Great Service! The food was great, especially the beets, pancakes, and croque madame. Brunch was a pleasant experience.

This is my favorite brunch place. The lemon pancakes are fantastic!

Food great esp bread assortment

Been several times to this French hangout. Great pastries and brunch

Really nice environment and very friendly service. I feel it is more expensive than the food would justify (good but not spectacular). I recommend it for a nice evening out or a special occasion since the ambience is top !

Great food, great service, great outdoor seating!

Resturant that is so busy with volume forgets about happiness of customers. Table was not ready when we arrived for our booking, bar seemed under staffed and took long time. Overall poor experience.

One of my favorite restaurants, but this evening the service was not at par with previous visits.
The waiter was very casual and distracted, even though we were sitting 5 inches from a service area and the room had not filled up yet.

We both had the trout entree and were surprised that the rice served underneath the fish was under cooked to the point that some pieces of rice added a crunch to the bite. Maybe just an off night.

The butter lettuce salad was suburb, as usual.

Evening out with my adult son, including play at the Public.

This was my 3rd visit to Lafayette and I really like the location, ambiance, food, and service. This time I enjoyed the gem lettuce salad, the scallop entree, and profiteroles for dessert. Service is terrific, though it was very busy even on a Monday night and there were a couple of times when we had to flag down the waiter. I was catching up with a friend I hadn't seen for while, so there wasn't time pressure and we didn't mind. The wait staff and hosts are overall friendly, courteous, and prompt.

Went for brunch . So underwhelming. . Had the eggs Benedict with salmon and chocolate croissant. Both were mediocre —at best . What’ a waste

One of my favorite spots. Never disappoints! We spent a lazy afternoon eating and drinking. Love the atmosphere

More of a scene than a fine dining experience. Lucien is a much better experience.

For some reason all of our entree’s were not good.

I come here pretty regularly for brunch and I’ve tried them at dinner. The food is decent, the ambience is authentic but the service is always just spotty. I’ve gotten wine spilled on my coat on a past Mother’s Day, I’ve had a reservation only to be told there are many people in front of us who need to be seated and chances are I will be seated much later. The check in desk attendees are snobbish and it’s always way too chaotic. And yet is close to where I want to be and the food is decent.

Honestly, as someone that works in Hospitality and understands what goes into service, this was such an unfortunate experience. Our food came out literally 5 minutes after we ordered, which was clearly a mistake by the kitchen (it even came out before the bakery basket we ordered as an appetizer, which on its own was absolutely delicious!).
My husband's burger was well done instead of medium-rare as he had asked, and the sauce of my salmon eggs benedict was completely dry, as you can tell this was an order that was a mistake, sent back to the kitchen and then resent to our table. The floor manager was very apologetic and made every attempt to right the situation, which we greatly appreciated, only to then at the end of our meal be presented with a check that had our duplicate entrees on the bill which was double in amount.
Again, our waiter was very apologetic and corrected the situation, but for the volume of brunch and dinner service this establishment is known for, and mess up with our entrees prior, you expect a little bit more from this establishment, especially in terms of service and attention to detail.

Distracted staff

Food was so salty that it was difficult to eat. Potatoes were not cooked. They told me they were bringing some new ones out but by the time they came out, I was finished eating.

Very expensive for the quality and very disappointing as I'm a fan of Andrew Carmellini.

While it was a Monday night and we had a late seating--the staff seemed brisk and only interested in getting us out quickly...not the usual experience I've had here.

Our go-to dining place for getting together with friends who also love great food and delicious wines. We had a fantastic meal, great service, and got completely caught up with dear friends who we hadn't seen for a year. The staff let us remain at our table from 7pm to the point when we were one of a few tables still there. Our friends totally loved the whole dining experience. Leave room for dessert.

Great food, with lots of choices all within a traditional French bistro style. Service is a bit indifferent with many staff often duplicating efforts. Loud is the sound level. Proximity to Public Theater makes it really convenient.

Everything we ordered was fresh and delicious. One of the best beet salads I've had, and the oysters were great. Others enjoyed their entrees as well . Would definitely come back.

