Café du Monde vs Café Beignet [Best Beignets in NOLA]

Beignets are as New Orleans as jazz, steamboats, unique cemeteries, and Mardi Gras. Every time we’ve visited here (three times now, to be precise), one of the first things we do in New Orleans is search out a snack of sweet, hot beignets – and I bet you will too!

If you’re looking for the best beignets in New Orleans, you’re in the right place! In this post, we’re comparing multiple different cafés and restaurants that serve beignets in NOLA.

Of course, we have to start by comparing the most popular two locations: Café du Monde and Café Beignet, but we’re also including several other spots that you should consider visiting on your hunt for the perfect New Orleans beignet.

Where to Find the Best Beignets in New Orleans

1. Café Beignet

Café Beignet is one of the most popular beignet joints in NOLA. They have multiple spots around the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods, but the flagship store is on 600 Decatur Street.

This store is wildly popular and the line is often out the door. Everyone stands in line to order at the counter, and you can get your food for takeout or dine in, and try to find an open table in the very lavish dining room. Besides beignets, you can also order a variety of coffee, hot chocolate, or soft drinks, as well as sandwiches and breakfast plates.

I stood in line for 15-20 minutes, and then had to wait another 15 minutes to get my beignets – it felt like kind of a long wait.

The eating area is expansive and fancy, with black and white tiles, a chandelier, and decorative accents on the walls and ceiling. It’s certainly the prettiest spot we visited for beignets.

There is live music from 2-10pm every day, and there’s also a separate bar where you can order drinks.

You can get regular beignets or beignets drizzled with chocolate. The beignets here quite big (probably the biggest of any we got) and drenched in powdered sugar. Unfortunately, these were our least favorite beignets – they were thick and dense, and although they were fried, they weren’t super fluffy or airy.

• Cost for 3 Beignets at Café Beignet: $4.75 (or $5.75 for 3 beignets with chocolate drizzle)

2. Café du Monde

Café du Monde is the other most popular beignet spot in New Orleans, and they also have a few different locations around the city.

The location right next to Jackson Square (800 Decatur Street) is the most popular and the biggest, and has a large dining area under a tent-like structure. You can either find a table for sit-down service or order at the window for takeaway. Besides beignets, you can also order various coffee drinks, hot chocolate, or soft drinks here.

It’s pretty busy in the tent dining area (and not nearly as cute as Café Beignet), so I would just order from the takeaway window – while the line was pretty long, it moved really fast, and they just had fresh beignets ready to go when I ordered.

Unfortunately, these were also not our favorite beignets in New Orleans – while not as dense as the ones at Café Beignet, they also weren’t particularly light, fluffy, or crispy.

Note: Café du Monde only takes cash 

Cost for 3 Beignets at Café du Monde: $3.85

3. Streetcar Café

Streetcar Café is a charming, cozy restaurant just on the other side of Canal Street. It’s a small, local café and there aren’t a lot of tables, so you might have to wait if you come during the lunch or dinner hours (so I’d recommend trying to come slightly off-rush times). 

This is a regular café, so you can order a variety of regular meals, and everything we ordered was delicious. Most importantly, the beignets were light and fluffy, perfectly crispy on the outside, and soft and airy on the inside. They were lightly dusted with powdered sugar, but there was enough to add sweetness to the fried dough.

This was definitely a contender for our favorite beignet.

• Cost for 3 Beignets at Streetcar Café: $7

4. Hot Benny’s

Hot Benny’s is a very small café that’s right on Canal Street and St Peters Street that serves coffee drinks and beignets. There are a few tables inside, but it’s clearly a spot where people mostly order something to-go. We waited maybe 10 minutes for the beignets.

These beignets were a little bit softer and poofier than the ones at Streetcar Café, and infinitely more airy than either Café du Monde or Café Beignet. The beignets at Streetcar were just a little crispier (in a good way), and Hot Benny’s were just a little bit softer (also in a good way).

Cost for 3 Beignets at Hot Benny’s: $6.25

So, What Was Our Favorite Beignet?

This might be a hot take, but neither Café du Monde nor Café Beignet had the best beignets in New Orleans. For every single person in our family, Streetcar Café and Hot Benny’s won by a long shot.

If you really want to eat at one of the most classic and famous beignet spots in the city, I’d give the edge to Cafe du Monde for better-tasting beignets, but the edge to Cafe Beignet for the cuter dining room. But if you want to eat a really quality pastry, then Hot Benny’s or Streetcar Cafe wins, easily.

Both of these cafés’ beignets were very light and fluffy, with Streetcar being a little crispier and Benny’s being a little softer. To me, the fact that they were light and fluffy was more important than the slight difference in crispiness, and I would happily eat either one again.