Disappointing Raleigh French Restaurant
We spent our recent wedding anniversary dinner at Raleigh’s Saint Jacques Restaurant. It’s a very small French restaurant on Falls of Neuse in a strip mall with Michael Dean’s restaurant. I’d read all these great reviews online and was really excited to go the week before. In fact one review site had 24 five star glowing reviews on the restaurant. That’s like almost unbelievable and frankly a little ‘over the top’. That should’ve been a tip off or at least a yellow flag. I mean even Raleigh’s Angus Barn, Fins or Second Empire never get those 100% blemish free reviews… and to me they are near 5 star Raleigh restaurants. Just goes to show you that you can’t believe everything you read. …Next best thing to being in Provence someone wrote. No, I’d much rather have eaten in Provence, thank you.
It wasn’t a bad experience…it’s just eating in a small restaurant without a lot of ambiance, and facing a dead strip mall parking lot, is hardly like being in Provence. Maybe it’s more happening on the weekends. And, not that the restaurant didn’t provide good food either…it did. It just wasn’t outta this world like the price we paid. The food was tasty and well prepared but just not something I’d personally die to go back for. It was too rich for my tastes and the entrée portions were too small …I know that’s French cuisine for you. And believe me, I love French food …and I’m not talking about French fries although that has a special place in my stomach too…haha.
Disappointing Sea Bass and Potato Entree
I could come up with all kinds of descriptive words about the food and my experience at Saint Jacques, but really, it just boiled down to …it just wasn’t all that for me. It didn’t leave me with wanting more.
Besides the fact that it was our anniversary, the value was not great. We had two appetizers, an entrée each, and one dessert. I had a glass of champagne and Eric had 2 glasses of wine. The bill was $144 before the tip. I had the sea bass wrapped in a fried potato. I don’t remember what Eric ordered except that it was also a small entrée.
He liked the lemon dessert and ate the whole thing so that’s saying something. The restaurant staff was thoughtful enough to put it on a “Joyeux Anniversaire” Plate with a lit candle. It was interesting because at first I thought it was written in chocolate sauce but then noticed it wasn’t.
I will say I did like their bread and butter though so it started out on a good foot. And we were highly entertained by our young host and waiter. He had a little bounce to his step. And he had a heavy French accent so I had fun giving him French responses…the little French I remember from school. When he was crumbing the white linen table, we both noticed one of my hairs… from my head thank you, had fallen on the table. He picked it up with his crumber and we all laughed. Then he told me about this story about how he once long ago (which was probably 2 months ago in his twenty year old life) …lived with a female roommate who had hair in the bathroom everywhere.
After the story, he was like Omigosh which is like the English version of ooh la la! I was amused. The lifestyle of American girls especially must’ve been culture shock for him when he first came to America. I think if they had our waiter do some ‘live comedy entertainment’ and he was the opening act, that might’ve changed my view on Saint Jacques Restaurant.
If you want to spend an enjoyable time, eating delicious food, interacting with locals, and catching up with friends, Coquette Brasserie in North Hills, Raleigh is the perfect spot!