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I wandered in here on a whim one day, looking for a light lunch with my partner. The ambiance is off-putting from the get-go, with a mishmosh of holiday decorations. it felt more like being in a dotty great-aunt's living room than in a restaurant. I would be more forgiving had the food been edible. I ordered a mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich which was recommended by the chef. When it came out, the mozzarella was utterly spoiled, with a pungent odor of milk having turned. My partner's croque monsieur did not look safe to eat either. It appeared that the chef may have tried to mask this by dousing with butter and dried herbs. Truly dousing, nothing recognizable as french cuisine. We left money with the chef and ran out of there without eating. We went in hoping it would be a unique experience, but it was only terrifying.

Worst eggs benedict I've ever had. My friend's meal was also horrible. There was an insane abundance of some herb/spice mixture in ALL the food we ate. I think it was some unholy concoction of rosemary and oregano (which I normally like). Insanely overpriced for what the food was.

My boyfriend and I went for brunch, arriving cheery and optimistic around 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon. I walked by the place the previous week, and had thought the sliver of decor I glimpsed looked cute, as did the music I heard faintly from the sidewalk. Boy does cute get old fast when you wait over an hour for your food. Yes, the "chef" has mutton chops, and yes he wears a chef outfit, a mainstay of his persona for apparently the last 30 years, as verified by the multiple photographs of himself all over the "restaurant". We entered, and were encouraged at first by his presence and seemingly "hands-on" attitude, as he sat us upstairs and was taking everyone's orders personally. There were five other tables of people at the time. He came to take our order; we told him we would need a few minutes as we had just arrived. Little did we know that a few minutes meant that we had to wait over 30 minutes before he came back, as he doubles as waiter and chef. Every single person in the place had been served and eaten their meal before he came back to take our order. We ordered Eggs Benedict and Croque Madam. The dishes came out about 10-15 minutes after we ordered them. The food wasn't bad enough to justify not eating, especially with the painful amount of time we had invested, but it wasn't anything to write home about and certainly not repeat-performance-worthy. The major theme of my Eggs Benedict was OREGANO, OREGANO, OREGANO, as it was poured liberally.. everywhere. Ditto for the Croque. At $13 a pop, I left feeling hungry, unsettled, and irritated. We said we wanted the check and were informed by the adolescent and seemingly embarrassed busboy that we should pay downstairs. Surprise - the top-hatted chef is also the cashier! Through an offensive legerdemain, he includes a 15% gratuity with EVERY check, presumably because he is aware of the appalling service he provides, then hovers nearby to ensure that you actually pay it. I felt pressured and embarrassed, and begrudgingly paid the tip - but a block away and $37 lighter, I feel embittered and ripped off. If you have a lot of time to kill and don't mind bad service and expensive yet mediocre food, go to Chez le Chef. Otherwise, avoid at all costs.

I'm sorry to read that some folks have had bad experiences at Le Chez Chef. I love this place and have developed a very soft spot for Chef Frederic himself. Always very polite and yes, he does take the orders himself (for breakfast and brunch at least) - he is very proud of his food and everything is made fresh by him. It does add to the experience having the chef wait on you personally. I've never had anything but the freshest and nicest bread and pastries, the nicest fresh fruit smoothies (different mixture of fruits each time) and it's the only place I feel I can find a decent cafe au lait. Yes, the article that boasts the best French Toast in NYC IS dated 1988.. but I've tried the French toast....you can have it however you like and it is the best I've ever tasted. I like trying new things and the food seems to be a mixture of French/Bavarian/Austrian/German - and all home-made - a lovely ecclectic mix. The decor is very quirky and you do feel like you've stepped into somebody's house that's masquerading as a small grotto. Downstairs is a bakery delight, with all the desserts squashed into the display cabinet and all manner of bric-a-brac litter the walls, including some commedia dell'Arte masks. Brightly coloured table cloths and ill-matching crockery and an overflow of flowers and plants litter the upstairs. Walking in from the chaos of the city, you could be just about anywhere, except New York. Jazz guitar on Saturday mornings and squeeze box on Sundays (live) all add to the ambiance. As Chef Frederic is retiring at the end of the year, I for one, will be sorry to see him go.

It looked like a cute little French bistro. My friend and I just wanted some coffee, maybe a fruit salad or something. So we go in and the place is completely empty - well, it's early, we figure, for lunch and it's a weekday. So the chef, who is decked out in a full chef's outfit, and has giant mutton chops and white hair, seats us. The place looks like, as my friend puts it "a Hallmark card." There are Christmas AND Valentine's day decorations everywhere (???) and a mural on the wall with a tree and an owl. Then there are all these pictures on the wall of the Chef - Chef Frederic. Oh and the menu said "Best French toast: New York Magazine - 1988." As in, 20 years ago. Also the menu said "Try our FAMOUS breakfast in bed! Delivered to your door with 24 hours' notice! And try our Jazz brunch, reservations required!" The chef himself took our order. So we ordered a regular coffee, a cafe au lait, a croissant, and two fruit salads. We get the croissant and it's actually totally undercooked in the middle. I took one bite and did not eat another. It came with some kind of preserves and they smelled totally off - did not bother to taste that. Then we get the fruit salads, and the fruit on top tastes fine, then I get a little further in and taste some bad, weird taste. Turns out there was some kind of weird syrup/liquor on the fruit that was not good at all. Then, my friend put milk in her coffee and the milk actually curdled. A busboy came over and noticed we did not eat the croissant, and I said "Well it's actually undercooked" and he replies "It's fresh!" "It may be fresh," I said (although it clearly was not), "but it's undercooked." He responds, "You can pay downstairs" and takes the croissant away. Then we go downstairs to pay, and not only did they charge us for the croissant that we did NOT eat, but they charged us THIRTY DOLLARS. Thirty dollars for two coffees, two fruit salads (which I only ate about 2 bites of) and 1 croissant which was not eaten.

It has such a startlingly different facade from the rest of the block. You can't NOT go in. The chef is a charming old man with big white mutton chops from his ears to his nose. I've been here twice and the chef seated us both times. The buser was a little French teen/20 something. Everything fit very well into the atmosphere of the place. Edith Piaf played on the stereo on one visit, and a live band on the second visit. The food kept coming! We had the prix fixe dinner which started with a basket of fresh baked bread. Then we got this amazing cold cherry soup, followed by a slow cooked chicken and wine sauce main dish. It was very savory and a huge portion. The dessert was 3 separate items, all made in house, for each person. One was a tiny tart of your choosing, I had candied cherries. One was a chocolate dipped strawberry. And one was a chocolate covered... something green! We weren't sure what it was, but it was good! After everything we had ordered came and we were already stuffed, the chef asked us if we wanted tea or coffee and brought that out, followed by 3 heart shaped gingerbread cookies made in-house. Everything about the place is handcrafted. The decorations are obviously uniquely chosen: dozens of silk flowers, real plants in pots, flowers in vases on the tables, candles, a mural painted on the wall near the giant window that shines light onto the top floor. The paper covering the straws in the water were twisted around the straw for decoration. The ice for drinks came in a goblet with ice tongs. The heart shaped cookies. It all came together as a great experience. This will be one of the places I take visitors to the city for a meal.

This little cafe hidden amidst the billions of Indian restaurants in Curry Hill, is a breath of fresh air. Upon entering you are immediately transported across the Atlantic to a cute cafe in France. A bit cluttered, but your eyes wont stop moving from one artifact to another. The friendly chef, in his white beard and hat takes your order and serves you. Chat him up, if you will--you wont regret it as he has plenty of wisdom and funny stories. My favorite is that ginger pumpkin soup!