Hobo Joe's Restaurant, Denison Texas — Restaurant in Denison

First time in Hobo Joe's here in Denison - newly opened! We had a short wait for a booth at about 6:45 on a Friday night. The hostess seemed really new and unsure about procedures, not taking our name but remembering we were there waiting.

Once seated, I ordered the hamburger steak with grilled vegetables and corn nuggets; husband ordered chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and mac n cheese; daughter ordered pork chop with mac n cheese and fries.

Husband was satisfied - chicken fried steak was done correctly (hand breaded, as advertised and a good steak to coating ratio) and the mac n cheese was pronounced "evil" - so, good!

Daughter nodded appreciatively at the pork chop and enjoyed the mac n cheese, but pronounced the fries as "meh" and she had to snag a waitress to get her condiment of choice to dip.

The hamburger steak was cooked as I asked, but the onions were chopped to a dice and the canned mushrooms barely warmed. The grilled veggies weren't grilled at all and had been coated is something so salty that I couldn't eat them. My husband needs more salt that the rest of the world combined and so they were fine for him. Even he said if they salted for him they were over salted for me. There were 8 corn nuggets - just not enough, really. They took my veggies and such back to the kitchen and replaced them with microwaved or steamed veggies, unseasoned in anyway.

My server was Kimberly - she is a gem! Friendly, empathetic - just the best server I've had in a while!

We'll go back and try it again but maybe after...

I have been here twice and both times I was disappointed. I have been to the one in Madill and it's great. The 1st time my wife and I and a couple of our friends went to try it out after they had opened here. We were greeted and seated promptly but the server was only worried about the people that came in after us. We waited 15 minutes to have our drink order taken and never got refills, 3 of us ordered the chicken tenders, one spicy and mine and my wife's regular. It took 30 minutes to get our food and then mine and my wife's were spicy and cold as well as our sides. After we were done we waited another 15 minutes for our check still with no refills on our drinks. Just recently my wife and I tried to give it another try. We were seated promptly and it was about 2 so it wasn't too busy. After we were seated we had our drink order taken and received it in a timely fashion. After that we didn't have our order taken. The server was at the bar socializing with the people there and not worried about us. 20 minutes later he decided to come over to us and I was fed up so we told him we just needed our check for the drinks we ordered. The only good part of this is that he said we didn't need to pay for our teas that we ordered. We will not ever go back to this place again. The service is a joke and they tend to the people at the bar more than the folks that are there to eat. If I could give zero stars I would. I will stick to the...

Hobo Joe's is evidentiary of the kind of place new blood in Sherman/Denison will eventually push out. If you're so proud of your individual politics (and, no, I'm not a Democrat) that you emblazon it all over your restaurant for patrons to see before they even ask for a table, you're an incredibly ignorant businessman.

There is absolutely no reason to purposely alienate ANY of your potential customers. None. You're just an ignorant human being, no matter what your politics.

Now I've been to this place twice. The first time, I really liked the food and the service. I overlooked the stupidity of the owner. The second time, the food was not remotely like it was the first time, overcooked, over-seasoned like the meat was going bad and terribly undercooked fries. The service was good the second time, though.

The place looks cool and has a great atmosphere, assuming you ignore the pure redneckiness of it all. It's clearly designed to relax and enjoy yourself. However, it should welcome everyone and back that effort up with consistently decent food.

This place is also a common location for fights that get the cops called out to it, so, at the very least, late weekend nights, stay away from this place. While I'm sure there will always be red state, right wing nutjobs supporting a place like this, as the income and intellect of the average Sherman/Denison resident improves, these kind of...