Julieanna's Steak and Seafood by Chef Eddie Guzman — Restaurant in Yuma

I chose Julianna's as my venue for our 10 year vow renewal/ dinner party and had been working with the even planner for a couple months on our small event for 26 people. I even spoke with him 2 days before the event and he even told me he would be there that evening to make sure everything went as planned. When I arrived nothing was set up according to plans and what was worse, I was told the event manager had quit 10 days prior though I'm not sure how that was possible since I had been in contact with him via phone AND email. I never had a wedding ceremony and an evening I had waited 10 years for was a complete and utterly embarrassing disaster! It took almost two full hours to serve our food. The waiter was making drinks at the bar, attending our table, AND plating food in the back. At dinner service there was no one to be found. My sister ate her meat with a spoon, my guest next to me had to pull out his own pocket knife to cut his prime rib, and by the time I was able to ask anyone for a knife my own food was cold. A 90+ minute wait on food would be unacceptable in any establishment ESPECIALLY in this case since we had pre selected dinner choices weeks in advance. It was well after 10:30pm before the dessert options I had paid for were ever offered. We sat down at 7pm. No one was apologetic or accommodating. I was in tears and felt so bad for my elderly grandparents, our pregnant guests and children in attendance who were all starving. I just don’t know how anyone at Julianna’s thinks that was okay.

At some point someone should have come out and apologized/ explained why everything was taking so long. At least put more bread out or comped a guest a drink. A lot went wrong and I don’t feel like anyone did anything to make a bad situation better. Two separate staff members came up to us saying how embarrassed they were and apologizing and they weren’t even our servers. To top it off the owner was on site and refused my request to speak with him. I was shocked at that and one of our guests saw the manager ask him to speak with me and then watched him refuse and get in his truck. Our poor server was personally doing the best he could to provide excellent service but at the end of the day the venue was clearly unprepared, understaffed, and in all honesty deceptive about what they would offer versus what was actually delivered. When the final bill came there were some charges I didn't recognize/ had not agreed to with the original event planner and wanted clarification on before I ran my card for such a large amount. The owner had refused to talk to me and the manager said he couldn't do anything so I said, "Alright you have all my info already, I live a mile away, you even have my credit card info from the deposit, I'd like to come back and discuss this with the owner before running my card." I think that's reasonable. I wasn't evading the bill and had no intention of not paying for services. I emphasized it was important to me that the wait staff were taken care of especially and I even offered to leave my driver's license and credit card with them as reassurance until I came back the next morning and could go over the bill with the owner. Instead, the establishment called the police and forced me to pay the full amount that night and couldn't tell me when the owner would be in again to talk to. It was a nightmare that I'm still embarrassed about every time I think about all our guests who flew in from Michigan and Colorado for...

FOLLOWING IS A RECENT EXPERIENCE IN 2023; I have changed my rating... My wife and I visited Julianna's on a mid-December Tuesday night. The dining room was nearly full at 5:30pm. Our experience was mixed. Bottom line; the food was very good. The God of Service must have been angry with us. We were seated immediately upon arrival. The waitress came in a few minutes to greet us and asked if it was a special occasion for us. I said it was my birthday which she enthusiastically acknowledged. We were not ready to choose our wine yet, so she said she would be back in a few minutes. From that moment, our test of patience began. At +15 minutes from arrival, the waitress returned to take our drink order. I asked for two glasses of a certain red wine, and we ordered our starters of soup and a salad. At +25 minutes, a staff member brought the soup and salad. We inquired of him where our wine was and were we getting any bread. At +30 minutes, the waitress came to say they were out of the wine we had chosen. So, we settled for a second choice. At this time, our food order was taken. To digress, the last time we came to Julianna's two years ago, we had ordered a wine which turned out to not be available. So we selected a second one from the menu. That also was not available. We ended up with a third choice. Now, upon entering the restaurant tonight, one could not help seeing the large poster by the door proclaiming Julianna's as the recipient of a Wine Spectator award of excellence. In my opinion, an award winner does not run out of wines repeatedly. Returning to the plodding progression of our meal, the entrees arrived at about an hour after arrival. A few minutes later, the bread we had asked for arrived. At about 10 minutes after the entrees came, a side dish I had ordered suddenly appeared. I assumed it had been forgotten and hoped I would not be charged for it, but there it was, when I was halfway through my meal. As I stated at the outset, all of the food was very good. My steak was very flavorful and perfectly grilled. My wife said her shrimp cakes were excellent. I can't speak for the late-arriving mac & cheese side dish because we brought it home and haven't eaten it yet. After one hour and fifty minutes, I was able to sign the credit slip and we left, having no further interaction with staff since the presentation of our check. The little things... We drank our water, but the glasses were never refilled. The candle lamp on the table was not lit. In fairness, our waitress was extremely busy with other tables-maybe more than she should have to. She did ask if we needed anything a couple of times. There was no further acknowledgement of my birthday, so I don't know the point of asking. We did observe what seemed like other customers being feted for some occasion. Conclusion: I could not recommend Julianna's based on this experience, but I would also not condemn it because there might have been issues behind the scene unknown to me that just happened that particular night. If (a qualified "if") we return, our expectations will be...

My mother spends each winter in Yuma and this year was her 75th birthday so all the family flew down here to celebrate her birthday. She picked Julieanna's Patio to celebrate. There were 13 of us total for dinner and it was without a doubt the worse dinner I have ever had. First in ordering out food. One of our party has allergies to garlic and his meal came with garlic mashed potatoes. He advised the server and he was able to substitute for something without garlic but there was a $4.00 substitution charge. Then several of us went to order their wedge salad. We couldn't order a salad because they were out of onions and out of dressing for the salad. This was at 5pm and they had just opened at 5pm for dinner service. How difficult would it be to run to a store to buy salad dressing and onions so you could serve salads. There were also out of some main courses (Brisket, ect). This had us skeptical of the meal we were about to be served and they fulfilled the expectation that our meals were going to be poor. My mom and her boyfriend ordered the Filet medium well and made sure to say they wanted it a little pink. When the steaks came they were beyond well done. They were dark (near black) on the outside and grey throughout. They sent the steaks back and sat there for nearly 30 minutes when they brought out 2 replacement stakes. This time they were butterflied (in order to cook them faster) and they were again well done, no pink in the steak. My son ordered the prime rib and ordered it medium rare (as prime rib should be served). When his prime rib came the top of it was bright red, but not a natural red. When you flipped the prime rib over (or cut it) and it was obvious that the prime rib was also cooked to well done and then "painted" on top with something to make it red. It would even wipe off if you rubbed your napkin on it. I ordered the stuffed pork tenderloin and it was as well extremely over cooked. It was so dry that it was uneatable. Everyone else's meal was also in different degrees of overcooked but these 4 were the extreme cases. I don't know if it was because our meals were put under heat lamps in order to have them all served at the same time of if the cook just didn't know how to cook. I was surprised the waitress didn't ask us about our meals when she was taking back plates that had most of the food not eaten. That should have been a clue. I was a shame that my mom's 75th...