L'Eden - Tampa

I was thrilled to try a new restaurant downtown, and happy that Open Table got us a reservation. We were all dressed up and ready for our evening of a nice dinner and concert. Imagine my surprise when we got to the restaurant and saw a note on the door that it was CLOSED all weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday! Nothing like trying to rush and find a place to eat on a Saturday night, especially when you have a concert to get to and a limited time frame.

This is a delightful small restaurant. The food is quite good, but too expensive for what you get, and the menu is too limited for Open Table. (All beef entrees were out by 7pm.

L'Eden turned out to be fantastic. We had theatre tickets and I found L'Eden by looking around. If you are looking for an authentic French Cafe, then this is the place. They have a wide variety of French Cafe quiches, soups and sandwiches, a decent wine list and several interesting beers. They also lay out home fresh French pastries every morning that if you are in the area, a stop shouldn't be missed. This was our first visit but certainly will not be our last.

The restaurant was very loud, which made conversation a tad difficult. It wasn 't the most charming atmosphere, the wine list wasn 't extensive, and yet, I would not hesitate to recommend this place to someone. The food was delicious. The server knew which wines would work for our palate. The dessert, crepes with hot fudge and strawberries, was a perfect finish to an excellent meal.

Charming setting with really tasty food! We weren't aware that the dinner entree's were limited during the business week (full entree menu is only on Friday and Saturday nights), but the owner was very gracious in allowing us to order off the full internet menu to see if they had the ingredients on hand to make our selections, which they then did superbly. We noticed another couple get up and leave before ordering, and couldn't help but wonder if that was the reason. So I would recommend that if you are there on a weekday evening and feel the entree offerings are too limited, speak with the owner like we did. You won't regret it! Both their Steak Diane and Lemon Walnut Chicken were superb, with the Diane sauce having a nice hue of Champaign and the chicken's sauce not being overpowering. The desert crepe was perfect; light texture and not too heavy at all. The owner also made a wine recommendation which did not disappoint. The owner indicated that she acquired the restaurant about a year and a half ago, so if you haven't been in lately, I would definitely recommend going! I think this is our new favorite restaurant downtown.