The Saint James

piece of bone in the first bite of my burger. Chicken was bone dry (no pun intended). Seems like they’re trying to do things there as cheaply as possible without the cheap prices.

Wow — managed to screw up a great opportunity. Great location in the burbs with decent /​good enough food. Would be a 3 or 4 star if the service was not so bad. Service was bad first time I was there a couple months ago, but gave it another shot last night. Somehow it managed to be worse.
Server took 20 minutes to get to the table (and was not crowded). Brought me the wrong drink. Asked if we wanted water and bread and never brought it. Food eventually came and was fine (tough to screw up burger too badly) other than being loaded with the dressing even though I asked for none. No chance to correct as he never came back and we did not have forever to wait.
Bill finally came (after us literally tracking him down) and even knowing that my burger and drink were both wrong he did nothing to try to make it right. Not about the money either, just a bad signal.
Never came to collect the bill. I had to walk in to find someone and saw him chatting w other wait staff. Finally, handed it to what I think was the manager and when he asked about the meal, I shared that I was pretty disappointed. The waiter then got in my face and said «I said I was sorry. I told you I would take better care of you when you come back next time.» before the manager pulled him away.
Waiter then came back to the table and threw our credit cards at us and said «We got it.»
While it was nice for them to comp the meal and maybe I would have given it another chance (and we eat out maybe 5x per week), the waiter managed to undo all of the goodwill.
It is really too bad as the main line could really benefit from a place like this.

Two stars for dining, four stars for happy hour, so I’ll average it to three.
Service is pretty bad. The food is mediocre. It is cheap during happy hour though! They do $ 5 glasses of wine from 5 – 7 each weeknight. The pours are generous. It makes it worth stopping by.
I with they could improve their food and service, cause this place has a lot of potential due to the location. Unfortunately, when the new restaurant opens up in the old American Eagle store, I expect The Saint James to go under just like Plate did.

I’ve dined here twice and while the ambiance is nice, the food and service are downright awful. We had a cheese plate and the bread was stale. Ordered the hummus and they gave us about 2 tbsp of it in a huge bowl for $ 14. The waiter ignored our group of 8 all evening– couldn’t be bothered to even refill water. I live nearby but I won’t return unfortunately.

When I came to this Unilocal page, I was not at all surprised to see the high volume of sub par reviews. I’ve been to the St. James a few times now and each time it has been pretty much sub par, which is why I feel comfortable writing this reivew. It’s one of my only under 5 star ratings…
Everyone seems to agree that the food and drinks are way over priced, and while they are tasty, they are not exactly worth the money. However, everyone else also seems to agree that it’s kind of the only place like it nearby and we all keep coming back out of the lack of an alternative. What did we do before the St. James?
My main complaint is about the happy hour. Last year, on a few occasions, I came with friends to sit in the square in the beautiful weather on the patio and enjoy happy hour drinks and food. In the beautiful weather its one of the only places to sit outside in a pleasant atmosphere with no traffic and a nice environment and enjoy a cocktail. I came here tonight and was told that in order to enjoy the happy hour specials I HAD to sit inside. I did not understand this as almost every table outside was empty and it was a beautiful day. I understand them wanting to keep the tables open out there for full service dinner, but that’s the point of having happy hour end at a certain time, like 6 or 7.
Hopefully the new place, ‘not your average joe’s’ will fill this void that I think all of Ardmore, and Lower Merion, is longing for!

Excellent drinks at the bar. Bar tenders were friendly and definitely hipster. Extensive wine menu and creative cocktails list. I did not dine at this restaurant but would certainly want to based on the drinks. Some prices were higher than expected.

I ate here last night after avoiding for a long time. The only reason the Saint James gets three stars (and not lower) is the level of service and the cocktails. The service was very good and the drinks were well made. It really should be 2 ½ stars.
The food is mediocre. I had the steal frites. The meat came out at the ordered temperature but I was not able to identify the cut of meat. It was definitely not a strip steak or other fatty cuts you generally see with steak frites. Most likely it was a tip steak or top round (or other lean inexpensive cut of meat). Either way it was not appropriate for steak frites! It was dry, had very little flavor and the portion size was very small. The plate was mostly made up with a large portion of frites and leafy greens.
I will not right it off yet. It is probably a good happy hour spot but not a good dinner spot.

