Enjoy your meal at Joe's American Bar & Grill
Written: Mar 06 '06
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Pros: Comfortable setting, Good food, Portion size, Excellent service
Cons: Price is slightly higher than comparable restaurants
The Bottom Line: A meal at Joe’s American Bar and Grill is an enjoyable experience that is a step above your standard chain restaurant
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| jps246's Full Review: Joe's American Bar & Grill |
Joe’s American Bar and Grill serves up a wide selection of typical American dishes that includes various choices from a variety of selections that should provide something that almost anyone can enjoy.
With both lunch and dinner menus that cover seafood, steaks, ribs, chicken, pastas and sandwiches – the menu is definitely not lacking for choices. A limited brunch menu is even available on Saturday and Sundays.
The only real downside is the slightly higher prices that Joe’s charges for its meals, though that price differential overall is quite minor and considering what you get for that price, I don’t think it is an outrageous markup.
For me, I’ve found that Joe’s American Bar and Grill is a good value. I enjoy almost everything on the menu, the ambiance is quite nice, the service has always been outstanding and even though I’ll pay a bit more than other places, I’ve found I don’t mind paying extra for what I get, especially since I enjoy my meal that much more because of it.
What’s it like
Scattered mostly in Massachusetts, but found elsewhere in the Northeast, Joe’s American Bar and Grill is a chain restaurant and of the locations I’ve visited, each location is decorated and maintained much the same as the other locations.
What’s it look like when you walk in? In a few words I’d have to say simple yet classy and sophisticated is the look that the restaurant seems to be going for when it comes to design and layout. Most tables are booths and most of the seating areas, while closely laid out, provide a certain level of privacy for the people sitting at the individual tables.
Service is excellent from the point you walk in the restaurant. Most of the time there is a greeter who will open the door for you and show you to the host or hostess for seating. Once there, you can choose to sit at a table or go to the bar.
Service?
Joe’s is one of the few restaurants where I’ve had consistently good service throughout all of my visits. From the point where you walk in, to when you leave – you’re not quite pampered, but you are treated a lot better than you would be in the average chain restaurant.
I do have to admit though – the first time I was asked “do you know where the restroom is,” by the hostess, I wasn’t sure how to respond. I discovered though, at least in the Framingham location, that’s part of the seating – letting the new guests know where to find the restrooms. Once I got over my initial “um,” I thought it was a really good idea since how many times do you wander around a restaurant looking for the restrooms?
Once seated, your waiter or waitresses will quickly follow up with drinks and will read out the specials. Generally there are both lunch and dinner specials. There are free refills on non-alcoholic drinks and I’ve found that almost always – as you are finishing your glass, your waiter will have another one waiting for you.
Meals are well paced and if you have ordered an appetizer or a salad, I’ve always had enough time to enjoy each course, without having to wait too long in between courses. The hot foods have been hot and the cold foods cold too – so you know your order isn’t sitting and waiting endlessly underneath a heating lamp.
What’s on the menu?
Both the lunch and dinner menus are quite similar, with the only real difference being portion sizes and prices. The lunch menu tends to have smaller portions and prices that are about $2 to $4 dollars cheaper than the dinner menu. There are also a few sandwiches that are on the lunch menu that are not on the dinner menu.
Joe’s has a full service bar and a fairly extensive wine and beer list.
Appetizers
Joe’s has a fairly wide selection of appetizers that should satisfy even picky people. There’s shrimp cocktail, nachos, crab cakes, calamari, and buffalo tenderloins to name just a few. For lunch the prices run from about $6 to $10 dollars, while dinner appetizers run from $8 to $10 dollars.
We generally get the nachos or the buffalo tenderloins. The tenderloins are perfect for a group of two or three people, while the nachos are probably too big for any party smaller than 3 or 4 people – unless you don’t mind finishing your appetizer.
Soups and Salads
Joe’s offers a variety of different kinds of salads, from the typical garden salad and Caesar salad to slightly more adventuresome salads like the Asian chicken salad or the roasted chicken and greens salad. Salad dressings are fairly standard too – like you’d find at almost all other restaurants.
Personally – I’ve only ever gotten the standard garden salad with the low-fat vinaigrette dressing and I’ve always been happy with it. My boyfriend goes for the standard Caesar salad and loves it and I’ve had some friends get the chicken Caesar salad and enjoy it.
There are generally three different soups available, both the french onion and the clam chowder are almost always on the menu, followed by a soup-of-the-day, which can end up being practically anything. I’ve seen some strange soups and I’ve also seen standard ones like chicken noodle (which was good). Not being a fan of french onion or clam chowder, I can only rely on the word of my boyfriend who said that the clam chowder was quite good.
