D& J Bistro

Hubby and I are making a trip for fun to Chicago in mid August. We love to research and pick our restaurants ahead of time. Last time we were there we wanted to go to D&J Bistro (Barrington I believe) and were unable to because of time constraints. We are staying in Schaumburg and want to go to a restaurant nearby. Has anyone dined there recently who can give us opinions of this bistro? If you like others better, we would be interested but don't want to get much more expensive than D&J. Thanks!

It's been a couple of years, but I've eaten at D&J several times, and always been very happy: relaxed atmosphere, unpretentious, good ameri-french.

I'm not sure I'd ever call it convenient to Woodfield area, though.

I ran mapquest from our hotel in Schaumburg to D&J - it showed D&J is only 15 miles from our hotel - doesn't seem like a bad drive. Thanks for your recommendation of the restaurant.

Actually, D & J Bistro is in Lake Zurich at the corner of 12 (Rand Rd) and 22 (half day Rd) It is a lovely little place. Enjoy!

I second the D&J recommendation. Dominique and his wife Jacqueline are two of the most generous and kind people you'll meet. For as long as they have been at it, it's inspiring to see how completely dedicated and passionate they still are. They are ever-present in the dining room, quick with a kind greeting and even a recommendation or two. You'll have a great time.

That area is blessed with another great restaurant called Eclectic, in Barrington (D&J is in Lake Zurich). Price points are certainly higher than D&J, but still an excellent value. The place is housed in an old schoolhouse right in the heart of town. To call it fusion would be inaccurate, but the chef borrows freely from any number of ethnic ingredients and preparations that can sound a little odd together. Consider a current entree from the menu: Sauteed Black Tip Shark Dusted with Togorashi, set atop Thai Rice Noodles simmered in Oaxacan Sauce and Cumin Carrots. It's a highwire act to be sure, but it works. If cost is an issue, Eclectic's also BYO-friendlier than most suburban restaurants you're apt to find, with a $5 or $10 corkage fee.

If you can only do one, go to D&J, but doing both would be memorable. Enjoy your trip.

D&J Bistro
466 South Rand Road
Lake Zurich
(847) 438-8001

Eclectic Restaurant
117 North Avenue
Barrington, IL 60010
(847) 277-7300

Thanks so much for all the replies! I just found this board recently -- it is quite helpful and very interesting to read all the posts. Thanks again -
P.S. One of our first dining experiences in Chicago was Froggy's on Green Bay Road in Highwood. Great experience! Sleuthed it out at a time when the Internet wasn't available for research.

Does anyone know if Eclectic in Barrington closed? I tried calling there to make reservations for Mother's Day and the number has been disconnected. Their URL isn't working either...

Thanks in advance!
asami

asami wrote:Does anyone know if Eclectic in Barrington closed? I tried calling there to make reservations for Mother's Day and the number has been disconnected. Their URL isn't working either...

Thanks in advance!
asami

I have heard Eclectic is no more...

i go there every chance i get, with my wife in the evening or business lunches with friends......very much worth a little drive.......closed mondays.........sit inside, even if it is a nice day as the noise from rand road doesn't make for the best al fresco dining.......

LTH,

We were visiting friends in the far suburbs this past weekend and ended up at D & J Bistro on the evening of Bastille Day. The place was packed and my hopes were up for some brandade, frisee salad aux lardons, or perhaps mussels, sweetbreads, kidneys, or calves liver.

None of these items are on the menu. They do, however feature pastas, baba ghanoush, and lots of Tyler Florence/Appleby's like entree salad creations. One of the folks at our table wanted soup, but soups were not available that evening (get 'em in and out, like cattle).

I was further disappointed when bread was placed on the table. This "baguette" was an example of the cheapest, pre-fab grocery store quality loaf that I've seen in a while.

Even the garlic butter which accompanied my escargots was insipid, as not to offend the tastes of the "Rice a Roni" eaters.

