chez jules

on my recent trip to edinburgh, my cousin brought me round some of her favourite restaurants in edinburgh. one of them was chez jules, a casual friendly bistro that offers classic french dishes.
inside, there are pillars and blackboards on which menus and specials are scrawled in colourful chalk. the lighting is dimmed in the evenings, with awinebottle drip candle holder on each table to add a bit of a romantic ambience.
upon being seated, we were served their standard complimentary starters of bread and butter, olives and sliced salami, and a heavily dressed bowl of lettuce leaves.
viv started with the grilled goats cheese which was served on toast with balsamic and sesame dressing. there was a subtle sweetness from the honey, and the walnuts added a bit of a crunchy texture. i went for the sauteed homemade duck confit leg with fresh thyme and garlic. a lovely piece of tender meat, served with a side of mustard to add a bit of spice to it.
the steak tartare was finely chopped and you could taste the luscious flavour of the meat, lightly spiced with worchester sauce, chilli, shallots and garlic mayo.
slow braised french rabbit leg with dijon mustard, white wine, and smoked bacon with gratin dauphinois. delicious flavours and succulent meat, and the crisp bread that it was served on nicely soaked up all that lovely sauce.
we were really full after all that food that we unfortunately did not have space for dessert.
overall, we both enjoyed our meal there - the food was simple and satisfying, and it has a really chilled and relaxing atmosphere.

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always loved this place. prices are reasonable, food is great, atmosphere is relaxed. only downside? when it's full, it can be extremely noisy (but obviously right).

fav foods? i love the green salad that comes with the bread and butter. escargot (of course), onion soup (obviously, this is a french restaurant), duck, steak tartare (sorry, i'm a big steak tartare fan), the sausages, and the gratin dauphinois (absolutely to die for...but this is a big portion and better to be shared).

and because it's a french restaurant...i always go for their house white and red wines (only in 2 cuisines do i have the house wine...french and italian. why? because even the housewinefrom these countries are already pretty darn good. i'm nowineconnoisseur, but i do know the wines from the ones i like and the ones i don't. and i don't believe in paying lots for an insignificant difference).

on my recent trip to edinburgh, my cousin brought me round some of her favourite restaurants in edinburgh. one of them was chez jules, a casual friendly bistro that offers classic french dishes. inside, there are pillars and blackboards on which menus and specials are scrawled in colourful chalk. the lighting is dimmed in the evenings, with awinebottle drip candle holder on each table to add a bit of a romantic ambience.

thanks to urban traveller for the tip!kate re and i loved this place!a cosy and a bit loud atmosphere in a true little piece of france in edinburgh! very good housewineand excellent food! stuff and service were perfect, i'll definitely come back!

always great food, always great atmosphere, have picpoul on thewinelist & friendly staff so what more could you ask for? lunch time is super good value with their menu du jour.

i came here on friday evening with a friend and we had booked a table for 6pm.the restaurant was fairly quiet at this time which was nice but did feel a bit strange!

we were shown to our table and brought over some bread olives and salami to have with our drink. thewinei ordered came in a little glass tumbler as opposed to awineglass which i was aware they did but it did still seem weird drinkingwinethat way! the food was really good - i had a half lobster and my friend had a steak which she ordered to be medium but it came a bit on the rare side (fine for me but not so much for her). for dessert we had a lemon sorbet and a creme brulee which was very good as well. the restaurant started to get very busy fairly quickly and became pretty noisy so we were quite happy once we finished eating to move on somewhere else.

the staff were lovely and polite but did seem distracted at times- like not bringing the dessert menu once we had requested it and we had to request it again and the bill etc but this wasn't down to how busy it was as there seemed to be a lot of staff working - although they weren't very identifiable as they weren't in a uniform or anything. i gave the review a 3.5 because the evening was good enough but it wasn't spectacular - the food was good but the atmosphere was a bit of a non-starter.

french feast!. tucked away in a cellar at the bottom of hanover street is a lovely wee restaraunt serving up fresh french cuisine. though the menu isn't exactly what i would call extensive, there is enough of a choice offered to suit most tastes. upon being seated our table was quickly furnished with a basket of fresh bread, a bowl of leafy salad and a plate of cold meats and olives all of which were a lovely tasty touch. i started my meal with a delicious bowl of onion soup which was piping hot, full of flavour and arrived at the table almost instantly. if you are a fan of onion i highly recommend this dish to start! for my main i selected le filet mignon which i had cooked medium rare. in my experience most chefs will tend to overcook a medium rare into a medium, but at chez jules it was the opposite, there was a little too much pink for the faint of heart, fortunately i prefer my steak more on the rare side so it wasn't a problem for me, but heed my warning, ensure you are very clear on how you want your meat prepared! also included in the meal was a beautifully presented pan of dauphinois potatoes which were just a treat to the tastebuds! by the time we had our main the restaraunt was packed and the nights service underway. our final dish, a piece of brie and sauce (which doesn't appear on the online menu), took a little longer to arrive than i would normally have liked, but it was easy to see that the place was busy and the staff were doing their best to ensure that everyone was being looked after. the layout of the restaraunt is slightly cramped, it was a bit difficult to get into and out of our seats once the surrounding tables were full, though the red and white check tablecloths, the wax coveredwinebottle candlesticks and the piped in accordian music did make one feel as though they could be in a parisian bistro. the staff were very friendly and welcoming and constantly could be seen checking on their clients to ensure that everything was to their liking. all in all we had a lovely meal at chez jules and have already made plans with some of our french food loving friends to return.