Coquette Cafe

I have been going to Coquette for 15 years. The food has definitely gone down hill. It used to be amazing and now it’s just okay. I always order the grilled hanger steak medium rare and it tends to be overcooked and it always comes cold. The portions are small for the amount they are charging. Overall it’s an okay restaurant, but I don’t know if I’d recommend.

I dined at Coquette Café on a Friday night around 9 pm. Everything was lovely-​nice wine, cocktail, and martini selection. Entrees have your mouth watering before presentation… bacon sauce? Come on! Yum! I ordered the au von chicken dish with the crème brûlée. Negroni cocktail. As for service– They were very accommodating but not overly so to the point where you feel uncomfortable. The white linen table cloths and candle light were nice touches. I would recommend for a date or engagement party! Also to boot, they provide a free dessert with Unilocal Checkin and entrée order. Great experience will dine again :)

Really enjoyed my lunch here. Was busy for a Friday, but it was Easter time.
I was able to sit at the bar with no issue and had a great server. Food choices where great for the price.
My sandwich and fries where more than enough for one meal. I had the Chicken Pesto Sandwich — wow. They Sous Chef even brought out my food and chatted with me for a bit.
Highly recommend this place

I absolutely love French food, having lived in Paris in the past and visited many many times, and so I really thought that I would love this place, but I left SO DISAPPOINTED!
The good: The ambiance is very cute and quaint. The servers are very nice and accommodating. The server actually forgot to put my order in (and when it was brought it had the wrong side oh well), but she admitted her mistake and apologized so that’s fine. We’re all human and we all make mistakes. My fiancé got the chicken/​leak crepes and they weren’t bad. They were covered in creamy sauce, though, so I’d say that is difficult to mess up.
The terrible: The croissant/​salmon/​brie sandwich. Oh my goodness just so terrible. Lets start with the croissant. A croissant should be flaky/​buttery/​crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. This croissant was wet/​humid/​dense. It was so bad I was shocked. The salmon inside was one thin slice and let’s just say it was NOT fresh. The brie was a one inch sliver placed on one corner of the sandwich so that you can have one very cheesy bite and no other cheese anywhere else in the sandwich. My fiancé got a side salad and we spent the entire time eating it trying to figure out if there was dressing, but it was very very light, or if there was no dressing at all. I typically like my salads lightly dressed, so that’s saying something. We also ordered a side of asparagus and I almost forgot to write that because it was so boring that I forgot we even ate it.
Not a place for anyone familiar with french food.

This place is an all time favorite. For quite a few years, this French educator took students to France for an exchange. While there, I fell in love with a specialty of Alsace called Tarte Flambée. This is hard to explain, I tend to call it Alsatian pizza, made with very thin crust, cheese, onions, and prosciutto like bits over the top. This place has it and it is the best I have ever had in the states. I was recently there, in the fashionable 3^rd Ward of Milwaukee with its cool indoor Market, and had to go their for lunch. Although I did not have Tarte Flambée, I did try their burger and it was superb. The staff is congenial, the location is good (close to the Milwaukee Art Museum, by the way), and the food is delicious. We shall get back their soon!

During my visit home to Milwaukee earlier this month, Coquette Café was suggested twice by both my dad and best friend for brunch/​lunch date. Keep in mind that I moved away from my hometown Milwaukee over 12 years ago, so I had no idea what to suggest but figured between all their recommendations, we had to give it a try.
It’s a French-​style café that is adorable and casually quaint and chic for a lunch date. It’s located in the ever so popular, stylish Third Ward District, a growing downtown pocket of Milwaukee known for upscale local boutiques, the Public Market, and tons of hot spots to eat, drink and be merry.
We were seated right away. My dad and I got a salmon burger and my friend went straight American on us with a good olé fashioned cheeseburger and pomme de frites. :) Everything was at a reasonable price-​point, and the service was attention and very polite. We ended our meal with fabulous, delectable chocolate cake split between us along with a hot flavor tea for me. Amazing!

