Julien Gastro Bistrot — Restaurant in Centru Sector

First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to the team at Julien for their dedication to elevating the culinary culture in Moldova. The concept, along with the incorporation of architectural elements, created a truly enchanting ambiance. However, it's unfortunate that, as is often the case in Moldova, there's a tendency for things to appear better on the surface than they truly are. Despite our education in top Western institutions, we sometimes struggle to break free from the superficial and less-than-adequate practices that prevail in our society. Regrettably, this was somewhat reflected in our experience at Julien.

We received elaborate and intricate descriptions for each dish, prompting questions and high expectations. However, the actual taste of the dishes didn't live up to the 'wow' factor we anticipated. I've had more delectable meals at simpler restaurants, often at a more reasonable price point. Additionally, despite having an ample staff, the organization and communication among them left much to be desired. We found ourselves repeatedly calling for drink refills, food orders, and other matters.

Another aspect that bothered us was the chef's behavior, which could be described as slightly arrogant or perhaps insecure. While we appreciate his efforts to ensure guest satisfaction by approaching every table, his actions, such as cleaning our table and making remarks about one of the waiters, came across as unprofessional and disorganized.

Most significantly, our dining experience was marred by an incident involving a child who approached the terrace asking for money. The individual serving wine, or perhaps the sommelier, handled the situation very aggressively, grabbing the child by the neck and escorting him away. Such behavior is unacceptable, especially when dealing with a child, and should not be tolerated.

In summary, our experience at Julien left us with a sense of disappointment. We received extensive information about the food, but the taste itself was mediocre. The service had its share of shortcomings as well. I sincerely hope that, at some point, the mediocrity and superficiality prevalent in our society can evolve into something genuinely transparent, and consistently excellent. Let's strive to align our actions...

This was my last time visiting this place and I would not even consider going back and will try to avoid any further contact with anyone regarding this so called restaurant. This arrogant and unprofessional host can barely cook. Previously self proclaimed Michelin Star restaurant had to take down the logo due to several complaints. Very poor quality of food, previously this chef already had to apologize and was asking for one more visit so they could recover by offering complimentary food and drinks. This time I have felt the most awful attitude that could be - make your own oppositions on this facts: when approaching to a half empty restaurant the hostess told us that we need a reservation. When asked if we could order just one or two entrees for an hour the most the told us the most stupid explanation/excuse that they have no frozen or EXTRA ingredients for other guests than for those that have a reservation. As funny as it sounds this was indeed the reason for not letting us eat inside. After calling them 10 minutes later they said over the phone that they can provide a table. I requested an explanation on how this is possible and it ended up with a lot of apologies and they asked us to come back as they now can offer us a desired table for another 4 and a half hours and/or a free breakfast for us tomorrow at any time.

We, of course, refused any of the above proposals and, as I mentioned earlier, this was my last attempt to visit this place.

Note: previously we visited this place multiple times during the breakfast time, dinner time and also during the evening hours too, it was getting worse each time.

Think twice before going there.

Best regards to all of you...

Horrible service. We got declined by the security that only spoke “Russian” didn’t explain the reasons why we got declined, even though we were dressed exquisitely on a Friday night, a group of models and well dressed people and they just DIDNT ALLOW US IN, honestly horrible experience never EVER in my life got denied entrance to any restaurant, so I was totally disappointed considering they have NO dress code and never had,because I’ve been there before and never had issues like that. You should’ve seen the people that were coming out of the place while we were arguing with the security and the manager😂sooo much more underdressed than us, yet had no issues with “face control” and freely were allowed in. Also, unprofessional manager, defended security and wasn’t able to provide justifiable reasons of not letting un in. They were chasing us away. Considering this is a recently open business, their business tactics will eventually ruin everything. A customer is a customer, and if you fail to put up to their expectations, you inevitably fail OVERALL. Surely Julien will become like Entourage(another place with stupid face control bull$hit) that earned its infamous reputation through selecting customers allowed in based on their physical appearance. Avoid this place if you want to have a good time and not...