Cafe Felix

Not my favorite place, but brunch is on point!
I have been to Felix Bar and Bistro (previously known as Café Felix) a few times and while I’m not a big fan of all the food they offer, they do have good drinks and a great brunch menu.
This place is a French restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor and it can be hard to eat there if you are vegetarian. They’ve upped the ante and do have more options now than they used to, but still nothing super earth shattering.
However, their brunch menu was great!
Drinks: Fleur de Violette — not very sweet but still flavorful. French 75 is the drink to get! Champagne cocktails — delicious!
Appetizer: warm olives — perfect for sharing and you get a LOT. We ended up packing up a bunch to take home.
Main Entrée: Eggs Benedict but done vegetarian with spinach (so really, Eggs Florentine); served with potatoes. Delicious and filling!
The ambiance is very charming and you feel as if you’re in a brasserie in Paris. It’s also great to sit outside when it’s warmer out int he authentic Parisian bistro chairs.
While it’s not my favorite restaurant in town, it’s definitely worth trying!

Stopped in for restaurant week, having never noticed Felix before due to the low review average. Here’s the breakdown:
Drinks: Fleur de violette — tasty but very floral, very strong, and not very sweet.
Glass of the South African Syrah — Tasted like someone had soaked pennies in a glass of nice wine. Very strong metallic flavor not common in the region — perhaps an overly aerated bottle?
Starters: Fingerling potatoes were delicious, and the romesco was a great combo. Shrimp and squid ink grits was small (two shrimp) but very flavorful.
Plates: Steak frites for both of us. Not a terrible meal but the steak wasn’t particularly tender and the fries were considerably over salted on one half of the plate and barely any on the other. It’s as if someone salted one part too much, and then decided not to salt the rest because of it. The seasoning on the steak and the sauce were both tasty.
Desserts: Had the raspberry Cabernet sorbet (tasty but one note) and the chocolate mousse cake (seemed like a big piece of a chocolate bar without much else).
Summary: I’ve had better steak frites across the street at Jolly Pumpkin. Maybe pass except for happy hour with some starters.

Top 5 favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor. HANDS DOWN.
There wasn’t a single thing we had that we didn’t like, and we tried a lot. The menu isn’t too extensive, and we had to get creative as vegetarians, but nothing to complain about. The cocktails are incredible, shout out to the bartender. We had the calamari: wow. The Brussels sprouts: wow. The Caesar salad was even delicious, and that’s a staple salad that you never expect much from. The Margherita pizza was so good, on a puffy dough any carb lover would rejoice for.
For dessert we had the basque cake and it was finger-​licking good. They also have jazz night on Thursdays and it’s not very busy, so that’s the perfect time to go!
We’re already planning our next brunch here.

I really enjoy the relaxing environment. It is not a noisy or loud place. They also have pretty good wine selections.

Visited here for an anniversary dinner. We started with martinis (a Monday promotion) and the Brussels sprouts appetizer. Sprouts were great in a balsamic reduction with red onions. Sadly, this was the highlight of our meal. I ordered steak frites, medium. The first try the steak was hammered — charred on the outside and very well done inside. The frites were cold. Manager agreed the steak was wrong — and sent it back. My wife proceeded with her scallops — tasty, but also over. Second try on the steak frites produced piping hot frites (yeah!) — but the steak was again wrong. This time charred outside and blue inside. Rather than risking a third attempt — just gave up and accepted the offer of a comped dessert. My wife had the Basque cake — good; I had the chocolate mousse cake — bad (dry, flavorless). Interestingly the crème anglaise on both was green. The server also found this curious, but in a detached sort of way. They took my steak frites off the bill.

Our food took over an hour and a half to show up at our table — when the food did show up, they messed up my order, charged me full price for it and then refused to even acknowledge something was wrong with it despite me having complained twice. Food was good, but portions are terribly small for the price you pay and the service appalling. Terribly sad that a local favorite cannot step up their service.

