Joon

Omar was super helpful in finding gluten free and dairy free options!

Very gluten-free friendly. Cocktails - average. (Compared to our favorite places in London, SF, NYC, Paris) Starters, entrees, desserts - flavors were on-point and light, allowing for four rounds of easy eating. Espressos, coffee, and tea - smooth and not bitter

Tl;dr: service unacceptably slow and sloppy care for a food allergy. I wanted to love Joon, I did. But we went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, and ended up having a very unsatisfactory experience. The food was good- clearly the kitchen was on-point. Our issues were with service, which was deeply disappointing at a restaurant where the tab was $200 for two people. I’m afraid that this restaurant is suffering from a sudden surge of interest that they are not staffed enough to handle. Here are the three main issues we experienced: 1. Service was unbelievably slow- as in our finished dinner plates sat in front of us for 40 whole minutes before being cleared and being offered a dessert menu. Our server knew we were finished- he had brought us a to go box and bag 40 minutes before he came back to get our plates. Half eaten food gets pretty gross in that amount of time. We couldn’t get anyone else’s attention during this timespan. There also was an excessive gap between appetizers and entrees, even though our server told us in advance that he doesn’t leave time between courses because he wants you to be able to use your appetizer sauces with your entrees. 2. Food allergy was mismanaged. I noted my allergy (celiac disease, like a gluten allergy) on my reservation. I informed my server of my allergy twice. When my first course came, it had a fried item on top. I waited about 10 minutes to get my server’s attention (well, to get a busboy to go get our server). When he came over, he said “there’s no flour!”. I said, “that’s great, but does this go in the same fryer as something with gluten?” At first he said “no,” but then, I kid you not, the server said “just let me know if you start feeling something” while gesturing to his throat, as if I should let him know if I started having an allergic reaction. I said, “well I won’t have an allergic reaction here, but I’ll be sick for two weeks.” Suddenly, he didn’t think I should have the fried item, and insisted on going back to the kitchen to have it remade without the fried item. 3. Some menus are mislabeled with food allergies. My husband and I got slightly different dessert menus- one more fresh, one that appeared to be printed earlier. One menu marked the dessert I wanted (Persian Love Cake) as containing gluten, while the other did not. Other items matched up with marked allergens, but this one seems to have slipped through the cracks. I have no doubt that if I had only seen the older menu, I would have been served a dessert that was marked as not containing gluten even though it did contain gluten.