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Jules offers a menu of hearty, unpretentious French bistro fare in a room straight from Le Marais. Kronenbourg 1664 on tap and a daily three-course table d’hôte for $26 make it as affordable as it is authentic.
I can't count how many times I've been in the area and never noticed this wonderful little bistro. A spontaneous evening out found us at Jules. We arrived an hour before closing and were welcomed openly - they didn't pressure us to leave as they were closing, and let us finish in our own time. The live streaming of French radio was a nice touch.
We shared the octopus salad with shitake mushrooms - for my part, i enjoyed it, but would have prefered mushrooms that didn't come from a tin. For mains, we ordered the moules frites and lamb special - both were really well cooked, nice complementing flavours. The fries were so so, but the home made ketchup and mayo made up for the fries. Dessert was ok; not the biggest fan of dessert in general, but the flavours from the roasted pineapple were like a mini explosion in the mouth.
Service and the ambiance were second to none. Very attentive serveurs but not intrusive.
Jules is worth checking out!
I believe that Gagnon has not been associated with this restaurant in some years.
I do however agree with you about some waiters and the front of house at this location. More than once we have have encounterd the rude, often flustered man matching your description who thinks he can do no wrong. When you start your dining experience so far down, it's really hard to make up.
Food is good enough, however, with a number of brasserie type restaurants around town you are better off to avoid this gentleman and enjoy better food elsewhere.
Returned to Bistro Chez Jules on my usual pilgrimage -- every time I come to Vancouver, which is about twice a year. As usual, the reservation process was friendly and easy, the welcome heartwarming, the food good enough to make me eat a bit more than I wanted too and the service fantastic enough to warrant a really good tip.
I am not the kind of person people recognize by name or even by face in restaurants or hotels, but I have always been treated here like royalty and taken care of as such. Whether I eat steak-frites done exactly as I like it or a more complex dish, everything is always perfect and fresh and the French fries are homemade and to die for. The wine selection is good and they do have decaf espresso. After all that, they even offer to get you a taxi. Really my kind of place.
Not cheap but well worth coming back to.
In an earlier post had mistakenly identified former owner Stephen Gagnon as still being associated with the restaurant. He has since sold and this letter was received by the current proprietors who chose not to respond.
For some time we've been hearing rumblings, but last Saturday afternoon, my husband and I had our own unfortunate 'Jules Bistro' experience. We were seated alone on the patio at 3:30 for the purpose of holding a business meeting, and asked the server (blonde man) to leave the third chair at our table to set papers on. He told us we could use the floor and became visibly upset when we pointed out that the patio was empty and unlikely to fill at this time of day. He then moved the chair and told us that it was to stay where he had placed it. We considered leaving, but as this was clearly a case of somebody having a bad day, decided to overlook it.
We were attended to by another server, and all went well until the end of our meeting, when a large plastic vase crashed down from an upstairs window, glancing off one of the chairs at a table beside us. The blonde man again came out, rushing down the street to bring back the Lamplighter Pub manager, apparently responsible for the housing upstairs. He proceeded to berate this person loudly in front of us, and to refuse the person's offer to clear the refuse.
The blonde server himself then picked up the vase, moved out onto the sidewalk directly beside us and violently threw the object into the alleyway. At this point I lost my temper, there was little difference between what the people upstairs had done and the server potentially endangering anyone who happened to be in the alley. It is also very difficult to live in a neighbourhood where people coming here to work treat our streets like this.
The server's response was that he had the right to express his frustrations in whatever way he saw fit. We had a verbal sparring match and he then let us know we were no longer welcome at his establishment.
It appears this particular employee is taking on stress that should be borne by management and from our perspective, dealing with his Napoleonic complex was too high of a price to pay for a Saturday afternoon lunch. As paying customers, our experience was ridiculously unacceptable. We hope to hear from you, wish to continue to support you, and wish you much success with your continued business challenges
This place is awful. Stay away. Incredible overpriced in a bad location, terrible - rude and snob - attendants who will compete with each other to serve you but you may end up - like me - waiting and waiting for the drinks you ordered, and will have to order them again.
The steak with fries I asked clearly wasn't up to the price they charged. And talking about charging, double check your bill when you sign the credit card (they tried to charge 98 instead of 38... Like 3 isn't close to 9 in the keyboard, right).
