Joe’s Italian Grill — Restaurant in Hempstead

I tried to communicate with you via email but after no response, I hope this post will trigger a response. I want to take a moment to share my disappointment in the service we received at Joe's on 9/14/23. Before I share about the experience, I must share that I have been a very happy customer on many previous occasions, hosted going away parties for colleagues, hosted my team for a meeting, catered events from your restaurant as well as recommend it to anyone who has inquired about where to get good food in the Hempstead area.

Now, I doubt if I will be able to make those recommendations again. On yesterday, I attempted to be light hearted about not actually being able to eat because it took our food so long to come to us that we had to ask for it to go because our lunch hour had expired 15 minutes prior to actually receiving the food.

However, I truly believe that the management added insult to the injury. When one of my colleagues who ordered a 14 inch pizza got the pizza that had been packed up to go in the kitchen, she was dismayed to see the state that your team had sent her food out to her. Please see the picture attached. The best solution the manager had was to take 30% off of the bill. Even when I said, you should give me a piece of cheesecake he replied I will for 30% off like the situation was funny.

Let me clearly state why his response was insufficient and insulting; thereby impacting our perceptions of the establishment. My two colleagues who ordered pizza only ate bread and butter for lunch. We waited over 45 minutes for entrees so none of us had time to actually eat lunch. The lunch pasta trio that I ordered, which I have ordered many times before was lasagna that I was told was the trio. When the pizza was packed up there was absolutely NO CARE given by your team to ensure that it was suitable for sale. Taso, the manager, thought that he really had done the right thing by letting four customers walk out after hearing all of the complaints outlined above and seeing the condition of the pizza. He actually tried to claim we boxed the pizza at the table and seemed to ignore that it was boxed in the back and brought out in that condition.

I told Taso that everyone was entitled to a bad day. However, it is clear our continued business was not desired.

The rating on the atmosphere is only because you all need to get rid...

We ordered a Greek salad and the combo plate. The bread that is complimentary was so delicious. It was just warm and not hot but still so good. The small cesar salad was delicious.

We asked what came on the greek salad and were told onions and tomatoes...? The menu does not list what exactly comes.on the greek salad. When it arrived it was a very good portion size, and also included black olives and feta cheese, which was what we wanted but the waitress didn't say even after sent to the back to inquire about what came on the salad. Also didn't come with a dressing. We asked where the dressing was, she admitted to forgetting to ask us and said whatever dressing we asked for they were sure to have. We asked for greek to go with the salad, they didn't have it. We asked for the house vinaigrette which is a tomato vinaigrette. We did not at all care for the flavor, it honestly tasted like watered down ketchup. We then asked for italian from another waitress bc ours never came back.

Also we ordered the stuffed mushrooms, which doesn't say on the menu what it's stuffed with, as an appetizer, but it didn't come out until after our meal was already brought to the table. It was so hot we definitely couldn't even try to eat it. I did not care for whatever the mushrooms were stuffed with. I still don't know what it was. I feel they should be baked aside of the marinara sauce not in it.

The combo plate was good. They don't lack on the cheese which is a plus for me. I didn't like the presentation as it was covered in cheese and I couldn't tell what I was eating, the lasagna or the manicotti?

Lastly, the table are way too close in my opinion especially when you have a whole other area of tables to be utilized. I feel like I could hear everyone's conversation and they could hear mine, aside from the whole COVID situation. The sign at the front door says masks required, but many weren't and nothing was said. I understand it's a chance I'm taking when I go out to eat, but don't put the sign up if you're not going to make people abide by it.

I am sad to say I won't be back since there are not many italian restaurants in the area. The service just wasn't great, and I didn't want to take my food to go. I felt like it was a huge...

I appreciate your response, I know this last week has been challenging for most of us. I'm sure you all were overwhelmed with orders when you reopened, as many in the area were still without water, some still without power and (like us) have lost all of our refrigerated foods in the extended power outage 😢 I absolutely LOVE the food there, it is definitely one of the top Italian restaurants I've ever eaten at. Our order consistently being wrong, even when we're not having a snow-apocalypse, gets to be pretty frustrating. After being stranded in a motel for 3 days, ALL of the restaurants, grocery stores and even most gas stations being closed, I was so excited to finally be eating a warm meal for the first time in 5 days. My devastation and disappointment was only exaggerated by what we've been through this week, I normally don't cry over chicken Alfredo haha!! I'm sure we'll be ordering again this week, I will ask for you when I call! Thanks again!!

I normally don't post negative reviews, especially for small businesses, but after not having had a warm meal to eat for almost a week, we ordered dinner here tonight; I can't even express how much I was looking forward to a warm meal after the week we've had with no power and still no water. When I got home with our order, it was wrong, AGAIN. Their food is fabulous, but our to-go orders are wrong about 50% of the time, we order here weekly, at least. Please check your orders, there's obviously a breakdown in communication from the girl who takes our order, to when it gets to the kitchen. I should have checked ours, but this has been the week from hell and all I could even think about was eating and sleeping, can't even shower because we have no water!. It happens so frequently here, I'm tired of calling them about it, so thought I would let all of you know for...