The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant

I loved this place. The food was great and the staff was awesome. There was a specific waitress that made me feel at home and that was Shirley. If you ever go by there tell Shirley hello. Cozy area.

This review is for Callas cakes and coffee only since that is why I went there. I came in on a Friday morning wanting to try Callas Cakes and from research found The Old Coffee Pot was one of the few New Orleans restaurants that still served this dish. It is rice mixed with cinnamon and deep fried, then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Callas cakes are historic to New Orleans because slaves could make these to sell on Sundays when they were no working, and use the proceeds to help buy either their own freedom or that of family members. It’s interesting that the next day when I took a French Quarter walking tour from the Lafitte National Park Visitors Center, the park ranger leading the tour talked about callas cakes as part of New Orleans history and that The Old Coffee Pot as a restaurant that had them on the menu.
I was seated right away and just ordered the callas cakes and coffee. The callas cakes came out and were just sweet enough without being overpoweringly so, and because it was a cold morning, the coffee was as much for the warmth as it was for the caffeine. Grits came with the callas cakes and while I usually don’t like grits, I liked them here.
Service was prompt and efficient and the restaurant was cozy; you can’t get too many diners in the main dining area but there was also courtyard seating outside. While others might complain about things like a wait for food or seating, or even not allowing cellphone usage in the restaurant, it’s less of an issue for me because when I’m on vacation, the whole idea of it is to slow down and I just think way too many people are addicted to technology to the point that they have to be on social media every few minutes and thus lose sight of some of the amazing things going on around them. I’d return to try other items on the menu.

Great location and atmosphere. The service isn’t exactly efficient, but friendly. The food was good. Greenbeans are really good. I was disappointed the sweet potatoes had sausage in them. But my fault, I didn’t ask first.

The space is beautiful. The weather was a bit chilly during my visit, or I would have opted to sit outside. I had the Creole omelet and a single pancake. I was a bit taken aback at how quickly the omelet came out… wondering whether it was actually freshly prepared. My fears subsided when I took a bite. The tomato-​based Creole sauce is a nice compliment. I didn’t like the potatoes that came with it though. There was little flavor, and some were kind of soggy. The pancake was alright, it’s much thicker than pancakes I’m used to. Good basic coffee. And the staff was great.

A group of my friends and I stopped in here minutes before our Haunted Tour was set to begin. We wanted to grab a hot coffee since it was freezing out!
The hot chocolate is pre-​packaged from the grocery store. They take the pouch and stir it into hot water. But I probably should’ve ordered this since they can’t really screw it up.
I first ordered a latte. The guy behind the counter looked confused, as if he didn’t know how to make espresso. I then changed my order to make it easier/​faster for the guy, I changed it to a Café Au Lait. The guy looked even more confused at this point and asked the other girl working there what a Café Au Lait was… oh boy. I wanted to cancel my order right then and there but he already started it. The guy had a good attitude and was upbeat but I would’ve rather not gotten anything if he didn’t know how to make it.
I took a sip and it was just horrible. So bad that I tossed it after a few sips because I didn’t want to become ill.
Waste of time and money.

The gf and I were walking in the quarter on a beautiful cool Sunday morning after mass when she suggested that we go eat breakfast at the coffee pot. I hadn’t been there in so long I immediately said «great idea.“I first went here many years ago when I was a little boy. I went with my parents because my mom had always wanted to come here. I remember that we ordered the calas and an omelette that was called the «dodt «which translated as «a little bit of everything.» Well they don’t have the dodt anymore but they still have the calas and they are every bit as delicious as they have ever been. I ordered the calas which comes with a side order of grits. I know they’re just grits but these grits were particularly delicious. The GF got a standard breakfast which came with an order of calas. The standard breakfast was good but nothing out of the ordinary. What did look out of the ordinary was the pain perdu which looked delicious.
With all the new cool places to eat, the coffee pot typically gets overlooked. But I highly recommend it. It’s a good solid place to eat breakfast, has a unique take on different dishes, and the service was absolutely stellar. And if that’s not enough, it is extremely reasonable.

We were on our honeymoon, and had just got off our cruise ship and had to wait to check in to our hotel. We decided to just go walk around and find a place for brunch. Stumbled upon this place. We sat for what seemed like an eternity to just get coffee, then another long while to order and then about 45 more minutes to get our food. As we had just gotten married, and spend 6 days nonstop with no cell service, we were bored of each other and wanted to respond to texts and look at pictures posted on Facebook from our wedding, especially because service was so slow. I was soooo confused when the waitress yelled at my husband for being on his phone! We thought she was joking and kept on looking at pictures, etc. She came over again and said, «no phones at my table!» Ummmmm excuse me??! Food was ok, nothing to write home about. Service, terrible!

