The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant

Another food adventure in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant is located on St. Peter Street right off of Bourbon St. It's open for breakfast and lunch then takes a short break to re-open again for dinner. By the time we got there, it was more of the brunch hour.  There are two sitting areas, one inside and the other in the courtyard.  We were directed inside.  It's a pretty tight fit since there was already several parties inside. I am guessing we weren't seated outside because it rained the night before and everything was wet.

Just off the bat, you can tell the wait staff are characters.  They seem to personify the wonderfully charismatic Cajun. If you're not used to a bold waitress, you may be in for a surprise.  Just watching the wait staff interact with customers could be a show in itself. Our waitress was pretty curt to one of my friends.  We all know New Orleans doesn't have the best quality tap water.  She asked for bottled water. Nope don't have it.  Bottled Chocolate Milk? Nope, don't have that either.  She settled for nothing. Cups of water was brought to the table, it was no surprise no one touched them.

There's so much to choose from it was hard to decide.  I was torn between the Rockefeller omelet and the Grits and Gardelles. Ms. Shirley, our waitress, said they're both really good but if I wanted a "hearty" breakfast to go for the Grits and Gardelles.  So, the description on this is Veal breaded, fried and served with gravy onions and bell peppers. Sound like a country fried steak to me, but boy was I wrong.  It was slices of veal smothered in a brown, onion gravy. It was served with grits.  The flavors in the veal was good. The grits, after some doctoring up with cheese, salt and pepper, was great.  However, for 13 bucks I was expected more.


Good thing for me, one of my friends ordered the Rockefeller omelet so I was able to taste that dish as well.  There was plenty of oysters in the omelet, but I thought the creamed spinach topping will also be inside. Instead, the spinach mix came right on top where you can grab as much or as little you want with each bite of omelet.  The spinach topping was so good, I could eat it by itself. My friends aren't grits people so they opted for the "home fries," which are like skillet potatoes.  To me, it seemed like frozen prepackaged potatoes lighted fried.  No real flavor and for the most part mushy.

There was also the Eggs Johnathan - basically their spin on the Eggs Benedict with some shrimp.  The whole dish was suppose to have a hollandaise sauce but I didn't see any really.  The egg was nicely poached though.  Good flavors. She also ordered the "home fries." Fail.



The Eggs Creole was a simple but good dish.  It looked like eggs scrambled with green onions, mushrooms and pimentos covered in a light creole sauce. We thought the creole sauce tasted a lot like a spaghetti sauce. I love eggs with some salsa and this seems to fit the bill.

Two people decided to go with the pancakes.  Both were not impressed. One had the plain pancakes.  I took a bite and felt that the pancake wasn't as fluffy as say IHOP.  The other option was with fruit inside. Our friend asked for bananas. It looked like the bananas was cut into the batter when it was on the griddle.  I perfect it to be flipped then left for a little longer to get the banana to caramelized, but it was not so.

I think the highlight of the Old Coffee Pot was not the food, but the people. At one point our waitress asked if we went to church yet this Sunday morning. The answer was of course "no" (what else do you expect from a group of mardi gras revelers with beads still around the neck, and glazed eyes).  But apparently, Ms. Shirley, was about to take us to church.  She belted out Amazing Grace right there in the middle of the dining room.  It was great and apparently, according to many reviews, a normal occurance.

The Old Coffee Pot was quite an experience. I don't know if I will particularly seek it out the next time in the French Quarter but the name at the very least will come to mind.

To check out the Old Coffee Pot Restaurant Click here.