Great brunch, menu items are a nice change from the basics. Service is friendly and attentive, full bar and appropriate French background music.

Great brunch restaurant. Classy but not intimidatingly fancy. The Mediterranean eggs Benedict was incredible and I could probably eat it every day. BF got the quiche and soup and gave it a rave review. The only downside would be that it took more than a few minutes for who we thought was just a servers assistant to take our drink order after pouring water. However, the food came quickly.

Came into Coquette on a week night because of the inviting exterior and interior plus some good reviews on Unilocal.
I have to say that I did enjoy the jazzy/​old music and overall ambiance in Coquette. It is charming and relaxing but I think that’s really it. The food, in my opinion, is mediocre. I went for the pork entrée and it was really overcooked and didn’t have any flavor. I also didn’t care for the meringue snow eggs; they were just ok. I would give Coquette 4 stars for ambiance and 3 for food.
I may return for a glass of wine at the bar and maybe give the food another shot but not sure yet.

A nice brunch spot right near the Greyhound station. It’s not the most incredible food or anything, but it’s a solid affordable option.
The clientele can make the place a little older and stuffy. A little nursing homey.
It can get crowded on weekend brunch times so make a reservation if you can.

I have been past this place so often, that when we found ourselves in the third ward, I decided to seize the moment and do lunch. Upon entering, we were greeted and seated promptly, sitting at a table with a view outside, which was lovely. White table clothes, napkins, and a beautifully set table.
I has the roasted pear salad, and the french onion soup. Both were wonderful. And, as an aside, we ordered ice tea, which, to my surprise, the waiter kept refilling! That was a pleasant surprise. Our waiter was pleasant, and attentive.
I loved the space. It was like stepping back in time. Loved the lamps at each table. (Mostly), and thought it made the atmosphere feel a bit like a throw back in time. We didn’t order dessert. But, were given a menu, just in case! All in all, it was a wonderful experience, and would go back again. So happy to have tried it!

Although a little pricier than I would hope for as a college student, visiting Milwaukee was a special occasion and choosing to dine at Coquette Café was a rewarding experience! The ambiance is comfortably classy and the staff is friendly and professional. I went with one of their specials for the night — Salmon filet and greens on bacon risotto and it was to die for. Perfectly cooked, the salmon was super tastefully paired with its risotto mate. For dessert, my partner and I shared the cannoli, a delicate and super sweet choice. I would not have been able to finish it on my own, so be prepared to share!
I definitely recommend this restaurant.

My favorite restaurant.
The coq au vin is exquisite, the duck confit is solid (served with a great sauce), the peach sorbet is perfectly smooth and citrus-​y, and the tea is fine, too.
Later at night, the ambiance becomes especially lovely, with candlelight flickering around the place.

The Third Ward has no shortage of restaurants, and Coquette stands out among them simply because it has such a classic approach in an area where, face it, the other places try to out-​trend each other. The coq au vin is simply fabulous. Ditto the chocolate mousse.
The dirty Grey Goose martini is also fab. Will definitely be back next time I’m in town.

So I’ve been to Coquette Café several times now. Out of these 4 or 5 times, my dining experience (food-​wise and service-​wise) was a solid 4 only once. The last time I was there, the food was a solid 3 and the service was a not-​so-​solid 2.
When it comes to pleasing our senses, nobody does it like the French! Unless, of course, assuming an air of pretentiousness, businesses use the adjective «French» to sell us something that doesn’t quite come close. And so, when we enter some «French» restaurants, an easily discernible whiff of pretentiousness appears before us out of thin air. Well, let’s cut this «bouffée d’air» with a French butter knife at Coquette Café!
So here goes my first slice of beef, or should I say «bœuf?!» Pristine white sheets of paper covering tablecloths. Really?!
Bœuf slice number two: Please, instruct your wait staff not to point at your clients’ food! S’il vous plaît, don’t point at the food I am about to eat with your finger while straining your brain trying to recall what kind of pâté is on my plate. Picture this: a powerless finger stranded over a plate of pâté randomly traveling from one kind to another (there were six kinds, I believe) in a futile attempt to follow its master’s trace of thought.
And my last complaint: The food. It is either a hit or a miss. My experience has not been consistently good at Coquette Café. Last time, potatoes in one of the main entrees were severely undercooked. They were diced and, I am guessing, simmered for about 5 minutes in some creamy sauce. Crunchy texture has its place in cooking, but not when it comes to potatoes, in my opinion. I want my potatoes to be buttery and fluffy (if boiled), or buttery and crispy (if baked or pan-​fried)! Is undercooking a new trend in cooking?!
My final verdict: It is a somewhat pretentious and somewhat overpriced Café that doesn’t quite live up to the expectations the adjective «French» evokes in me. Prétention is the kind of hot air that helps inflate prices very well. Would I go back? Maybe, but with a great number of new cool restaurants opening in Milwaukee, I would rather give them a try!

