JOEY South Common — Restaurant in South Industrial District

On a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon, my wife and I decided to go to the Bountiful Market to get our weekly provisions. It was then that we also decided to give our friend Linda a call to join us. All three of us love Farmer's Markets. So, after an hour of walking around and filling our carts with fresh vegetables, incredible Artisan bread, smoked salmon bellies, and a wonderful Mango Lassi, we decided to go for something to eat. We decided to go to South Common because it has many great eateries and it was also close by. Now, it's important to understand that my two companions are vegetarians, so the menu will be the deciding factor as to where we would go. After we looked at the various menus available in the area, Joey South Common gave us enough choices to wet our whistles. When entering the place, you'll first notice how dark the place is inside. When our host took us to our seating area, I noticed the dark furniture, black walls, black ceiling and floor. This wouldn't have been a problem but when the floor started to incline unexpectedly, I started stumbling and I immediately warned my 2 guests about it (so be warned about that bad aspect of the restaurant). Once our hostess led us to the back of the restaurant, we sat in these massive black booths. After getting some water I asked our server to lift the blinds to allow some natural light in the room, and when they did, it automatically elevated the atmosphere and made it feel great. After looking over the menu, it wasn't long before I knew what I wanted. I'm a Blackened Chicken fan so it closed the deal. My wife ordered the Crispy Tofu Bowl and our guest ordered the Roasted corn Guacamole bowl. The prices were not cheap, so you would expect good quality food for what you pay. My dish alone was $30, my wife's was over $23 and our friend's appetizer was $14. My Blackened Chicken was spiced right, but I'm sorry, nothing compares to Earl's Tin Palace Cajun Blackened Chicken. Don't get me wrong, it was good but the warm potato salad was the highlight of my dinner. It had good slaw and they trimmed the plate with a green pesto. The chicken was very tender and moist but they could have increased the amount of seasoning on the chicken breast because it was a very healthy-sized piece. The thicker the piece, the more flavor you need to add because when you're cutting it into bite-sized pieces you want you don't get much flavor in each bite. So increase your seasoning and you've got yourself a winner. The next time I go, I'll know what to tell the waiter. For $30 for a chicken breast, some potato salad, and some slaw, it better be flipp'n good. Again, their warm potato salad was 10 out of 10. It was so good. Now, with my wife being a vegetarian, her Crispy Tofu Bowl was good in flavor but come on guys...for $23, you should have had good portions of Tofu, but what we both noticed was the skimpy pieces of tofu. I'm in the food world so I know the cost of tofu, and you guys seriously need to up your game when it comes to the main part of the dish. You should seriously take a lesson from Phobulous's Tofu Bowl. I'm not a tofu fan but man they kill that dish...so awesome. My friend loved her appetizer and said she would recommend it to others. Then at the end, we had 2 desserts. We had the freshly baked 5-inch Apple Pie with vanilla ice cream and the Créme Brûlée Cheesecake. They are both very good but you'll have to ask yourself if a 5-inch apple pie is worth $12. Yes, it's fresh and hot and tasted great, but man have things got more expensive, or is it just me? The cheesecake was very good in flavor but again, it had 2 small 3 x 3 x 2 squares of cheesecake and a dollop of fresh cream. I'm a man who loves quality and will pay for it when the value is worth it. Overall, we enjoyed our experience, but with the many restaurants that are begging for our money, there are just too many places out there that create excellent value for your hard-earned dollars, and unfortunately, this wasn't one of them. But this is only my opinion, and I wish Joey the...

My wife and I dined here and boy-howdy was this a good decision. Let me tell you the tale of our experience here.

So we started our night here being greeted almost like a VIP. Front door staff offered us beverages while we waited. That was rare to see and it was a great way to be received. Took maybe a minute or two for our table to be ready for our reservation.

We were seated promptly in our candlelit booth, I had a clear view of the game (not important to me, but it might be for someone) and waters were almost immediate.

Our server, Keeley approached almost just as promptly. This lovely lady was absolute top notch! Her third shift in, and she could answer our questions nearly effortlessly, was always wearing a smile and brought such an excellent energy to our dining experience. Throughout our entire evening, our drinks never ran dry, she kept a close eye on us for any issues or if we needed anything. Like I said, TOP NOTCH. For reference, the place was absolutely packed as it was a world series game that night.

We started with an Espresso Martini for each of us, as well as the Bang Bang Chicken. My first ever martini, so that was rather a surprise how smooth it went down. I took to calling it a danger drink because it was so good. We had requested our drinks have the peanut butter whiskey addition, but either it was super subtle or it got missed. Our singular complaint of the night.

Mia, a manager, had come by in response to us mentioning this minor slight, and handled everything with a grace I've not seen in some time. Thoroughly enjoyed every interaction with Mia.

My wife ordered the ravioli with prawns. (I forget it's name on the menu) Judging by the one she shared with me it almost tasted like the pasta was made by hand, VERY fresh. I was quite impressed by her entrée. It presented beautifully on the Plate and was served with a cut of fillet mignon. Her fillet was masterfully cooked and seasoned. She added the miso roasted mushrooms to hers on the side and wow, those were phenomenal.

I had ordered the 12 Oz Ribeye (medium rare of course), served with the broccolinni and signature loaded crispy mashed potatoes. Took the plunge and added a lobster tail on top. At the expense of sounding dramatic, this combination truly left me speechless. The ribeye had the marbling one would expect, and was tender as could be. 20 out of 10.

We finished our evening with the tap out cake. Very neat item that was. Rich and delectable, it arrived with some instructions from the server. I won't ruin your fun on that aspect, but it was a perfect sharing for the two of us.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful evening and I would very highly recommend you enjoy an...

The food is good, but the service is the most uncoordinated and unprofessional mess I've ever experienced. The bar seems to be so concerned with their tips that they sabotage the table service for everyone else. If you order an expensive alcoholic drink, you will get it right away, but God help you if you want any pop, coffee, or even just a glass of water.

We had to ask 3 times to get water, long after the drink order was taken, and after our appetizers were already finished. No water refills were offered at any point after this.

The coffee was brought out barely room temperature. We asked for a fresh pot, and then had to ask again much later to actually get someone to pour it into mugs for us. Zero refills offered.

Two of us ordered pop. A refill WAS ordered, but we again had to ask a second time ~30min later. On the second request the person ran back and got the drink immediately. The originally ordered refill did eventually make it to the table from the bar nearly a full hour later while we were already paying the bill.

The bar also fills the pop glasses with an unreasonable amount of ice. You get barely 2-3 mouthfuls before you are left with just ice, and good luck if you want another glass. I've heard rumors that some bartenders do this in order to fill the glass faster so they don't have to hold the tap as long. Lazy.

Through all of this, not a single apology was offered. Everyone has their own job and everything else is clearly not their problem. The server doesn't deliver drinks, those come from the bar. The runner for the bar doesn't remove dirty dishes, that's the servers job. Nobody apologizes for the failed service, that wasn't their job.

This was not a one-time experience. This happened to us several times last year. Today we decided to give the place a another chance, and once again the drink service was unreasonable.

Oh, but we did order two peach Bellini's. Those came to the table in less than 2 minutes. I...