Julie's

I always look forward going back to Julie's. The food is to a high standart and produce usually fresh. The menu is vaired and the setting reflects the mix of wordly sophistication and slightly bohemian relaxedness which this corner of Notting Hill / Holland Park is so famous for. It is slightly off the beaten track, which gives it a feel of neighbourhood restaurant – cum dining club. Very nice indeed. Definitey one for the romanitc date list!

I ate at Julies last night – first time ever and without a doubt the last time ever.
Service was so so
Food was so very average – what I would expect in a cafe almost rather than an expensive restaurant.
It was an amazingly disappointing experience and I really resented paying so much money for a meal that I have rated 3/10 in all.
I eat out a lot in London – and only went to Julies as a friend recommended it from having gone there a lot in the past. Must have really gone downhill big time.

God knows what has happened to Julie's. I've been going there for 25 years and it's always been packed full of people, fun, buzzy and with perfectly good, reasonably priced food. However, I went yesterday and was really shocked. We were the only people in the restaurant upstairs for most of the evening. The waiter was polite but the waitress spoke virtually no English. Everything is ridiculously expensive, which would be fine if the food were good but a lot of it turned up cold. We sent it back and it came back on a boiling hot plate but still only lukewarm. None of us enjoyed any of it and left most of it. They then got the coffee order wrong but the biggest shock was the price. Such a shame when it used to be a firm favourite of mine.

the worst place ever! do NOT go!
the lobster spaghetti were the only thing quite nice to eat even though they did not seem to contain any lobster but rather some crayfish. the rest of the food we had was somewhere between passable and inedible!
you see, i really don't mind spending good money on good food, but this was something else.
fillet of beef main course at £31,- for 2 small thin slices of beef (maximum 150g) with 2 cornichons (cornichon salad!), some sauce and almost raw potato cubes with cream.
starter was grilled asparagus with poached egg, black truffle and percorino (£12,95). it consisted of 2! asparagus spears cut in half with an overly poached, small egg, one small shaving of percorino and some crumbs (not slices) of non-tasting black truffle.
service was patchy as well.
we asked the waitress about the chermoula that came with the grilled sardines and were told “it's a sauce”. when we informed her we guessed as much but wanted to know what goes in it, she replied “i don't know”.
given the fact that the most expensive white and red wines on the wine list are just above £60,-, this restaurant is a novelty to me.
it is the only “fine dining” restaurant in the world i know that is trying to make it's profit from the food! truly awful!!

I had dinner with 2 very good friends at Julie's this weekend, one of whom dines at Julie's fairly regularly and who has raved about it. So it was with much excitement that we embarked on a long-awaited night out last Saturday.
The venue itself was very impressive, with room after room of vastly different decors and atmospheres. My friend asked the disinterested girl at reception whether someone might show us round as they have done for her in the past but was told that everyone was too busy. So we showed ourselves round and it really is an impressive place.
We sat down for dinner in the gorgeously light and airy garden room but that was very much when the experience started giong downhill. The clam chowder was lovely but the squid and raviolli starters were disappointing.
Mains were better – fish pie, seabream and scallops were nice but nothing special and we paid 6.25 for the smallest, saddest plate of chips I've ever seen.
All in all, I felt a bit aggrieved at having to pay almost £100 each (including wine and a cocktail) for something that didn't even come close to the quality of some much more reasonably priced places in that area.

This review is a dissapointment to write.
I really like Julies and I often have a great evening snug in the bar with some fab wine and a warming pie or a steak. Its a great place to watch people go by and it can be so very romantic. So I relished the idea of a cosy dinner with my husband in the lull that is Carnival weekend. No need to make a reservation – there's noone around. So we decided to ‘splash out’ and eat in the restaurant.

On arrival the meet and greet girl at the front desk was so informal I wondered what the hell she was doing there, it was like a disinterested shoe shop assistant. complete waste of time.

We ordered some very nice wine which was served chilled and the waiting staff were excellent. It was quiet, as previously mentioned, so the dining roomwas quieter than usual. However we orded soem olives and crudities to share. Appalling! Almost £9 for a sad carrot that had been sliced quite some time ago, some bad tinned olives the olive ciabatta was ok but it really was a bit of an insult.
Good news came with the mains. A really good lobster spaghetti lifted my spirits and my husband's lamb was terrific. We decided against coffee or pudding and asked for the bill.
While we waited the front of house girl loitered by our table rearranging her hair and asking if we ‘wanted a cab or something?’
Unfortunately/fortunately we live a 5 minute walk away. I wish I had better things to say about the restaurant but I don't. Next time we go we'll be in the bar.

