Juniper and Ivy

I've been frequenting Juniper & Ivy for several years and this place never disappoints! Reservations are easy to book via OpenTable, and the service here is always quick and attentive. The ambiance here is upscale, lighting is dark, but surprisingly cozy. The menu is ever-changing, which is what draws me back!

For parking, there's a valet service outside that I've never used as I've always been able to find street parking (after several attempts). If you're driving, I'd advise to come ~15 minutes early to bank your luck on some parking.

This recent visit we ordered the rockfish tostada, wagyu beef arancini, mushroom toast, hokkaido scallop crudo, furikake sweet potatoes, miso black cod and the chicken inasal. Our favorite bites were the mushroom toast, crudo, and miso black cod. The toast served as a delicious filler since we ordered quite a few tapas. The tostada was a miss as it tasted a bit stale, but the toppings were flavorful. The chicken inasal was tasty, but felt a bit underwhelming as an entree (2 small skewers). The black cod on the other hand was light, subtly sweet, with an outstanding clear broth ~ this dish paired well with the furikake sweet potatoes. All of this was shared between 2 people.

For cocktails we ordered the passenger (which is recommended to fruity drinkers) and a yakuza highball. The highball is lower in alcohol content and I recommend giving the drink a good stir for the fruity notes to come up.

Overall another amazing dine @ J&I.

This is the second time I've been here in the past few years. I remember it for the best duck I ever had. coming back, that statement still rings true.

service: 5/5. attentive staff, waiter was knowledgeable about all the dishes and drinks we asked about.

maitake mushroom: 5/5, super super good. great texture, flavor, and presentation. unique.

chopped salad: 3/5. I could make this at home and better.

drinks: 4/5 in general. the shelter island and aka kid sake were especially good.

whole duck: 5/5. this is what they're known for, this is still in my dreams...

bunuelo: 4.5/5. light and yummy dessert with crunch and creaminess.

sticky toffee cake: 2.5/5. too heavy and sweet.

not a fan of the bathroom art. there is a shared hand washing area, while each side has separate gender entrances to closed off toilet areas. the entrance to the women's side has the art of a woman's back and her taking off her top. the the entrance to the men's has a man's face and he is holding binoculars, facing the woman's back. pretty damn cringe, on the nose hetero male voyeurism. hope they can change that sometime.

otherwise a classy and great restaurant I'll look forward to returning to again when I'm back.

THE BEST RESTAURANT IN LITTLE ITALY AND SAN DIEGO!!!! literally one of the very few fancy places that's worth the price. The ambiance is very calm and relaxing and the wait staff answered all my questions.
I forgot the names of the dishes my friend and i got but the pimento cheese is addicting, idk what the put in it but that sħít goes hard!!!! And the salmon was cooked to perfection!

Had a great dinner here with my sister last weekend. We had reservations for 7:30, and once we arrived at 7:30, they made us wait in the seating area for 2-3 minutes before they took us to our table. Our server was definitely busy, but still managed to spend enough time with us. Our drinks were super yummmmy. To eat we split 2 "bites" (this fish tostadas), 1 pantry (the pimento cheese), and then 2 small plates (I think a potato dish and another fish dish). Everything was sooo tasty. And then we saved room for dessert!

We visited Juniper and Ivy on New Year's Eve for a special Prix Fixe menu. We were greeted promptly by the hostesses who, despite our reservation, said that our table was not ready yet and that we should be seated in the lounge to wait. Sigh...not the most welcoming start but it's NYE so we aren't going to let this beginning ruin our experience. We ordered a couple of drinks and waited to be called. About ten minutes later we were approached and asked our name before being walked to our table through the spacious and modern dining room. They had chill dance/electronic music playing throughout our visit which was quite pleasant.

We were given a choice between still or sparkling water immediately and quickly approached by our server, Alexandra. Let me say that they definitely have a team approach to serving so you won't only be seeing one person during your visit. The service once we were seated was impeccable and timely.

We ordered our four courses with a wine pairing. Each course was perfectly timed in delivery. I couldn't possibly describe them all but I will say our favorites were the Scallops which were delectable and the Poached Pair dessert. Everything was good - and should have been at the price point. But those were our two favorites. Probably the biggest disappointment was the steak. It was fatty and the potatoes were boring. Our experience came to an end with the special Bon Bons delivered at the end of our meal. My partner really enjoyed those. I'm not a big fan of coconut so I only took one bite of mine.

