Sam & Joe's Restaurant — Restaurant in Danvers

Sam and Joe's is the best kept secret family owned business on the North Shore. I've been going there for 33 years and I have ordered eggplant parmigiana for every visit. I've only tasted Thanksgiving dinner or turkey, potato, stuffing and gravy plus a vegi, it's BOMB!!! , salads good, never ever soggy lettuce, pizzas well what can I say, they are famous for their pizzas!!!, and martinis, I can't even....so many delicious yummy choices. Hopefully the fried dough and strawberry topping is still available for dessert! It's like a drug. You can not stop eating it! The atmosphere, well what more can you ask for if your looking for a combination of The best item is the red gravy/sauce. If you prefer a less seasoned sauce as I do, go here. I prefer NO oregano and basil. That's why I like the sauce. I've even purchased pints of sauce and meatballs(again no oregano or basil as far as I can tell) to go. Take out in the back door. Not easy to find but so worth it! It has a pretty popular bar of regulars and some high top tables too. TV and a scratch ticket machine!😂 The owner loves his restaurant and his customers as much as he loves his own family. And I know this because I've seen him work there for 30 years and thats not something a person can take that long with these prying eyes. I would eat here 3x a week if I could afford it. No exaggeration, the bathroom water has been cold only since 1987. But even the bathroom is light and airy and super clean! Ambience; music is not always on par but when it is on, it's quiet and kinda like dentist/elevator music but I don't even notice it. LOL It's also the perfect place for a family birthday party, celebrate a graduation, to asking your loved one to marry you! With that aside, the lighting, decor, large booth seating and always professional servers with pleasant chatting combine to create comfort, intimacy, and even romance.

Whilst an at home feeling all wrapped up in a perfect nook on the Danvers River!

Your my favorite place in the whole world Sam...

A large party of 6 entering the restaurant at around 7-7:30. We live 5 minutes from the restaurant and are just getting home at 10:30. We specifically chose Sam and Joes for tonight upon the recommendation of two of the people in our party. “Great service, excellent food, quick”. We got none of that. We waited for our table, which was not the hosts fault at all. She did forewarn us that it was going to be a while because of the size of the party. Totally understandable. We waited. Get to our table and our server comes fairly quickly for drink orders. Our section of the restaurant had 2 other parties, 1 of 2 and 1 of 5 people. It took 25 minutes for us to get waters, lemonades, gingerale, and a kids apple juice. Getting a refill was harder than going to get the drink yourself. The waitress came and asked us if we knew what we wanted. She seemed overwhelmed to deal with a large party. We put in 2 apps, only to be informed the fried pickles had run out. We ordered the bruschetta to replace it. Pico de gallo and Texas toast accurate describes what we were given, as previously described by another reviewer. Potato skins were filled with grease, 2 small containers of sour cream for 6 people. 1 basket of bread for the entire duration of our stay with no asking if we wanted more. The other waitress serving our section seemed as though she was spending some time at the bar as she was walking loosely around the restaurant. All of our food was nothing compared to what we’ve received in the past. Doesn’t help it took over an hour to receive it. Understandable if the place is actually busy. Garlic butter sauce was all butter no garlic, taste of Italy portions were very sad looking, meat sauce was poor. Usually we take pasta dishes home and this time we didn’t take a thing. It’s sad because this used to be a place to go and now I don’t know if I’ll ever go back. I feel like I’ve eaten sub par food truck food. I feel full of grease. Overall bad decision to go here and unfortunately...

We used to love to come here for a light bite and a drink. However it’s gone downhill since we first started to stop in. In the past the food has been pretty good but they really need to step it up quite a few notches. Change the menu, add some different appetizers and hire a couple of real bartenders. I asked for a gin and tonic and it was all tonic water. The pizza is like eating pure salt, the calamari looked great in the picture but came out cold and plain with no peppers like in the picture and my husband ordered the fried seafood platter and it was a few little pieces of fried seafood on a ton of mushy French fries. The owner stands there watching his daughters run around like chickens with their heads cut off waitressing AND bartending. One was so flustered she threw a plate of food on our table because she was severely multitasking. Meanwhile dad says to a regular “ I’d rather be skiing “! And what establishment is closed on a Sunday and a Tuesday? Maybe one who can’t keep help . If you want to just sit at the bar and drink beer all day this is the place, but there are plenty of other nearby places with better food, waitstaff and drinks....