My entree of Steak au Poive came not with "frites", but a heap of frozen shoestring fried potatoes, and lukewarm at that. When our desserts were served, there was no coffee service at all.

And most irritating to me, was the proprietor, dressed in striped shirt and beret, singing and dancing around, giving the suburbanites that feeling of French authenticity.

How does he sleep at night?

D & J Bistro
466 South Rand Rd.
Lake Zurich, IL 60047

I have been going to D&J for years. I started dining there originally with my parents, and then with my husband. Our meals there have been nothing but wonderful. However, back in March we took our older son there to celebrate his 19th birthday as he has a thing for steak frites. We couldn't have been more underwhelmed by the whole evening and it will be a long time before we go back. I was very impressed that the management was able to keep their previous standards up to snuff during all the road construction in their neighborhood, so why did things fall apart once the roads were back together?

A few weeks ago we took my Mom to Barrington Country Bistro to celebrate her birthday. Everything was spot on and from now on that will be our "go to" place for a nice dinner out close to home. I'm curious as to what has changed at D&J. Even their old standbys were mediocre at best.

Whoa, that sounds awful.

Anyone been to Retro Bistro recently? I heard something about the two splitting into separate businesses. I always enjoyed RB but haven't been in a while.

Since Retro and D&J have always been owned by the same people, I would be very surprised if they split. I've always thought that, of the two places, D&J was better anyway.

Kwe730 wrote:Since Retro and D&J have always been owned by the same people, I would be very surprised if they split. I've always thought that, of the two places, D&J was better anyway.

My understanding, from an informed source, is that the owners of the 2 restaurants are relatives but that the 2 restaurants are separate entities.

Can anyone confirm?

=R=

I was at D & J a couple of months ago - I thought the service was very good. But I was underwhelmed by the food. It was fine - but nothing great.

Sorry if I'm creating confusion about this. I understood that the restaurants were created by the same people. I can't find anything explicit about the current business relationship (or lack thereof) at http://www.retrobistro.com/ or http://www.dj-bistro.com/.

I'll just have to go to Retro and see how they are doing.

I posted about a meal at Retro Bistro in November. It sounds as if D&J is no better. I'm disappointed to hear about D&J, since it used to be quite good, and surely they couldn't have survived for 20 years without something going for them. However, perhaps Bastille Day isn't a good day to judge?

My understanding is that the current owner/operators of Retro Bistro are the daughter and son-in-law of Dominique Legeai, one of the partners in D&J.

Retro Bistro web site wrote:Retro Bistro was founded in 1992 by Dominique Legeai and Masato Suzuki. This was the 2nd Bistro opened by Dominique and Masato, the first being D&J Bistro founded in 1987.

Christopher Barth and his wife Lorraine, both graduates of Kendall Hospitality Cuilinary School, became partners and operators in 1997 after 10 years of involvement with both D&J and Retro Bistro.

been going to D&J bistro since 2000 and our last visit in 2007 was less than stellar. Many problems and the BCB is so much better....

Evil Ronnie, was this a regular menu or the special Bastille Day menu? They might have had a special menu for Bastille Day that didn't include their regular dishes.

Having said that, we have been to the restaurant twice, once about 5-6 years ago and once about 2 years ago.

I remember liking it during our first visit. We were completely underwhelmed during the second visit, though. I don't remember what we had in particular, though.

eggplant wrote:Evil Ronnie, was this a regular menu or the special Bastille Day menu? They might have had a special menu for Bastille Day that didn't include their regular dishes.

Having said that, we have been to the restaurant twice, once about 5-6 years ago and once about 2 years ago.

I remember liking it during our first visit. We were completely underwhelmed during the second visit, though. I don't remember what we had in particular, though.

eggplant,

In addition their regular menu, D & J offered both three and four course prix fixe menus that evening.

Spoke with someone today who is acquainted with the owners of D&J and they confirmed for me what LAZ posted. Retro is now owned by the daughter and son-in-law of the couple that owns D&J.