Julie's is an incredible place, sprawling out over several floors and multiple rooms, each entirely different from the others. One is Moorish in feel, another Balearic, one casual and cafe-ish, another formal and haute; you could breakfast, brunch, lunch, dine and sup here every day for a week and never feel that you were in the same place twice. There's a very homely feel about Julie's, at least in the part in which we were seated, which I'm sure must contribute in no small part to its local appeal.

One criticism that's been leveled at Julie's by some reviewers is that the pricing of the food bears little relation to the quality and indeed quantity of it, and I must admit that when I looked over the menu some of the prices struck me as being rather steep. However, we ordered from the brunch menu all of which appeared to be fairly priced (for W11 at least). Everything that came to the table was excellent; my smoked salmon and scrambled eggs was almost as good as I make it at home (in my not-so-humble opinion), the full English two of our group enjoyed was all present and correct and very attractively plated, and a plate of eggs and bacon was much liked. Toast was hot and crispy, butter soft and plentiful, the preserves superb (Bonne Maman no less) and the coffee strong, aromatic and very freshly roasted. Service was quick, courteous and unobtrusive, and we were welcomed and waved off warmly.

My experience of Julie's was entirely and only positive, and that it has stayed in business – not to mention in the same hands – for four decades must surely be an indicator that its fans outweigh its vocal online detractors. I certainly am already planning to go back and look forward to experiencing Julie's for lunch and dinner having thoroughly enjoyed brunch.

Sep 09
All 10/10 for good reason – possibly the most consistently excellent restaurant in London. I have dined here for 7 years and there is always a good table available due to the variety of dining areas. Despite occassional larger groups dining, peace and quiet is assured in one of the many rooms at this fantastic restaurant. The menu is superb and only changed slightly over the years. There is something for every taste, and all top quality. The service is also excellent and has remained so for certainly the last 5 years. A*!

We went yesterday to Julie's. I have to stress I went with a positive attitude, hoping to have a great dinner and be able to rate the venue very highly. I wish I hadn't.

We were greeted by a wait girl, sitting in a booth at the entrance. I found very weird she would not escort us to the table. I found it a waste of staff to have someone just sitting down just checking reservations and doing nothing else. Not my problem anyways. We were directed upstairs as requested in the reservation. The place was mostly empty. Now the issues started. One of the most unfriendly and arrogant managers, arguing the place was fully booked, just offered two seating options. Now, I don't give a damn if your place is fully booked (we found later that it was obviously not!), we arrived first, we should be offered the best table or at the very least let us choose the one we want. He was arrogant and impolite, which already put me off. I chose the table with the table cloth (this was another bizarre thing, to have some table with table clothes and others without – someone explain me the rationale of that.). The chairs, which seemed antique, were anyways extremely uncomfortable (could not sit back without stubbing some protruding edges in my spine). We requested to be seated on the “other” table (without table cloth). Eventually, it was not much better (also very uncomfortable) but at least we had more space.

I went to the toilet to wash my hands as usual. Now, the cleaness and overall appearance of the loo is a sign to me of what the particular place is about. For such a big restaurant the toilets are ridiculously small and cramped, and although they were not dirty, they were very very tired and outdated. Not good.

The food:

On the table they had a small plate of olives, 4 slices of bread and a dish with olive oil and vinegar. First, I would assume that to be complementary (if I have not requested for it, I dont see why I should pay for it), plus I dont like the fact of putting those on the table before anybody sits down. Purely out of hygiene and service. Well, we later found out they charged 1.5 GBP per person for that. The funny thing is that no matter if the table was for 2, 4 or 6 there was the same amount of olives and bread, which I find it a robbery. This is what this place is about: your money, not their food (as you'll see right now)

