Cafe Broglie

kjlouden
kjlouden
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
3
Reviews
7
Photos
Editor Pick

Decent Food and Good Service

  • June 3, 2009
  • Rated 3 of 5 by phileasfogg from New Delhi, India
Decent Food and Good Service

On our trips to and from the Cathedral, we often passed Café Broglie on the corner of Place Broglie, but we stopped here for lunch only on the last day, and that because it was drizzling. We didn’t want to sit inside a stuffy restaurant, and the flimsy beach umbrellas of most cafés looked as if they wouldn’t protect us from a teacupful of water, so Café Broglie’s canopies looked inviting.

The inside of the restaurant is typical: wooden tables, large windows, busy bar counter. Outside stretch the distinctive dark green canopies, with the Café Broglie logo in large white letters along the overhang. We were seated at a wooden table with comfortable cane chairs, and menus handed over by a waiter who spoke passable English. The food on the Café Broglie menu is a mix of French, Italian and some (restrained) fusion. After much thought, Tarun and I both chose the same dish: faux filet with a sauce of green peppercorns. We both decided we wanted our steak medium rare, and accompanied by a glass each of Reisling. I usually prefer juice or an aerated drink, but the drizzle had put me in the mood for wine, and since this was our last meal in Alsace (and Reisling is an Alsatian wine), a glass seemed in order. Café Broglie delivered—the wine was lovely, dry but not mouth-puckeringly so.

The food too was excellent. The steak was beautifully seared on the outside and moist on the inside, with the jus just so: meaty and rich, perfectly seasoned. On the side was a helping of steamed cauliflower, carrots, peas and beans, and a little sauceboat each of a tart, creamy sauce studded with green peppercorns. And, just in case that wasn’t enough for two hungry souls, there was a dish of diced sautéed potatoes, crisp and brown, that we heaped lavishly onto our plates. And there were thickly sliced hard rolls to mop up the sauce and the jus.

Both Tarun and I agreed that the food was very good, and the portion sizes correct: not too much, not too little. We might have ordered dessert if it hadn’t been for the fact that we had a train to catch and were in a hurry. As it was, we paid €45 for our meal (which included a tip—the service had been swift and courteous, and we genuinely wanted to leave a gratuity). Highly recommended.

One word of caution, though: if it’s raining and you’re sitting outside, make sure you sit at a table that’s in the centre of a canopy. Tables at the edges tend to get stray splashes of rain, as we discovered to our discomfort (we’d finished eating and were waiting for our bill, so it wasn’t an issue, but anyway).

From journal Eating and Sleeping in Strasbourg

Cafe Broglie

  • December 30, 2004
  • Rated 3 of 5 by blackbirdtanya from Friedrichroda, Germany
We stopped for breakfast at this hopping cafe. Easily accessible from the Broglie tram stop, the cafe sports an oyster and seafood booth out front. While the table turnover was quick, the waiters were surprisingly friendly and service-oriented. The croissants were just as a croissant should be, the espresso steaming hot and topped with the right "crema", and the baguette filled with ham, emmenthal, and cornichon superb.

From journal Two Days in Strasbourg

Editor Pick

Cafe Broglie

  • August 28, 2004
  • Rated 5 of 5 by kjlouden from , West Virginia
Cafe Broglie


When in Strasbourg . . .
Being up drastically early staves off a bit of guilt for me. When I’m a tourist, I imagine that residents, busy at work, might resent that I am in their way, another elbow to bump on their way to lunch, another seat filled in their favorite cafe. In Strasbourg this Monday morning before 7:00, no elbow had to deal with us, no line was longer, and we didn’t ask questions. In other words, we fit right in and were no more trouble than a local going about business. For us, this situation made vacationing more relaxed.

Home again!
We were transported to a time when our small city in America had an active downtown--before malls. I remember The Palace restaurant on a busy Main Street in West Virginia, where my older sister had coffee before work. When my mother and I "went to town," we treated ourselves to the Palace and saw people we knew. Decor and menu were "continental." Oil paintings were of Cordoba, Spain, where our local artist Raymond Stoker lived as an expatriate and painted courtyards now on UNESCO’s list. (Those oils now live with me.) If the Palace were still there, I could walk to it some morning, but a parking lot now detracts attention from historic buildings. When folk reminisce, the Palace becomes a topic of conversation, and similar nostalgia will continue in America’s small cities until we learn the value of public transit and pedestrianism.

Cafe Broglie
Cafe Broglie resembles the Palace: awninged windows on the sidewalk, a little brass, some impressionism on the walls, and "continental" cuisine.

It’s a place where locals "claim" a favorite spot by the window and read the morning paper.

Lighting was perfect for early morning, relaxed, but bright enough to see, and help were waking up with their coffee, but industrious. Some ineffable quality made Cafe Broglie the perfect place to start our day--everything was ready to take care of us.

The best croissants in the world!
Our table was "ready" with basket of croissants. I thought Alsatian food was rich with cream and butter, but the notion that this would affect a meer croissant hadn’t occurred to me--aren’t they always rich? These were delicious beyond belief! No previous experience of croissants could prepare anyone for them. Coffee was good, too. We paid the waiter and were ready to go. He wanted paid again! He had charged us only for coffee--a good bit!--and hadn’t charged us for croissants. I have a vague idea that they are complimentary for "regulars." He asked for the second payment only after a lady in the next room talked to him. The second receipt was only for 3 euro and change. We left only 8 euro poorer--and had really stuffed ourselves with those croissants!

An institution
It’s the place to experience the city awakening. As we left, groups were chatting on the corner, ready to start their day at Cafe Broglie.

From journal A Strasbourg Dawn

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