I recently found out about Bon Appetit’s food podcast, or so they call it their “foodcast”. If you’re a food lover, appreciator, or work in the industry I highly recommend it. They are how I found out about JuneBaby. JuneBaby made the top 50 nominees for America’s Best New Restaurant. I am a lover of southern food so I immediately bumped JuneBaby up on my list when I visited Seattle. If you missed my First Timer’s List to Seattle, check it out here.
I don’t know what it is about hype but oftentimes when things are “overhyped” and they don’t live up to that expectation, they become very underwhelming. As far as dining experiences go, JuneBaby was a let down.
I walked in quite early as I read that it can get very busy for dinner. Walking into the door, I think I was greeted and told them it was just me so I would head to the bar. I took a seat and waited, waited some more, and then some. It took about 15 minutes for someone to actually acknowledge me (mind you, I’m by myself). The girl bartender seemed overwhelmed and I’m not sure why as it wasn’t that busy at the time. I couldn’t even get a smile out of her, I was already annoyed. A guy bartender finally came out and explained the drink menu to me. I got two different moonshine cocktails (and both were SUPER delicious).
I had to wait about an hour for service to start so I ordered some appetizers. I got the Pimento Cheese and the Boiled Peanuts. The pimento cheese left a lot to be desired, would not recommend it. Now the boiling peanuts, stole the show. The peanuts were marinated in country ham broth which is absolutely genius if you ask me. I swallowed the boiled peanuts, I still think about them to this day. JuneBaby’s boiled peanuts are a southern delicacy.
Between my appetizers and entree, the bartender and a server were literally having random and vulgar conversations in my ear. Mind you, I cuss every other sentence and I don’t mind people speaking their mind but in a professional setting…. with a customer beside me, I would never. It really made the dining experience suck because the food wasn’t doing so bad at that point.
For my entree, I asked for the bartenders suggestion and he suggested the Oxtails. I’m not a huge Oxtail fan but I went with it because if someone singles out a specific dish on a menu, it’s for a reason. It was good Oxtail. I believe that if you are an Oxtail fanatic, you would appreciate this dish more than I did. Overall, I would eat it again but probably wouldn’t spend my own money on it.
All in all, I probably would give JuneBaby another chance because they had other promising items on their menu and because we all have off days. But for a restaurant that is in the top 50 for America’s Best New Restaurants, it did not live up the hype… for me anyway. I will say if you do make a stop you HAVE to get the boiled peanuts and any of the moonshine cocktails.
PIN IT!
