Taking a look online, you will find many photos of the above photographed platter of meat, salad, and fries. Côte de Bœuf is the most popular item to order from Jules Bistro's menu, and I can see why.
Jules Bistro serves French cuisine with the hopes that you will feel right at home. They recently opened up a new location on Queen West, and although you are in the middle of Toronto, you will feel as though you've stepped into a family friend's living room. The atmosphere is cozy, and with an open kitchen, it really feels like you're at home. And as we started off our meal with a glass of red, I really did feel at home!
While looking around the restaurant, what caught my eye instantly was Jules' côte de bœuf. I mean, look at that platter! How could you not order that? This board is meant to be shared between two people, which gave us room to order a couple other dishes. We opted with one of the chalkboard specials of the day, and also their salmon tartare.
The chalkboard specials include dishes made from some of Jules Bistro's freshest ingredients. At the time that we went, they had scallops, beef bourguignon, and grilled octopus - which was what caught my eye. And oh my my, am I ever glad we ordered it! It was perfectly grilled on the outside with that crisp, but the inside was soft and tender. The tentacle was not slimy or rubbery like you might find some octopus dishes at other restaurants - an overall win. Our other starter was the salmon tartare, which was the best on top of lightly toasted baguette. It is also good to note that everything here is made in-house, even their mayo. The only thing that isn't made in house is their ketchup, because as David the owner stated, "Heinz is the best."
As for our main, there was no competition with what we were to order. I stated this above already, but yes, we did order the côte de bœuf. And yes, we did eat all 24 oz. of it! As a main for two, it also comes with a side of a spring mix salad, fries, and grilled veggies. Cooked to a medium rare, you can see the juicy, pink center with the charred outline. With a bit more pepper and salt added, each little bite was tender and delicious. I would highly recommend following the footsteps of what Instagram shows and order this when you visit Jules Bistro.
To end off our dining experience, we each had a serving of their crème brûlée. I don't remember the last time I had a good crème brûlée - oh wait, I do. It was a Jules haha. But before this, I really don't recall! It was definitely a sweet ending to our meal here, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I also mentioned that it was my friend's birthday, so they brought out the dessert with a candle (and the whole restaurant proceeded to sing happy birthday) - that was awesome haha. Overall, we both had a really great dining experience at Jules Bistro. As mentioned above, the ambience was very cozy-like and made you feel like you were right at home, which I found to work perfect with the type of food we had (i.e. sharing our dishes). The service was great, and we really hit all aspects of food here (seafood, meat, dessert). I'm already planning for my next visit, and I think you should too :)