Pastas and Entrees
There are enough choices between the pastas and the rest of the entrees to keep most people wandering back and forth through the menu trying to decide what to get. I know I do. Should I get a pasta dish, steak or chicken? And if I liked seafood – I’d have to go through that section too.
What do you find on the menu? For the pastas, there are three choices, a chicken, broccoli and penne dish, which I am partial too, along with a blackened chicken pasta and a primavera dish. When it comes to steaks, you have what you’d expect at most “American” restaurants, sirloin, filet mignon, sliced London broil and prime rib. In addition, there are ribs, steak tips, roasted chicken and a chicken piccata dish. Seafood includes the daily fresh fish, salmon, crab cakes and schrod. There are also ‘speciality’ entrees that include fajitas, meatloaf and chicken pot pie.
Standard garden salads or Caesar salads come with the beef and chicken entrees, while they are extra with the seafood, the pastas, and the specialties. With all of the entrees you get bread and butter and generally (though not with the pastas and some of the specialties) you have your choice of potato and vegetable.
Prices for the pastas are generally the least expensive – around $12 for lunch and about $14 for dinner, while the double-sized prime rib tops the price scales for the menu at about $25 with most other entrees between $12 to $15 for lunch and $15 to $20 for dinner.
Sandwiches
Maybe you don’t want a whole meal and you just want a sandwich – Joe’s has a good selection of sandwiches to choose from. There are a couple of burgers, from your standard burger with lettuce and tomato to a bacon cheeseburger. When it comes to chicken sandwiches you have your choice between several different grilled chicken and fried chicken sandwiches and there’s also a roast beef sandwich.
All of the sandwiches come with fries and cole slaw and run between $8 and $10 for both lunch and dinner.
Desserts
Not that I get dessert a lot, but I’ve never been impressed by Joe’s dessert menu. It’s fairly standard and doesn’t have an outstanding dessert that jumps out at you and says “eat me now.”
Instead you’ll find choices like apple pie, cheesecake, an ice cream sundae and strawberry shortcake. Most of the desserts average about $5 each.
Brunch
Joe’s offers a basic brunch menu on Saturday and Sunday and with any of the menu selections, you get a free complimentary morning cocktail. I’m not a big brunch fan, so this isn’t that much of a big deal for me, though my friends do enjoy going and I do have to admit that the sirloin steak with the eggs is quite good – even if my cholesterol must jump through the roof by the end of that meal.
For more information
Joe’s maintains a website at: http://www.bbrginc.com/joes/4.html. There you can find the menu, basic pricing information (each restaurant sets its own pricing so the website is only a guide), and location information.
Joe’s is mostly located in eastern Massachusetts, though there are restaurants in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut and in New Jersey.
Thoughts and Experiences
When it comes to thinking of places to eat out, Joe’s isn’t always at the top of my list, but I’ve never been disappointed when I have gone there.
The main reason I never think I tend to skip over Joe’s is because the one location that is closest to me isn’t in an area we usually equate with finding a place to eat – even though it’s no further than anywhere else. The other reason is the price – the prices are slightly higher than other comparable restaurants choices, though not by very much – but sometimes we are going out to dinner with people who are slightly more price conscious than we are.
For me though, I’m willing to pay that higher price because like I said – I’ve never had a bad experience at Joe’s American Bar and Grill. The service has always been good and we’ve always enjoyed our meals and for me, that’s more important that wringing out every penny from my dollar. And considering that the portions on almost all the meals are bigger than the average person can eat in a single serving (I almost always bring food home), you are getting a good value for your dollar and you’ll probably get lunch for the next day too.
When you add in the good service, the good food, the portion sizes and the clean and pleasant atmosphere of the restaurant, I think the few extra dollars dinner will cost you are well worth it.
Another plus for me is that Joe’s tends to be a more “grown up restaurant.” There are fewer (though there are some) children there and you don’t have to suffer through endless renditions of Happy Birthday with Moose puppets like you do in some other restaurants.
Should you go?
If you have the option of visiting a Joe’s for lunch or dinner, or even brunch, I’d heartily recommend trying it out. There’s enough selection on the menu that anyone should find something they like and overall both the service and the food quality are excellent.
You could save yourself a few bucks at other restaurants, but in the end, you get what you pay for and a meal at Joe’s American Bar and Grill is an enjoyable experience that is a step above your standard chain restaurant.
My experiences have been limited to the Framingham and the Franklin locations, both in Massachusetts.
Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Go for the nachos if you want an appetizer for a crowd
Best Suited For: Friends
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