Parking at Juniper and Ivy is via valet or you can see if you can find one of the few street parking spots in Little Italy. You could also choose to take a rideshare which is what we did.

I don't understand how Juniper and Ivy was so good?!

I thought based on the name I was going to get vegan hipster garbage and instead it was a fine dining experience that i can't stop thinking about.

The small bites were incredible. The deviled egg was absolutely phenomenal.

PRO TIP: don't share it... get 2. Still mad we split that bite.

I'm still having inappropriate thoughts about the carne cruda toast. I'd go back and just order five of those and eat them all myself for my entire meal. It's that good!

We had Japanese sweet potato, lions mane bigoli, and delicious wines that complimented everything.

PRO TIP: Roserock Pinot Noir was a phenomenal choice and effortlessly complimented everything. ...But let's be honest, Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs could never disappoint. It's a statistical impossibility and yet it holds up every time.

The wines on their som list were also delicious and went perfectly with the duck. ...

Omg, don't get me started on the duck.... Juiciest, crispiest, hands down best duck experience I've ever had.

There are so many incredible dining experiences in San Diego that as a rule, I typically don't go back to the same place twice but in the case of Juniper and Ivy, I'm going to have to make an exception because they're are so many things. I still have yet to try and a couple of things I need to have again.

I celebrated my birthday here and was super excited to visit from LA. We started off with oysters with mignonette and it was fresh and delicious! Then came the rabbit trottole with was shredded rabbit with pasta and a little broth. It was good but I wish it had more rabbit. It tasted like shredded chicken with pasta. The Japanese sweet potatoes had to be my favorite dish out of all. It was packed with flavor from the cashew cream and honey. I would recommend this dish forsure.

Then it went downhill from there with our over $100 22 oz New York strip. I don't meant to be dramatic or that person, but I took a bite of the fries and immediately spit it out and made a face. It was SO FREAKING SALTY!!! To the point where we couldn't even eat the fries anymore. It felt like maybe the chef forgot if he salted our dish and decided to add double the amount? Then we took a bite of the kale, same issue. Finally, comes the steak- so SALTY on the outer edges. I had to cut around to just eat the meat but was so unsatisfied with this main dish. We asked for a new batch of fries and they were kind to remake it but it was still so salty. Didn't end up finishing this plate and the remade fries. Only the steak sauce was good. If you are thinking about ordering this, ask for no salt or salt on the side for your own adjustments.

The staff was very kind and respectful about this and took care of it for us. This restaurant really has great service. We really appreciated that! However, I don't think I'd dine in again for this. Maybe for the Japanese sweet potatoes, wine, and oysters.

Ok second time here, we liked the food but missed the spicy tuna tartare and the smoked bread we had the first time we were here ;) I do enjoy their concept of changing the menu daily but it's a high risk driving an hour away not knowing if my favorite items will be on the menu or not ;)

I ended up visiting J&I, a mere 2weeks after my first visit as a dear friend wanted to try it for her birthday.

I was extremely hopeful at having a better experience after prior reading rave reviews and knowing that the menu changes daily.

Service was on point just like my last visit.

However we were a group of 5 with 2 vegetarians and there were only a limited number of items that were vegetarian /could be customized for them.

We ended up trying the
Spicy Tuna Handrolls: good but not at all spicy/was severely lacking some dipping sauce
Rockfish Tostada: again good but nothing to remember
Parker House rolls: more on the sweet side but helped fill up the hungry vegetarians
Pimento Cheese: the herby warm cheese was delicious so we did two orders of this as the group was hungry
Linguine: Two orders of this as well, one regular and the other for the vegetarians, this was the highlight of everyone's meal just like my last visit
Agnolotti: Served with the bacon on the side upon request, it was great as well!

Everyone was happy with their drinks- wines, cocktails and the non-ABV concoctions that they made for two members in the group.

As a group of ladies with a huge sweet tooth, we were all so disappointed to see the dessert menu for the day did not have anything with chocolate (similar to my visit two weeks ago) so we ended up asking for the check and heading out to another dessert spot nearby.

The ambiance was ok, we chose to sit outdoors and had a bit of the bright sun to deal with initially but settled down soon.

My last review was a 3.5stars but this experience unfortunately brings it down to an even 3 solely because of the lack of good dessert options (which was a huge saving grace last time).

I'll say the food was pretty good but the service was disjointed and I didn't get to feel at ease when being seated for dinner. To be transparent the hostess was maybe having an off day...our server was great.

Did we get two desserts?? Yes we did, and I'm glad bc the desserts were the best part of the meal :)