Caribou Cafe

While the french windows and tiny tables give the ambiance of being in Paris (?), the service was super slow and I was starving by the time my food arrived. How long does it take to make french fries and scoop soup du jour into a bowl? The food is good but I do think it’s over priced. The waiters were nice but super slow.

Came here for a friend’s birthday was the perfect atmosphere to sip champagne and chat. Great balance of classy, yet low key and intimate. A little pricey but worth it and still cheaper than other French options in the city.
Not very vegan-​friendly (it’s french food after all) but some of the salads could easily be ‘veganized’ with a few substitutions, like the Salade Maison.

We recently visited this old favorite before a show at the Forrest next door. Everything was tasty, from my pumpkin-​carrot soup to my husband’s moules frites. Our server was efficient and pleasant, and you can’t beat the warm, cosy ambience.

Pros: The food was great. I could’ve eaten just the fabulous bread with delicious, salty butter all night long. The entrees were delicious, the cocktails competently mixed.
Cons: The service suuuuuuuuucked. It literally took as long to pay the bill as it did to eat dinner. The waiter was clearly super confused by check-​splitting, the cash terminal, tax, gratuity, everything. If you’re going to eat here, bring cash and patience.

I’ve been going here since it was a coffee shop. Over the past few weeks I’ve experienced especially excellent lunches and a few nice evenings at the bar. The service is genial and the food is good and it’s reasonable. The quiche is very good.

Awesome food! Although other visitors seem to have complaints, we had absolutely no issues!
We arrived on a Saturday around 12:30 for brunch and were promptly seated upstairs, which was very cozy. The place is decorated great and has a good atmosphere. The complementary bread was great, along with the tea I ordered.
Our entrées were tasty! I had a smoked salmon omelette that was very filling and full of flavor in each bite. My dad had gotten one of the benedicts with salmon and potatoes, and he was very impressed. Overall, we were happily full and overwhelmed with the deliciousness!
Service was great and very attentive. They refilled the water promptly and kept checking in to make sure we were satisfied. Very awesome!
Don’t listen to the haters!

This restaurant is in heart of center city with a pretty okay view from either inside or outside (open during hot months). I came here with a friend for dinner and we both got the steak frites which were amazing and cooked exactly how we each wanted.
We each also had a cocktail and this is the third one I had there and I must say they are all made perfectly with such great taste! They are pretty strong but you can taste the top shelf quality and great taste. The service was phenomenal and never did the waiter bother us or suggested things that we didn’t want (this happens often in places). He came at the right time all the time!
I’m not sure about the whole, «feels like a café in Paris» so if that’s what you’re looking for maybe do Parc because it does not feel that way to me.
Great place!

This café has the best al freso dinning in Philly! The food is delicious and the servers are friendly. Paris is my favorite city and I feel like I am there. They have great happy hour specials as well!

I went here with friends for restaurant and was quite disappointed. The food was average, the staff was indifferent & we waited too long for our food. The restaurant was virtually empty, yet we waited almost 30 min for our meal to arrive. Seeing as though it was a 3 course lunch for restaurant week, needless to say, we were late returning to work.

Brunch was delicious and the food was a great value. Service was average and food took a little long to come out. But overall an average experience. The location and setting have a ton of potential.

I do think that there are other better french places around town specially there’s a few that just popped up about a year or two ago but there’s no reason to skip this one. I do want to commend their take on the escargot, something different than the more common herbed butter. We also tried their Flammenküche, a simple but great tasting pizza good for sharing from the appetizer part of the menu. I would absolutely recommend trying both. For a french restaurant, their portions are very decent as well as their price. Next time you’re stuck on a place to eat at, try this one.

I think three stars is pretty fair for this place. I’ve only been here for lunch. It’s close to work and it’s a great spot if you want to take your time and enjoy the nice weather. They have outdoor seating that you can take advantage of that feels like you’re at a café in Paris except you’re on Walnut street and there are septa busses passing by.
I always get the Croque Madame which is a ham, cheese sandwich and an over easy egg on top. The fries are delicious and I love the remoulade sauce. I’ve also had the ham and cheese crêpe which was good.
Prices are fair for a sit down place. My only complain is that although service is very friendly, it usually takes a while to get things moving. Not because of the waiter’s fault but rather they’re short of staff. It’s generally easy and quick to get a table here which I also like. If you have a bit of time to kill and want to relax this place is for you.

