Original Joe’s Westlake — Restaurant in Daly City

A hub for families celebrating a myriad of events, Original Joe’s has been hosting classic dinners since 1956. My family first went by the recommendation of a friend who’s lived here all her life. This elevated Italian-American restaurant is bustling with conversations and laughter and requires a few weeks ahead for a dinner reservation, but lunch is almost always a guaranteed walk-in. Once you’re seated, you’ll get a warm basket of bread with a tall dish of butter. But I prefer to start the night with a platter of their golden fried prawns, a plate of crisp and juicy perfection you can dip in a light tartare or marinara sauce. As an avid shrimp lover, we’ve ordered shrimp cocktails from them before, but the fried prawns are far superior in crunch and flavor. Joe’s serves creamy pastas and tender steaks, but the best meat dish you can get is the lamb chops with mint chutney. Sure, the steaks might be good, but it’s better to get grilled beef somewhere else. Joe’s lamb chops are something you can’t sear at home: the meat is tender and fragrant, glazed with flavorful butter for an irresistible shine that coats the char marks of each cut. The mint chutney adds brightness and tang, as a twist of lemon does to fish. Meat entrees come with a side, and I choose their house ravioli to take home as the next day’s lunch. The best valued meat, however, is the Joe’s Famous Hamburger Sandwich: a thick sizzling steak sandwiched between crunchy sourdough with perfectly crisp french fries. It’s a decent deal for the $24, and comes with more meat than you can probably finish (perfect for tomorrow’s breakfast). Joe’s dessert is a decadent finale to the night. Sweet lovers must try the warm butter cake, a stack of warm, tender, crusty cake doused in chocolate sauce with a rapidly melting scoop of vanilla gelato. If you tell them it’s your birthday, you get a mini one for free, and the waiters rally around you to sing Happy Birthday before you make a wish on the candle planted in the ice cream. Carve your spoon down vertically so you get gelato and cake in the same bite, and enjoy the effect of mixing temperatures and textures. This cake is best when shared with many other people, just like everything else at Original Joe’s.

We also moved tables because of another large party and the staff was so polite and gave us free cake...

This is my first time dining in at an original Joe’s in general. Immediately welcomed and greeted by wonderful hosts that were super accommodating. We had our service dog with us and they worked with us to find a spot to sit which was so much appreciated! 🥰 spoke to a hostess who was lovely. Our Busser/runner (victor) omg…HE WAS AMAZING! Got us waters and immediately got our dog a plastic bowl of water which was so considerate I can’t even explain to you how that made us feel. LOVE VICTOR. The server took quite a time to get to us I can only assume the floor manager or acting manager came and approached us which was really nice and immediately got our server.

My auntie had the corn beef cabbage, she seemed to enjoy it, I had A traditional breakfast, it was good. Bacon was a little too greasy but who can really complain about bacon 🥓 am I right?! 😅 I had 3 mimosas which no complaints 🥂

I will Say the over all experience was good, The weight staff was way more attentive to us that our server unfortunately. Towards the better half of our brunch a bigger table start to come in and take over the half of the dining room. This isn’t a problem but what was uncomfortable was that it was made very known by whoever that Server was in charge of that table was talking loudly with the main guest about how they’re going to take our table the minute the check is dropped. This was literally being said RIGHT IN FRONT OF US and again behind my auntie. I felt like the guest was being so pushy and comfortable to talk that loudly to make us leave faster. I assume she a ref with lots of $$$ to spend. I get it but…we were spending money too. Just felt like that shouldn’t have been so obvious to us to feel rushed after kinda being forgotten by our own server. It bummed me out. It felt like we were being pushed out and kind like vultures were circling us at our table. It was uncomfortable. Even the later guests of that huge table even apologized to my aunt and I about pushing us out.

Long story short brunch on a Saturday it stressful so I take That into account. Again, the hosts 10/10 victor the runner 13/10 our server im sorry but 4/10.

Overall experience 7.5/10 I would Come back most definitely but not during brunch.

Thank you guys...

Horrible. Why accept reservations at 9:30 or 9:45pm if you're just going to rush all the food at once? We had 9:30pm reservations and checked in at 9:34pm was promptly offered a booth in a high traffic area where the service station meets the bar area. Walked back up and asked for another table since we were celebrating a birthday and wanted a less trafficked area. Was sat around 9:40/9:42pm. Friendly waitress walked by and asked for drinks, we said we needed a moment since we just sat down. Took her 10 minutes to come back around to take our drink order, at that time we put in soups and app to start and asked her to send our shared pasta after we were finished and mentioned we were still deciding on our entrees. She told us the kitchen closed in 10 minutes. We let her know that we would have our entrees picked out by the time she came back from putting in our order. She didn't come back around until she brought us our drinks. We gave her our mains, we already had our appetizer by that time. We asked our items be coursed out. Most restaurants want your orders before the kitchen closes and they course everything out, it just gives the kitchen a heads up of what still is being used to make food. Our pasta and soups arrived next, after about 4min our entrees arrived. It was a horrible experience to have all of our food rushed out and we felt super rushed and overwhelmed because of it. By the time we sat and walked out it had been less than an hour. If this is how you do business maybe stop taking reservations at 9pm to allow guest to have a better experience. Horrible way to do business, yes the restaurant closes at 10pm and doesn't take any new guests but you still have to take care of the guests you have seated and allowing the kitchen to push out all the food so that they can be done faster before the restaurant closes is awful. Never have I experienced this anywhere else and I'm in the industry and I was appalled that a restaurant that has been in the community for so long does this type of par...