St Jack - Portland

We sat at the chef's bar, which was a lot of fun. It was great to watch them at work and see how they prepare the food. We started with the baguette and butter, which was delicious but the bread was served at room temperature, which was a bit disappointing. The gougeres cacio e pepe were amazing and the mushroom vol au vent was pretty good as well. Personally, I was more interested in the puff pastry of the dish than anything else. The mushrooms were a bit large for my taste, but I am not a big fan of mushrooms. The drinks were excellent, especially the spritz that I had.

The restaurant has a great ambiance with cool music and good service. The escargot was absolutely delicious, served with a large baguette to soak up the butter sauce. However, the chicken with dill pickle sauce was not a good match. The sauce was too sharp and tangy for the chicken, not appealing to my taste and likely not for many others. I would recommend trying a different sauce for the chicken dish. Despite being disappointed with the chicken, the overall experience was enjoyable.

I dined at this lovely French Bistro for the second time this week. I was warmly welcomed and seated at the bar again, as per my request. I started with a butter lettuce salad with fine herbs dijon vinaigrette, gougères, and a cup of marinated mixed olives. For my main course, I had steak frites, a 10-ounce bavette. The steak was perfectly cooked and the frites were crispy and salty. For dessert, I chose crepes suzette, which were delicious. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because the butter lettuce was not dried properly, causing the vinaigrette to be watered down and lose its flavor. Other than that, everything was perfect. I will definitely be returning soon.

The Gruyère poppers were excellent. As was the steak tartare and steak frites. The liver mousse was yummy but looks odd on the plate. Wish the bread was warm but service and wine were excellent.

Came in for dinner without a reservation and sat at the bar. Had a great experience. Asked for lots of recommendations from the bartender and they were all good choices. Bonus points for having good mocktails.Parking: Had to park about two blocks away, but wasn’t hard to find a spot. It’s in a semi residential neighborhood.