Uncle Joe’s Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Markham

Several months ago, I saw an online content creator trying the Pork Hock dish at Uncle Joes Family Restaurant which catch my attention. After trying this restaurant for three times (two dine-ins and one take out). I believe it time for me to share my thoughts on this Hidden Little Gem.

First of all, I love the classic interior décor of this family restaurant. It like time travelling back to the 70’s. Secondly, the lady owner is very welcoming and friendly, just felt like home. Last but not least, the food is excellent and some of the items are comparable to five stars downtown restaurants.

Let further discuss some of my favourite must try items at Uncle Joes Family Restaurant.

French Onion Soup: Every time I visit a western restaurant, the first thing I order from the menu is their French Onion soup. The French Onion soup usually turn out to be a disappointment but not at this place. The cheese on top is just the right portion and not over boiled. The onions are well-caramelized but not over-caramelized. The onion soup broth is just pure onion sweetness and not salty at all. This is very difficult to achieve, as the soup base will become more concentrated when keep warming during the day. I tried their French Onion soup both at lunch and dinner time, they managed to maintain their soup base not too salty. Their French Onion soup is on par with the La Société restaurant (now closed), which in my opinion served the best French Onion soup in Toronto.

Pork Hock: They do not serve the German style crispy skin pork hock which most people might expect (including myself) but it is not a bad thing. Their pork hock slow roasted extremely well. It is very tender, moist inside and flavourful. The pork skin is super jelly and full of collagen. Overall, this is the best pork hock I have tried in GTA.

Rib Eye Steak: I was very surprise when I took the first bite of the Rib Eye steak. I did not expect a family style diner will able to grill near Toronto high-end steakhouse quality steak. The pleasant grill smoky flavour of steak is very appetizing and not overpowering. The chef grills the steak exactly to your desired doneness. The meat quality is decent as well. I should have listened to the lady owner and have my steak in medium doneness instead of medium rare, as the fat marble will melt and further enhance the flavour.

Liver & Onions: It is very difficult to cook ordinary ingredients and turn it into an amazing dish. Their Liver & Onions is one of those dishes. The liver is lightly cutlet and cooked just right, not over or undercooked. The onions are well-caramelized but not over-caramelized. Their gravy is not too salty at all. All these simple ingredients combine created the best Liver & Onions dish I have tasted in the last decade.

Ice Cream Sundae: I pretty sure you can buy the same ice cream at a local supermarket but the way the chef presented this Sundae and the classic décor surrounding makes me think this is the best Sundae in the world (totally psychological). Please refer to my sundae photo.

Overall, my family and I enjoyed dinning at this family restaurant and you are getting near Steakhouse quality at Diner prices. Keep up...

Short Review: Do yourself a favour and avoid this place. It was the worst "steak" I've had in my life.

Long review: Came here on a Friday night, we should have known it was going to be terrible by the fact that there was only 1 other person eating there. I ordered the Angus steak and I asked for it to be cooked rare. Please look at my picture, does that look anything like an 8oz Angus? This steak was cooked all the way through and it was completely well done and it was basically a dry thin slice of cardboard. It's also weird when the servers are just standing there staring at you while you eat. After letting them know my steak was fully well done and even showing them, they insisted that they're just following the temperature while cooking it. I was offered some desserts as a "compensation" but if your food is like this, I'm pretty sure the dessert will also not be great. I took about 2 bites of my steak and my dog is about to eat the rest of this.

If you guys are looking for steak, have some self-respect and actually just go somewhere else. I can't speak for the other food items on the menu but holy am I disappointed. This place used to be good and one of the go to places for my family but this place has just become terrible.

Tldr; This place is bad, like...

Taste: 3 Service: 3 Value: 5 Presentation: 3 Overall: 3.4 rounded down to 3

Hi and welcome to another episode of javing it with Javier. Let's see what we are javing today. Lot's of things to try today. Onion rings, garlic bread, salad and their cream soup to start. For the main we have steak with fries, shrimp, mashed potatoes, and veggies. Let's dive right into the review.

Lots of appetizers to go through so I will be brief. Salad is salad but it did have some flavour in it from the sauce, the soup was adequate, onion rings tasted like the ones from McCain (which I like so I'm not complaining), and the garlic bread was fairly tender although it wasn't bursting with flavour. The size of the main dish was huge! Trying out the steak first, it wasn't evenly cooked throughout but it was generally OK. Everything else on the plate just like the steak was OK.

I have got to say for such a low price, they give you a lot of food. I was completely stuffed and didn't even get to finish my main dish. I can't expect any more from this place considering the portion sizes that they serve.

All in all, the food here isn't amazing but if you want a lot of average food for cheap, this is the place to go. That's it for today's episode of javing it with Javier. And remember...