Juniper — Restaurant in Austin

One of the Top Italian restaurants in the world.

I don’t even know where to begin! The staff were all working together, knowledgeable, and friendly! I must know because we had a party of eight which is really six with two babies, they did take out gratuity by them selves. We absolutely didn’t mind though because everyone who worked with us was very helpful especially Derek who is our server. Next time I come I would personally ask for him again. Celebrating when we arrived we noticed the menus had the name of the celebrant on there, we also realized it was spelled incorrectly we let the server know and they printed it again with the correct name which again was amazing. Especially because that was a surprise. Starting with the bread, they brought two to begin with it came with a Cheesin oil situation that basically was like a butter because it was whipped and tasted amazing. We even ask for more and they brought two more. When the server comes he ask you to choose all of your courses of course so that you can have them come out you know at a designated time. I would say all the courses are quite small however we were very full at the end. Also I should know it was a prefix menu because of the size of our party which my husband noted are always small especially because it’s a five course menu. Everything was well seasoned my husband ordered his steak well done and it was still juicy. Aesthetically this restaurant is beyond beautiful, I literally thought I was in Italy, and I have never been there lol. The attention to detail and everything from design to staff to the menu was absolutely amazing. They brought the salad ran his dessert with a candle and we all sang not including the staff which is fine lol! I don’t recall whether or not his desert was free or not but it didn’t matter it was a part of the prefix menu. At the end they brought the celebrant a surprise gift which was wrapped so beautifully and that was another thing that was mine blowing. We came all the way from Houston and definitely will come back for another birthday because it was that amazing. It was literally not one thing I could complain about. Some thing you should note though is when we booked the reservation we called and they did require us to have a card on file because of the cancellation policy so please take note of that. The bathrooms were unisex and very clean and I need to mention they have those really nice disposable linen feeling napkins in there. I wish I could do this restaurant 10 out of five! This is by far my favorite Italian restaurant I would definitely come back especially for...

Back for dinner update:

We came back for dinner and it was excellent again, just as our previous 5* experience. Hence I suppose it's a 5* for dinner and a 1* for brunch 😁

UPDATE to 1*: We've been to Juniper a few times and it is (was?) our go-to for a nice dinner in Austin that isn't really at "splurge" prices. We've always come for dinner and this was our first experience doing their brunch, and what a huge disappointment it was.

Service was kind of rude / condescending, especially (and unfortunately) to some of the first-timers in our party.

Coffee was served lukewarm. We (kindly) asked for it to be re-heated and they brought back another lukewarm cup. Staff was kind of rude when we asked for this, and rude when they brought the cup back over.

Drip coffee was not refilled at the table, and water glasses were left empty for most of our brunch.

We waived the waiter down to refill our drip coffee and they spilled coffee all over the table, food, and some of us. No apology was made, and we kind of laughed it off awkwardly as to not allow it to ruin our brunch.

The waiter also ws unfamiliar with the menu, and completely misguided our orders (or at least what arrived was very different than what was described)

The brunch food itself was pretty good, although there were some lowlights:

The good: The eggs were well-cooked for each person's preference. The cruller was delicious (until it was drenched in coffee). Focaccia was on-point as it is for dinner. Pancake was really good, crispy on the outside yet tall and fluffy on the inside. Zeppole was yummy!

The bad: "Little Lettuce" was not as good as it is for dinner, more on the soggy side. Coffee wasn't hot. Cappuccino wasn't frothed correctly, and the shot wasn't pulled properly making it taste pretty gross.

ORIGINAL 5* Review: Service was outstanding and the food was delicious. Every dish in the prix fixe was awesome. Favorites for me were the Cacio e pepe, the Chicken Saltimbocca, and the Stracciatella!

Ambiance is also very nice and they have some outdoor seating available. Room temperature inside was on the warmer side.

Masks were optional, staff was not...

Dining experience at Juniper was unfortunately underwhelming and uninspiring. I have had lackluster dining experiences at fine dining restaurants before, but the most regrettable thing about this experience with Juniper is how inhospitable the restaurant is. From servers to staff to even its management, lack tact with interactions with guests, which creates a difficult to enjoy experience.

But let's talk about the food...since some people may say the food may be the focus of the restaurant; not the service. So the 4 of us got the 5 course prix fixe menu with varying selections and out of all the courses we tasted, all of us agreed that we only appreciated one dish (squid ink paccheri). The rest of them were bland or not remotely noteworthy. Not to mention the portion of each course is extremely small...even after 5 courses, you still left feeling unsatisfied.

But the key thing to note and important to share is Juniper is not a hospitable nor accommodating restaurant. They are strict on their own rules that purely benefits themselves and in order to enforce those rules, they are inconsiderate to their guests. So if you happen to have any dietary restrictions, food sensitives or just even have some food preferences in general, just know they will not accommodate...not only they won't accommodate, they will have an attitude about it and the poor attitude goes all the way up the chain to their General Manager (her name is Markita (spelling?)) In normal circumstances a restaurant General Manager's responsibility is to take care of matters and ensure the guest's dining experience is at least well. But it's a different story at Juniper...at Juniper, they really know how to take care of the restaurant and its own interests, but not so much for the guests. The guest experience is very much a second thought or less.

All in all, it's a disappointing dining experience. We went to another fine dining establishment the next night and the experience is so night and day and we recognize that Juniper is just lacking in service and the food is not good enough to compensate for that shortcoming either...so...