Suggestions to Joe's in Venice

After dinner at Joe's on Abbot Kinney, this is what I've got to say to them.

DO:

• stick with serving the mellow red snapper with the thinly sliced, super crisp potato "scales" and delectable crispy spinach (pictured above). The fingerling fries served with the halibut are dope, too.

• maintain the well-lit room and comfortable chairs, and late hours to accommodate lingering customers.

• keep the cool shaggy haired waiter around who was way more helpful and nicer than the guy who initially handled our table.

DON'T:

• be a dick over the phone when I call two hours in advance to notify you that we'll be a bit late, and to ask if we can push the reservation up 15 minutes later.

• bring us the bottle of wine, wait for it to be gone, and then take our order 40 minutes after opening said bottle to the table. This wait happens even after we tell our waiter we don't need to wait for the one missing person in our party to arrive until we order.

• not inform us that when one person orders the mediocre tasting menu, it means the pace of the meal is changed for the rest of us and will delay the arrival of all other main courses.

• forget to bring us bread (the mushy, crust-less hippy kind) while the table directly next to us with the smaller party gets theirs ASAP, along with more attentive service throught the evening.

• make acidic celery root soup with no body and flat flavor that's not nearly as good as what any half-witted home cook (ahem) can whip up.

• include a side dish with halibut that sounds as tantalizing as morrel-stuffed artichoke (above), and deliver something with absolutely zero taste.

• serve a chocolate dish from the crazily verbose dessert menu featuring a yummy gooey soft cake in the middle and delicious Creamsicle-tasting orange ice cream, but drown it all in a mess of sloppy chocolate "soup."

• never deliver the bottle of water I order, and charge us for it anyway.

Joe's Restaurant
1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice 90291
310.399.5811

Comments

[meg]

http://xom.blogs.com
DATE: 05/15/2006 01:38:10 PM
Although I don't have the exact same list of Dos and Don'ts, that pretty much echoes my experience there. I don't know why it gets such raves when it's so inconsistent.