Again, stay away from this terrible place, just like the owner apparently do (the only reasonable explanation for such a mess).
I can't count the times my husband and I have gone to Jules Bistro. The food is always amazing. My favourite is the French Onion soup and the salmon with mashed potatoes. So good! My husband usually gets the tenderloin and never had a complaint. The best part of this restaurant is really the room. Small and warm. Neat little place in Gastown...
Having tried unsuccessfully to get a table at Les Faux Bourgeois yet again, I remember passing by this quaint Gastown Bistro on several occasions and looking through the window to the warmly lit interiors and small but glamorous bar. Last night some friends and I enjoyed a lovely meal at Jules Bistro and I felt compelled to comment here.
The escargot and tart appetizers were really terrific - flavorful ... full of bacon and butter and garlic - yum!
The duck confit and steak entrees were equally as delicious and nobody felt full or uncomfortable afterwards.
We enjoyed a nice bottle of Pinot Blanc for $38 .... these days, wine for under $40 is nice to see. Oh and most of the entrees were under $20 which is one of the reasons I always liked going to Les Faux Bourgeois.
The only unfortunate part was the flustered (owner?). I couldn't tell but he seemed like the owner. We were running about 10 minutes behind for our reservation and called the restaurant ahead of time to let them know. No one answered and when we had to wait for our table (which was no big deal; we sat at the bar), we mentioned calling but the flustered man made some big exasperated show of not ever being able to hear the phone and I found that all just a bit much. When the staff seem flustered and overworked, it stresses out the diners. So - if you're reading these reviews - please take note.
Otherwise, awesome! Look forward to going again!
This place is fun, great ambiance, typical of a noisy French bistro. Great prices for food! Come on, a prix fix menu with starter, entree and dessert for $21 for Vancouver is crazy. As we were famished we ventured off the prix fix menu and ordered ala carte instead. I had the prawn avocado salad which is amazing and I had the 8 oz steak + frites, it was a simple dish, minimal sauce but tasty and well aged steak and the crispy piping hot frites made a world of difference, ask for mayo dip! Other diners had their lobster and crab bisque, I had a taste and actually bit into pieces of lobster which is unheard of, wickedly delicious!! The service was prompt, attentive without being imposing. The atmosphere is what kept me enthralled, it was noisy, packed to the seams, every diner was having a great time. I cannot wait to return, this place rocks!
Went here with the wife and a friend at 8:30pm on a Saturday night. Had to wait 20 minutes or so at the bar for a table, but no worries. The atmosphere was upbeat, people seemed to be enjoying themselves, and we were content to sip drinks at the bar while waiting for a table.
Food: None of us had a ton of food since we had all eaten a dinner of sorts at home earlier in the evening. I had the duck confit and my wife had the french onion soup, we shared a plate of fries and our friend had asparagus. Yup, just asparagus.....well, she's vegan and wasn't that hungry. But no worries! The server gave us no attitude and didn't care that we all weren't ordering full meals. She was all smiles all the time. Don't know what others are talking about with rude service.....I can't help but think, "you reap what you sow". But I digress..... The duck confit and salad were delicious, the fries were excellent, the french onion soup was fairly standard. For dessert we had the pear clafouti and the melting chocolate cake; both were yummy, I think I hoovered up my chocolate cake in about 10 seconds flat. Other entrees at tables around us looked really good and I would love to come back to enjoy a full, three-course meal.
Service: As noted above, there was no attitude and our female server was all smiles. A basket of yummy warm baguette and pitcher of cold water were placed on our table in a timely manner. Only gets three stars, though, since she didn't check up on us during our meal or to see if we needed more drinks, etc.
Value: Pretty good value. I've seen in other reviews people complaining about prices, which seems pretty de rigueur for whiny and ignorant Vancouverites. Listen, try dining out in London or New York City and talk to me again about high prices. Comparatively we have it pretty good here. Also remember that you are not just paying for the food itself, you are paying for the full package. So my duck confit was $18 or whatever; big deal. The ambiance was great and it is a small price to pay for a night out.
Ambiance: Loved it. A nice, cosy room with lots of exposed brick that reminded me a bit of some of the places my wife and I used to dine when we lived in Montreal. While the room was full and bustling, we never felt too close to any of the other tables and we could easily carry on a conversation.
