Downtown Boulder has good mount of dining options, and if you are looking for an upscale dining, you can find one inside St. Julien Hotel & Spa. It is a beautiful hotel as well, if you are looking for a fancy accommodation. As soon as we walked in, we were welcomed by a huge lobby space with live music. They have a nice bar next to the lobby, so people could relax with a drink while enjoying some music.

 

To the left of the entrance, they have the sign for the restaurant. It is a pretty big building with plenty of space.

They have a bar and some table seating by the entrance of the restaurant, and no host/hostess desk. But, a waitress spotted us immediately and came over. We had reservation since it was a group of 6. It was not very crowded, which is what we prefer, we like quieter setting. The restaurant had 3 sections or rooms, the first one was the bar and high tables, the middle middle room was the largest, with kitchen and large tables, and the last room had booth seating with some more table seating as well. The large window that was separating the rooms had shiny stars or leaves on it, it was lovely.

 

We sat in the middle room, the largest, at the around table by the window. It was quite a beautiful room. I loved the simple but yet artistic design of the room, with bright yellow accent color, beautiful lines on the ceiling, and minimal and soft lighting.

They had beautiful fresh irises on the table, which was really nice. Their plates were customized with their name/logo. On top of that, they had real dinner candles, not the electronic kinds, but real candles.

I ordered a cocktail before we started with our dinner. They had creative names for their specialty cocktails, which made me want to order all of them, but I started with just one. I chose the one with most intriguing name, Fifty Shades of Chocolate and Cherry ($10). I know, how could anyone resist it, right? It is made with Godiva chocolate, Vodka, Bordeaux Cherry, and chocolate drizzle. And yes, it was as amazing as it sounds. It was chocolate-y without being too sweet, creamy without being thick. And, to my happy surprise, it had two Bordeaux cherries at the bottom which was really tasty! They also have a good selection of wine and other drinks. We ordered Alcance Cabernet Sauvignon, 2013 from Chile. It was super smooth, great quality.  It has the freshness from the Maule grapes, and great structure of the Maipo fruit. It is velvety to tongue, fruity aroma and flavor, with lingering finish.

So, it was clear to me that we were getting some amazing drinks. Now, let’s move on to food. The complimentary bread was pretty nice. Great selection in a basket, from sliced bread, rolls, and thin crunchy kind. Rolls were super soft and still warm. Crunchy one was really tasty with great flavor. It came with a cute butter container, and the butter was nice and light.

  

Then the waitress brought us apèritifs, compliments of the chef. It was a smoked pork with goat cheese and bread crumb on apricot chutney. It had great cheesy flavor, and chutney was sweet and refreshing.

For appetizer, I ordered Jill’s Bistro Tots ($7.95), which comes with truffle aioli and reggiano cheese.  They were these cute little squares, and had great truffle flavor. They were crunchy on the outside, soft and potato-y in the inside. Not your regular tots.

For main dish, I ordered Lobster alla Carbonara ($27.95), which comes with saffron fettucine, house cured bacon, peas, six minute organic egg, and parmesan. Naturally, I was excited for this dish, and I was a bit disappointed when it came to  the table. It was one of those “huge plate with small portioned food” look to it.  But, as I started to eat it, I realized that it was actually pretty good amount food. It was very satisfying. And, it had huge chunks of lobsters as well. Egg was perfectly cooked, as I broke the egg, it was time for food porn. However, pasta was not cooked with love and attention – some of them were stuck to each other – not so great. I really liked the small chunks of bacon in the dish, it added nice salty flavor and texture. Sauce was ok, not amazing.

We also ordered some side dishes to share; Citrus Asparagus, Creamed Spinach Gratin, and Hand-Cut Kennebec Fries ($6.95/each). Asparagus were cooked perfectly. Not too hard, not too soggy. It had nice seasoning, just right.

Spinach was different from what I expected as “creamed spinach.” It was more like spinach with creamy sauce… It was ok, not amazing. The fries, I had high hopes for the fries for some reason, but it was just ok, nothing special.

After the meal, we were sooooo full, I didn’t have any room for another cocktail or a dessert. So, I just ordered cappuccino. The waitress brought everyone’s coffee/cappuccino, and that was it. No spoon, no sugar, no milk. We thought it was coming after she dropped off all the drinks, but she never came back… The cappuccino was ok. Lots of foam. Maybe too much foam…

Since we were such a delightful group of patrons, they brought us salted dark chocolate truffle with milk chocolate ganache on the house. So sweet of them to do that for us! It had nice salt flavor to bring out the sweetness of dark chocolate, soft center was creamy and delicious.

Our server (Morgan?) was extremely nice, friendly, accommodating and polite. But, it was a very slow service. We were not in rush, but still, it was slow. And the fact that we didn’t get any tea spoon or sugar for our coffee was a no-no. Since we couldn’t locate her or any staff, we used left over fork or knife to stir our coffee/cappuccino…

The rest room is located by the main hotel lobby, passed the lobby bar. Just a bit of a walk from the restaurant but is a beautiful bathroom. Spacious and clean.

Overall, we had a really nice dinner, took longer than expected with slow service, but a good dinner overall. If you are looking for a nice hotel to stay, or have a spa retreat, or just a dinner, this is a good place to visit. Drink and wine menu is a must, I would love to go back for some more of their specialty cocktails!

Jill’s Restaurant & Bistro – 900 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302