JOEY Shipyards — Restaurant in North Vancouver

It's very rare to be offered a glass of sparkling wine upon entering a restaurant, but tonight this was the case. I don't know why - I felt like I was walking into some kind of corporate event. This matched the dominant clientel at the restaurant anyway. Self-labelled as 'The Ultimate in Casual Dining', I would consider this false advertising. There was little casual about my experience tonight, for better or for worse.

We were seated in a U-shaped banquette facing out towards the river. It was stunning. This doesn't change my disgust for this shape of table though, and it's insidious ability to ruin the social dynamic for those sitting around it. Then our waiter came along, performing the usual starting repertoire. Once he had fully unearthed our private lives, he set about taking our drink orders. The frozen lemonade was refreshing and very concentrated. I wouldn't recommend drinking all of it though, lest you end up with diabetes.

Regarding the food, I ordered the Steak and Sushi, with both up to scratch. It's not enough food for $38 though, so I ordered the fries as well. This may be their style, but they seemed a little too crispy on the outside. Overcooked? They just didn't quite work for me. Moving onto dessert I ordered the Molten Chocolate Cake. This was a let down, a real gutting. Overcooked (tasting burnt) on the outside, and lacking flavour on the inside, I felt betrayed by one of my favourites. It wasn't molten inside either, to beat the dog while he's down. This dessert lacked it's true identity. Ultimately though it's just not a very creative dish to serve in a restaurant focussing on otherwise more vibrant and exciting cuisine.

When it came to asking for the bill, the waiter just whipped out his tablet and invited our payment there and then, no delay. I hate this. Although it sounds backward, there is something therapeutic and tasteful about the gap between the end of eating and ordering/paying the bill. It shouldn't feel rushed. I could even posit that it was intended to accelerate our exit from the restaurant in an unwelcome fashion. There was also no opportunity to review the bill before paying, in case our inquisitive waiter forgot our orders amongst the biographies he had built up on us.

I'm not a fan of JOEY to be honest. I don't like how their business model so effectively captures the North American market, how they outcompete independent restaurants with average food served with pomp and professional decor, and I even hate their name. But you have to give it to them, they run solid restaurants, and know how to elevate a...

I just love going to new places that I haven’t been to before and this was my first time here. I came with a friend and we were greeted at the door, with warm smiles and friendly attitudes. We were told how long we would have to wait for a table inside and out on the patio or we could sit at the bar. We opted for the bar. Before moving any further, a young lady asked if we would like complimentary champagne. WOW that blew my mind. I have never had that kind of service in my life. I’ve eaten at a lot of restaurants and that was a great introduction as to what would come next.

The view from the bar is extensive, you can basically see the whole place. The one thing I noticed the most was the entire staff were smiling. Literally everyone, all were enjoying and having fun working. Mind Blower #2. Our servers behind the bar were Dachs and Gabi. They made us feel at home, engaged in great conversation whilst still serving other customers and it was busy, really busy. All the while still smiling. Our drinks were top notch and explanations were given when needed. Giving us that warm fuzzy feeling of thank you for dining with us WOW. Mind Blower #3.

The Ceviche was awesome. Love that dish. Of course one obvious needs to go to the bathroom and I chose the one closest to us, which is a unisex bathroom and while waiting to go in I got to see the kitchen staff working their magic. I couldn’t believe how many people were in there, close quarters and everyone in sync. I couldn’t take my eyes off what I was seeing. It was shear poetry. Then I saw the plates coming to the pass and being checked before going out to the diners. The expeditor was awesome, checking for doneness etc returning them to the kitchen to be retired if needed. Oh and guess what all smiling and communicating. Dachs walked past me and saw what I was looking at and he commented, Cool Huh? I replied Poetry. Mind Blower #4.

Our Steaks were perfect, our meal was hot, our meat was warm and was made with commitment and passion.

This place is one in a million. I will definitely be back and will be talking about my experience for months to come and beyond.

Thank You for the great experience, keep it up. It is rare to see a whole team working together and happy doing what they do.

With much...

My friends and I had a wonderful meal tonight as we celebrated the removal of the cast on my broken ankle.

Max was our server. He made excellent wine recommendations and gave us his ‘A’ game tonight! Thank you Max!

We ordered the cod, Moroccan bowl and the Joey’s steak dinner. We were all pleased with our meals, service, wine and the ambiance.

We received a small complimentary dessert to help us celebrate which I thought was a wonderful touch!

We were requested to provide our feedback. I spent 5 mins but adding the comments was taking longer than expected. Please provide a paper option in future. Unfortunately our parking was ending in a few minutes so I couldn’t complete it. Below is my in-depth feedback as requested.

The meals were excellent for my friends. I loved my steak, peppercorn sauce and the wine. But the veggies need improvement. Steak frites or Steak and mashed potatoes are classics for a reason! Please don’t gild the lily! Innovate and experiment with other menu items instead.

Please also turn down the music on the second floor. Us older folks really don’t enjoy yelling over the music.

The front desk needs to up their game. No one welcomed us or smiled. They offered us the complimentary quarter glass of bubbly which we accepted. But I asked that they serve it at the table instead as it would quickly become flat and warm. They were inexperienced and didn’t understand my request and continued to pour. A grand cuvée would be good a few degrees warmer. This wasn’t fine champagne. It was warm and pretty flat by the time we sipped it. I speak as a wine connoisseur, serve every bottle at its recommended temperature so it can be appreciated.

There was some embarrassment when it came to paying. My credit card had just been replaced that afternoon but it was rejected when I tried to pay and then when I retried it.

Max handled what could have become an awful ending to our beautiful evening with calm, grace and aplomb. I was able to pay with another card....