Went to Jules for the first time the other night knowing from previous reviews that it might be hit or miss. Sadly it fell on the miss side. The room itself is very nice and I agree with other reviewers that it looks like something right out of Paris. We had good service, and the owner was very helpfull and polite (we must have gotten him on a good night). That the service was good should not have been a big surprize as the place was near empty. As for the food, we ordered a salad to split as an appitizer. It was fairly bland and basically lettuce with a few token nuts thrown in. I ordered the duck confit, and my partner ordered a scallop dinner special. The duck confit was well prepared, but all it was was a leg on another fairly basic salad. The scallop dish was just that, 5 scallops and bit of dressing...not much else. Again well prepared, but not exciting. For the prices charged, I would have expected more on the plate or at least some more creative use of the ingredients. Les Faux Bourgous or Le Regalade offer a much better experience and value than Jules does. I doubt I will go back to Jules any time soon.
We were greeted warmly as we entered by the restaurant manager. We were offered water as soon as we sat down,I love how they sit down a jar of iced cold water for you. Our server told us about the specials of the evening however she seemed very timid. But the restaurant manager came back to see if we had questions and he introduced the dishes in a very informatively and delightful manner. The bread was warm, crispy on the outside crust, soft and delicious inside, adding butter was just the best part of it all, it was crunchy, and then soft and creamy all together. I really enjoyed the bread, it was one of the best bread I had. The appetizer special of the day was salmon and scallop carpaccio, both was really nicely done. This dish was light and perfect to start the meal off. They have a $25 special that included a mixed greens, salmon frites and dessert. The salad was yummy with bits of walnuts that gave it a nice touch, it was bits of my favorite; crunchy sugar coated crunchy walnuts with a light dressing that kept you wanting to eat more. The salmon frites was grilled to perfection with a touch of garlic, tomatoes and peas on top, all of which I ate and loved. I normally do not eat peas however they made it so good with the salmon that I really liked the peas with my salmon. The salmon came with a side of fries, best restaurant fries ever, super crunchy and fresh, it was perfect! The other entree was the beef tenderloin with a red wine sauce, ratatouille and scallop potatoes, it was so juicy and tender, great dish! To end the night, we got the Marquise au Chocolat, which is a creme au chocolate terrine with coffee cream sauce, it was absolutely amazing, I loved every bite of it, it was delicious! We were welcomed back as we exit the restaurant, not many restaurants makes this gesture anymore, it was very pleassant! Excellent service from the restaurant manager! I would definitely recommend Jules!
It was a beautiful, early summer night.
We decided to try this restaurant we've passed by so many times before. We were greeted by the host (a mix between Phil Spector and Mole Man). The room is romantically lit, warm and inviting. It was quite busy and we were shown to a table at the back of the restaurant. We ordered some wine and waited for some friends to arrive.
After the friends arrived we, ordered some wine, two of us ordered the steak frites, the other two ordered the moules frites, the fifth friend just had drinks. The steak was barely decent, it seemed to have been left out for a bit and was only warm by the time it arrived, the frites were a little too soggy. The mussels too fishy tasting. So let's just say the food was just barely decent.
If we had left before our SIXTH guest arrived this review would have gotten a few more stars. As we're eating, enjoying each other's company, my girlfriend sees something moving on the table and jumps up with a yelp. The place is dark and it took me a while to spot it (bad night vision), but I finally did see it. It was a cockroach about an inch or so long, crawling on the table right next to the bread basket. I didn't know what else to do so I reached down and grabbed it. I turned around and the host was right behind me asking what happened, I told him there was a cockroach in my hand and his face went even paler than it already was. I put my still enclosed hand out to him and he motioned towards the garbage can where I deposited our rude and ill mannered cockroach guest.
After everyone sat back down, the host explained that there is a "halfway house" or "detox centre" above the restaurant and that pests were a constant nuisance. He did apologize to his benefit, and said he'd "take care of us". He came back with a bottle of red wine and began to pour MAYBE a millimeter into everyone's glass. Everyone sat there staring at each other, saying nothing, trying to contemplate the four millimeters of wine we received as pestilence penance. Still stunned, we didn't complain, we paid and left.
I'm sorry but 4 millimeters of red wine, a few apologies and the reason he gave us just didn't cut it. Maybe we should have been more aggressively outraged? Perhaps, but I think it was the host's job to butter us up to the point where the cockroach would have been.......almost forgotten.