I was looking for somewhere to have some hot soup before work and stumbled upon this place. It’s beautiful inside, and the food came out quickly. I had seafood gumbo with potato salad and it was absolutely delicious. The wait staff was super friendly.

After more than a half-​dozen trips to NOLA & always saying, «We ought to try that place,» we finally went in. What a shame we did.
They had both the dining room and outdoor seating apparently served by one staff member at a time. You can imagine that the server on duty was not happy to see us walk through the door. Once she decided we weren’t going to turn around and she’d better talk to us, she seated us.
Then they switched servers. We had to wait over 10 minutes for menus. We placed our orders — gumbo and a po’boy. A large party soon came in and almost immediately started to complain to themselves about the wait (we just laughed to ourselves: guys, you have NO IDEA). My friend could see the service counter by the kitchen and watched as the cook placed my po’boy on the counter, which the server then left for about 15 minutes. We waited a few minutes more: my friend had ordered gumbo, for pity’s sake! You scoop it out of a pot! What was the delay?
We watched as the server chatted with another staff member and shoved french fries in her mouth as if she hadn’t eaten for a week. Now, if you’re hungry, I get it. But, please serve my meal first, while it’s fresh, and THEN eat. I promise, if you know what you’re doing, it takes but a minute, literally.
So, we got up & left, being sure to make our exit known. No one followed or spoke to us.

I didn’t eat the food, but I had the best time last night just hanging out with the bartenders. These two ladies were totally fun to chat with! Looking forward to hearing about your success as morticians!
Plus they make some mean drinks with what resources they’ve got. Props for that. Thanks for starting off our night right, girls!

Lovely courtyard breakfast. Those Callas Cakes are worth the wait! However, there was no hostess at the front entrance wheb we arrived and bunch of folks were standing around waiting even though courtyard was nearly empty with tables set. We finally went check with a server inside and they said we were free to go ahead and seat ourselves. The breakfast and coffee was very good and those callas cake though…

Gentleman standing outside recommended this place and he was right. Bloody Mary was perfect. Ordered the Sis Soul Food omelet and it rocked! Service wAs good but slow but worth the wait. Gonna try dinner next time as everything looked good!

Trying to find any restaurant that wasn’t insanely loud or a long line, we decided on this location. An older couple walking by told us this was a good place to eat at. Being tired and hungry, this was all we needed to hear.
The setup is a little strange. Seat yourself and someone will take your order in a moment. We waited 25 minutes for our food which felt like an eternity especially for the end product. They ran out of oysters at 6:30PM so my friend had to order the fried shrimp po boy. I ordered the BBQ shrimp and it was dissatisfying, so I ordered the gumbo. It was tasteless. The BBQ shrimp came with a lot of sliced pieces of toast that didn’t fit the shrimp. I’m not sure what I was supposed to do with the slices.
The service wasn’t very helpful. They never gave us any utensils or napkins. Our waiter also refused to let us pay separate checks. Even when we pointed out that other tables in the restaurants clearly had separate checks and tabs sitting out in the open, he denied it and refused to split the check.

This has been our go to place for breakfast and we had missed our last visit so we were focused on this being our first stop.
We were ready for a leisurely dining experience so when a half hour had past since we placed our order WE were fine… but we felt for the young family with two small girls… until the very observant staff were kind enough to bring fresh biscuits out to the girls to hold them until the kitchen (down to only one cook) could turn out their food.
We ordered the Eggs Jonathan with grits and the
Crab Cake Jonathan. Ignoring the 49 minute wait… the biggest offense was the overcooked poached eggs. Second was the minimal amount of hollandaise sauce… which I actually enjoyed it not being drenched but my partner definitely was disappointed.
The most unsettling issue was the situation of «I’m sorry cash only — our credit card machine is down» to some tables… but not all tables. Weird. The table next to us — credit card machine worked — our table — cash only. Weird.

We were doing the cement your and asked the tour guide where to have a good Gumbo. She mention this place and here we are. Nice place cute decore. Clean. Service was nice. One of the servers actually sang a song to a customer. Totally recommend to come here. Music a little odd. Just radio music, not jazzy. But totally ok. Restrooms are upstairs… So consider that if you can’t claim them.

Yum!!! We came here for breakfast. What an awesome way to start our day of adventuring out around New Orleans.
Friendly staff that makes you feel like you are eating breakfast in their home. We ordered the Lost Bread which is basically Po’ Boy Sandwich Bread transformed into French Toast. We also ordered the Plantation Breakfast which came with Eggs, Ham Steak, Grits and Callas Cakes.
The grits were perfect! Not to cheesy or buttery, but just right.
Callas Cakes are rice cakes with or without pecans and topped with powdered sugar. Deeeee-​lish!
I would recommend this spot to anyone who is looking for something local, delicious and with southern hospitality.