We have brought the kids here a few times now. Great location. Decent atmosphere. The wait staff is great. Everything we have tried from the menu is great. They change the mussels daily. We have enjoyed the kale salad, it is a great salad. We really liked the flatbread and I have also tried the fish tacos.
Excellent addition to the area.

I had high hopes and, unfortunately, low expectations based on the St. James’ reputation. The place is beautiful and comfy. We started with Bloody Mary’s (tasty) and coffee (coffee) and decided to have the calamari appetizer. We were a tad disappointed that it was obvious frozen calamari that we could get at any bar on Lancaster Ave. The plus is there was a TON of it.
My wife got the smoked salmon platter and I had the eggs Benedict. My eggs were good and the Hollandaise was fresh but very lemony. You couldn’t miss it — it wasn’t bad, but it tasted wrong.
The salmon was pretty standard except for the cucumbers which were unacceptably old. They were rubbery and dry. I can’t believe they let them out of The kitchen especially with their bad press. It’s almost like Brunch is their chance to get rid of the leftover food from the week.
Service was good.
I, like many other Ardmore residents, am pulling for the St. James. It’s a nice place that I would love to visit on a regular basis but they make it hard for one to become a regular.

The St. James has undergone a complete transformation since it first opened. I am writing this so that maybe people who had a bad experience in the past will give it another shot. The bar is a great spot to sit for a nice drink. Also you cannot go wrong with the $ 1 happy hour oysters (although I do wish the happy hour drink prices were a little lower.
Mt last meal here was delicious. The Brussels sprouts are a must try — so delicious. The flat bread appetizers are also great. I had the scallops and my fiancé had a special pasta dish. We were both very happy. The service was also fantastic. The one down side is I feel like St. James is a little overpriced. Expect to pay as much here as you would anywhere downtown. That being said, forget about Craig Laban’s 0 bells and give St. James a second shot. Ardmore needs this place!

Awful. Simply awful. We visited early on a Saturday evening. We had to request silverware, butter, salt/​pepper *multiple* times. A water refill was challenging, too. Our food order was lost. We had to order again. The appetizer never showed up; the brussel sprouts were thoroughly burned; the steak was very well-​done, not rare as requested; the fish was overcooked and dry and appeared to have sat beneath a warming light for a long time. Two of three entrees were simply inedible. Oh, and while we eventually got salad, it took a while to get dressing for it. Nearly three hours passed between our sitting down and being served the entrée. We would have left, however, my husband, daughter and I found the entire experience, um, unique, and we wanted to see how it all played out. We spoke to a supervisor to initially ask about the whereabouts of our dinner. Later, we showed him the food and pointed out the obvious problems. Were offered a free desert – which turned out to be a cookie! With our cookie, we were given a bill that included the overdone, inedible steak and the dried out fish and the burned veggies. (And, no, we did not pay for the inedible parts of our meal.)
We will never return.

Deli Garden, Proud PopOver, Bains, Seasons … the heart of the Square is a tough place to make a buck for restaurants. I hope the Saint James does well.
Pluses — The people who greeted and served us could not have been friendlier, more attentive or nicer. Missed a couple of basics throughout the night but just SO DAMN NICE about everything, they were the best thing about St James.
The room is cute, comfy and they had some outdoor seats that must be great on warmer nights, especially when there is live music as their was last night. Happy hour snack prices were great and we will definitely make a trip in for the bar. Our cocktails (yummy negroni) were prepared and served with more panache than usual. It is a little loud. We liked the menu and wine list. Prices were pretty good for Main Line.
Food was consistently unremarkable with little misses and no highlights. Our bread was served cold, tired, maybe stale. Such an easy win if you do it right, so a sad miss when you don’t. Oysters were reasonably priced and well shucked, but didn’t come close to Magic on Ice I recently had at Nectar. The bacon mac n cheese wasn’t bacony, cheesey or baked. Sort of pasta tossed in a lite yellow cheese sauce with some bacon on top. Flatbreads, crab cakes and salads looked great as they were delivered to tables around us.
We had the Steak St James and Sea Bass. The Signature steak, sadly, was nearly cold, underseasoned, underdone. The Sea Bass was nearly perfectly cooked. Forgettable homemade marshmallows and dark chocolate ice cream and a foamless espresso left us underwhelmed. Food came up quickly throughout the night.
next visit will be happy hour, raw bar, burger, salad — Looking forward to it bumping this up to at least 3 stars