We went to this restaurant tonight for dinner. I had read some rave reviews about Jules and wanted to try it for myself. I knew ahead of time that I was probably going to order the prix fixe menu of salad, steak frites and chocolate terrine for $23.
Food: The food was okay. Previous reviews raved about the portions sizes...I didn't particularly find the portion sizes that big. Having said that, I realize that this is a French bistro after all. The salad was good, not great. The steak was on the small size, but cooked to medium rare like I had requested and I asked for the herbed butter with it. It came with french fries, which was a fairly large portion, but it's just potatoes after all. There was a tomato/garlic cheese garnish, which was the only vegetable to food on the plate...and that was quite good actually. The dessert was nothing special. Should have paid an extra $2 and upgraded it to creme brule. We had bread to start, which was probably the best thing about the meal....really crusty and chewy baguette with cold butter. And the price was $25, not $23 after all. Must have increased their prices.
Service: our server was quite attentive and friendly, without being obtrusive.
Ambiance: our reservation was at 5:30 pm, when dinner service started, so it was pretty dead when we got there. It's pretty nice inside, nothing to complain about. Famed music manager Bruce Allen came in and sat down at the table next to us with a group of 6 other people. Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan was at Rosa's in Port Moody on a night that we went. We must attract all the celebs. ;-)
Value: The four of us had the prix fixe menu, with a bottle of red wine and 2 coffees and 1 tea and the bill came out to $151.98 after tax. I guess that is okay for gas town, but I definitely went away hungry. Wouldn't probably go back though for that price. I was okay, but I just felt it was too hyped and didn't deliver. I've had a prix fixe menu in New York about 3 years ago for $16 and the meal was way better than the one I had tonight.
Have eaten poor, old fish here before....but stopped in for a glass of wine and was treated incredibly rude by the "host" what a snot! God forbid I sit down at the empty bar before speaking to him. Needless to say we left and will not return. We had always enjoyed the decor but the food is awful, poor quality ingredients. We thought we would be safe with wine I guess not!
Food: My boyfriend and I ordered escargot and bacon tarts for our appetizers. The bacon tart was delicious but the escargot was only alright. As a main, I had the pork chop and my boyfriend had the tenderloin. Both of which were cooked perfectly. I really enjoyed my meal :)
Service: I expected a little more. The servers seemed unorganized. We had the specials read to us twice and then there was a bit of confusion as to who was going to take our order. But they did what they needed to do. They got the food out, they took our plates..etc.
Value: It was worth it, but it's not the cheapest place to go.
Ambiance: Very small little place. It's cute, but a little crowded.
We had such an upsetting experience at Jules and I wouldn't want any other diner to have to go through this. We arrived at 830 on a Tuesday night; there were four of us and we wanted to have desert and wine. We waited for a bit and then were seated by the owner. A few minutes later, when he realized we were there for desert, he stormed up to the table and shouted at us and tried to humiliate us. He simply raised his voice and demanded to know why we did not inform him we only wanted dessert and how he was shocked that hadn't. He said he could have seated other people in our seats and wondered how four people could sit down only for dessert. Other diners looked on and we were shocked by his behaviour. We have been to Jules many times before and we have taken our friends there. We were embarrassed that our friends were treated like this at a place we had recommended and we were totally furious. The owner of the restaurant didn't even acknowledge the fact that we have been there so many times before. The food is good and the prices are decent but a man like this does not deserve the business. I have never written a bad review before...I've never even felt compelled to write a review before but I just felt that I needed to tell people what had happened.
Was here with a few friends.
Ambiance: Cozy, small. Quite noisy, but not noisy enough that we couldn't hear each other talk. Nice decor inside, but metal fences/construction going on outside took a bit away from the whole feel of the place.
Food: Very good! Started off with the Moules Frites - so tasty!! I used the bread to soak up the delicious white wine sauce. Had their special dinner of salad, steak & chocolate terrine, great deal. Only complaint was that the steak had quite a few chunks of fat throughout. Oh well, for $23 I guess you can't expect too much.
