Brasserie Jo near the Prudential Center
I have dinner reservations there for tomorrow night. Has anyone been there? How is the food? The service? Any recommendations? They didn't have the wine list on their website. Is the wine list good? How about the prices on wine?
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Boston Foodie
Jul 2, 2007 06:32 AM
Dinner on Friday night was good - not excellent - but good. The wine list was far too over priced and the wait staff was horrible, quite unprofessional in fact. One waitress yelled to a waiter across the dining room, I was shocked by her lack of professionalism. We started each with an Onion Soup which was absolutely delicious, possibly the best I have ever had. Next we shared the special appetizer, a crab and avocado salad. Large pieces of crab meat, fresh avocado, but there seemed to be something missing, maybe it was the dressing. It just seemed like there needed to be something to marry the two that wasn't quite there. My steak was delicious, a very nice cut and perfectly prepared. Dessert were the profiteroles (am I spelling that correctly?). To be honest, being the chocolaholic that I am, the dish was saturated in chocolate, which is my favorite way to have any dish, bot sure if it's the true "foodie" way to eat it however. My fiancee had the scallops and seemed to really enjoy them, he himself is a chef and in effect is quite picky, so they must have been delicious, or I'm sure he would have said otherwise. All in all, an enjoyable experience. I'm excited, however, to try Gaslight once it opens. There was a feature on the restaurant in this month's Improper Bostonian which has really gotten me excited! It's supposed to be quite casual and affordable which is very nice. Apparently wine by the glass starts at $4.50. As a graduate student, finances are tight so that's always good news!
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re: Boston Foodie
MC Slim JB
Jul 2, 2007 06:49 AM
Well, that's several recent reports of crap service at Brasserie Jo, a bad trend. I never use the dining room unless I'm with a very large group, always dine at the bar, where service is usually excellent.
I'm looking forward to the Gaslight, too, but take any claims of "affordability" with a big grain of salt. Every South End restaurateur makes this claim for PR purposes ahead of time. Union pitched its burger to the neighbors during its pre-opening tour to get liquor license approvals as an $8 dish (it quickly soared to its current price, $13). The Butcher Shop was originally all $5-8 small plates and affordable wines; try getting out of there for under $50 now. Remember Ken Oringer saying the average check size at Toro would be $25? Amusing, no?
So far, the only one who has come close to telling the truth about its prices within a few months of opening is Pops (which opened a very pleasant patio recenty, and is serving lunch). Let's see how long it can stick to its "no entrees over $20" pledge.
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Sorry to have missed the deadline for your visit, but this is one of our Boston regulars. Every evening after Symphony - or about 8 times in the season - we go to Brasserie Jo for oysters and frittes. Among other reasons why it's so fun: the BSO guest conductors, guest artists, and Mr. Levine hisself are frequent post-performance visitors. For our pre-oyster selections, we go either with the frisee salad or the onion tart. And if we venture beyond these staples...the results may be problematic (although the duck confit with lentils can be nice).
The only negative: At some dramatic point during the past year ('round about February) they had almost a total turnover in the host and server staff. All of our favorites, many of whom had been there for several years, were suddently gone, and the new crew...well, they were very new.
But still, it is a very appealing option for that neighborhood late on a Saturday evening!
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Small Plates
Jun 29, 2007 09:19 PM
Yeah, frisee aux lardons and pissaladiere - DELISH - I remember having my first chick martini there about 10 years ago - some orangerie thing. It was great - I am an oenophile, typically, but this was good and fresh and new. My experience since then has always felt clean and bright and delicious. The lighting bugs me, but that, I guess, is secondary.
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davis_sq_pro
Jun 29, 2007 01:06 PM
I've been going there for years, and although I think the service has gone way downhill in the last few years--enough to make me really cut back on my number of visits--the food is still just as great as it always was. As others have mentioned, the frisee salad is awesome. The skate wing is out of this world--be prepared to consume a LOT of butter (but it's worth every bite). I also like the "shrimp bag" a lot--basically a crispy filo bag filled with shrimp, sitting in a pool of tasty lobster sauce.
What no one has mentioned is dessert options, which are also great. My wife and I have been addicted to the profiteroles since our first visit--huge, and covered with some of the best chocolate sauce I've ever had. The chocolate mousse is also amazing. In short, you should plan for a very tasty dinner, and hopefully you'll get one of the good servers.
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gini
Jun 29, 2007 07:00 AM
Food's good; service is competent. Like their onion tarte, steak frites, moules frites, skate wing, and frisee aux lardons. Haven't loved the tartes flambees, but they're just not my thing. The desserts are nicely presented, especially the mousse with sauces poured table side. Wine list is fine and you'll be able to find something that works for you on it.
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I've posted on Brasserie Jo before but to sum up: I like it a lot. Fresh, well executed, straightforward Brasserie fare. Generous portions as well (and ridiculously big drinks). My personal favorites: oysters, moules, frisee aux lardons, charcutrie, skate, and a lovely cheese trolley.
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re: tomaneng
C. Hamster
Jun 29, 2007 06:48 AM
frisee aux lardons!!!
their cheese is very, very good. so is their onion soup.
I really like the place.
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MC Slim JB
Jun 28, 2007 03:30 PM
I quite like the food here, many worthy dishes. Fine raw bar, steak-frites (with any of three sauces -- I like the Bordelaise) with excellent frites; onion tart, pate maison, chicken liver mousse, shrimp bag, tarte flambe (aka flammekeuche, an Alsatian flatbread pizza -- I especially like the "classic" with bacon), frisee salad with a poached egg on top, mussels mariniere, a very good steak tartare, a traditional choucroute garni (another Alsatian specialty, cabbage cooked in white wine and topped with a bunch of meats).
Watch out for that complimentary bread, butter, and classic carrot crudite; they are addictive.
The wine list is all-French, predictably not featuring a lot of bargains, but respectable, which I found online here: http://www.colonnadehotel.com/i/downl...
I make do with carafes of the house wines when I'm feeling pinched. Incidentally, the cocktails at the bar are excellent, and on the colossal side. The house pilsner, Hopla, is also quite nice.
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riceflour
Jun 28, 2007 02:12 PM
The last time I was there (about four years ago, since I've moved to the other coast), the food was pretty tasty. I remember a particularly tender and juicy hangar steak with perfectly seasoned, parsely-flecked fries. And the wine--whatever it was, my dad ordered it--was a nice complement. Dessert must not have been memorable, since I can't recall even one bite, but I do remember a lovely tawny port.
I hope the food is as good during your dinner as it was during mine :)
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birdy30
Jun 28, 2007 01:54 PM
We were there a couple of weeks back for a pre MFA show. Many servers are still there from when they first opened almost ten years ago. I love how they send out baguettes of bread along with carrots. Take a little bit of that spicy mustard and your good to go. One thing that annoyed me though was the wine list. All French obviously, but the price range was a bit too high. The cheaper bottles were the wines by the glass and I hate that. Our Haut Medoc was $49.00. French fare is a far cry from what the Roman likes but he did venture out a bit with the smoked salmon and horseradish cream. I suppose he liked it a lot because there wasn't a morsel left. I have always gone to BJ for the escargot. Piping hot oil and garlic with an endless supply of bread for dipping. We each got the steak frites. But my memory behooves me. I could have sworn the steak use to be more of a hangar steak style, not what we had. This was more like a cheap ol' piece of meat that could not be cooked rare. We were both a bit disappointed. Although everything was not lost. The meal ended nicely with the classic floating island - a mound of merengue on creme anglaise. When David Kinkead (sp?) was the chef, I think, though, that the food quality was better than now.
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