What to expect when you’re expecting…dinner in a Bistro-Restaurant?
We’ve taken it upon ourselves to look into what really is the deal with the popular bistro cuisine. And here’s what we’ve found.
Technically, a bistro is the place where you can get a coffee and a snack or a glass of wine and a simple meal alongside, the kind of place where the menu is not very sophisticated. Many bistro restaurants are guided by “fresh, fast and good”, satisfying for every customer and for all clients. But when you think about it, it seems quite hard to put these all together, if what you’re looking for is high quality food. “Fast” and “fresh” actually rarely go together, and if you were to choose, then “fresh” would be the most obvious choice. Because it is preferable to have the patience for the products to be freshly prepared, with natural ingredients, rather than be half-baked or defrosted.
The difference between fresh food and frozen bags is 30 minutes of your time. And instead of having your stomach filled fast, would you not rather choose fresh and tasteful food, cooked with respect to the raw material?
And while 30 minutes might sound like a lot, can you “go fast” without compromising the taste or the carefully selected ingredients?
In middle and small kitchens, such as bistro kitchens, which are not organized in areas (meat, fish, desserts, salads) and the orders come out in a row, as they come, it’s quite common for the staff to go from cooking pasta, to arranging some dessert, then grilling meat, and so on.
One might think that chefs can perform miracles while working on several orders, and that it should not take more than 10 minutes to prepare the ordered dish. But if you’re doing the math, when a group of 3 people – the average number of cooks in small kitchens – have to freshly boil pasta, fry fish, prepare dessert, grill meat, cook lamb and peas, pork, mushroom or potatoes, and do some form of plating, then 30 minutes waiting time start sounding more reasonable.
Of course, when you are very hungry, each minute seems an eternity. Obviously food could come quickly. Pasta could be pre-cooked and only heated and mixed with the ready-made sauce. And the spinach could also be done and just heated on demand. Potatoes could be frozen, and then their cooking time would reduced to half. But is this what you would really want to eat?
A good Bistro will always choose “fresh” and “good”, rather than “fast”. Because good healthy food is of the essence.
And a good Bistro in Sibiu, trying to maintaing high quality food standards, is definitely Jules Bistro. Jules Bistro-Restaurant is a place which gathers under the same roof a French touch restaurant, a romantic summer terrace and a comprehensive wine bar. The music is obviously French. And the location is perfect, right in the middle of everything, in a building that practically “breathes” history. You can get your daily discount code from Travelscounter, and you can pay Jules a visit. You’ll have a lovely meal, and a 10% discount off the entire bill. Enjoy!
