Juliette's Bistro — Restaurant in Jacksonville

This is an amazing story that truly happened over 10+ years ago; a story we have only told a few and during a time before social media was really a thing. The wife and I were headed to see a friend of ours perform in the nutcracker, just up the street and we decided, before attending, to grab something to eat. We've never been to Juliette's before so we gave it a go.

The place appeared clean and lovely, but that's as far as I can go with the compliments. Although the place was completely empty the server hated us before we even reached the threshold of the door. She smelled awful; like cigarettes and cheap booze, and only visited our table a total of 3 times throughout the night. She appeared to be the only one there other than the manager.

We ordered chicken which came so dry the knife could not tear it up; it was obvious it was pre-cooked and reheated. The mashed potatoes were gray and disgusting. We tried to make a gesture to our waitress but it took almost half an hour before we saw her again. By the time she showed up for us to request a new order, we decided to just grab dessert and go....this is where it gets nuts!!

Aside from the fumes of cigarette smoke wafting off of our waitress as she dropped off our tiramisu, there was another disturbing variable we had not expected... A little flea, living in the cake she dropped off!

When the wife and I took our forks to cut the cake in half in order to split between ourselves, we noticed strange tunnel-like structures within the cake, so we turned the cake upside down and found an entire maze, NO, a city, of bugs burrowed into the tiramisu. It was during that moment one of the bugs flew out above our heads!

I immediately hunted down the manager who apologize profusely, only offering to not charge for the tiramisu; even after explaining to him all that I have written above. We left immediately after that leaving nothing, not even a tip, other than a rating system we wrote on the back of the receipt breaking down our experience with the restaurant; ambience, food, service, cleanliness, etc., all with the highest possible rating of a five each, with the potential max of 25% tip, something like that. So if you are reading this and happen to work there, and they have that receipt stapled up somewhere, that was us! I ordered a White Russian, there's your proof.

The scariest part of the story was that the tiramisu was pulled out of a glass showcase; neighboring next to a whole host of other desserts.

The reason I'm leaving a 3-star rating on this joint is because some days later I realized that the restaurant never wound up charging us for anything, a bill I believe was well over $200, they are/were very pricey.

Again, this was over 10 years ago & I can only imagine, or at least hope, things have changed since then. However, if you ever decide to give this place a go and wind up ordering dessert, all I ask, is before you take a bite; turn the dessert upside down, for a little lokkie loo,...

Very disappointed. Party of 6 with reservation immediately seated at 5:30 and drinks ordered. 25 minutes in we order our food and ask where our drinks are. We are told the bartender serves bar patrons first and then restaurant guests. She even tells a friend she can get him a bottled beer herself. It never comes. Drinks arrive (including a beer on tap) after 55 minutes in huge plastic cups only partially full. She says they have run out of glasses. Some drinks are wrong. None have ice. Mind you a cocktail costs $17-23. A glass of basic chardonnay (in a plastic cup) tipped the scale at $25. We ask for a manager who never comes. After an hour, we tell them we have a show across the street at 7 and will need our food in the next 10 minutes in order to scarf it down. She says some of it ready but they are waiting on salads. We tell her to bring what's ready. Food arrives in shifts and we choke it down. They give us 20% off the food but she "can't do anything" about the drinks. The prices for what the food was borders on absurd especially when you can not even enjoy it. Shrimp (5-6) and a quarters worth of grits cost $25. Bone in chicken? No thanks. The bar was busy but not excessively. The restaurant was partially filled. Nothing seemed out of sorys other thsn where are the drinks and food? A party of 4 seated after us had no issues with drinks or food, in fact, they were finished eating by the time our meals arrived. No one offered any explanation for the sub par experience, but I expect they would say there was a show next door, but didn't they know that? I bought tickets two months ago, plenty of time for the neighboring restaurant to plan accordingly. I would not recommend Juliette's under any circumstances but most particularly not of you were planning to attend a show and need to be somewhere. Overpriced and...

Unfortunately my dinner experience with Juliette's was HORRENDOUS. Worst experience and service I've ever had in my life. I'm literally shocked by the lack of communication, lack of service, and over the over charging.

On the children's menu there is no prices listed for beverages, I assumed a beverage was included. The waitress forgot the drink. Then charged $4 for it, she was kind enough to remove it. They told me, "we'll let it go this time since normally we charge for drinks, even though we don't list it on the menu".

The prices for wine were not labeled by liquid amount on the menu. I was however told I had ordered a 9oz glass of wine at $18.99, not the 6oz wine I thought I ordered for $12.99. I told them I had no idea I had ordered 9oz, nor was I told there was an option. This was not taken off the bill and there was no explanation for why they did that, nor apology. They just gave me the bill.

Finally, the soup was room temperature, which left me slightly concerned. The fries were rough, left out and dehydrated, which made them difficult to bite through. After having eaten one, I really wanted some water, which was gone, and our waitress was no where to be found for long lengths of time for a dead night. And I never did get a refill that I asked for. All in all, I was left feeling sick to my stomach with the experience and very disappointed. I was extremely embarrassed to have taken my mother here and would never recommend the experience to...