Kristin S.
Yelp
We had an awful experience at Junipine for Mothers Day brunch. I planned this special time for myself, my 5 children and their spouses, and four sets of friends and our parents. There were 15 of us in total for a pre scheduled reservation. The brunch menu was posted from Junipine on social media, as a buffet style, $55 per person and looked wonderful! We were truly looking forward to having all the family together but this turned into quite an embarrassment.
Service and Ambience: As our group arrived for our reservation, they seated us at pushed together patio tables on their patio deck area outside. While the patio is quite lovely and brought no complaints, the table was not pre set with any decoration, ( not a candle or flower or anything? ) , no tablecloth, not a plate, silverware, napkin or even a glass. Surprising for a reserved Mothers Day brunch. The restaurant was also not full at all. There were 2 other tables only, of 4 each, also sitting outside, besides ourselves.
It then proceeded to take 20 minutes to get served a glass of water. Once our full party arrived, our drink order was taken. This too took easily an additional 20-30 min. to receive. I wish I was exaggerating, but sadly I am not. Having no place settings, I went inside the building to inquire about the buffet and how it worked. I was told we would be given plates to go through the buffet. Back to my seat I went, where we waited another 10 min to receive our plates.
As we went to the "buffet" line, we noticed all food items sitting out on pushed together dining tables. Again, one would just have expected for a resort's special Mothers Day brunch a bit more of "something" ... maybe even a single flower or table cloth or table skirting? Once we served ourselves, we sat at table with no silverware yet or napkins. Again, I got up and went inside to inquire. I was told by the bartender someone would bring some out. By this time we were picking food off our plates with fingers. We then proceeded to go inside and take silverware from the preset inside tables. Our server then noticed and brought out a plate of forks, a plate of knives and a plate of spoons and set them in the middle of our table, as if up for grabs. Still no napkins, which required asking once again. Lastly, when we inquired about clean plates to go back through the buffet, we were told to use our same plates. This is definitely unsanitary.
Food: Cold food such as ranch dressing and raw seafood sat in bowls or plates on the table without proper chill. Some of us opted away from those items. Hot food was in steamers, but not replenished in a timely fashion as our family couldn't each take an item from the buffet the first time without it running out. Many of us shared our items with each other because of this. There were also items missing from the buffet menu as posted on social media. When we asked about why they did not have the items that we were looking forward to we were told they ran out. Brownie type items were displayed on a veggie tray with vegetables. Overall food quality for taste was decent, 3 of 5. No complaints there.
Recap: The only enjoyable part of our brunch was the setting on the patio nature provided, the family and friends we were with and the one cocktail from the bar. Service was absolutely awful, the whole set up coming off as a thrown together last minute event with lack of planning. Food was not what was advertised and without a doubt not worth $55 per person or the well over $2000 we spent as a group. We will never recommend or go back. Ever.