Starters: I ordered the “Brown butter and garlic potted shrimps”, she had the “Smoked mackerel, halibut and salmon terrine with caper mayonnaise”. Two of the worst starters I've ever had. Here's why. The shrimps plate was a dish with 5-6 slices of plain bread and a small bowl (5 cm across) filled with butter (which looked more like solidified duck fat -really!) in which you could find a few shrimps. Now, to call those shrimps is like to call an anchovies a blue whale. No kidding those are the cheapest crappies shrimps one can “buy”. barely 0.5 cm in length chewy, etc, etc etc. It was sent back straight away. Btw, Julie's robs 10.50 GBP for that!!! Remember, 5-6 slices of brown bread and a tiny bowl with butter!!! wtf! In replacement I asked for the gazpacho (the 2nd cheapest starter). Now, I am Spanish and I make my own gazpacho at home. But it doesn't matter. Even someone who would have never tasted tomatoes could tell that gazpacho was just a can of tomatoes, crushed. 6.50 GBP for canned tomatoes???!!! Patient reader, believe me those were just canned tomatoes. No olive oil, no peppers no nothing. Plain crashed canned tomatoes. Bad, bad. Her terrine of smoked fish was a tasteless slice of smoked fish pate served with the same 5-6 slices of brown bread. No capper mayonnaise (as advertised) was to be found on the plate either. Enough to start prosecution.

The mains were better (it would have been difficult to get it worse anyways). I had the entrecote. It lacked flavour and the best part were the chips that came with it. Overall an ok dish, but when you factor the 25 GBP for that, you again feel the people at Julie's got the value for money equation completely wrong. She had the rack of lamb. 3 lamb chops, 2 bites per chop (50% was fat). Nice taste, but again, unimaginative and not good value for money.

Anyways, the mains were passable when you put them in the perspective of the starters and the desserts.

Desserts: Eaton mess for her, brownie for me. The Eaton mess I saw in “come dine with me” looked and probably was immensely better than the one we got at Julie's. It came in a small glass. Basically it was berry yogurt (Tesco brand grade) with a few berries. 8 GBP. My brownie, being aware that making a good brownie is not an easy task was no surprise: disappointing (taste, portion, presentation). It was dry, hard on the edges (could not cut it with my knife) and again, 8 GBP. Bad, bad, bad Julie's.

Other stuff: we only got our bottle of wine after having finished our starter. The waiter insisted in refilling the glass even though being far from empty (he did the same thing with other tables). Service was overall neither friendly nor efficient.

I refused to pay the service charge. Surprisingly the manager did not bother to come asking the reason. That proves my theory that he doesn't give a damn about his customers.

Summary: VERY low food quality. Poor execution of dishes. VERY LOW value for money. No surprise when you consider an arrogant manager, who is closer to a pimp than a professional of the food industry, who does not deserve any of your hard earned pennies.

This was no bad luck. Those were not small unfortunate details. There something or someone fundamentally wrong in Julie's. I will not come back, and I’d urge you to consider some other place.

I don't often venture into west London but I have heard of Julie's and was intrigued to see what it would be like when I got taken there last night. There's little doubt that the ‘themed’ rooms add to the atmosphere; we ate in the banqueting room, which was great for a large party. I cannot fault the service which was swift and attentive but the food was a little disappointing, especially when paying £40 for three courses. The asparagus starter was cooked perfectly but the plate did look a little sad with only three spears on it! Others around the table had the pate and the soup, both of which were a little more generous. For the main, there were lots of good comments about the steak but the sea bass was miniscule and overcooked. There were plenty of fresh vegetables on the side as well as new potatoes and fat chips; in fact, the latter far more enjoyable than anything else! Desserts were also a mixed bunch; the sorbet of pomegranate, vanilla and blood orange was far too acidic, the sharpness overriding any of the flavours while the creme brulee was apparently quite good.
The meal was enjoyable but you are paying over the odds at Julie's, thanks to its location as well as the restaurant's setting. You can get much better food at a much better price elsewhere in London.

All I can say is, why haven't I been here before!!! The best thing about this place is the creche. You can actually have a nice sophisticated lunch, or at least a coffee, in peace! None of my friends knew about this hidden gem that has been around for years either. I will definetly return. Food is pretty good too. It didn't blow me away (probably because I had pasta) – I had spaghetti with avacado pesto, which was unusual, but lovely.
Service was attentive & friendly. It looks like the front of the place has been done up, but the upstairs hasnt been done, but it adds to the charm. Lots of nooks and crannies, great for large family gatherings. Church pughs as chairs and unusual things on the walls (like some stuffed squirrels)! I will definely return & recommend to others. Not bad value for money either and in a lovely location. Buzzy atmosphere.