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This was my second time to Cafe Lalo. I remembered it more favorably than it actually was. The desserts are fine but not for the price. Although, they get ten points for other food (dinner and such) presentation. This time I ordered a chocolate espresso mousse cake while my guest had creme brulee. Her creme brulee was torched to death making it very difficult to retrieve the creme from the heart-shaped dish. My chocolate espresso mousse cake was edible, mostly. On top of the cake were three coffee beans. I made the mistake of eating one with the cake. It was clearly old and almost soggy. As I stared at the vast array of treats behind the glass, all I could wonder was how long they'd actually been sitting there. It's very LOUD inside. Be prepared to shout at your friends. The best part was the delicious little Toblerone that came with my coffee.

I've tried to like Cafe Lalo, since I live a few blocks away and it's open late. But, it has some of the most mediocre and bland baked goods and pastries I've ever eaten. Their mousse-based cakes and tarts taste like they're made with fillers, extenders and gelatin. And they're very overpriced. Their sandwiches taste bland and the menu is completely uninspired. And yet, it's hard to get a seat--must be the tourists and Nora Ephron fans. I don't get the appeal.

This is by far our favorite brunch place (tied with Dim Sum Go Go down in Chinatown). We love their international breakfasts, their desserts, their mimosas, but most of all the "ambiance." And we are definitely brunch people. I would agree that it can be super busy and the service suffers because of that, but the girls always do their best (in my opinion). My favorite international breakfast is the Italian. We always take our out-of-town friends here for brunch and they always leave happy.

do not go here, I went yesterday with a friend. the desserts were awful, the quality was similar to a diner, and completely overpriced. not worth your money or time. and we got really ill shortly after eating there. save yourself the time and effort.

Went on a Friday night for dessert, very busy, noisy, service was stretched but friendly. Desserts were awesome, iced mocha cappuchino was great also!

Great atmosphere (obviously, otherwise they wouldn't film movies there!)...but the service was absolutely disappointing. I went in with a friend tonight and the restaurant was 1/2 full at best. We waited around and finally went up to the FOUR waitresses just standing around and asked to be seated. While the desserts we got were wonderful, we only saw our waitress when she took our order. We had to ask for water and then continually crane our necks around to find someone for a refill. For one dish of sherbert it was $7.00...WAY overpriced. Cool atmosphere, but not worth it.

My husband and I recently had lunch at the Cafe with a friend. Our friend ordered one of the grilled cheese sandwiches (mozzarella and basil I think), I had the eggplant sandwich, and my husband tried the Bulgarian torte. I can't speak for the others, but my sandwich was the best I've had in a long time! I also think my husband enjoyed being able to try something he'd never had before and wouldn't typically come across in your typical cafe menu. After lunch, of course we all had to try some dessert and were not disappointed. Our friend had the banana cream pie (nice, light, and creamy), my husband went for the pecan pie (perfectly solid yet gooey), and I tried the "Heavenly Dream" (or something like that): lemon angel food cake with strawberries, berry sauce, and frozen yogurt. It was the perfect dessert to squeeze into the nooks and crannies I had left over after eating my sandwich. All the waitresses seemed efficient and friendly--we did end up having to wait a bit to be seated, but the time passed quickly since we were waiting in front of the dessert counter. The waitresses looked to be very on top of cleaning each vacated table swiftly so the next customer could be seated. Cafe Lalo is definitely on my must-have list for every NYC visit! (Note: we were unaware that the Cafe was cash-only, so keep that in mind!)