Pacini Ste-Julie - Sainte-Julie

Our party of 6 had a disappointing experience at Pacini. Four of us received cold food, and my Caesar salad was particularly terrible. The service was extremely slow, and we were shocked to be charged $22 for a plate of cold pasta. We will not be returning.

During the summer, we love going to this restaurant for their terrace, which is the best around. The food is delicious, but we recommend only going for breakfast as it can be quite pricey.

My husband, his father and his step mother and I went to Pacini for brunch yesterday. His dad warned us ahead of time that the service was slow, so we arrived in plenty of time to have a nice meal together. Dear reader, you may find the following to be overly negative but if you care to read my past reviews, I am always positive about restaurant experiences. I can find the charm in most situations. Sadly, this experience was less charming and more an exercise in tedium. We all arrived at 11am for brunch. We were seated and given menus right away. We were going to ask for beverages from our server, Anne but she rushed away. I figured that she may be occupied with the small birthday gathering (about eight people) nearby. About fifteen minutes later, she reappeared. I noticed that she had gone to the back of house and was not serving the birthday group. We gave her drink orders, and we were ready to order our food but she told us she'd be back for our food orders when she returned with the drinks. Fifteen minutes later okay coffee's here, great! We order. My husband and I decided to share a pizza, mother in law orders eggs and toast, father in law orders a chicken pasta. We're now at about 11:30am. Birthday group clears out, we still see no Anne or any other server. We do see that the place is dusty. Windows, blinds, surfaces, dust everywhere. We get to 12:15pm and we decide to ask where our food is. It's been plenty of time we finally see someone emerge from the back, not Anne but another server. She looks annoyed and tells us that the chicken takes a long time. Are they catching and butchering the chicken there? Really? 12:30pm food arrives. It's okay. Just alright. The magical chicken that takes an hour to cook isn't that amazing. Anne has vanished into the back again. 12:45pm Anne reappears! What is going on back there? Are they playing poker? Catching chickens? Mysteries! She gives us the bill and disappears even though my father in law is holding his VISA card and we're putting on coats. We start looking for Anne. Father in law asks another server to just put through our VISA card because we're ready to just get out of this Bermuda Triangle of a restaurant. The server says he can't and to just wait for Anne and he too vanishes into the magical kitchen in the back. Maybe there's a doorway to Narnia back there. 1:05pm Anne appears! I guess the Bingo game in the back has ended. We pay and leave. The whole time I felt like this place gives ZERO care to their customers. Lazy and inattentive service, being made to feel like you're a burden for being there. It's not a good look. There are countless restaurants in this area I'd seek out one of them. Two hours for brunch is a joke. Shape up and clean up Pacini!

My wife and I ate at Pacini during a recent trip to Quebec. The restaurant was recommended by family living in the area. We were able to get in on a Saturday night without a reservation. We only speak a little French, but like most service based businesses in the area, the staff is bilingual. The first thing we noticed was the lighting. Not only were the lighting structures unique in design, but they were dimmed perfectly. Often we find that the lights are too bright in many restaurants. The ambiance at Pacini was very refreshing. We started the meal with Calamari Fritti. The calamari was tender and seasoned well. The crust was crispy and the aioli sauce was a great compliment. The calamari was laying a bed of arugula, which provided a nice peppery bite. We were given ample time to eat our appetizer before our meal arrived. For the main course, we both ordered the Grilled Chicken Rosemarino. I ordered mine with a side of zucchini fries. My wife had a side of pesto linguini. The chicken was tender and seasoned well. The zucchini fries were the star of my dish. They were light, crispy, and seasoned to perfection. The manager came by our table at the end of our meal to check on our experience. Overall it was a great meal in a very intimate setting.

Stopped here for dinner with our two young children on our way home from a trip to Quebec City. The place was busy, which is usually a good sign. We did not have a reservation but we were seated immediately upon arrival and there was no line at the door. The food was acceptable. They had a nice children 's menu and the bread bar is something I have always enjoyed at Pacini restaurants. I was however disappointed with a few service issues: First, we were seated in a tight booth directly in front of the waiter station. No partition, nothing to hide the garbage and dirty dishes that the staff are bringing back and forth from the tables to the station. We could also hear their conversations. They should simply not have a table there. I actually tripped on one of the table legs and fell to the floor when I tried to squeeze out of the booth. Second: It took a long time for our waiter to come and see us. When he did come by, it was to try and sell me their wine of the day , which is strange because it was not on sale. I did not want it so he left with his bottles and did not come back. At this point, I did not even realize that he was our waiter. Thought that his job was to sell wine... 15 minutes go by and I finally ask another waitress to take our order. She tells me that our waiter will be right with us. 5 minutes later, he comes back. He takes our order and leaves. At this point, no one has even bothered to fill our water glasses. After another 5 minutes, I ask a passing waitress to bring us some water (we were all quite thirsty from having been on the road most of the afternoon). I guess that the staff decided that we were difficult customers now because they rushed and brought our salads and water right away. Our waiter brought extra water in such a way that I found a little insulting. Sort of a here, don 't bother me for water again type of a message. During our meal, I noticed that our waiter had tables all over the restaurant. This makes it very difficult for him to pay propper attention to his customers. I suspect that this is why he was so slow. Even at the end of the meal, we had our jackets on waiting for him to come and take our money. Not efficient service.