Came back here after a wave of nostalgia hit me during my latest visit to Philly– this has been a favourite since I briefly lived in the city ~5 years ago. Décor was a little more cliché than I remembered, and the menu seemed to lack focus (there were a few Alsatian dishes but then they had an assortment of other things like skate/​mussels and steak tartare on the menu?). The grilled salad I had was very good, although perhaps a bit oily and overdressed. But definitely get the tarte tatin for dessert!

This café is a nice place for drinks and has a pretty atmosphere. It’s not too loud so you can actually have a conversation. Food is not impressive… the «cheese and charcuterie» platter was really lame and skimpy. Probably the smallest cheese board I’ve ever seen. My glass of wine tasted watered down, sadly.
There are plenty of other restaurants close by with great food and chefs who care.

We went last night. We were not impressed at all.
We had reservations and where asked to sit upstairs in the corner. We objected (nicely) but the hostess was a bit condensing.
We’ve had far better pâté and onion soup in neighborhood restaurants.

Met for a quick lunch meeting. Cool atmosphere and the Croque Monsieur
(Parisian grilled ham and cheese sandwich) with the tomato and fried egg was excellent.
Upstairs is quieter for meetings.

Caribou is a nicely decorated French restaurant in the heart of Philly.
I’ve been to a few French restaurants in philly and other cities so I wanted to check this one out.
There is a main dining room as you enter and also an upstairs dining area. I decided to eat upstairs at a lovely corner table overlooking the main dining area. The wait staff were very pleasant and dressed very professional.
The food menu had a lot of traditional French cuisine dishes. I started out with the escargot appetizer. It was very well presented and had a lots of good flavor. I enjoyed dipping the house bread into it! My second course was the French onion soup. Nothing too remarkable here. Very tasty and balanced with Gruyère cheese. I would have preferred it to be hotter. My main entrée was the lamb shank. This was prepared very well, with a tasty balance of good flavors. Not too much lamb on the bone, but good enough to enjoy the flavors.
I would have given 4 stars, but I was very disappointed in my server, Jessica. I tried so hard to keep it simple for her because I usually know what I want.
Caribou has a decent drink menu with quite a number of sparkling wines/​Champagne. I asked about the features of the Paul Goerg premier cru brut champagne. Unfortunately she could not tell me anything about this wine. I was very disappointed because with champagne, you cannot taste before you buy so you may have to rely on the server and their review. It may have been helpful if she tried to find out. Oh well. Throughout her service I just felt she was disconnected and not really into being at work. I understand we all have days like these, but at least try to fake it to the customer. At the end of my meal Jessica was no where to be found. I had to walk downstairs and pay for my meal at the bar! Embarrassing!
Overall, I did like this restaurant and I will go back many times. I’m not sure if I would like Jessica as my server. All the other staff were happy and pleasant.

Even though I’ve lived in Philly for 8 years, I had only been to Caribou once for drinks. After seeing a show at the Walnut Street Theater, my friends and I decided to give Caribou a go for some lunch. The place is definitely a venue to check out during the colder months, as it is very cozy and dark. Service was attentive and we enjoyed ourselves.
The food is good, but not memorable. I had the french onion soup, which was sort of disappointing, as it lacked flavor. The beet salad was delicious, but at $ 14.50 if you get the warm goat cheese, it’s a bit pricy.
I’d go back for drinks, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go here.

Mediocre Food. Bad service, 1 menu for six people. Table water — LUKEWARM. Had to ask 2x for refills. Same for bread (bread was actually good).
How do you keep them from charging 18% on a party of 6 or more, and then give you poor service. So maybe we had a bad waiter… Bill was over $ 450 and they charged us $ 1.50 for ice cubes in a vodka (on the $ 1.50) rocks. We should have complained. Venting here so the next guy can take precautions– bring your own ice!

Wonderful service! The vesper cocktail is superb!
We stopped in prior to seeing a show and were told up front to expect slow service because they were crowded. That was not the case at all. I wish I could recall our servers name because he was fantastic in answering questions.