café du monde

sunday morning coming down. been up all night doing what comes natural in nawlins? but the real guilty pleasure is hanging out at the market early sunday morning, hung over to beat all hell. the church bells from st. louis cathedral are beating like gongs in your aching head and you've got a cuppa the most incredible joe and a pile of fried dough withsugaron it. hurts so good. buck it up, stand in line and enjoy the cure. i love the smell of nola on sunday morning -- fresh french pastry and stale beer.

delicious!. fast, efficient service for a place this busy (and it's busy all the time, even at 10pm!) we got two iced cafe-au-laits and a plate (3) of fresh beignets, which were simple but perfect. the powderedsugarsticks to the hot oil, and the outside is crispy, while the inside is just on the good side of undercookes without being doughy.

great ambience, great views, cheap and refreshing.

0 by marc smith on 12 may, 2015 where to eat/drink share this post i’ve just arrived in new orleans , checked into my hotel room and dropped off my luggage. what do you think the first thing i want to do in new orleans is? you guessed right if you said i wanted to eat some beignets . not just any beignets though, i want some the famous beignets served at cafe du monde . i want to gorge myself on a square french donut covered in white powderedsugarwhile drinking a cafe au lait. it is quintessential new orleans and a quintessential french quarter experience not to be missed. cafe du monde french market coffee stand cafe du monde is located at  800 decatur street , which is a short ten-minute walk from my hotel on canal street, the sheraton new orleans . the walk to cafe du monde gets me in the big easy spirit. i see the iconic french quarter architecture and a few revelers walking the street with a drink in hand, myself included.

thirty years after our first visit three impressions:

1) the beignets, coffee, and hot chocolate are as good as always;
2) same location next to jackson square; and
3) no where near as cozy as it once was...

to be fair this was sunday, new year’s eve, the day before thesugarbowl (clemson vs. alabama), 300 anniversary of the founding of the city. the french quarter was packed! the line for a table went all the way to the jackson brewery.

to take care of the traffic they need to move efficiently... fans from both schools were showing their colors.

in 1988 i remember large kettles where the beignets would fry right in front of you...

today they are an assembly line, a well oiled machine that the industrial engineer in me marveled at.

it’s a strictly cash business... after all the jokes aside the fact is the wait staff pickup the beignets in the kitchen and join the hot drink assembly line where they fulfill the rest of the order and then pay cash before setting back out to the tables... everything moves so fast that they haven’t the time to take credit cards...

again the beignets are that amazing hot fried dough conduit for powdered sugar... oh so good. perfect for a cold day when paired with a hot coffee or chocolate.

remember the menu is spartan - a tour de force in focus and efficiency!

the beignet and coffee are good. make sure to bring a bib as thesugarwill be on the front of your shirt. we went about 9 am and did not have to wait but noticed after that time there are lines beyond the street. enjoy!

i was not impressed, i don't even know how their rating is so high.....yes the beignets are hot, with a ton of powderedsugardumped on top, but they were very dense, i didn't care for them.

get some beignets. get ya self full of powderedsugar(or ya not eating them right) and enjoy a tradition! they really good when it's cold outside w/ some hot chocolate, but cold weather seems to be a rarity recently.

a great classic stop in nola, no matter how long the line is! i could never get by the shop front without at least a cafe au lait and an order ofsugarladen beignets.

if you haven't been to café du monde... you haven't been to new orleans. it is a surprisingly great experience to brave the crowds, wait in line, and get a café au lait and some sugary beignets. once you get a table, the server will come by at take your order. you can find a list of their offerings directly on the napkin dispenser on each table. the server then goes to get your order and actually pays for it themselves at the kitchen and then collects money from you to reimburse themselves. it's a pretty unique system that works well. on our visit i had the large café au lait and while it doesn't come in the nice little cup and saucer combo... i need a little more coffee to reach my fill.sugaris available, but i like mine just like it comes from the kitchen. i'll sometimes have a beignet as i did this particular morning; but sweets are not my thing. still, everyone else in our party just gobbled them up. this is how you should start any day you find yourself in new orleans! they get five stars because they gave me the experience i was expecting.

it is known fact that a trip to new orleans is incomplete without a trip to french quarters and cafe du monde, and i so agree with both. 

we spend our noon at strolling around the french quarters and the market ... the architecture in this place is amazing.late in the evening we landed at the cafe du monde and it was packed ... we didn't have to wait for long though which was great ... we kept it simple and got regular coffee and the beignets to share (be-yeh). my god these were divine. 

not sure about the calories with all the powderedsugarbut a must try if you are in town.

ridiculously good. not for those that have cutsugarout of their diets. wonderful coffee. friendly service. lame bathroom situation. you gotta go

café du monde is a place you just have to go once, simply for the sake of saying you've been. café au lait and beignets served 24 hours a day. super busy in the morning, even on weekdays due to the high number of tourists in the city. if you've never had chicory in your coffee, you're in for a treat. the atmosphere is what it is. it's a busy, dirty, extremely famous spot in a busy, dirty, extremely famous city. don't go there expecting all the niceties with your nose in the air. go there to take in the bustle of nola, people watch, and wear those powderedsugarstains proudly the rest of the day. people know where you've been....

fried dough, powderedsugarand hot chocolate. what's not to love?

give it a miss. how could you go wrong with coffee and doughnuts (beignets)? well apparently you can. save your money and go elsewhere. the excessive mound of powderedsugardid not cover up the doughiness of the beignets, making them pretty unappealing. the coffee was terrible. definitely not a highlight of our stay in new orleans.

french fried dough!. for those of you don’t know me, i am a big fan of fried dough. donuts, funnel cakes, zeppoles, siakoy and pastries. beignets are no exception. so of course, if you are in new orleans, cafe du monde is on the must do list. almost anyone and everyone i talk to will always mention cafe du monde as one of the must visit places on the list.

you go towards the cafe, and despite the “touristy” feel because of all the people and the usual line, you cannot help but take notice of the history in the architecture. the fact that the place is located in the french quarter, you cannot help but feel the ambiance.

went with the standard order of beignets and coffee. a perfect match. the beignet has a bread like texture, but when hot and coated heavily what the powderedsugarstill has its unique profile among the fried dough i have tried. one major tip: the beignets are only good when you first purchase them hot or warm. if you wait to eat them when they have become cold, be ready for a disappointment, the dough loses its “magic” and charm.