Bistro La Source

I Really like this place! Melissa was our server and she suggested Monday Mussel night. Great suggestion!!! I had the marinière and thé Thaï. Thaï were my favorite since I love both coconut and ginger!
The small and cozy bar area looks inviting so next time I will stop there for a glass of wine or two!
Another thing I noticed was the lights. Low and casual. Nice and romantic!
I really liked this restaurant And I will be back!

Bistro la source
I don’t come here too often, but it’s always there in the back of my mind. I like to come for Mussels Mondays when you can have all-​you-​can-​eat mussels prepared up to 6 different ways for only $ 12 (the website still says $ 10, but it’s $ 12 now). For a point of reference, one bowl costs $ 11 regularly. Aside from the mussels, I’ve also had other items from the menu, but I can’t remember what at the moment. For the most part, the food has been good. Every now and then I’ll think this dish was slightly amiss or this portion kind of small, but I’m usually pretty satisfied with my meal. In the past, I’ve also found the servers a bit inconsistent — some servers are very sweet and welcoming, and some have been indifferent and absent.
This time around, I went as part of Hudson Restaurant Week when they had a prixe fixe menu of 3 courses for only $ 26. I ordered the escargot, pan roasted salmon, and shared the crème caramel and apple crumb cake. Hands down the best meal and dining experience I’ve had here yet! The food was fantastic! Great flavors and portions, but not overly heavy or decadent. On top of the food, the service was excellent. It was pretty busy as you would expect a Saturday dinner crowd to be, but our server and the other employees were very friendly, helpful, and attentive.
I’ve always found the restaurant itself to be quite charming. It’s small, but a good amount of seating, which expands even more once the weather warms and they open up the outdoor seating. The ambiance is quiet and relaxed. They also have a small parking lot which is convenient when it’s not busy, but difficult to come out of when it is. I usually try to find street parking if I can to avoid the quadruple k-​turn.
Hopefully this experience wasn’t just a fluke for HRW because I was really impressed with how they turned it up a notch. If they keep it up, I’m sure I’ll be upgrading them to 5 stars very soon!

Decent French restaurant. Often packed.
Standard French fare executed without any surprises. Menu selection could be longer. Specials are sticky.
Adequate, if not short, wine selection.
Good for a quick Friday night dinner.

The customers here are just way too friendly and it makes me feel too much at home. Especially this one guy who is always wearing a wig. Yes, a wig.

My party and I were the first ones there soon after they opened today at 1pm. Small party of 3. We placed our orders shortly after being seated and the other tables started to fill up.
We noticed that everyone else was getting their orders first so I asked our waitress for an update. She sent the manager who told explained that our order was «special» and it was the night crew who was in the back.
Our «special» order: polenta with poached egg and prosciutto, mac and cheese with bacon, plate of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, etc. and a crêpe with strawberries and blueberries.
This was a pathetic excuse since everyone else got their orders first so what does having a night crew have anything to do with it? What is frustrating is that the manager took no ownership for their mistake.
47 minutes later, we finally got our «special» order. Unacceptable and unprofessional.

All u can eat mussels is absolutely mind blowing! They make you choose from 5 different flavors and they are all good! Diablo is my personal favorite– spicy!!! They have this all u can eat on Mondays! This place is definitely worth the stop!

Yay!
Finally found a fantastic, delicious place for brunch in the area.
There were so many choices it was difficult to choose!
Everything was so delicious and of such a good quantity that we weren’t able to order desert (although we really wanted to!)
The bloody Mary’s were spot on.
The outside patio is super nice and inside they have a nice environment.
The staff is delightful and super friendly.
You can bring your dog if you sit outside and they are stroller friendly inside and outside.
Will definitely come back for brunch and dinner!

I’ve lived in the neighborhood for years and I’ve been to this place on and off as it’s changed owners since ²⁰⁰⁴⁄₅ when it first became a restaurant.
I had family in and figured I’d give it another try. We walked in, 9:30pm with the Mets possibility playing last game of the World Series and Sunday Night Football both on TV, and the bartender made a disapproving and unwelcoming face so I asked «last call»? I was told «yes» and I replied «yep, service still sucks». I was immediately told by a customer I had a bad attitude and he told me to leave. When I rebutted, he reached over and flipped my eyeglasses that I had folded in my shirt collar and invited me go to «outside».
Yes, this customer was actually wearing a Halloween wig… really, you cannot make this stuff up!
I asked the bartender to call the owner, I was then told «no» and that I needed to go now by someone who seemed to be a manager…
Of all the options in downtown Jerse City, this would be the last place I would suggest or recommend.

