Juniper Hill Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Clinton Township

This review is a tricky one for me. I usually have no problem describing my meal or the overall experience but for Juniper Hill, I'm challenged.

After reading many positive reviews, my wife and I tried Juniper Hill last weekend. We had a reservation and were seated promptly at that time. Waitress was very nice, went over the menu and wine options. For wines, they have a good selection of bottles and a high-end wine-draft system offering many decent wines by the glass. Our waitress even brought us a sample of a new Cabernet they had on tap. A short time later, she took our order and brought a very tasty plate of bread and hummus to the table along with our drinks. So far, very pleased. Appetizers came quickly but things went south from here. First the good news, the grilled octopus was excellent - fresh and perfectly cooked. But the bed of potatoes it came on was very salty. The Kohlrabi salad appetizer for my wife was so salty, she could not finish it (and she likes to salt her food). One a positive note, she did tell the waitress that the salad was very salty, and that message made it to the kitchen as the manager or owner (not sure which) came over and apologized for that. But if someone doesn't eat 2/3 of their food and tells you why, wouldn't you offer to remove it from the bill? Entrees came almost immediately after the appetizers - a bit too soon by most standards. The food was delivered by food runners, a good thing, as our waitress had become extremely busy with the now full restaurant. In fact, it appeared she may have been the only waitress in the whole dining room. Now we had our entrees but no drinks, so the food runner brought us back the wine list. But since our waitress was so busy, we couldn't even order a glass of wine to go with our meal. My salmon could have been a great dish but ... I don't recall ever having a grilled salmon fillet over a bed of anything that still had the skin on. And while I've had salmon skin before, this did nothing but detract from the otherwise perfectly cooked salmon. The baby bok-choy it was served on may have been very good, but I won't know as the broth it was swimming in reminded me of the old Herb-Ox Beef Bouillon cubes you'd dissolve in water. It was supposed to be a Soy Dashi but all I got was Herb-Ox reminders. My wife had the Local Vegetables in Coconut Curry. This dish was actually very nice. It could have had a bit more of the curry, but the vegetables were fresh and the curry flavor was very good. After the plates were cleared, we sat for several minutes before finally being asked if we wanted anything more. We opted not given we had just waited 15 minutes to be asked. We paid our bill and went on with our evening.

So, why was this review a tricky one for me? Because I really think Juniper Hill has great potential. Our waitress was very nice and knew the menu and wine list well. The menu has some good offerings. But they’re just missing the mark. Juniper Hill appears to want to be bring a more up-scale quality food to the Clinton/Annandale area and my dilemma in writing this review is that I think they can do it if they just fix a couple things in the food prep/seasoning area and add more wait staff. I wanted this to be a great meal and was disappointed. But we’re going to try again in a couple months and see if maybe we just hit...

I came here with two of my chums to kick off Memorial Day Weekend. I'd heard good things about this place but it's rare I'm in this section of Hunterdon for a meal. (Disclosure - I am a native of the Kingdom of Hunterdon) I mean this with all due respect, but the spacious, rustic farmhouse interior feels like it would be more at home in one of the tourist trappy areas in the western section of the county in Frenchtown or Lambertville. I would be curious what their typical clientele is - I think this area has gotten a bit bougier in recent years and could also be getting some of the visitors to nearby Clinton. Anyway.

The minute I pulled into the parking lot here on Saturday afternoon, I thought, "This looks like it used to be a bank." The building has that local mom & pop bank vibe from the 80s/90s, and that thought was validated when we walked in and there was a small dining area inside a vault. Very nice touch.

We opted to eat indoors (it was getting toasty), and despite it being around 1PM the place was pretty empty. We were seated within about 15 feet of the aforementioned vault, and I could see a full service bar area in the adjoining room. Definitely my kind of place. One issue with the artwork - per the accompanying picture, they have an Anthony Bourdain print up, but the quote of his has a significant grammatical error. It should be, "I WOULD like to see small farmers empowered," not I WILL." Hopefully they get that fixed in the near future but there's a decent chance I'm the only person riled up by it.

I was sucked into the almighty brunch dilemma (sweet versus savory) and ended up getting the lemon ricotta pancakes, along with the biscuits and sausage gravy, thinking I'd understandably have quite a few leftovers. Nope - literally just one biscuit remained at the end of my carnage. Both were very good, though the biscuits were the star for me. SLIGHTLY overcooked/crunchier than I would have preferred, but they tasted fantastic and reminded me (in the best way) of my all-time favorite biscuits from Roy Rogers. The accompanying sausage gravy provided some much-needed moistness and flavor. The pancakes were very good as well; my only mild issue was that I wasn't crazy about the inclusion of the chopped walnuts on top (for texture purposes), but that's on me for not requesting their exclusion at the time of ordering.

The service was pretty good. Our waiter was friendly and did stop by from time to time, but I thought the response time started to lag a bit in the second half of the meal. Nothing egregious, and no one was in a massive rush, peering at their watches, but it could tighten up a bit. We had a young pup in our dining party that was starting to get antsy, otherwise it may not have been noticed at all.

It's sadly pretty rare that I have a solid restaurant recommendation around here (it's a bit of a foodie wasteland) but this would be one of them. I definitely want to come back to sample one of the edgy cocktails and hopefully eat a meal...

So, first of all, I have never been in a bar that couldn't make a Bloody Mary. According to the server, they had no mix nor do they ever have it. So much for making my favorite classic cocktail as they say on the website. Of course if I wanted a $110.00 Cabernet that's not a problem. On to our food. As others have noted here, the food is pricey. Ok, I get that. Everything costs more these days. But charging extra to add one, how shall I say, puny, measly, skimpy slice of avocado is out of line. Not to mention the equally puny piece of fish on each taco. On the bright side, those puny fish tacos were delicious. Had I known, I would have ordered three of them. But delicious enough for me to go back? I don't think so. And while I understand the whole "eat local" thing, just how local can the "local swordfish" be? Is it from the Raritan or the Musconetcong? Maybe Spruce Run or Round Valley? I can see boasting about the local tomatoes and corn but let's not overdo it. And I won't even go into the no printed menu thing. If you're one of those technophobes like I am, you're in a real pickle. If I had been with a person I was more familiar with, I would have left between that and the lack of Bloody Mary mix. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old lady but I'm a grumpy old lady who likes to eat out and I found Juniper Hill not worth a second visit. I wish we had planned ahead and read the other reviews rather than just blow...