La Cigogne

I love to come here when I'm in the mood for different comfort food. Their Alsatian specialties are great, both the spaetzle and the tarte flambee. And you can order those also during brunch hours if you want something other than the usual brunch fare. Portions are great to share, and the staff is friendly. It's on a quiet block, so sitting outside is very relaxing. They have a small fireplace that they turn on in winter for that extra cozy feeling. Sometimes they have live music.

My family and I are regulars at this wonderful spot. All of the food and cocktails are fantastic and the service is always great. They often have live music which we are so appreciative of—it lights up the neighborhood. Having tried the whole menu, we’ve never had a bad dish, and we especially love the clouded sky cocktail!

First, it's very hard to find a truly covid safe, warm, outdoor seating in a date-worthy restaurant around here, so kudos to La Cigogne for doing a great job at this! I even took off my coat! Second, wow. The food was wonderful. We got the camembert roti, which is like camembert fondue to eat with toast. There was more than enough toast for the cheese. Perfect with a warm cocktail as a starter. Then we shared steak frites and the quiche du jardin (some meat, some veggies...) which was a great combination for us. The steak was perfectly done (rare but not bleu), probably 1.5-2" thick (as a steak should be). The quiche was flavorful and lovely. I had a glass of bordeaux with it, which was also very good. Not the worst thing, but they were out of calvados, which was a disappointment, but they do have hot mulled wine, so that was an adequate accompaniment to the pecan pie. The staff were attentive to us and the neighboring pods. They were friendly and funny and got the right balance of checking on us and leaving us to our food.

When I first arrived in NYC, we would go very (very) often… My friend is Alsatian and had never been so I suggested we’d give it a try. The four of us shared appetizers before individual entrees. It was good but not as I remember. Our tarte flambée was not cooked enough - onions were still raw, I found a piece of plastic in the tuna tartare, the bouillabaisse was too salty and disappointing (one piece of carrot and one chunk of tomato?!)… My friends liked their entrees but nothing extraordinary. The escargots were the highlight of the appetizers - I don’t eat them but my party was fighting over them! Service was super friendly. Overall an ok experience, when I had much higher expectations…

My husband randomly took me here after taking me for dessert at The Brooklyn Farmacy (we were still hungry.) I have to say the cheese board here is definitely one of the best I’ve had so far here in NYC, and the tuna tartare was spot on. I was hoping to try the steak tartare but unfortunately, it was not available at the time we went. Overall the ambience is great, especially with the outdoor seating. I definitely will be coming back!