Jeune et Jolie

We had a wonderful experience at Jeune et Jolie for our anniversary. The service was so intentional, the food was incredible (every single course), and the atmosphere was lovely. They gave us a card signed by the whole staff! They made our evening very special. Shoutout to the milk bread & the meringue based dessert.

Ambience: This is a well-designed environment, everything on theme with a pink-green, modern, clean French look. It was all tiled, velvet, marble, with indoor house plants. Service: Wait staff had 4 to 6 tables per person. They filled glasses immediately and delicately served flatware upon place settings to prevent them from touching the table. (Background: these selections were made during their June 2026 menu.) Courses: The menu is a four-course meal, with dishes divided by bites meant to transition between the meals. This meant the experience totalled around 9 unique bites over 3 hours. Bite 1: I ordered the scallop from the raw bar as an appetizer. It was topped with a rose vinegerette and a butter that was frozen with liquid nitrogen in a dipping-dot style serving. It was refreshing and light . Bite 2: this was a rice puff shell filled with a tuna tartar topped with an avocado mousse. This leant a very rich, buttery flavor that I would be happy to repeat with its light, crunchy shell. Bite 3: this was officially the first plate: asparagus served with what tasted like a fennel oil, creme Fraiche sabayon , caviar, and fennel fronds. It said there was wasabi on the menu, but the spice wasn't apparent. The asparagus was perfectly cooked with a delicious flavor, cooked but still crisp. Overall, a delicious plate, but the fennel fronds sometimes were too big and could overwhelm the dish in some bites. Bite 4: this was a milk bread with avocado butter. The bread was very well cooked! It had a nice crisp crust with a fluffy interior. I would eat an endless supply of this. Bite 5: next was the uni tart with a buckwheat crust filled with spring peas and sundried tomatoes. The uni was very fresh, delicate, creamy texture, but it had a metallic aftertaste. The spring peas were delicious, but the tomatoes were overwhelming and made everything taste like pizza. The uni and peas would've been better solo, reminiscent of ricotta and peas. Bite 6: this was a profiterole (choux pastry), stuffed with garlic ramps or scapes alfredo, topped with a crispy Parmesan craquelin and a singule piece of shaved truffle. Honestly it was delicious, although the truffle was lost in the cheese flavor. The Parmesan crust and filling were dominant, so everything tasted like an adult cheez-it. Bite 7: next was an Italian dumpling, called gnudi, which is a soft, delicate dumpling made of ricotta and parmesan. It was served with carrots and a sweet, tangy carrot sauce. These were some of the best carrots I've ever had. There was also some herbs, maybe cilantro, fennel fronds, and something else. And some green almonds. These were very subtle compared to everything, like a background bitterness. Bite 8: I got the crepe cake. This wasn't what I expected. It only had 3 or 4 layers, which on top of a panna cotta. It was an acompanied by a lemon curd, maraschino cherries, rice puffs, basil leaves, and a chamomile foam. The menu said olive oil and white chocolate...I assume the panna cotta had the white chocolate flavor. It was good, sweet but not poignantly chocolate. But I don't know where the olive oil was, maybe in the crepes, although it wasn't obvious. Bite 9: finally, there was a kumquat financier, and a truffle filled with red wine ganache rolled in chopped nuts. This was a mixed bag: the financier was delicious but the kumquat wasn't apparent at all, it was only sticky. The truffle had a wonderfully thin shell and the ganache was super smooth and creamy, lighter than expecting. I would eat it again. TLDR: The meal was delicious, and everything was cooked well, but occasionally dishes weren't balanced, so certain flavors would overwhelm other components. Dishes could be simplified to highlight their exceptional techniques. Plan for 3 hours for all 9 courses.

I mean..... isn't kind of crazy that people will pay 120 per person (with a 4% half forced surcharge) and highlight the milk bread as the best out of that course? Yes, the milkbread was good, but other dishes were so..... unnecessary and lazy. The duck wasn't cooked well.. not crisp on the outside, just a bit half crisp. But it was juicy. But why all the berries? It didn't match at all and the berries didnt seem to be prepared in any way. Not a sauce, not a full compote, just lazy. The uni with the peas under it, peas were undercooked, and literally didn't match the uni at all. Uni felt wasted here, it was so unnecessary and a lazy dish. The lamb was good, but not amazing. The Gnudi was too soft and lacked the texture and almost too oily and it had this herb that was just so out of place, again, so unnecessary. The fish was fine but again not memorable. Above all, they call it French cuisine but there was nothing French about this place. I've had an amazing French cuisine places in OC with a glass of wine for 2 people for about $250 (and they didn't put a surchage in there). The only thing good about this place was the service, mood, and the milk bread. I'm just a nobody that wants to be honest about my experience but with everybody's rave about the milk bread, maybe this place should just turn into a bakery instead.

Everything was great, except the trout.

The food was so unique and delicious to taste, savor, and relish. The service was also S-tier, with Tommy and Amanda both helping me out. They provided not only in-depth descriptions of what was served, but also friendly conversation. The fine attention to detail and overall niceness of both of them (and the rest of the staff walking around) was top notch. It really looked like all of the staff enjoyed their job, which showed how well morale was/is instilled within the establishment by their leadership. Jeune et Jolie has the food quality and service quality nailed, and I'll be sharing how great they are with family, friends, coworkers, and anybody else until I return again. Thank you for this experience!