In town again for a Northwestern-​Michigan game, this time the Wolverine beat-​down was so shockingly one-​sided, even the Michigan fans were a bit surprised. Shut out, shut down, we (the Wildcats in the foursome) weren’t much different than movie zombies after the apocalypse as we stumbled downtown looking for a good stiff drink and dinner. Long lines at all the other bars and restaurants, exuberant celebrants in blue and maize around every downtown city block happy to wait to get in… but there’s this one place without much of a line… and the hostess promises we’ll be at a table in half an hour! We take it, find seats at the bar, and kill some time by looking the place up on Unilocal. So for those of you who don’t know, this is not the way to use Unilocal properly, you should consult Unilocal well before giving your name to a hostess and sitting down at the bar to wait. Otherwise, this might happen to you.
The happy University of Michigan graduate in our group found this hilarious review of this place which she read out loud. We laughed out loud, then stopped laughing when it turned out to be my review. I panned the place and here we were back in the same place like four total idiots. Well, at least we can see if they’ve improved, right? Half an hour later, no table. We asked the hostess, and she said, «it will be about half an hour before we can seat you.» No sense of irony, it must be a stock phrase, this half-​an-​hour-​wait lie. But, the bartender was friendly, no hidden up charges on the drinks, and pretty soon we were laughing at our own stupidity. Eventually we were seated, and after another long wait, our order was completely mixed up, we got our entrees before appetizers, at different times, some of it was tepid, some hot dishes had cooled to cold, some of it wasn’t what we ordered at all. We were charged for some things we didn’t get, but we paid because after a couple of hours, really we just wanted to be paroled.
You might think that I would close this with something to the effect of «we’re never coming back,» but that’s not the case. This place is so consistently bad that it was entertaining, kind of like a cult movie. Only taking more time. If this restaurant were a movie, it would be the first «Dawn of the Dead,» or «The Rocky Horror Picture Show.» Dammit Janet, we’re going to return to suffer all over again, like «let’s do the time-​warp again,» it’s become a «Hobbit» movie-​length part of our Northwestern versus Michigan football tradition.

My husband and I stopped in for a bloody Mary and a light bite before the game… what a mistake! We sat at the bar and it took the bartender nearly 10 minutes to serve up 2 drinks. The first item we attempted to order (smoked salmon) was «out». We asked how long it would take for a pizza, «15 to 20 minutes»…NOT! 35 minutes later we cancelled the pizza order and asked for our check. We definitely will not be returning (and by the way, the bloody Mary’s were overpriced at $ 10 each). And I never got an explanation as to why there was a bobby pin lying on the bar –gross!

Had brunch on Sunday morning. The service was better than the older reviews I’ve read so they must have read the older reviews. The menu was great, not too many options to where you can’t choose, just enough. Brunch had a great variety of lunch and breakfast items. I had the flat bread which wasn’t exactly what I was thinking. I expected more mozzarella I suppose.
My husband had the Felix Scramble and it was a little underwhelming presentation wise. It was scrambled eggs, a slice of toast, and a piece of bacon. I think even in Ann Arbor I expected something more or more of each item. Overall very tasty though and a latte rounded off the meal perfectly.
I recommend trying at least once.

I guess I’ve never reviewed this place, although I came here plenty of times after undergrad.
A friend and I went here yesterday for A2 Restaurant Week. The food was FANTASTIC even though you don’t get much for your money — I got the mozzarella and chicken with pesto sandwich (FRESH mozzarella, organic grilled chicken breast, tomato, pesto, crunchy Zingerman’s-esque bread) which also came with french fries, and she got the asiago gnocchi. A2RW is $ 15 for lunch and that also included chocolate mousse with raspberry for dessert. I hadn’t been for a while and it was in the area we were in after a concert (Sonic Lunch!) so we chose Felix over the other A2RW participating restaurants.
A few years ago I enjoyed a martini outside here with some friends, and I also remember having a hard cider here once too. Apparently they do a nice happy hour too so I want to go back for that — ½ off pizzas (which normally are pretty pricey, at $ 13 – 15 per) and different drink specials on different days.
Not sure why this place only has a 2.5 star average on Unilocal,the waitservice was fine and food was very good. It’s normally overpriced but if you go during A2RW or happy hour there are decent deals.