I had really high hopes for this place. There aren’t a lot of good restaurants in the Main Line, and their menu looked promising. Cute space and service is friendly and attentive. Tons of kids in the restaurant.
Unfortunately, the food is just meh. Our kale salad was pretty good, nothing to complain about. I paid $ 23 for a lobster roll that was tiny and had very little flavor. My husband had a totally underseasoned kabocha squash risotto. His snapper was well cooked, but also flavorless. We didn’t feel the need to try dessert. We won’t be back — total letdown.

If there’s one thing I wish the Saint James would roll on is the notion that the suburbs could use a late kitchen. Their menu is perfectly suited for the post-​dinner crowd, and could honestly compete for the post-​ten benchmark if they really really wanted to.
That said, they are most accommodating to the late night munchers craving a table a minute after their kitchen closed at 9. And in that moment, in this quiet, snug yet cavernous space, the warmth of the staff says «YES WE CAN» — make the night yours, Saint James. Make it, «The Place» — it would be most European of you.

We ordered a crab cake sandwich and they were out of it. The people next to us were eating calamari and we ask if we could order some. The waitress told us that the calamari was from the dinner menu and the reason the couple next to us got it was because they were out of burgers but that we couldn’t order. WTF! Half an hour later the table behind us were eating crab cake sandwiches. WTF!
Oh! And then they decided we could get some calamari. BTW the food was good but nothing special and a little pricey.

I always prefer a place that under-​promises and over-​delivers.
I think this place may be doing the opposite.
There has been such hooplah surrounding this place with the «heavy hitters» involved.
Maybe that has just made it too hard to live up to all the hype.
The service was a near perfect balance of attentiveness with intrusion.
The menu has interesting appeal.
But the kitchen needs help with execution and the value just isn’t there.
Case in point: I was going to order an appetizer, but I saw the Brisket and Gnocchi.
At $ 23 I figured this was a huge portion so I skipped the app.
When the meal arrived I was initially surprised by the size.
Turns out the size was perfect as I really prefer not to over-​induldge and have that over-​stuffed feeling after dinner. But, the problem was that there was no where near $ 23 worth of food, execution or design in that dish!
Four 1.5 or 2″ squares of delicious and well cooked brisket, with 5 or 6 poorly prepared gnocchi that had the texture of very soft mashed potatoes balls and very undercooked and sloppily cut carrots (perhaps they were supposed to look rustic).
My dining companion asked what I thought of the décor. I looked around for a while and «studied» the architecture and other elements for a few minutes and came to the conclusion… I don’t know what it is. What type of restaurant is The St James? I still don’t fully know.
I do know this however, by 7pm on a Saturday night the place was so teaming with families and young kids that all those hard surfaces had made it impossible to carry on a conversation.
I couple of other details that are just «off». You wouldn’t be able to sit in those awful bar stools for more than 10 minutes. And, the table we sat in had booth seating on one side and chair seating on the other… they were different heights. I was looking up at my dinner companion the entire night (I am 2″ taller).

Hey YOU! Yes, YOU, listen to me clearly. Skip this place as fast as you can. If anyone makes reservations for you, cancel them.
I decided to come to TSJ after my friend recommended a «new place» in her area. I looked at the Unilocal reviews and then looked at the menu. Since the menu looked good, and I wasnt in a «have it my way mood», I obliged.
When we arived, we were greeted by a friendly hostess (and manager) who showed us to our seats. Our server was very attentive, but the food was just. well…edible :$
My girlfriend and I each had the Kennet Square Mushroom soup, which was pureed mush. It was to thick and salty and needed to be blended more or have cream or water added to it. I’d take a Campbells Mushroom soup any day over this $ 9 bowl of slop.
For our main course we each had salads that gave good presentation but fell short on flavor. I had a salad with Turkey Apples and Cranberry and I have gotten a better salad at saladworks. I don’t understand what went wrong here. With Rouge as its big sister, I would have thought the food would be much better. Note to management: get a new chef.
Good service+tastless food+higher than your average prices=I’m not going back.

