Cafe Pontalba

Great red beans and Bloody Mary, nice spot to people watch and the service was great. Staff is super friendly.

Café Pontalba is our Jackson Square go to bar whenever we come for New Orleans. It’s an open air restaurant right there on the Square that is a great spot to enjoy a Pimm’s Cup and all of the action of the area.
With that said, I don’t think I would ever eat here. I have witnessed a lot of food being eaten at the bar and none of it looks remotely appealing. Also the bathroom here is the pits. I’m fairly certain the air conditioning does not work in there. Guaranteed way to want to puke or faint. For drinks though, it’s a fun spot with good service.
Come for a drink but don’t stay for the food. Cheers!

Came here on my last night in New Orleans because it had a nice view of Jackson Square and it was convenient. The hurricanes taste like fruit punch — I don’t think that they had any alcohol in them. I ordered the grilled chicken, and it was NOT grilled — it was pan fried. Very unappetizing. Don’t recommend coming here as there are MUCH better places to eat in the area — sadly disappointing.

Currently here. Took 15 minutes to get a cup of water. Our waitress is extremely rude and threw our drinks down. My experience is already ruined before my food came simply because of the lack of service. If you’re hungry go somewhere else.

Loved the location right at Jackson Square. Quick service and we were out of here in 45 minutes. Shrimp Etoufee, Cajun combo, and Creole combo were all delicious. Jambalaya was the favorite of the table! Drinks were also fair priced and the cocktails were delicious! The only con was we couldn’t split the check between two couples, but enjoyed it for a quick meal as we explored the city.

This place was amazing! I got the crab Benedict and it was so delicious. Not only was an authentic nola meal but it truly filled me up. The staff was so sweet and attentive although it was packed. Definitely will be coming back here!

Can’t say much for the food – didn’t order any; however, bartender Eric pours strong gin & tonics for sure. Just a nice spot to hang out and soak in the gin spirits and Jackson Sq. eclectic music and art scene, on a sunny 80 degree sunny day.
Tip: They don’t serve food at the bar; however, a Lucky Dog hot dog cart usually sets up right out front. For $ 6, you can get a sausage dog w/​all the fixings. Then you can amble back to the bar for another round.

We come here for brunch when we over sleep from the night before in NOLA. They are some awesome French toast… And it’s on French bread! What! Most the time you only see it on Texas toast type bread but it was delicious on French bread. And they have the BEST Bloody Mary’s in town!

We enjoyed our first taste of alligator here alongside some great calamari and stuffed mushrooms! Great appetizers! Great service, drinks, ambiance!

We eat here just about every single visit home and especially on Mardi Gras day. The menu is diverse and authentic which makes everyone happy. They offer a few different sampler plates and that makes it even better. My daughter and I shared the crawfish sampler and we loved every bite!

It’s pretty cut & dry. The menu has a fair amount of variety on it. Chicken, shrimp, pasta and so on. The food was not mind blowing, but it was comforting well cooked food. The portion was plenty & I appreciated the large helping of veggies.
It is in a great location near Jackson Square & the space is HUGE! I think a little re-​arranging of the seating (Maybe adding a few booths) could really add some charm to the place.
The bar area is really pretty & professional looking. The drinks we ordered were well made.
Staff was all friendly even though they were really busy, they made their way to us promptly

Food was decent. Not the best, but it was alright. I’d say way overpriced, but that’s typical due to the location. Good view while you eat.

Best gumbo and red beans in NOLA.
Try the voodoo juice! Highlight of every nola trip is Café Pontalba.
A MUST have in NOLA.

We visited here our first night in NOLA. Although the service was great, the food wasn’t all that fantastic.
I ordered a burger, and my SO ordered one of the many seafood dishes. My burger tasted like any burger that I could get at home — there wasn’t anything spectacular to make it stand out. My SO couldn’t eat the majority of his dinner, since everything was extremely spicy (and he likes spice!).
Thankfully our waitress was super friendly, otherwise this probably would have been a much more disappointing visit.

The rain was dancing off the pavement in Jackson Square and I noticed this restaurant on the corner that had available tables by the open doors. Maybe it’s the romantic in me but, I envisioned having a glass of wine, eating delicious creole food and watching the rain and time pass by. That was my vision but here is what I actually got:
The wine that they have is basic and by that I mean Kendall Jackson basic, over priced and not good at all. I ordered the crab stuffed mushrooms and the stuffing was mooshy and they were pretty cold when they arrived at my table. The cajun fried shrimp was probably frozen and in a bag before it made it to my table. It was incredibly disappointing and probably the most disappointing meal that I had in New Orleans this trip.
The service was horrible. I sat down and it took five minutes for someone to come over. Then she took my drink order and ten minutes passed before I received my glass of wine. Here’s where it gets funny: after she drops my wine I said I was ready to order and she said sure I will be right back in just a minute. Then I watched her put her jacket on and exit the restaurant and never return the whole time that I was there. About ten minutes later when I was anxiously looking around for someone and caught a guys gaze, I was able to order my food. It took forever to get a check and a box.
The only thing amazing about this place was really the calming sound of the rain and the view it afforded.

