₅.
My mother had a croque monsieur, which was actually pretty small compared to the other two sandwiches, but she still liked it. 3.5÷5 on this one.
This restaurant is definitely worth visiting for their French Dip!

Thought I would give this place one more shot before I write it off completely. Alas it was still very underwhelming. It is just not worth the money they are charging. The owner/​chef Fred buys his food from R-​N market but charges like it’s farmers market quality food. I tried the chicken lorraine this time and it was decent but not worth the money they were charging for it with a small portion of grassy tasting green beans. I don’t feel that the 5^th time will be the charm fir this place so I don’t think I’ll spend my money here anymore. Especially when there are better options right across the street.

The best and only authentic French restaurant in the central valley. From the décor to the finesse of the meals. A+ .Very reasonable prices for an establishment like this.

The best eggs benedict ever. The hollandaise sauce was divine Do not order if you want to avoid disappointment elsewhere. Great Sunday venue with delightful singer. Chef Fred has it going.

Do not waste your time. Expensive and tasted like coffee shop food. Had blacked shrimp with risotto that was like soup. A friend had the rib eye special and the rib eye was ½ inch thick and tough. Husband had pork tenderloin piccata. It was a large breaded pork chop with no piccata sauce. Save your money.

Super cute location in Exeter. Atmosphere is cute, relaxing and outdoorsy. Ordered the French Dip with a side of French Onion soup. The soup was amazing. The sandwich was ok. Could have used less horseradish sauce as it over powered the sandwich. My husband ordered Burger Lafayette (Buffalo burger). He gives is 3 out of 5 stars. The bread on the burger was cold and the burger could use more flavor/​seasoning.
Would I return? Maybe. It could be worth another try.

My bridal shower was held in the special event room at Café Lafayette on March 26^th. The room is beautiful, the service was wonderful, the food was amazing and it was affordably priced. They were also very flexible in planning and let us bring in décor, our own champagne for a small corkage fee, etc. I would highly suggest using this venue for a special event, or event just coming for brunch or dinner. They did a wonderful job!

My girlfriend talked my husband and myself into dining here again last night. First, it took awhile to get a table being that it was Saturday night and it was 6:30 pm. The gentleman who was told to seat us, led us in a complete circle and then asked us to go back to the bar because no tables were available. Our waitress scolded him for not seating us at a visibly available table. She apologized on his behalf, explaining that he is new. Once we were seated, we were brought bread fairly quickly, but that’s where the positive part of our dining experience ended. We waited at least 30 mins before our soup came out, and then an hour later still no entrée. We ended up asking the waitress to just box our meal up, because my husband needed to leave for work. They did take 10% off of the bill to compensate for the wait, which was nice. My husband and I ordered the burger Lafayette (buffalo meat burger) and ordered it well done. It was medium and very pink on the inside. The overall flavor was pretty good. Meat was soft, and flavorful. The brioche bun was the best part though. It was good but not $ 18 good by any stretch of the imagination. The fingerling potatoes were also just ok. Nothing here is unforgettable. My husband decided that after our third trip, we gave it a fair chance but will not be coming back to dine again.

My fourth time eating here and haven’t yet been disappointed! The food is amazing and presented elegantly. The menu is balanced with meat, fish and vegetarian options. The new full bar is a great addition for those seeking an appetizer and/​or cocktail, and is a perfect place to meet friends. Love the ambiance of the patio and dining area. All around wonderful place in charming little Exeter.

Enjoyed a marvelous Sunday brunch with a party of 18 on the patio. Service was very attentive with this number of diners… all entrée’s were «oohed and ahhed over» as each diner enjoyed their choice.

Great wait staff and wonderful food what more can you ask for? I travel a great deal and the clam linguine was excellent!
I was very surprised to find the ambiance and quality of food in a small town like Exeter!
Would recommend Café Lafayette to anyone looking for a very special dinning experience.
One tip to find the restaurant it’s set back from the road about thirty feet. With a little looking you be rewarded with a great experience.

Interesting appetizers, great service and the place has a relaxed french bistro feel. Good wine list and the salmon was tremendous. Sent an over cooked underwhelming flatiron steak back and they happily replaced with a pork tenderloin piccata that was a hit. Superb attitude and caring staff will bring us back. Not the VP or jack and Charlie’s, but a pleasing dinner house.