We really enjoyed the restaurant week menu. Had steak frites for $ 17 and t was magnificent. My friend had the scallop salad for $ 15 and other friend had the cheeseburger for $ 15. Both thoroughly enjoyed their meals. And the chocolate mousse for dessert though rich was very good

I’m really surprised by the number of low reviews that Café Felix gets. We visited this past weekend as part of a Couples Massage and Brunch package with Rub, the massage place upstairs, and had a lovely lunch.
Our server was very earnest and checked in repeatedly to see how our food and drinks were, as well as to refill our water. I got the gnocchi with mushrooms, arugula, and tomatoes, which was the better of our two meals. (He ordered the steak-​frites, which included a rib-​eye far more fatty than he anticipated.) We both ordered a bloody mary, which were nice, though not as spicy as I generally like them.
Sitting outside on the patio was the perfect place to enjoy a beautiful summer day. I look forward to returning in the future to try out their late night happy hour.

I do not understand why CF has a very low rating on Unilocal.This French bistro is practically new, super squeaky clean and classy. I was amazed how this Main Street of Ann Arbor had a lot of good places to go to and so welcoming. We basically just walked in because it caught our attention and of course, the perfect spot was the bar.
CF claims to offer organic and all-​natural food. True or not, I didn’t ask. We tried their brandade de morue and we have enjoyed it with our cocktails. The drinks were strong and highly detectable so it was all good. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the names of the mixes but it made us think that the female bartender was great and knowledgable. Staff were friendly and appeared to be getting ready for a long busy night.

I promised my server I’d review so here we go!
Took my mom here on Saturday at 7pm via Open Table reservation. We were seated outside under the awning which was perfect! Our server (wish I could remember her name!) was very attentive. BONUS POINTS: When we ordered a bottle of wine she made sure we had tried it before (we hadn’t), and when she described it as very sweet we knew we wouldn’t want it. She recommended two other kinds and brought us samples — we ended up selecting one of her recommendations so we were very thankful.
We shared the flash fried Brussels sprouts with pickled red onions as an appetizer– we enjoyed it. My mom loved her swordfish — she thought the accompanying potato was delicious. I had the gnocchi which was both light AND filling. No heavy sauce on the gnocchi which is appreciated. I wasn’t a fan of my dessert (tiramisu and donuts) so it was taken off our bill — I didn’t request this, our server took the initiative!
I will be coming back with my husband for the awning patio, the gnocchi and hopefully the same amazing server.

The food missed the mark. I ordered the braised short ribs. The first thing my fork picked up was one of the brussels sprouts. They were coated in a heavily spiced sauce that was so salty that it irritated my mouth and throat and made me cough. I tried be cool and play it off like everything was fine. Avoided the sprouts. The meat was okay, two really big chunks. Tasted like meat and I like meat, so that was fine. The cauliflower risotto was okay as well.
My date ordered the marguerite pizza. He didn’t really say anything bad about it, but I could tell he was clearly not impressed. He’s not picky so I didn’t go out of my way, as I usually would, to steal a bite.
I find myself trying to make excuses for why things weren’t as good as they should have been. For example, the service was okay for a busy Saturday night. In reality, it was bad but the server was nice and smiley. Maybe she took her lunch break shortly after we arrived because she took our drink order and disappeared.
Why one star?
If everything on my plate had been edible I would have given 3, it wasn’t so I deduct one point. The last point deduction is because the edible portion of the food was just ok, not good and the service was not good.