Pretty good food. The wait staff is pretty interesting. We were kind of scared of our waitress at first, but then she grew on us…
I had the half/​half benedict and the spinach one was better than the tomatoe one. I asked for some extra hollandiase which seemed like a huge inconvienence for them. The bloody mary was pretty good… no one asked if we wanted more drinks after we were finished.
Overall I think there are better places to dine. Not bad, not outstanding either.

Es hat uns nicht so gut gefallen. Dies lag daran dass der Kellner extrem überfordert war und sich keine Bestellung merken konnte. Hätte ich ihn nicht mehrfach daran erinnert was noch fehlt hätte ich es wahrscheinlich nie bekommen. An sich ist das Restaurant ganz nett und nicht allzu laut und überlaufen wie die Läden direkt in und an der Bourbon Street, aber die typische Gastfreundschaft, der nette Smalltalk und guter Service konnte man hier leider vergeblich suchen. Das Essen war in Ordnung, nichts besonderes aber auch nicht schlecht. Das Ambiente ist nett weil das Restaurant schon sehr sehr lange existiert und dieses typische ausstrahlt dass man im French Quarter erwartet.

Such a cute place and amazing food here. The reason for four stars is as one of the reviewers mentioned earlier the AC is not that great. The service was full of baby and darlings and very sweet. The food was delicious and so was the service. Nice décor as well.

I have really mixed feelings about the coffee pot…
To start, their A/​C (if they have any at all) is terrible. I find this to be pretty unacceptable in the South!
I ordered a Bloody Mary and it was just meh. The garnish was two string beans and nothing else. No olives… no lime or lemon. The drink itself was pretty bland.
To eat, I ordered the New Orleans sampler; the red beans and rice were just ok, but the other two were so delicious. I believe they were a crab soup and a gumbo. Flavorful and just the right amount of heat.
Others in our party ordered traditional breakfast fare, and it was clear that they were all a little disappointed, especially with the portion size and the price.
Our server was very sweet and she even sang a gospel song to the bride in our Bachelerotte party, which was a very cool experience.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad meal, and some of my food was quite good, but given that you’re in NOLA, you can most certainly do better.

Love this little Dinners Drive-​Ins and Dives spot. Accidentally stumbled on it years ago after Red Dress Run. Located right near Pat O’s and Preservation Hall.
Eat the red beans here, but beware of the HUGE serving. It could feed two! I would reccomend the NOLA Sampler that comes with 3 cups: gumbo, seafood bisque and red beans.
I wish I could give this place 5 stars, but the service was god awful.

Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual. Im French Quarter in New Orleans trifft das in Bezug auf die Restaurantauswahl mehr denn je zu. Wir aber hatten die Unterstützung unserer privaten Führerin Leah. (Siehe Foto unten) Für ein Lunch in casual ist dies eine gute Wahl. In diesem alten, historischen Gebäude wie übrigens fast alle im French Quarter residiert der Coffee Pot seit Ewigkeiten. Der Name Coffee Pot ist etwas irreführend, handelt es sich doch nicht um ein Café sondern um ein Restaurant. Die Ausstattung herrlich rustikal, dem Stil des Hauses angepasst. Die gestandenen Damen der Bedienung in schwarz-​weißer Tracht. Schwerpunkte des Menu sind Fisch, Krustentiere, Austern. Aber Trost: Auch Fleischfreunde werden fündig. Die Küche ist regional, somit authentisch für New Orleans. Wir bestellten Oyster Platter ($ 17,95), Read Beans and Rice ($ 10,95) und Catfish and Jambal ($ 16,95). Bodenständige Küche. Dazu ein Cocktail Hurricane ($ 8), ein Iced Tea ($ 2,25) und ein lokales Draft Beer (Abite $ 3), das unserem Duckstein-​Bier ähnelt. Es ist dies keine Küche, die nach den Sternen greift, das gibt es aus europäischer Sicht eh selten in den Staaten. Aber wohl schmeckend und mit den hier üblichen Zutaten angerichtet. Wir waren zufrieden und besuchten das Restaurant am Folgetag wieder. Nachdem die Teller abgeräumt waren ließ man uns doch tatsächlich noch in aller Ruhe weiter plauschen, ohne uns die Rechnung sofort unter die Nase zu halten, wie es sonst regelmäßig in den USA geschieht und uns Europäer leicht nervt. Fazit: Ein typisches Lokal mit viel Ambiente, sehr ordentliches Preis-​/​Leistungsverhältnis, ohne den Touri-​Rummel, der im French Quarter Standard ist. Vier Sterne. Hinweis: Die Abendkarte (Dinner) weicht von der Lunchkarte ab und ist deutlich höherpreisig!