Really wanted to like this place. The ambiance is awesome. Service was good. Unfortunately the food was simply not good… especially for the $$. My husband said his New York Strip was the worst steak he’s ever had. I has the stroganoff special. I love stroganoff and this was not something I would ever order again, same goes for the French onion soup. Great place to have a drink but can’t say we’ll come here for dinner again, especially when 2 meals and a bottle of wine was $ 97. Update the next day: my husband got food poisoning, which he thinks was from the salad.

Had lunch today at this restaurant. The atmosphere is wonderful with the nice open outdoor area As well as a really nice indoor area and a bar. We chose to eat outside since it was a beautiful day.
The staff was very friendly. We both had the Aged New York steak lunch special and I must say that it was wonderful. The steak was cooked perfectly! I will definitely be eating here again!

We came in last minute on a Wednesday night around seven and the patio had a large party getting ready to be seated, but we were still seated within Five minutes. We started with a bottle of revelator by folkway which we all really enjoyed. Then I had the soup French onion which was superb. The wait for the the entrée was a little long but I was very pleased they offered some vegan options off of menu to two of our quests. My shepherds pie was very good, and my wife’s stroganoff was also good, very nice place with very good food hard for me to call it a five star but real close!

The newly renovated restaurant is inviting once you set foot inside. The curb appeal needs some work however. While nicely appointed there were lots of empty (but nicely painted) walls of which could use some appealing artwork. Perhaps Mgt. might appeal to local artists to show off there work on some of these empty walls. I digress…
I’m impressed that the menu is progressive and changes on a regular basis but hopefully some of the more popular menu items will remain on the menu. As a walk-​in party of 4 (yes reservations are accepted) we were quickly seated. The time was 5: PM and the restaurant was fairly empty save a few tables.
We were a dinner party of 4 and were quickly greeted by the hostess of which was very friendly as well as our waitress of which quickly poured ice-​water immediately after being seated. We were not advised of any specials but we were offered appetizers at that time of which we quickly choose the crab cakes, which turned out to be a good choice.
It bears mentioning that at current, the restaurant only holds a beer & wine license but the bartender told us that a full liquor was pending approval very soon. This being the case, we were not really put off by this limiting factor and we ordered a nice bottle of Syrah.
Upon ordering dinner, of which consisted of two orders of paella, the Pork Tenderloin Stew, and the Faux Filet (12oz. NY Steak). We all had pre-​dinner salads with a variety of homemade dressings, and were impressed to be served with very cold salad plates with cold salads. Not something you see every day but a very nice touch!
In contrast, the dinner plates arrived hot along with the hot food (a real pet-​peeve of mine). So far so good!
My fellow diners remarked that they were happy with their entrée choices and we were all happy to see nice servings sizes as this typically is not the case for «French» restaurants. Yes us Americans do like our large servings, and we feel cheated otherwise!
I had the NY Steak ordered a medium-​rare temperature of which was served as ordered. The steak was served with a bordeaux sauce and while it did have several strands of gristle, it was still very good!
As we were pleased with the portions and as such did not order dessert, however it was tempting to say the least! Perhaps next time.
In closing we are very happy to have such a nice restaurant of which takes good care of their patrons and serves a consistently good meal. The prices are not really too exorbitant, however it may or may not be your everyday type restaurant.
We really hope to see all of Exeter and the surrounding communities support this restaurant so they well thrive and be a great community go-​to lunch/​dinner destination.

We had a birthday party for 30 guests and we were given the large banquet room in the back. It was absolutely perfect! I supplied the decorations and gave them free reign. Perfect! Our waiter, Roberto, was 2^nd to none! Service was not delayed even with such a large party. The food was perfect! The ribeye is worth the price, cooked to perfection! The salmon and pot pie are delish! You really can’t go wrong here. Fred is the man and his place is better than the other place here in Exeter! Make reservations!

Tom and I had amazing service! We loved the bottle of Château Julien (better to buy a bottle than a glass) We also had the Assorted Croque Monsieur which was yummy to our tummy for an appitizer. We hoping to sit at the bar to just grab s glass of wine, but it was full so we sat outside with heaters and enjoyed the inadequate music and quiet. We will return soon to sample the menu but for now our bellies are full! Kelly served us well, as did Kenny! Thanks for making us feel at home.