Not Your Average Joes: Like Friendly's with Italian Lighting
Written: Aug 16 '03 (Updated Mar 31 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice decor, good service, kid's menu.
Cons: Not your average Joe's has average food for the price.
The Bottom Line: Not Your Average Joe's is, sadly, average.
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| modernmarvel's Full Review: Not Your Average Joe's |
Not Your Average Joe's is a popular chain in and around Massachusetts. I have eaten at two locations, most recently the one in Needham, Massachusetts.
DECOR
A bit draw of this restaurant is the decor, which is very nice for a restaurant in this price range. There is fancy Italian lighting with glass shades in red and yellow. The walls are muted yellows and reds painted in a large tile pattern. The booths are pea green leather. A centerpiece of the restaurant is a large pizza oven with the fire visible inside.
THE BAR
There is a large bar in the Needham location with at least 75 bottles of liquor displayed. This is a confusing aspect of Joe's. While they clearly market the restaurants to families, the extensive bar seems more like a collage / early adult addition. They also have an elaborate drink menu on the tables. Joe's is not the kind of place I would go to drink alcohol.
THE MENU
Joe's refers to its menu as creative cuisine. There are the standards you find in any casual restaurant: soups, large salads, burgers, fries, chicken dishes, wraps and what you would expect in any generic restaurant. Joe's also have a few seafood dishes and some upscale items, if you consider chicken marsala upscale. However, nothing is gourmet.
When you sit down, you get bread at your table. The bread is a soft, flavored whole-wheat Italian bread and is very good. The waitress comes with a dish of powdered cheese, red pepper flakes and fresh garlic. In front of you, she pours olive oil on this mixture. I though the oil dipping sauce was good but I have to object to the large red pepper flakes. These flakes are a crude way to season food. If you get one pepper flake in your mouth, that bite is too spicy. If you get no red pepper flakes in the next bite, you can't sense their flavor. The on again / off again spicy flavor of the dip was disappointing.
On my last visit, I ordered a large salad with salmon. Now, Joe's has caved in to a sad, want-to-be trendy restaurant trend: the stacked meal. I got a salad with only greens and no dressing, covered by a scoop of elaborate pasta salad, covered by a warm piece of salmon. The heat from the salmon wilted the lettuce, ruining what could have been, at its best, an average salad. The salmon was just okay, nothing special. The pasta salad was actually very good but it got all mixed up in the salad and it was hard to locate it all. The whole meal would have been substantially better if was separated on a plate rather than piled up in a bowl. After consuming most of the meal, I was still hungry.
KID FRIENDLINESS
There is a children's menu with the basics, grilled cheese, hamburgers, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese and pizza all for under $5. The price includes a hoodsie dessert but not a drink. The prices for all non-alcoholic drinks are at least $1.50, so this brings the bill up a bit. They have 2% milk available.
My son got a hamburger with fries. The fries were uninspired. The hamburger was one of those thin pre-formed patties. The bun was exactly like a McDonald's bun without the sesame seeds. There was no garnish. My daughter got chicken nuggets that looked a little better, with a real chicken piece in the middle. Overall, the kid's meals reminded me of another chain, Friendly's, but actually a little worse.
SERVICE
We were greeted by a friendly hostess who escorted us to our table quickly. Our waitress was very good. She was friendly and provided great service.
One small complaint: We visited the restaurant at the end of the lunch rush. While we were eating, the staff was busy cleaning up and turning tables for dinner. The clink of dishes and rushing to and fro was mildly distracting but not too bad.
AMBIANCE
This is a casual place. Jeans and shorts are welcome. Although I saw some business people getting lunch. This is not a date place.
LOCATION / GETTING THERE
The Needham location had meter parking in front of the restaurant. There is also some free parking in Needham center if you hunt around.
WEB SITE
The web site is www.notyouraveragejoes.com. You can see the full menu on the web site. There is also an email club where they will send you information and, perhaps discounts.
OTHER INFORMATION
They take credit cards.
Joe's is very handicapped accessible: all one floor, easy to get to bathrooms, tables that are spaced widely enough to easily get by.
Vegetarian: I didn't notice any special effort to provide vegetarian dishes, although there were some salads on the menu.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
Not Your Average Joe's is, sadly, average in every way except for decor and service which were slightly better than other restaurants in this price range. I am going to recommend it, but only for a fast, cheap lunch.
HUNGRY FOR MORE IN THE BOSTON AREA? TRY THESE BOSTON-AREA RESTAURANTS:
BOSTON: Radius; Caffe Vitoria; Excelsior; Jacob Wirth; Cottonwood Cafe; Imperial Seafood House; Sibling Rivalry; Fleming’s; 29 Newbury; The No Name; Lala Rokh; Grill 23; Kingfish Hall.
BROOKLINE: Mr. Sushi; Fugakyu; Takeshima; Tsunami; Anna's Taqueria; Zaftigs Delicatessen; Bangkok Bistro; Golden Temple.
NEWTON: Appetito; India Paradise; Blue Ribbon Barbeque; Ice Cream Works; Baker's Best; Bill’s Pizzeria; Cafe Nicolas; Union Street; O’Hara’s; Yeradi’s; Johnny’s Lunchonette.
CAMBRIDGE: S&S Restaurant; The Japanese Mall; Jasper White’s Summer Shack; Dali .
WEST ROXBURY: Cafe Misono.
BRIGHTON: Tasca.
FRAMINGHAM: The Aegean.
ESSEX: Woodman’s.
SAUGUS: Kowloon; Hilltop Steakhouse.
CHAIN RESTAURANTS: Bertucci’s; Legal Sea Foods; Cheesecake Factory; Rainforest Cafe; Fire & Ice; Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse; Friendly’s; Ikea Cafeteria; Longhorn Steakhouse; TGI Fridays.
COFFEE, BAGELS AND DONUTS: Bruegger’s Bagels; Finagle a Bagel; Dunkin Donuts; Peet’s Coffee and Tea.
Recommended:
Yes
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modernmarvel
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