Bar Juillet — Restaurant in Ashland

Brace yourself for a conflicted food review. Bar Juliet is a well-known and revered spot for locals. Historically I have enjoyed their outstanding cocktails, but find their food overhyped. I often roll my eyes and accompany friends for dinner. Indeed, if you glance at the menu, you’ll find their basic spaghetti dish listed for $36 and their house salad runs for $25. Other classic plates (steak, halibut) run at about $40, but the portion size of these dishes doesn’t match the typical fine dining restaurant. Their kitchen sort of runs on-the-fly and so you are expected to order several dishes to share, which come out at their own pace. My qualm is you end up eating like you’re at a tapas spot all the while paying full fine-dining price for each plate.

Nevermind the economics lesson, let’s talk food. We started with the charcuterie board which was one of the best I’ve had at a restaurant. Lots of bold flavors and textures between the cheeses and meats. The focaccia bread was also fresh, airy, and excellent. I would actually recommend getting this even if you’re going out just for drinks. The peach-flavored old fashioned was a hit, and we also tried a potent lavender cocktail which was super unique.

The main dishes we got were well-executed. The steak was a petite filet that was superbly tender accompanied by a red pepper sauce. Small portion with a light salad, but delicious. The burger was very rich and had the density of a dying sun (just look at the cross-section!). Contrary to what you may think, this is a dish to cut up and share.

On this night, service was an issue—my poor friend’s main entree was forgotten. He ordered a burger for himself and we waited for the kitchen to roll it out and it just never came. I was prepared to give the place 4 stars and warn you to just go during happy hour, but will have to stop short at 3. Generally focus on the delicious cocktails and expect a few bites of good food...

There are a lot of great restaurants in Ashland worth the steep price of admission, Bar Juliet is not this one of them. This was my second time dining there and is my last.

Walking in, the restaurant is a beautiful space fitting of a great dining experience, however, the food and service were lacking. My wife and I ordered the burgers, one temped medium rare and one medium well. Both burgers were served well done and were exceedingly salty.

Generally, one of the issues aforementioned issues could have been remedied with a server checking in shortly after the food was dropped, if that had occurred. Instead, we had to interrupt a lively conversation amongst the waitstaff to request a side of ketchup for the fries and were frustrated enough by this point we did not bring up the our dissatisfaction with the food. While this could be considered a minor problem, it is a problem that that could have been resolved or at least addressed if the server simply checked in with us.

If the restaurant had been busy, I would have attributed all of this to the restaurant having an off night night, but restaurant wasn't busy and that left us feeling ignored. That feeling of neglect largely stems from watching the staff play on their phones, eat behind the bar while still on shift, and having to wait for a break in their personal conversations to do typical restaurant things like order food and wine.

I opted to sleep on writing this review, but woke up still feeling salty. Bar Juliet could be a good restaurant and obviously someone must care about its success, however, that person clearly was not...

I want to start with the ambiance here. I loved everything about the decor, ambiance, and service that we received here. Even our shrub was fantastic!!

Exemplify this, our waiter was fantastic, even after we sent our burgers back for being charred, twice, when we each ordered them rare (and told them we’d be happy if they were less than that). Now, I understand that places will not cook beef 🍔s under a certain temp, and I can respect that. In these situations, I won’t order a burger and will choose another delicious entree.

However, if I’m allowed to order a burger rare, and let the waiter know that I’m fine with it being even less cooked if that is what it takes, I’m all in!! Beef is something I eat on special occasions and wanted to go out to celebrate one. I had just finished half of the pct and was treating myself!

Sadly, both of our burgers were so done they were charred on the edges. Well done, or a little more cooked, would be an accurate assessment.

Our server treated us with such dignity, respect, and embarrassment at the twice sent back food, that I honestly felt bad.

That being said, the fries and shrub were great! After reading so many wonderful reviews, it was a very unfortunate meal. Maybe, and I hope, this has been corrected and the food is as good as the location and ambiance.

This was our experience on 8/28/22 after a lovely walk in...