This is supposed to be a staple, but food was bad specially considering price. It's a beautiful place, very good attentive staff, but food was bad.
Maybe is good for a coffee and dessert but not for dinner specially at the level of price.
I went to The Modern last month and the bill was about the same but you can even compare....

We had reservations for 1:45 but got caught in traffic, when i called the restaurant to let them know they were very accommodating. we arrived almost an hour later and were seated within 15 mins. great food and service, will most definitely be back.

We had a reservation and waited 25 minutes before being seated. The appetizers took 40 minutes to come out and then we waited another hour before the entrees. The entrees came out lukewarm. It was pretty disappointing. The service never really apologized for the wait which was even more disappointing. I don't recommend this spot to anyone.

Our table of 4 enjoyed delicious mussels and steak. Prior to our meal we enjoyed pre-dinner drinks that were made by a professionally trained bartender that really knew a lot about specialty drinks. 3 of us had Chardonnay wine while 1 in our party tried the Old Fashion that was excellent.

Great place. Overall good experience. Food is not exceptionally good.

It is a very pretty restaurant and lively, but not deafening. The food was just ok. I was there for brunch with friend's . We ordered the selection of baked goods which were the highlight. I ordered a salad with lettuce and avocado. It was almost entirely lettuce. My boyfriend ordered a burger medium well. It came out very oink and had to be sent back. My other friend's omelette was good. The service was fine, though the front desk staff seemed inexperienced and we were somewhat curtly told to wait while our table was readied. All and all. It was ok, but nothing exceptional.

The service was outstanding! The food was a disappointment. It looked enticing but didn't live up to it's visual appeal. The frisée salad was prepared so far before it was served that it was wilted. The lemon pancakes lacked any flavor beyond the syrup. My husband's croque Madame was overwhelmed by the overly thick slices of brioche. The coffee, however, was excellent. We wanted to like our brunch but, alas, we won't return for any thing more than coffee and a pastry.

As expected - good food

After all these years, Lafayette still a quintessential NY French-style brasserie, food never disappoints and always a high energy buzz in the restaurant.

Loved the place and will return. The Onion Soup was an unexpected surprise. Now the desert, a Canapé , was very unique. It’s a definite ‘return to place’

This place never fails. The food is great. The service is impeccable. Well worth it!

Everything was great. Just overpriced for what it was.

It was another great meal at Lafayette, but perhaps not the greatest of the great meals. I had a Salad Frisee and the Duck Bolognese. The salad is almost a meal, and its size may have robbed me of the correct appetite for the duck, but rigatoni was somehow not quite the right pasta for it (even if perfectly cooked). A bigger, flatter pasta would have suited it more. All in all, still, pretty damn good.

Always a treat to be there. Very good staff, wines, cocktails. Food too, though the gem lettuce salad was a bit too large to allow dinner afterward, unless you split it and/or leave most of it behind. For us, regulars because of location near NYU and near the Public, it is a terrific choice.

This used to be dependable and slightly expensive. Today I ate in a salt mine of mediocre food. I've never had a saltier burger and fries. Yes, I ate most of it because of my time limits, and it was small, or I would have sent it back. The fries were the same, except they also got very soggy within minutes. And it was midtown hotel price of S24.00! That's about $6 more than most other NYC burgers. The Gem Salad at $18.00 was also high priced, and my wife said it too was salty and the lettuce was wet, and served in a simple small bowl. All in all, today was a big disappointment. Maybe they have fallen in love with themselves.

The food was very good at Lafayette. My only complaint is that it took a while for our main courses to come out and at that point the restaurant wasn't too crowded. Other than that no complaints and would go back.

I went for Easter brunch with my boyfriend. I had passed it many times and had been on my list to try it. Loved the food and the atmosphere. The omelette and pancakes were amazing, bloody mary's made to perfection and the bacon a fantastic side. I only wish a bread basket were included with our meal, especially as they have their own bakery. Perfect brunch atmosphere, lively but we were given a love seat facing the window so it turned out to be very romantic. A new top favorite!

Always a delicious meal. I feel like I’m actually in a cafe in France. One of my favorite restaurants in the whole world. There is just something special about this light-filled, classic-looking, corner restaurant that makes my whole family happy.