My wife and I love this place. one of the best French restaurants around. She usually orders Mussels or fish dishes from the price fix menu (like in most European eateries) and I usually get the French onion soup and steak. Dessert is amazing too! I think its priced well or maybe a tad high compared to more known French restaurants in N.Y.C.
I’m not thrilled with the layout of main dining section though. People are constantly going in and out of the bathrooms or staff rooms in front of or behind you depending on where you are seated and its VERY distracting. Even if you sit facing away from the bathrooms the wall you are looking at is all mirrors so you see this non stop. I wish it was down a little nook but yes, I do understand how scarce space is in lovely JC.
All in all, I would highly recommend Bistro La Source.

Our go to place. The food is always great only had minor let downs once or twice in many years eating here.
The best way to describe the food is French colonial. Meaning food of the French colonies.
We love the cozy, shabby chic style. It’s not dumpy and it’s not ritzy it’s just right.
Awesome bread most of the time. I swear they run out and wind up having to grab a French loaf at a grocery from time to time. But the usual bread is a great sour dough with a chewy crust and soft airy inside. Great for dunking I soup or the mussels.
One of the few places you can get Chimay on tap.
Also one of the few places that has mergueze and that sausage is paired with a perfectly grilled octopus!
Simply love it here.
Oh and it’s also about the only place to offer off street parking.
Prices are very reasonable.
Win win win

I really tried to like this place. No complaints about the service. Our waitress was very nice. The food, unfortunately, was just such a big disappointment and really expensive. We ordered the Cassoulet and the Lamb Shank.
Cassoulet — From the menu, this supposedly consists of Berkshire pork, sausage & duck confit with white beans. I didn’t find many pieces of pork and the few pieces were shredded and dry. The Cassoulet consisted mostly of white beans swimming in tomato sauce. It was too tomatey for my liking. It wasn’t the worst food ever, but considering the expensive price it was a let down.
Lamb Shank w/​Ratatouille and Couscous — The meat did fall off the bone, but overall really dry and bland. I couldn’t get through half the shank. I did really like the ratatouille and couscous that came with it. The eggplant in the ratatouille was delicious and the couscous had a lot of flavor. If I could have ordered a plate of just the ratatouille and couscous, I would have.
Maybe we ordered the wrong things, because I do see quite a lot of people there eating mussels.

Came here for mussel mania on Monday. It was $ 12 for unlimited mussels in various types of sauces. You just have to purchase one drink. This place gets super crowded and the service is very slow. For that reason I would say this place is a 3.5
The mussels were all very good. My favorite was the one in garlic wine sauce. El Diablo was my second fave. The other tomato one was just ok for me, and I didn’t like the Thai one.
Our waiter was very nice and friendly just getting the mussels out was slow.
Sangria was also pretty good– we got two pitchers for the table.
Small parking lot attached– we were lucky enough to park two cars there.
Outdoor seating was very romantic. View of the freedom tower if you pick the right seat.

The bacon was good. Mmmm… And the café au lait. That’s about the end of it. Our server could not have been any more uninterested in helping us; each interaction was more brief than the previous.
I ordered the coffee and after two gulps it was finished. Nothing was said as she breezed past our table and snagged the mug. And the báhn mì I ordered was horrible. Globs of pâté, a ham slice (truly, thick sliced ham), spicy mayo, and cucumber soaked in apple cider vinegar. Vietnam is weeping right now.

The reason this place is not doing better is because of the poor, slow service, and the greasy food.
I don’t like to have to wait more than 10 minutes for a menu or another 10 for water and another 10 for waiter service. I want to be able to get a decent coffee too — come on it’s not too much to ask!!! But, if this is not happening, forget it, I’ll go up the road!

