We’ve been trying to get back to Justine for years. I remember when it arrived on the scene. It was of course the delicious food of Justin Devillier with a French-inspired decor and food. Justine’s is sort of romantic to me. It has three different atmosphere vibes. The indoor/outdoor bar is one very appealing space followed by another more communal room whose feature was a kitchen framed by a piece taken from a Parisien slaughterhouse a few centuries back. This section has communal tables and booths that offer glimpses into the kitchen. The last dining room is dark.
We used to enjoy sitting in that middle room, but on our last visit, we sat in the very first room. The bar has a space with doors that open to the outside. When we sat down I asked what we could get quickly. My eyes fell on a little card offering two dishes for Brunch. The first dish on the card was banana bread. It came with a banana sliced lengthwise and torched to caramelize it into a thin glass of sugar. Butter with honey accompanied this in a unique presentation. It was warm and moist and subtlely spiced in the manner of a carrot cake.
We also got the other item on the Brunch card, as well as the fish and chips. And we added a shrimp remoulade. The shrimp remoulade was different than I expected, but I should have expected different. The menu stated that vegetables were involved, but it was largely a salad with a few shrimp. A tiny group of shrimp in creamy remoulade were almost completely hidden by a few pickled onions, The salad of mixed greens was interspersed with green beans and slices of cucumber in a light vinaigrette.
I haven’t got the slightest idea why, but I pictured a remoulade salad like I would see in a less hip place, Maybe that was why this salad was so disappointing. The shrimp was sort of mushy and overdressed, and the vinaigrette was so light as to be not even noticeable. The green beans and cucumber were both slightly crunchy, in stark contrast to the oddly soft shrimp.
The entrees came and I found these rather disappointing as well. The brisket biscuit dish seemed expensive at $22. It was two buttered and toasted biscuit halves with a mound of shredded brisket topped with a fried egg over easy on each half. The biscuit was nice. The brisket was stringy, and the eggs were a good specimen of over easy. This was perfectly fine but nothing special, and I expect special in a place like this. Certainly for that price. There was nothing else on the plate.
Tom was crazy about the fish, which turned out to be local redfish over housecut fries, It was served with a tiny ramekin of spicy aioli and another of ketchup. The fries were very good but too dark. They would have been perfect had they been golden brown. It was a nice slab of redfish. This was less fish and chips and more a local fried redfish platter.
For a mid-afternoon lunch, the service was glacial. It’s been a while since we were at Justine, but I remember the whole experience very differently. Both food and service were much better then. Maybe it’s really not as good as it was, maybe I’m more cynical, or maybe it’s just another place for us to leave to a younger and hipper crowd.
