Madame Claude Bis

Love, love, love your new location! It has a rustic but modern vibe which is slightly hidden underground. I am excited that you now have a beautiful new bar and can serve amazing drinks to go with your delicious dishes. They have expanded the menu and the food taste better than ever. The service is friendly and prompt. Dishes do take time to come out because they are cooking real food and not processed, pre-​made crap. My favorite dish is the duck. I can’t wait to come back this intimate and romantic space.

First off, the fact that this place is no longer cash only definitely makes me likely to come here more often than I should. Secondly, the bar is an excellent addition. The cocktails are fantastic, very exotic ingredients such as Suze and green or yellow chartreuse. One of the top cocktail bars in JC for sure.
The food is as good as the original location without a doubt. Highly recommend the pork tenderloin or the steak frites.
In addition to the wonderful qualities of the original, you also have an oyster bar here. I enjoyed some from Massachusetts and some from Maine.
Only reason for the 4 stars instead of 5 is the new location is not as intimate and cozy as the original. Though still an excellent date spot and they still have live music on Thursdays.

The new space is beautiful! This was our second time eating at Madame Claude’s. I ordered the curry mussels and my boyfriend got the lamb shank. Both were delicious! They obviously have a nice wine selection too and the small carafe is a pretty good deal. We will definitely be back and plan to bring friends.

I had my birthday party at MC Bis on Saturday brunch and as usual what a delight We were a group of 15 and my friends that had been to the old claudes were so impressed with the upgrade The staff was delightful and friendly. One friend was dying to try the escargot and I asked them he had them 10 minutes later. He was in heaven. Sadly I didn’t have time to stay around for oysters next time The wine list is lovely some pricey items but the house rose and white were fabulous

Last night was our first night at the new restaurant. Madame Claude Bis (bis — meaning again, or twice) delighted us with such a charming décor, entrance and courtyard that it was hard to believe we were in Jersey City. Speaking with the owner we learned that the preparation of this new restaurant took nearly 3 years (or more?) and it shows. You can feel the same heart, soul and warmth that I felt in the last restaurant. Unlike some other reviewers I am unwilling to pass judgment on logistical failures or invoke some kind of French nationalistic BS while this BEAUTIFUL RESTAURANT is in it’s INFANCY STAGES. I’m really happy to know that as I watch Madame Claude Bis grow into what I know will be extremely successful that I won’t be dining besides Orville W. That being said… THEY HAVE OYSTERS! I do hope that as things get into swing there will be some more diversity in the menu, but the Lamb Shank as always was finger lickin’ good!

Laura M., the previous reviewer, is absolutely correct. The service is horrible. And what makes things worse is the management. As a French-​American myself, I always marvel at the temerity of those restaurant owners who pull stunts here that would get them shut down in France.
Merely having been born in France does not make one into a French chef. This is especially true when, like one of Madame Claude’s owners, you actually went to music – not culinary – school.
In France, serving tables is a respectable occupation requiring training. People do it as a career not simply while going to college. At Madame Claude, no matter what you tip, and no matter how often you return, things do not get better. Let’s not even think about complaining about how a dish was prepared. We made the mistake (!) of sending something back and were publicly shamed by one of the owners. Quel culot! (What nerve!) At Madame Claude, «the customer is never right» must be the motto.
The restaurant serves basic bistro dishes with various degrees of success. The amateurish staff is prone to errors like running out of bread but again, don’t complain about it; they don’t want to hear it.
If you want good French food, grab the PATH into Manhattan. Heck, even if you want lousy French food, go elsewhere. Then, if you don’t like the meal, at least you won’t get insulted. What they are serving here is surely not worth the headache.
Jamais encore dans cette vie! (Never again in this lifetime!)

If it weren’t for the ambience (the place is cute) I’d want to leave zero stars.
Service was horrid. I realize that every restaurant will suffer from quirks during their first month or so of opening, but this was another level of embarrassing. My husband and I went for brunch and our waiter seemed like he was in constant panic even though the place was not full. It took him ages to take our order, then after 45 minutes of waiting — and watching all of the tables around us get served — we had to flag him down to ask him what the status of our order was. After fidgeting around on his screen for 5 minutes he chickened out confronting us personally and finally sent another waiter over to ask us if we ordered!?!
You could blame the one faulty waiter, but the truth is there were other servers and runners in the restaurant who never noticed anything, no one ever checked in with their tables or made the rounds to get a sense of the floor. We could have sat there all day if we wanted and no employee would have noticed. The server who did come over to us offered our orange juice and tea on the house… thanks man!
I miss the kids that were running the show at the old Madame Claudes.

Review from June 1^st. Now reopened tonight in their new venue just across the street. The place is charming, beautiful décor, much more seating and a brand new bar. It’s a basement level but it doesn’t feel dingy as the windows are gorgeous and the place is designed so well.
Disappointingly the menu remains exactly the same but I hope this is only temporary — perhaps they will expand as they get comfortable in a much larger area. A rumored oyster bar is in the works. I would personally love some more variety and menu switch ups now that the chefs have bigger facilities. I also note that the prices have creeped up a little, eg the beloved steak frites is now $ 23 instead of $ 21.
I personally loved the charm of the old place although they had obviously outgrown it. It felt so local and lovely — a really intimate place. Manouche Bag will now have oodles of room when they play on Thursdays! Having enough room to swing a cat is a welcome move and it should be much easier to get a table at busy periods! The outdoor seating area is super cute for brunch and summer dining.
Cocktail menu looks great with some unusual spirits, wine is all French (naturellement) and a few European beers.
Pros — instead of the usual last minute dash to Bank of A they now take credit cards.
Cons — no more delightful BYOB. I wonder how the liquor store across the street feels?