Saint Jacques French Cuisine - Raleigh

Liquor licensed expired. No warning till you got there. Very disappointed. Other parties left. Should have notified clients at the time of reservation.

Food was international not specifically French The wine selection was poor Waitress was not good

I really wanted this place to be good but it was disappointing. Overall, the food was okay. -For appetizers, the foie gras appetizer was decent. The soup of the day was a lobster and crab bisque, which was very tasty but a bit lacking on the meat. -We ordered the scallop risotto and the duck breast for the main course. The risotto was really soupy and reminded us of the soup of the day. It was like 90% liquid and 10% rice. The scallops were only seared on one side and it was over seasoned on that same side; however, they were pretty good and we got a generous amount. Oddly there was also one squid in the dish. The duck breast was supposed to be medium rare, but it came out medium well. There was also one carrot amidst the green beans, which was weird. -The dessert we chose was the peach galette. It was pretty big and could feed up to 4 people. The pastry was really dense. The best part of it was the ice cream on top. Other things we noticed: -The restaurant decor was bland, generic. -I could hear a very loud conversation in the kitchen. It was weird that they were yelling about a hot dog? -The bathroom was clean and had nice thick hand towels, but it was weird that the inside of the toilet lid was completely wet and the seat was all wet too. I guess it was cleaned but didn’t have enough time to dry out? -The service was acceptable. Our server was polite and friendly. The food came out in a timely manner. All in all, this wasn’t the fine dining experience I was hoping for.

Everything was great. My only recommendation is to make sure you clean the floor. My wife immediately noticed that the floor looked dirty. Nevertheless, we will visit again and recommend it to friends.

St. Jacques is a reliably good restaurant with traditional French fare. The food service are consistent. The overall impression is lacking when more ancillary items are considered such as: 1) 4 large window boxes planters with dead floral material are what first greet prospective diners. 2) The glass on the front door is in dire need of cleaning. 3) Music may have been French-inspired, but did not create a relaxing atmosphere. 4) When making a reservation, the celebration of 2 birthdays was mentioned, but this was overlooked by the staff. It was difficult to not make comparisons to the attention to detail of the previous owners Lil Lori, who made St. Jacques a Michelin-worthy restaurant. There was a sign on the front door asking for patience, but it wasn't clear what improvements were being made. It may be worth checking out again at a later date.