Juniper — Restaurant in Wellesley

Cocktails were good, I can't remember the name of the one I ordered but it was well prepared and captured the spring air nicely. We shared the tzatziki dip and it was really good. I ordered the Lamb Bolognese and it was also very good. Extremally large portion, and very dense. I could only eat about 1/2 of it and I am not normally a lite eater. I would get it again and I am sure it will be great for left-overs. My daughter ordered the schnitzel. I have traveled Germany, and it looked to be on par with the best you can find there. If it were only the food I would rate Juniper 5 stars. To that end, I hope the kitchen staff received the lions portion of my tip. The service was slow, inconsiderate and frustrating. Everyone I interacted with was polite, but they do not have their system together and unfortunately it shows. I agreed to wait the 2hrs it took to get an outside table, that wait is fine, I signed up for it. During that wait there was limited outside seating and occasional seats at the bar. But after waiting 2hrs for a seat, it was very frustrating to see the only outside waitress engage in a 30m (no exaggeration) conversation with the table next to us. That table had already been allow to camp at the their table the entire time we were there, wait included (2.5hrs). This was before we had been offered water or drinks, let alone any kind of food. I feel that if you are going to ask people to wait hours for a table, the least you can do is given them proper attention when they finally do sit down. Unfortunately this trend would continue throughout dinner. The drinks were slow, the check was slow, even getting menus to start was slow. So much so that I actually snuck them off the hostess table for us myself. I think most of the staff is trying, they just need to work on their system for ensuring a smooth flow of service. And again, props to the kitchen for salvaging the evening with...

Update: went again and the service was a bit lack lustre. Food was good but we were served in terrible plates, one was chipped quite a lot and I can't believe the person who plated as well as the server did not see it. We were sitting at the bar first, waiting for our table and when our table was ready, our drinks had not yet arrived. When we asked what to do about it, will the drinks come to our table, the hostess/ server said just bring them with you when it's ready and come over to the table which was at the end of the restaurant, so quite a bit of walk with glasses filled to the brim with drinks. I don't know if it was too much to expect that they would at least offee to bring the drinks to the table . But a tad bit disappointed with that. The sitting was not the best table or ambience but we were okay with that. I would expect a little more when it's one of the good restaurants in the area and when you end up giving a tip of 20% and more each time. ...

First visit: Terrific food and service like other Dave Becker establishments. Walked in at 7:30 on Friday and was able to get a table indoors right away. Food servings (mains)are huge and are easily shareable between two or even three people. Everything we ordered tasted fantastic. Had the baba ghanouj and charred octopus for appetizers along with two cocktails. The cocktails were on point and the apps just as good. We ordered just one entree, the ghalieh mahi(seafood stew with saffron rice) to share between two people and it was a humongous portion. It came with tons of seafood and the stew was served hot and fresh. It was so good that we ate everything and had nothing left to bring home. I swear I ate three times more than I usually eat but it was so good. We could not eat any dessert as we were obviously more than full. Service was relaxed and friendly. Highly...

Extremely disappointing experience. We have enjoyed many variations of middle eastern cuisine having dined in Persian, Turkish, Israeli, Lebanese, Syrian, Afghani, Egyptian and Iraqi themed restaurants around the world. On those occasions we have enjoyed the aromas, flavors, spice selections, presentation and on occasion fusion of two or more of these cuisines. Unfortunately, in comparison, Juniper disappointed us. The Sweet Potato Hummus was too loose a consistency and too sweet with the molasses. The only positive taste to it was the caramelized shallot topping. The roasted carrot and brussel sprout appetizer would have been enjoyable had the chef presented the savory Labneh as a side item rather than presenting it as a base with the roasted vegetables on top. My Schnitzel was over cooked to a dry and almost burnt entree. The Batatta Harra was their version of a spicy home fried potato and the Harissa Bernaise was almost akin to a savory mayonnaise. The Fattouch was tasteless because the Sumac Vinaigrette dressing had no flavor aside from the olive oil. The Risotto was overcooked. It looked like a heaping plate of overcooked barley typically found in canned condensed vegetable soup. I do not understand how this restaurant has achieved the reputation it has received online. Perhaps it was an off night for them that translated into a bad dream for us. The topper was a $200 bill ( including tip, one glass of wine, one bottle of beer and one diet soda) for a sad and mediocre...