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Friday, January 27, 2006

Rue St. Jacques

This turned out to be a cute little bistro nestled in the residential area between Nob Hill and Chinatown. In a nutshell, the food was good, the value was decent, and the service could use a little work. I'm working with a new camera these days, so please bear with the fuzzy photos while I work out the kinks.


We started the meal by sharing a foie gras terrine. Very nice. The foie gras was very smooth, and the sweet cherry sauce complemented the gaminess of the liver.

Cassoulet: two kinds of sausage and a nice big piece of duck swimming in buttery sauce. The top was crispy, and the presentation in a cast iron skillet on top of two bricks was amusing. A very large portion; I think two people could easily share this if they got separate appetizers and desserts. The only thing weird about this was that some of the white beans were more cooked than the others.


Rabbit confit with mashed potatoes and tarragon sauce. The rabbit was delicious, with crispy skin. I usually think tarragon tastes too much liks licorice, but the sauce was well balanced. I liked this quite a lot.

As we were paying our bill, the table next to us got their salmon and scallops. The smell of seafood was incredible. If we had smelled that on the way in, I would have abandoned my selection in favor of the scallops on a bed of lentils, covered in some kind of pale green sauce. It was all we could do to keep from staring at it.

Service was friendly. I did appreciate the waiter pouring me a sip of my cote du rhone to try before he poured me an entire glass; I think every restaurant that serves wine should make this a habit. One ounce of wine is a small price to pay to ensure that every customer likes what he or she is drinking. Complaints include the fact that a twelve person party of noisy birthday celebrators showed up, but that's not the restaurant's fault. The waiters are eager but unpolished, doing things like popping up right next to us and saying "How's everything going?" very loudly in the middle of our conversation, and asking if we wanted change when without change we would have been leaving a 25% tip. Nothing major, and not at all unusual or off-putting in a little neighborhood bistro.

Rue St. Jacques Website

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