Service: I'd actually give it a 3.5, but that's not an option. Polite and professional, but not all that friendly. At times we had some difficulty understanding the staff because of their thick accents, but that's what gives the restaurant that authentic feel. Server cleared plates promptly, but didn't always pour our wine for us - no biggie. However, they did ask for our table back after 2.5 hours (no mention of this when reservation was made). This was surprising considering that we had ordered 2 bottles of wine, and our bill came to around $230 after taxes/tips. I guess since the place isn't too big, they don't like patrons to stay for more than 3 hours.
Worth going to at least once.
We went to this restaurant because of all it's good reviews. It was early 5:00 p.m. and the restaurant was empty. And we get "Do you have a reservation?". I mean this place was empty. They gave us the worst table. So we move and are told we can't sit by the window because it is "reserved". They do seat us at a better table finally, but the restaurant stayed relatively empty and the "reserved" window tables were empty throughout our whole meal. This is a Bistro for heavens sake. Ditch the reservation book. First come first serve, and let people line up out the door.
The food was good, butithe experience put a damper on the evening.
Went there for my friend’s Thirty-third birthday dinner on Tuesday night. Made phone reservations with Hostess (Joy) and was greeted warmly at the door. But not before meeting owners Stephan (front of house) and Emanuel (Chef) at the entrance whilst on their breather break. They assured me the steaks are par excellence. I joked with them that the “real” French chefs are still in France but they’ve sent us their French trained dishwashers as a substitute!
We both ordered the three courses dinner from the carte du jour with the steaks done medium rare. One order with black pepper sauce and the other with mushroom sauce. The plate was trimmed with half a baked tomato Au gratin and plenty of frites. To start; the bread arrived at our table warmed with a small dish of unsalted butter and MMmmm. A mixed green salad with some sliced cherry tomatoes was served before our main course and a fruit crumble after. A couple of beers and Americano’s rounded up our meal. All this at a modest $54.00 plus tips and Taxes for two.
They did deliver the goods on the rib eye steaks (very tender) and the sauces were superb. The frits were crisp, clean with out any hint of oil, an added side dish of mayo and I finished every delicious frite, with my fingers (Bistro style).
I only have two minor distractions: The music was (?) and perhaps an injection of Bach would be nicer on my ears. And the restaurant was loud, LOUD but maybe that’s a la Style Bistro. Just be prepared to be boisterous and have some fun.
I’m looking forward to trying their pate and the Al-la-Carte items.
My boyfriend was leaving for Halifax and he'll be gone during our anniversary so I decided we should go somewhere special. He liked the French idea and so Jules seemed like a good choice with relatively affordable prices. We arrived 10 mins late but our reserved table was still there! And it was a window-side seat.
Both of us went for the $23 fixed menu - I was especially anxious to have the ratatouille or spinach instead of the fries. Our server told me "sure!" and I was euphoric! Off the bat I was impressed. NOWHERE does this happen! I mean come on, Earl's asks for $2.50 when you ask for a salad instead of fries. And even more so because my partner has some severe food allergies and she was able to take care of it all! Down to the dessert, she offered him a special coffee I find this type of attentive service just rare in Vancouver.
The food was really delicious for the deal we got. How much could you ask for? Gosh even the salad came in a generous portion and my boyfriend got his own special balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing because of his allergies. My major pet peeve is lukewarm food. I definitely don't mind scalding hot food for sure! So I found my steak done really well and the ratatouille was mellow and sweet. Eh the dessert was okay, I had the chocolate terrine: nothing special.
My only major beef with this place is the noise level. I can see that others here are concerned with rowdy patrons. Yeah unfortunately we sat near a group of 6 giddy women who could not stop shrieking and laughing. And the bar was really full of men yelling. I wouldn't have mind all that except combined with everyone else in the restaurant, having a conversation is futile unless you'd like to scream. And uh... we also occasionally saw some odd things going on outside the streets. Like the homeless walking around, stopping cars, lots of weird stuff. That was disconcerting but not the restaurant's fault I guess.
Definitely coming back again!
| 1. | Clough Club (11 m) | |
| 2. | Revel Room (13 m) |  |
| 3. | Lamplighter Public House, The (31 m) |  |
| 4. | Chronic Tacos (40 m) | |
| 5. | Juice Truck, The (42 m) | |
| 6. | Subway (62 m) | |
| 7. | La Casita (64 m) |  |
| 8. | Old Spaghetti Factory (79 m) | |
| 9. | Charles Bar, The (84 m) | |
| 10. | Salt Tasting Room (88 m) | |
