Joe's 2nd Street Bistro — Restaurant in Fernandina Beach

I hope the management of Joe's reads these. I have a fond place in my heart for your establishment, because it was a place we went with my father a few years back (before he passed) and the prime rib was good. We've been back a few times over the years, and our experience was pretty good (food and service); not outstanding, but good.

The last two times my wife and I have gone (over the last 4 or 5 months), our experience has not been good. When we went a few months back, it was our servers first night at Joe's (tall, young dark-haired gentlemen). It must have been his first night serving anywhere, because he messed up a lot. But, he didn't cook the food, which was quite underwhelming.

We went last Friday, and once again, the food was not very good. My wife's ribeye looked to be about 1/2" thick, was tough and was like rubber. She had to saw and saw on it to cut it. To boot, it was almost flavorless. I felt bad for her. It was ordered medium-rare, as we always do. My filet was ok, but that's it, just ok.

My problem here is you guys price your food as a 4 or 5 star establishment. I don't write this to be mean, but it's very disappointing to have one of the places we like to visit in one of our favorite cities, to see it go downhill. I will not spend my $$$ there when there are much better options in town, with more choices opening every day. So, I think you guys are at a crossroads - either drop your entree prices by about $10 - $15 ea, or raise the standards to deliver the quality that match the prices you charge. It needs to start in the kitchen. I wish you guys luck, because I doubt I...

Anniversary dinner, so we decided to try someplace new. Reviews were mostly good so I called to make reservations. No answer.... "please leave a message", so I did, with my contact information and the time we wanted to make reservations for. Called back the next morning to make sure we were good, and nope, they didn't have my reservation. "Maybe someone wrote it down and didn't tell me" was the answer we got. It happens, made a reservation for 45 minutes after my original time. We show up a few minutes early, no problem, we are seated immediately. Server brings waters and takes our drink order. We make our order, she brings bread and olive oil (delicious). Appetizer comes out, flavorful, would be nice to have 4 croquettes, not 3 for a table of 2. Entree comes out, mashed potatoes and "seasonal vegetables" smashed together under my steak. Not the best presentation I have seen, but if it's good, I can forgive that. Well........For a $32 steak, I expect something better than a 1/2 inch thick piece of meat that I wouldn't buy in a grocery store. Not only was it thin, it was undercooked. I asked for med-rare and I got rare to Pittsburgh style (seared outside, raw inside). When the server asked if it was cooked right, I told her it was under, but I would eat it (I hate sending food back because you never know what may happen to it). My wife's steak (ordered medium) was definitely rare. I applaud our server for comping us desserts, but I will have second thoughts...

Oh my goodness… I almost never write reviews, but this experience just had us floored. We have been to Joe’s 2nd street many times as we are locals. Tonight we arrived 15 minutes early for our 6:30 reservation and apologized for arriving early, but then it started off crazy. There were only 4 or 5 tables with customers, but the hostess said she would have to confer with the wait staff to see if they could accommodate us 15 minutes early… What??? She left for at least 5 or 6 minutes and came back telling us they could, but she put us at what we came to realize was the worse table in the room… It was grand central station… very tight in front of the kitchen and the main walkway to the rest of the restaurant. There were other tables in ¾ of the dining room available… I guess we would have had one of them if we hadn’t arrived early?? Then, we watched as other customers came in, were waited on and received their meals while we still just sat there. Our waiter did come and we ordered drinks, etc., but it was over an hour before we got any food… it was insane as we watched others coming in after us eating. When we did finally get our meals, my husband’s was good, but mine, the “catch” special was good fish over really bad gloppy grits with squash mixed in… not good at all. This was the worse dining experience I have had in Amelia during the 9 years we have lived here. We will...