We had been to JULII before when a friend of ours was chef there and it was delish, and it still is. We were at Strathmore for an opera an needed a place nearby, so Julii fir the bill at less than 7 minutes up the Pike! The menu is still Mediterranean like before and offers lots of nice options and the food is filling, tasty and good-sized, so no complaints at all. The service was excellent to boot, save for one Sprite seeming to take a while to arrive.
We started with a Reverdy Ducroux Sancerre and then moved on to a Chateau Pesquie Les Terrasses from the Rhone. The wine prices are a tad high for the burbs, but the quality was good.
Someone does need to check the menu as our young guest (age 11) noticed that the menu was divided to "PETITE PLATS" & "GRAND PLATS" both of which are grammatically incorrect! It should be "Petits Plats" & "Grands Plats" as they are masculine and plural!!
Starters were a yummy BEETS & BURRATA salad with za'atar seasoning as well as two excellent crudo options: SCALLOP with lemon puree, aleppo herb oil, crispy garlic and shallots as well as BLUEFIN TUNA with roasted garlic, tomato confit, crispy sunchoke and aleppo oil. We loved the little crunch on both crudos and the fish quality was superb!
Scallops reappeared in the SCALLOPS RISOTTO with mushrooms and the huge portion of CRISPY TROUT was gorgeous with urfa coriander spice, meuniere sauce, pequillo peppers, sunchokes, celery, potato and almonds. The RIGATONI BOLOGNESE was okay even though it has beef, veal and Benton's pork belly in the sauce. My STEAK FRITES was superb and used a rare to medium rare 10 oz. Creekstone Farms bavette(flank steak or London broil) that was as tender as could be with super frites, Madeira truffle demi sauce and a "Parisienne" salad which was two or three lettuce leaves with way too much vinaigrette!
The Creme Brulee was nice with a pistachio brittle and the Chocolate Tahini Pot de Creme was as rich and chocolatey as it comes.
We were dear friends after the opera and indeed had a wonderful time as we always do with this very special family.