My fiancé and I had a great time at The Saint James. We were greeted with a smile and promptly seated for our reservation. The restaurant was busy, but not crowded. As more people arrived, the noise level did increase. Our waitress, Sara, told us that the owners recognize that the restaurant is loud and are working on the acoustics. It was not any louder than many of the best Center City restaurants.
Our waitress, Sara, was very friendly and had a good sense of humor. We were brought water and bread right away. The bread was amazing! It kind of tasted like a delicious soft, buttery, pretzel. She came around with water exactly when we needed a refill.
We ordered the meatball flatbread as an appetizer. It was very good. The bread is quite flat and thin, but the meatballs made up for that. A good appetizer for two people.
My fiancé had the brisket and gnocchi. His dish was extremely flavorful and the portion size was good — not too big or too small.
I had the cheeseburger. My burger was delicious! I ordered it medium, but it came out medium-​well. It was still super juicy and delicious though, so I did not complain about it. The fries that came with the burger were good, but nothing special. I think that someone previously noted that the fries tasted like McDonalds fries… and they kind of did… but who doesn’t love McDonalds fries??? I think they could improve these a little with some kind of seasoning.
The décor of the restaurant was very nice. Simple and classic. The atmosphere was not stuffy, and the service was great. We will come back again.
The prior Unilocal reviews do not do The Saint James justice. It is undeniable that there may have been some issues when the restaurant first opened, but that is to be expected. All of the specials are now available, on their corresponding night of the week.

Being that Plate was the only nice dinner action in Suburban Square, I was excited for the new up and coming Saint James. Plate is ok, but their prices don’t make sense to me. It isn’t that I won’t pay good money for a good meal, but everything was a tad higher than it should have been. I know I know… it is the Main Line.
So along comes good ol Saint James to the rescue, except I just felt like it was more of the same. They had been open for over a month, but they weren’t serving their specials. Then why put it on the menu?
We triple dated on a Saturday night. As it is the new place to be, we could get reservations for 6:30 or 9:15. We opted for the earlier and I am glad we did as we were seated in a booth by the bar, which was packed and loud by the time we left.
Two of the couples went for appetizers. Each a flat bread and one got the «octopus» salad. The flat bread was ok, but I have to put quotes around since there was hardly any octopus in the salad.
Next came the entrees. The seafood saffron stew came with a hefty pricetag, but not much else to it. Not sure why you would serve a saffron broth and no bread either. It was just different shell fish in a small bowl. The pork chop was good and maybe the favorite of the evening. The Steak Frites were ok and the Tuna was small in portion and not terribly exciting.
The total came to $ 50 a person. Again, I would easily pay more than that if I felt it was worth it, but it isn’t at the Saint James. Everything was under seasoned and small portioned. When we got back to our house, the fellas ordered a pizza.
And yes, it is loud since there is nothing but hard surfaces.
From what I could tell, it doesn’t matter. This was clearly the place to be.
Even though the beau made me promise not to take him there again, I may give them another shot. They now have weekend brunch afterall.

Monday — November 5, 2012 — 7:30 PM
I’ve tracked the progress of The Saint James Restaurant and Bar for several months. The Saint James Restaurant and Bar (The Saint James) finally opened on Oct. 9. The restaurant features American food.
I ordered the brisket with Gnocchi. Such an unexpected combination yielded an unusually good taste. The brisket was tender and tasteful. The gnocchi was properly cooked and blended well with overall concept. The mixed green salad was pleasing but, unexceptional.
The service and wait staff were accommodating and quick. The ambiance was tastefully appointed and adequately lit. The noise however, was deafening. I congratulated the owner and offered good luck. I commented that the noise level was overwhelming. He indicated that plans were underway to address the issue.
St. James is a la carte but competitively priced.
I plan to return but hopefully the noise will be substantially reduced.