Original Joe's — Restaurant in Vancouver

So myself and my partner just had a newborn baby and were given a nice amount on a gift card to save us cooking for a night or two.

Tonight I got a take out from this restaurant which was pretty quick. I was there within 25/30 minutes and they said it would be ready 20/25 minutes and it was. Also, It took me only about 5 minutes to go home with it, so It’s not like I had it for long.

I spent around $110 the takeaway food and around 15/17 on a tip, I’m sure the nice polite lady at the bar will remember me. I myself find that I am a pretty nice person, and I’m honest, I won’t make up stuff I will say it how it is.

To say I am extremely disappointed at the food we got for our nights dinner tonight for the money we paid and tipped, it was absolutely disgusting. All of the food was soggy, freezing cold and reeked of dirty grease.

Truffle fries (tiny portion) were $12, they were absolutely manky, over cooked, brown shrivelled fries that were soggy, cold and a very dry what was supposed to be Parmesan cheese on top, it was almost like a cheap powder.

6 Goyozas, $15 more than likely from a frozen bag, they were freezing, so soggy, and tasted terrible.

The Dry ribs, were just deep fried in smelly grease and were just rank. I get dry ribs a lot in places and these were like something you would find in a garbage can after being burned out in a fryer.

The chicken burger was just flaked so thick in smelly greasy thick breadcrumb and was freezing with soggy cold saucy buns.

The chilli lime chicken was stone cold, but actually tasted ok.

The yam fries were fine but cold.

( I mean it was all ready so quick, but so cold, how is this even possible ?? The smell Of rotten grease was rank altogether Concerning!

I seen some good reviews online about this place and I know it’s a close spot to the stadium, so it does be busy during them times being close by so I said it must be decent there. We ate here around 7/8 weeks ago with our first gift card and we thought the food was actually nice, different food it was a steak and shrimp….. But this takeaway experience for more that $120 bucks was beyond disgusting, lousy, and extremely poor quality. All we could smell was the manky grease, just not good. We didn’t eat any of the food except from a taster of each, the yam fries and a piece of the burger out of all that food we were just so put off by it all. The packaging was really good, the original joes bags were great. The two girls at the bar when I picked the food up were nice and polite for the short time we spoke.

We are not the type of people to even write reviews nor are the two of us picky, but given how much the food cost, tipped around $17 and the times we are in + food is not cheap now days, I was genuinely disgusted. I’m not a regular here, but the place was just about empty when I went there, so there was no excuse for this to happen on such a dead night.

There is my honest review on tonight’s food. That kitchen needs to do cleaner, better hotter, and a balanced...

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Would Not Recommend

Visited Original Joe’s in downtown Vancouver yesterday with my best friend for what we hoped would be a quick pre-dinner drink before our 7:15 PM reservation elsewhere. We arrived around 6:35 PM, expecting to have enough time to enjoy a drink and relax. Unfortunately, the experience was nothing short of frustrating.

It took 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us and came to take our order. Once we did place our drink order, it took an unacceptable 20–25 minutes for the drinks to arrive. By then, we were literally on the verge of walking out. It felt like the staff noticed we were about to leave and finally rushed over with our drinks.

Here’s the worst part: there was only ONE server and ONE bartender handling the entire restaurant — at least 8 to 9 full tables. This is not just poor planning, it’s negligence on management’s part. It was honestly painful to watch one young woman try to run the entire floor by herself. The server was actually very sweet and handled things the best she could, and none of our frustration is directed at her.** In fact, she deserves better support from her employer.

The food (from what we saw around us) took way too long for other guests as well, and nearly every other table had people looking visibly irritated and unhappy. It’s clear this is not a one-off issue — it’s a systemic staffing problem, likely due to the management trying to cut corners and save money at the expense of both staff and customer experience.

Adding to our disappointment, the tip system starts at 18% by default, which feels incredibly pushy given the quality of service we experienced — again, not the server’s fault, but the structure itself is completely flawed. Tips should always be optional and easy to adjust* based on the experience. We still left 18% because we didn’t want to penalize the one poor staff member trying to hold the place together.

All in all, I cannot recommend this place to anyone. The atmosphere was stressful, the wait times were ridiculous, and the staffing levels were shockingly inadequate. Do better, Original Joe’s — your staff and your guests deserve far...

The restaurant will close whenever they choose. The posted hours mean little. Many times the server has been brusque and hurried, even when there are few customers. The guest is made to feel that they are really an inconvenience to the staff.

We stopped in on an evening and were told many times that they were slammed. I looked around and there were only a few tables seated. Granted there was an influx of people later, but by that time they had started turning guests away, well before the posted closing time. Rather than serving tables, a staff member was minding the door to let no one in. We were told that it was last-call before we received our first-call. Even then, when the place was supposedly busy, a staff member was out the door heading home at six minutes after the posted closing time. Our server put on quite a dramatic show to make it clear that she was overworked, frazzled and that we shouldn't even think of adding to her labor. We were to get this over with as quickly as possible.

If the staff are that concerned about getting out of there, the opening hours should be adjusted to accommodate them, rather than having them be there when they don't want to be. Don't post hours that you have no intention of honoring. Or hire people who want to be there and enjoy doing the job, rather than ones who act so put out. The restaurant is located in a district with entertainment, cultural and sports venues; someone else could certainly make better use of the location.

The place is alright for a drink, but is unreliable and uncomfortable for anything else. The staff really should be in different jobs. I never feel good after...