Has anyone been here more recently than 2007? Have to stay in the burbs this weekend for the couple joining us, but it's my birthday and we wanted to try something new....now I'm less than excited about going here. Price point was good, north is critical.

Comments or alternatives? TIA

sujormik wrote:Has anyone been here more recently than 2007? Have to stay in the burbs this weekend for the couple joining us, but it's my birthday and we wanted to try something new....now I'm less than excited about going here. Price point was good, north is critical.

Comments or alternatives? TIA

I haven't been there for a few years, but I have some friends that go there regularly and think it's great. I think you'll be pleased.

sujormik wrote:Has anyone been here more recently than 2007? Have to stay in the burbs this weekend for the couple joining us, but it's my birthday and we wanted to try something new....now I'm less than excited about going here. Price point was good, north is critical.

Comments or alternatives? TIA

I have been going to D & J Bistro about once a year for the last couple of years. I have been there for both the lunch prix fixe and the dinner prix fixe. The food quality has been consistently good (at a good value).

Thank you.

I was there a couple of years ago and spent sometime looking at options on the menu. I was really impressed and had some dificulty deciding my order. When the server came I requested an item and the server said my request was not available so I chose my second option. The server informed me that was not available either. I was dumbfounded until the server explained to me that what I was looking at a list of things they had offered in the past. I was annoyed and didn't want to look at the menu so I order steak and frites, which was fair at best IMO. I have never seen any other restaurant do anything that idiotic before or since my visit to D&J.

Went Saturday night and since people here were so nice about making comments, I thought I'd add mine. We went with great ambivalence after reading the mixed reviews here so I may have liked it better than if I was expecting greatness. In general I'd say the food was very good, the service was not.

The place is cute, though very loud. Bar was pretty crowded but we only waited about 10 minutes past our reservation to be seated. They offer a prix fixe deal but several of the items we were interested in were not included in that option so we went ala carte. We shared 2 appetizers, a crab cake which was delicious, and a rabbit risotto which was also very good. My husband was very surprised there was no onion soup gratinee (and very disappointed about that as well), he must have asked the waiter 3 times "are you SURE you don't have onion soup?" and the waiter was not amused. I have not been to another french restaurant that does NOT have the traditional soup with the cheese and crouton. Anyway.

Took awhile but we eventually got some warm bread at the table, it was GREAT, really nice crust and chewy but not heavy interior. We asked for a second round of bread, it was that good.

We had different salads, the Lyonnaise was pretty good, egg poached nicely, but a little under seasoned. The house salad looked good, nothing special and I remember thinking it was a little pricey for what it was. Our fourth person had the cream of mushroom soup, said it was great. He also had tuna 3-ways for his entree, I will admit to not being able to see much of his plate but he said everything was good. Two steak frites with shallot butter were VERY good, NY strip instead of a hangar steak I see often. Also a "mini-chateaubriand" which was 2 small filet medallions wrapped in pancetta and a peppercorn sauce with mashed potatoes and a couple asparagus spears. This was very delicious, more sauce would have been great!

Desserts were disappointing, again, my husband was hoping for chocolate mousse and there was nothing like it on the menu. Special dessert was a frozen Grand Marnier souffle, we ordered one for the table and at first it tasted like a creamsicle but it petered out. Nothing else was even remotely tempting to us, and this was for my birthday! Not sure if the person making the reservation mentioned it but nothing was said by the staff (many places will acknowledge a birthday even if they don't comp a dessert or have a candle) but I was not too bothered.

I'd go back. I don't think I'd race up there from Northbrook but we did enjoy it and without a basis of comparison to the other place mentioned upthread (or this place previously) I'd recommend it.

If the waiter knows that someone has a Birthday, he/she would deliver your dessert plate with "Happy Birthday" written on it. We normally tell them that we are attending lunch/dinner for a Birthday when we make the reservation.



By the way, D & J Bistro's menu changes pretty frequently.