Everyone (including myself) is always looking for the perfect breakfast/brunch place when the weekend comes around. I'm still searching for a place with great food plus bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Mary's. But, besides the alcoholic drinks, Cafe Julia is a must try, at least once. Food was great for us, but the service was incredibly lacking. It was a "weird" experience to say the least. I've heard that service is usually on-point, but this one Sunday, it was just off. If I ever do go back, I hope service will be better, because I have to admit, it is a beautiful place to casually enjoy lunch with the girls.
There is outside seating with umbrellas, and on a nice day, the warm sun shines down on a lovely little garden space. We decided to eat inside, though, which has high, white ceilings and a nice, open air breeze. Sit inside or out- both are great choices. Just a FYI- if you take your boyfriend, husband, or man friend, just beware, this is the YWCA (a membership organization supporting 2500 women and girls), so there will be a female-based clientele there.
We were seated, and our order was taken for drinks. When that finally came, we ordered our meals. I had spilled some coffee on our table shortly after, and ushered over our waitress (a tall middle-aged woman), who wiped it up with a towel. I asked her for a little bit more coffee, and she promptly asked me if we needed anything else......which seemed strange, since we were still waiting for our food! I was a little confused. Still waiting for our food 10 minutes later, our waitress came back over and handed us the check. I was even more confused! Brian finally caught her attention and she came over to ask us if something was wrong with the check. In the most awkward way ever, we replied that we didn't receive our food yet. She looked over at the cashier girl and mumbled something that blamed her for printing out the ticket so quickly, but our waitress was clearly befuddled as well! I don't know if she was all there that morning!
We finally got our food almost an hour later, and I admit it was tasty. But was it worth the uncomfortably-awkward hour wait? Don't know about that! It was a humorous situation in the end to say the least. Brian and I both thought about going up to the cashier girl and looking to her for answers on what the heck just happened, but we just walked out laughing. It was almost too ridiculous that all you could really do was furrow your brows, throw your hands up in baffled manner, and laugh! A perplexing experience for the books.
I think "theatrical" would have described this morning brunch the best.
Anyway, besides the entertainment, the food was again, great. I ordered the Special- a Croque Madame, which is an open-faced crunchy, ham and cheese sandwich topped with a sunny side egg and Béchamel sauce. It was deliciously-crunchy and cheesy and the egg was cooked perfectly. I also liked the Nalo Greens on the side with a light dressing. Was a nice combo of salad with the heavy carb meal.
Brian ordered the Corned Beef Hash and Eggs with white rice. His portion seemed much smaller than mine when it came out, plus it came with fried rice, not the white rice he ordered. Another mistake made by the waitress. On the bright side, he said the fried rice was really good and maybe one of the best he's ever had, thus, it happened to be a pleasant misstep. Thankfully.
So, besides the weird situation with our waitress, food was delicious and ambiance was nice. Give this place a try...once. If you have a weird experience like we did, let me know in the comments section. I'd love to hear!
 |
| ...with "Spicy Ketchup" that Brian said tasted like JUST ketchup. |