Came for Sunday brunch. It was pretty good. Not sure if it was 18 dollars good but I liked it. They had a good selection of stuff. Funny enough, the waffles in the buffet were one of the best things. They were really good. There were croissants with chocolate that were very good. Sunday brunch comes with coffee/​expresso options or mimosa. At our table we got almost every option and everyone enjoyed what they got.
The staff was all very nice.

Beautiful space, lovely menu.
Totally mediocre, kind of bad food.
Breakfast sweet potatoes gave my mom the thing I call «crap gut» for hours after we ate.
Staff was distracted by their own stuff/​drama.
Food wasn’t hot.
Poached eggs come on dry toast with no butter.
Drinks were forgotten.
Generally? Completely not worth it.

I have always loved Café Felix for their infamous martinis, and when I saw that they have an updated brunch menu it was imperative that we try it!
My partner and I came out on Saturday morning for brunch with a few friends. They offered bloody Mary’s and mimosas for brunch alcoholic beverages. The mimosa was a wonderful ratio of champagne to orange juice. Among the table we ordered their eggs Benedict with greens and smoked salmon, the pain perdu à la foster, and the felix scrambler. The eggs benedict was phenomenal! The smoked salmon was the perfect touch to the poached egg and the hollandaise sauce, I definitely recommend it over the Canadian bacon. The pain perdu à la foster was a bit lacking, and I was expecting much more from the menu’s description of the item.
Overall, service was excellent, drinks are always great. I will definitely will be coming back for dinner or late night drinks rather than brunch.

My wife had been here with friends a few times for drinks and apps; she was curious about the entrees, so I suggested it for Valentine’s Day.
I reserved a table well in advance, though the one we got was next to the door, this on a night of temperatures in single digits and falling. Got an arctic blast every time someone opened the door. If you reserve a table in the winter months, ask for one in the back of the house.
On that chilly table when we arrived was a prixe fixe Valentines menu, $ 55 per person. More than we wanted to spend, and also lacking the things we’d decided to order after looking over their menu online. They brought us the regular menu, thankfully, and I got the Muscovy duck, while my wife ordered the beef bourguignon.
Both were very good. At first I stripped the meat of my duck away from the skin but gave that up and ate the whole thing, fat and, all, because it was just so good. The bite of BB my wife gave me was tender and savory (though I still think our homemade version is better!). I’d have been very happy with just a big bowl of the cauliflower risotto that came on the side of my duck, to be honest.
The off note of the evening – our crème brûlée dessert. Instead of being custardy, it had the consistency of watery pudding. Do regret not sending it back.
Otherwise, little to complain about., Looking forward to returning for some happy hour nibbles, and dinner again at some point.

It’s restaurant week! Yea for some but for those seeking solace from the weekday slug — then restaurant week isn’t so inviting. Since my favorite places were otherwise engaged, I decided to give Café Felix another try.
Two for $ 15 or One for $ 10 (but you don’t have to share the dessert). I ended up getting the two for $ 15, and had the other for lunch the next day. Mushroom pizza, and gnocchi — both were excellent. Dessert was a crêpe, of course, with fresh bananas and a drizzle of nutella. Very nice ending to the meal. Gnocchi was stuffed with cheese, which was a nice surprise. pizza is half of what is a usual order, but perfect size for a single when finishing with a dessert. Good choices!
Most improved here is the service. I had a nice young lady named Devon (at least that is what is said on the receipt). She was attentive, polite, fast and sure did hussle for her tables. She is a very good server and you will do well to ask for her section on your next visit.
There is also a cocktail specials menu for RW — must try the Dark & Stormy if you are a Rum and ginger beer fan. It was excellent! I think this drink alone will have me coming back again.
Café Felix would do well to put up something that kept the cold air out as people came in and out of the door. I was blasted with cold air, constantly, but other than that, I am happy to be able to update my review with a pleasurable visit.