Worst food we had in New Orleans by a long shot. It was just… bad. We were there after a really disappointing supernatural tour of the city, so the mood was already kind of down. It wasn’t too busy when we went in and we were seated right away.
The menu had a bunch of choices, but I got a steak, another in the party got surf and turf, one got crab cakes and that’s all I can actually remember. My steak was supposed to be medium rare, the other person’s as rare as they could make it. Well they switched our steaks. It was also a terrible cut of meat and not that flavorful. However, the steak was the only thing I ate because everything else (mashed potatoes and green beans) was covered in cayenne or something spicy. It was all over the plate, on the edges — really messy looking. The potatoes and the green beans were so spicy they weren’t palatable. I even had the hubby try them because he likes spice better than I do and he made a face at them. It really ruined the entire meal, and I was just not impressed. At all.
There are much better places to eat in New Orleans. Go there instead.

The café is a great spot to catch a meal while people watching. They open the side windows, have the ceiling fans going on full blast, and have rows of tables along the windows.
Definitely a good spot to catch some breakfast and a cup of chicory coffee. I had the jambalaya (didn’t want it in an omelet) and it was flavorful and filling. Fiancée had the French toast and enjoyed that as well.
Good spot — would like to go back and try this for dinner some day.

On Labor Day morning most of the French Quarter restaurants that were open were full with lines out the door. To prevent a wait, we ended up at Café Pontalba which is on Jackson Square, tourist central.
Service was just sleepy and nonchalant; maybe the server had a long night out. The food was super bland. The crawfish omelet and grits looked as sad as it tasted. It needed a lot of hot sauce to try and Cajun spice it up. Maybe they were trying to hit mid-​American taste sensibilities. Except for being seated at a table by open French doors, nothing was memorable. The coffee was ok.
It was a disappointing end to an otherwise fantastic weekend vacation.

I’m always a little wary of restaurants located right in the French Quarter. Because it’s SO touristy, restaurants don’t always have to work very hard to produce truly quality food because most people don’t know much better. Tourists are easy to please, I guess.
Located right off Jackson Square, Café Pontalba is convenient to lots of sight-​seeing spots, which might be the only perk it really has. My friend and I were wandering around, looking for an affordable dinner. (Quite a difficult feat in this part of town, ugh.) Café Pontalba’s prices were reasonable, so we stopped in for dinner. In hindsight, I should have just fronted more money for a better meal but you can’t always win.
I got the Crawfish Étouffée, thinking I couldn’t leave NOLA without eating some étouffée! It was suuuuch a bummer. It was one of the blandest, most spice-​less meals I’ve ever eaten. I was STARVING so I ate it, but I did not particularly enjoy it. My friend got a crawfish po-​boy and we both agreed it was also very so-​so.
This place has no official closing time. We stopped in at around 7:30 on a Tuesday night and it was almost empty. There were two other tables seated and a couple of people at the bar, though most of them seemed to be the restaurant’s employees who must have already finished their shift. The bar had TVs with games on, so I guess it might be a nice place to catch a game, but I wouldn’t choose it. Like I said though, it wasn’t particularly late but you would have thought we stumbled in at midnight judging by how exhausted our waitress seemed. I waited tables for six years and I know how exhausting and tireless it is, so I do always try to be sympathetic, but she just wasn’t particularly friendly or helpful. Our food came out really quickly, which was nice, but our waitress was not super attentive to our table.
It’s not that this place is bad, but there is nothing impressive about it. In a city with such incredible food options as New Orleans, there really isn’t any excuse to eat just so-​so food. If you want good cajun or creole food and a quality dining experience, I highly suggest you look elsewhere.

Great location!
Good food!
Nice décor!
We stopped in here for a bite for lunch after riding the Natchez.
I had the shrimp poboy and my friend had the taste of Orleans. The food was good but nothing special.
The best part of the meal was dessert. They had a key lime pie that was so creamy that I couldn’t tell if it was ice cream pie or not! I had been looking for key lime pie at every restaurant and this was the 1^st one that had it!!!
The location is right by Jackson square and very cool for people watching.