Jill's Restaurant: great food with casual elegance
Published: May 1, 2009
Jill's, a beautiful bistro in the St. Julien hotel, serves up a truly gracious dining experience. If its casual elegance and friendly service don't draw you back, the food probably will.
You can call the cuisine eclectic, with flavors hinting at the Mediterranean region; but whether you come here for breakfast, lunch, dinner or the sumptuous Sunday brunch, you'll almost certainly call it good.
The chefs use local ingredients whenever possible, and they dress up starters such as fresh organic greens from Munson Farms with a very good and very traditional lemon vinaigrette, for $7. (Prices in this article are rounded.) The spinach salad, with gorgonzola, figs and candied walnuts, is even more delicious.
As for entrees, the braised Colorado lamb shank comes with apricots, Marcona almonds and minted couscous for $23 — the same price as the Atlantic salmon. The $35 beef tenderloin is by far the most expensive dish on the menu, but you can practically dine on the Catalan flat bread, piping hot from the wood stone oven and topped with fire roasted peppers, olives, thyme and Manchego cheese, for only $9. That will leave a few dollars for a good wine or one of the St. Julien's special martinis.
For lunch, the sandwiches in the low double-digits are a good bet. If you're really hungry, you can fill up on the Tuscan Table of pizzas, strombolis, panini, antipasti, salads and desserts for $12.
The $40 Sunday brunch costs a lot more, but then you get a lot more, too: local meats and roast beef carved to order; mounds of king crab legs; traditional paella and pastas; various salads — and of course waffles and omelets.
Jill's pastry chef has a way with sweets, and it's almost impossible to keep from sampling all the cheesecakes, cream puffs, tiramisu and half-dozen other delicious desserts. You can accompany this feast with as much champagne (or as many screwdrivers or Bloody Mary's) as you'd like — at least, until you get too tipsy and they have to cut you off.
Whether you're a demanding business traveler, a vacationer planning a climb up Long's Peak or just a local foodie out on the town, you'll come away from Jill's delighted with the fine dining in a memorable space — and all at surprisingly reasonable prices.
- by David Zindell, Denver Reporter for HelloMetro
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