Everything about this place is great. The wait staff were all so kind and attentive, the ambiance was relaxed and fun, and the entrée options are diverse and delicious. Definitely a go-​to spot for a great brunch!

Descriptive phrase: passable French café.
Coquette Café is a little removed from the hustle of the Third Ward, but it’s cute and large and one of the few truly French-​forward restaurants in the area. Four of us came for a weekday dinner during Downtown Dining Week, and perhaps (I hope) that was the issue. We each got the $ 25 dinner deal.
I started with their Potage Parmentier leek and potato soup. It was creamy and pleasant, if unmemorable. For entrees I got to try both the Bacon-​Wrapped Strauss Veal Meatloaf and Coq au Vin, both of which I was excited for reading the menu. My meatloaf was good but not great; the bacon and mashed potatoes showed up but the veal fell flat. The braised chicken dish was better; moist and filling.
For dessert we split a Chocolate Mousse and Oeufs à la Neige, which were like little meringue eggs. Both were, again, fine.
Downtown Dining Week is a Catch-​22: it’s a great time for people to try out restaurants they might normally not but you’re also not going to get that restaurant’s standard offering or performance. I have to believe Coquette Café serves more fulfilling dishes on the regular, but my DDD visit didn’t leave me wanting more.

This restaurant is a jem in Milwaukee. We had really good service that knew how to say the French names with an appropriate accent. We came for Downtown Dinning and had a great experience. The atmosphere is quaint like a small bistro. You don’t realize how big it is until you have to find the bathroom.
For starters we had the soup — it was so good I asked for bread to sop up the remnants. For our entrée we had the coq au vin. This was my first time having this classic and was pleased with the rich flavors and tender texture if the chicken. For dessert we had merengue snow eggs with salted camel sause with a sprinkle of praline crumble– a wonderful salt and sweet dish. Over all I recommend Coquette Café for anyone who wants to take the time to savor and enjoy their food.

I had been meaning to check this place out for quite a while. It’s one of the few French spots in town so was looking forward to it. Right off the bat, the sourdough bread was on point. We were in a larger group, and apparently we had to order off the limited menu. Except for if you didn’t want to. Which half did. It ended up being confusing, and just started the night off weirdly. I ended up getting the hangar steak w/​frites from the limited menu. The fries were pedestrian and under seasoned. The steak was cooked nicely though. Beers were reasonable, and the service was good. It’s a cozy atmosphere, so maybe it was our mistake taking a group here. Looking forward to trying it again on a more intimate level, but it was all around pretty solid.

Très délicieux! Et charmant.

We really enjoy meeting friends here for dinner in the wintertime! It’s small, cozy, and the food is delightful. I could definitely see this as a romantic date night spot.
I highly recommend the French Onion Soup. It’s my favorite place to get it. However, split an order with someone so you have room for dinner and dessert! They really know their chicken coq au vin. That was another thing I’ve split here, and I wish I’d had it all to myself.
They claim to have the best crème brûlée in the city, and I can’t speak to that as both times I’ve been here, there’s been something else that catches my attention. This time it was the Opera Cake. Very nice!
Our server was fantastic. Very attentive.