TLDR: Service is a disaster. Mussel mondays are false advertising, since service is so slow that its very hard to order more than one plate. Manager (owner?) Was extremely unpleasant and rude to us.
Came with my bf on a Monday night for unlimited mussels, but left extrmely disappointed with the food and especially the service. My bf ordered the mussels, I wasn’t in the mood for the mussels so I ordered the beef ravioli, and a calamari to share.
Calamari: breading was tastey and crispy
Mussels: some of them were closed and dead, but bf seemed to enjoy the sauce
Beef ravioli: lots of mushrooms, but the beef was dry and chewy and the pasta was not fully cooked through
Service was an absolute disaster. It was so slow, we were there for two hours and my bf was only able to have ONE plate of the supposedly unlimited Mussels.
Not once did our waitress come to see how our table was doing or to take any further orders.
Bf tried to order a second plate of Mussels, and we waited about 25 minutes before we gave up and just asked for the check so we could finally leave
We flagged down the manager (owner?) And explained to him our situation and he blamed us and said it was our own fault that we did not personally flag him down for things
He explained that service on Mondays is always a little slower, and there was not much he or we could do about it (basically told us to just suck it up)
This was not my first time here, but it definitely will be my last.

Came here thinking that I discovered an amazing deal of $ 12 for unlimited mussels with wide variety of options. Thought it was worth the drive from Brooklyn o New Jersey. All these expectations set me up for a HUGE disappointment.
The bread is NOT fresh and crisp. I had a really hard time trying to gnaw the pieces, but I had no choice since the service was really slow and I was starving.
I ordered the iced tea, but it was unsweetened, so I had to add the sugar packs accordingly.
I got the calamari, and it was delicious! This is a must try appetizer.
I could taste the sand in the mussels. They need to put more effort into washing them! A lot of the mussels were closed, meaning that they were dead before they were cooked. I didn’t wait 10 minutes for a plate of «dead» mussels.
The diablo wasn’t as great as everyone said it would be. I couldn’t taste the spiciness, if anything, it was pure tomato sauce.
I was able to try the diablo and the thai before they said they were low on mussels. I came here for the buffet to try VARIETY not QUANTITY, so I was once again, greatly disappointed. But they did offer alternatives (mac n cheese and fried chicken) to substitute their low supply.
The waitresses were rude as hell. She ignored me MANY times. I understand it must be hard dealing with customers but it is their job. They need to suppress their anger, especially since we weren’t the ones giving them a difficult time.
This place is really small. I constantly had to move my chair to give space to other people, but it made my dining experience really unpleasant. I’m not sure if the reason is that we had a reservation for 10 people, but we had to sit in front of the bathroom. The tables were really small too, so we couldn’t even fit our meals on the table.
This place used to be so much better.

Waitress with the not so small attitude… Check
Wife poisoned by food… Check
A bite from my wife’s doggy bag to upset my stomach instantly… Check
Please look through the reviews, I found at least two other reviews from Unilocalers who got food poisoning and one person who was served literally rotten potatoes.
If you like to take sick days, gamble, otherwise stay away.

Try their Monday night all you can eat mussels ($ 12 with purchase of any one drink)! Service on Monday nights is slower than usual due to the crowd & the all you can eat concept, but once you get the food it is great. I have been here several times & there is a choice of 4 different sauces & you can change the type of sauce with each plate of mussels. Bread is delicious, crusty & fresh, drinks are great & I recommend trying the mac n’ cheese (can be ordered vegetarian if you prefer) or the truffle parm french fries as a side. It is quite noisy on Mondays (I’ve only been there on a Monday), so it’s not the best place for a romantic dinner, but is great for a fun evening out with your favorite someone or a group of friends.
A special shout out to our waitress MELISSA — who we love, she is personable, funny & very real — something you don’t get often in upscale restaurants!

I really don’t understand how this place only has a three star average.
Every meal I’ve ever had here has been good. Prices are generally reasonable.
So why do people give this place three stars or less?
The mussels are almost all awesome, I love all of the different broths except for the Provencal and even that is pretty good. Many of the entrees are pretty solid, I have never had a bad meal here and the service is pretty good.
Then why does this place does not get any love on Unilocal

Won’t be going back!!! Waitress could care less… waiting at least 25mins for eggs with home fries. When we finally got our food my potatoes were rotten.
Waitress said «I will let the chef know» Chef… Really!!! She didn’t offer me something else. There only plus is parking!!! Not worth the horrible service!!!
Plenty of other places to go for brunch! Like Marco & Pepe… Skinners Loft etc…
Stay away from La Source!!!