Boulevard Bistro — Restaurant in Elk Grove

Boulevard Bistro was one of the first restaurants I tried when I first moved into Elk Grove a year and some change ago. I really enjoyed going and ordering takeout from this restaurant with my partner for the bone marrow, which used to be incredible, which I have attached for reference.

As of late however, they change how they cut the bones. Before, they were splitting them down the middle and you have two beautiful halves you can scoop out from that cook wonderfully.

Now they cut the bone marrow cylinders horizontally across the tube, so now you have these tubes which I have a lot of problems with.

I'm not sure if it's a market scheme to make it seem like you get more bang for your buck since they give you three cylinders instead of two halves, but they're obviously much more stout and might not even be the whole bone that you used to get.

They now cook UNEVENLY. You get a lot more inconsistency in the texture and temperature to the point that it MIGHT EVEN BE RAW, which is a ton more DANGEROUS than plain uncooked steak or other cuts of meat. My first order of marrow was undercooked, and it was VILE which I didn't even dare to try it. I added a star because the manager graciously had it remade for me free of charge, but the next set was also pretty unevenly cooked which I didn't bother fighting about as I didn't have another 30 minutes to spare waiting.

When it is cut across the tube into cylinders, there is A LOT OF WASTED & INACCESSIBLE MARROW. The cooked bones naturally have a lot of rogue bone thread inside, and there is never a perfect hollowed out bone. This is usually not a problem when the bone is split down the middle. When you cut it into tubes, scraping these bones clean becomes a herculean task. You can't dip bread and enjoy this in a relaxing fashion anymore; you have to pine for every little piece of marrow you can get and still waste a large portion of it. With the order I had replaced I used all 3 cylinders to barely fill out only 1 of the 4 small pieces of bread you get.

Combining all of this with the fact that it literally feels like you get less bone for $24 is just downright upsetting. I feel like this is such an obvious oversight in so many ways that it might just be downright malicious and a means to cut corners and cheapen out.

I really used to love this place just for their marrow and I will not be coming back here for takeout or...

A few years ago, I had made a reservation for our anniversary but didn't realize I had fat fingered the date. We ended up being one week late. Since Boulevard Bistro is so cozy, and reservations tight, we were out of luck. We completely understood and simply went somewhere else. Fast forward to this year and we finally get to have a table for our 9th anniversary. Service was outstanding as was all of the food except one item. Here's what we had...

Appetizer: Crab Rillettes (Awesome, we couldn't get enough)

Wife's Salad: Wedge Salad (she's a salad lover and absolutely loved this one. My Salad: Strawberry Salad (I also loved it)

Entrees Wife: Pistachio Crusted Halibut (Fantastic, we both loved it) Mine: Ribeye Medium Rare (Though the steak was perfectly MR and very flavorful, this cut had quite a bit of gristle. I realize ribeye steaks have some fat marbling but this wasn't that. Much of it was tough to chew and I have had better cuts at Outback. Don't get me wrong, I still devoured it like a caveman and really enjoyed it but it simply was not the grade of meat you would expect from a Zagat rated restaurant.

Desert: We shared the Crème brulee (the caramelized top and inner custard was awesome)

Overall though, I would definitely recommend. We'll be going back and based on the excellence of all the other menu items we ordered, we simply drew the short straw on the ribeye. I suspect it's probably a much better steak on any...

THE BEST FOOD I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE! I wish I would have took the time to take some pictures but I was in a hurry. Unfortunately I did not get to slowly eat and enjoy the food because I was busy today and had to be somewhere. But this food is made, cooked, and prepared with love. It is a single chef which is actually the owner. The food takes a little bit of time to prepare, but it is well worth it. This ain't no Dennys and the serving size are what we should should be eating not "Super size me" servings. I got mad when I read some of these negative comments. If you go when they are busy expect certain delays, it is A SINGLE CHEF. But the quality of the food is as close to perfection as it could be. The service provided was extremely polite from all the staff and extremely informative. I felt like I was a king, and I had the world's best personal chef. I could honestly go on forever about how EXTREMELY satisfied I was with the whole experience. I would highly recommend to try it for yourself, because I feel neither words or pictures do the food and service any justice. Let your taste buds be the judge of the food and your personal experience be the judge of service. Oh and the price was on par to what you get, not expensive at all for the quality. 100...