Joe's Rotisseria — Restaurant in Asbury Park

Identity crisis - front end management needed. Tried this place for take out when it first opened and we were disappointed so we waited for the new opening stuff to be worked out and finally tried again. We were greeted by the owner who was tossing pies, he recommended the wings and sent us upstairs for subpar service. Only open table was directly under the speaker of the tv. Promptly greeted, but getting our sodas took 15 mins and were delivered in takeout cups, my water came after 3 requests toward the end of our time there and in a real glass. We ordered the wings and since the only option for chicken tenders was 3 with 2 sides (too little) or 10 (too many) we went with the 10 spicy bbq. The 5 wings came out and were so over cooked they were dry and brittle, inedible. The chicken tenders were crunchy, but for some reason the sauce didn’t taste like spicy or bbq, they were challenging to cut and eat with the plastic fork and knife offered. A side order of loaded mashed potatoes came out on a huge 3/4 empty dinner plate, making me feel sad. They were the highlight of the meal. It was about an hour and I was sick of listening to Gordon Ramsey yelling at his staff for subpar service (not sure why the March Madness tourney wasn’t on) so we asked to get the pizzas to-go. My husband’s pie came out anyway. We paid the check and headed downstairs to wait for my stuffed crust pizza. That’s when I noticed how mismanaged it is. The whole downstairs is used for pizza box storage and maybe 2 tables for a patron or two who might not want to climb the stairs, and a lot of wasted space to the back where the kitchen is. There was a gallon of butter flavored oil sitting out on the pizza counter, no rotisserie in sight and I didn’t see anyone order one either. 2 takeout workers were standing and crowding the entranceway and patrons couldn’t get in or out. They didn’t even look like they worked there, but handed us our pizza. Confusing. I wish it ended there, but I got home and although it looked good- my burnt, limp, pizza wasn’t even cut. That has never happened in the history of pizza take out. To top it off it was oil ridden, soggy, and had zero flavor. $80 of food waste. For the price point, too many alternatives. We won’t be back. Great concept, terrible execution. Asbury...

So I saw an image online that made me want to desperately stop in and try this item out at Joe’s Rotisseria in Asbury Park. I met up with my buddy Tyler from Foodula and we got the item I wanted…and then some!

So the item I wanted was a meatball pizza that had meatball garlic knots as the crust. This would have been sufficient enough for anyone but ya know … not us 😆. We also ordered a pizza with cup and char pepperoni and chopped up mozz sticks on it where the crust was chicken vodka parm sliders. WHAT?!?! crazy. And maybe we added some wings. And uhh..maybe some thunder sticks.

The thunder sticks were insane. Fried perfectly with great flavor and the cheese was perfectly melted. We had chil fil a flavored wings and also Thai chili wings. The wings themselves were cooked really well and had great juiciness and flavor. If I got these 2 apps I would have left perfectly happy.

The pizzas were wild. I will admit in hindsight the mozz sticks on the vodka parm pizza were maybe a bit overkill on the cheesiness. Without them it may have been even better, but the cutlets were thin and cooked perfectly and the flavor was great. Both pizzas were a little doughier than I typically prefer but they had nice char and crispiness underneath. The meatball garlic knots were awesome. Meatballs had great flavor and texture.

This place .. is not cheap. I do think what we had was worth the cost, but plan to spend more than you’d normally plan to spend on pizza here. With the bells and whistles comes dollar signs, I was okay with the tradeoff. Joe’s Rotisseria -...

I really wanted to like this place but there is a few issues.

Service: my significant other and I had to repeat our order at least three times to two different people. Drinks came 30 minutes after we ordered. Never offered a refill for my drink. It was not busy in the restaurant at all. The service was friendly though.

Decor and eat-in experience: the omnipresent Bored Ape imagery and joker paintings are unsettling and capitalizing off of dying fads instead of hip. I won't go into it, but these are visual indicators of a subculture that I find obnoxious. Not really a big deal, but I hope they redecorate or the place will age like milk. It was also very warm in there, it was not fun sweating the whole dinner.

Food: pretty darn good. Had the triple threat, did not like the calzone portion that had just cheese in it. Didn't eat it as I had ordered a thunder stick already. The garlic knot part of the pizza was undercooked, the pizza itself was the best part. I would say very good but not great. I had vodka chicken on it, the vodka chicken here really is worth the hype. Overall the price wasn't worth it because I was unimpressed with everything but the pizza portion of the triple threat.

Summary: seems like a better than average pizzeria. The gimmicks don't really work though. If you go here you might have a five-star experience if you order out, and focus on a meal that has the vodka chicken in it. I'm actually eager to see how this pizzeria does in say 5 years. Even if it didn't impress me, I do think there's a lot of energy and potential...