Joey's Seafood & Grill — Restaurant in Houghton

Joey's is the only straight-up seafood restaurant in Houghton. Luckily the food is pretty good. The fish tacos are very good and I recommend them for your first visit. Joey's features some good daily specials which add some healthy spontaneity to each visit. The wait staff are generally friendly and helpful. The drinks are tasty and strong and are actually quite reasonably priced which is a rarity in this town. I enjoy all of the kitschy decorations and artifacts that they've seen fit to plaster all over the walls but I do take issue with the openness, the cavernous quality of Joey's. There are no walls or boundaries in the dining area resulting in an atmosphere lacking in privacy and promoting a sense of anxiety in the patron. That being said, give Joey's a go. You'll not regret it after putting down a quality meal and a few cold drinks.

EDIT: I just returned from my second visit to Joey's and had an experience that was extremely subpar. The food was still pretty good and the drinks weren't bad as previously mentioned. The problem, again, was the atmosphere which, again, was very disappointing. This time however, I didn't just experience anxiety, but survived a mealtime which left me and my companion on the brink of a nervous/rage-ridden breakdown. When we arrived, the restaurant was rather quiet with only a couple of other patrons. We were seated in a strange sort of bench-style area, in VERY close proximity to the tables on either side of ours. We did not think much of this as no one was sitting to our right or left. This soon changed as a kind of early dinner rush began. Instead of seating the newcomers at any of the other 50+ tables in the establishment, the servers saw fit to flank us on both sides with customers, with the group to my right being of the rather crude and unruly sort. The Joey's environment is akin to that of a small college's cafeteria, complete with the drama, chaos and unrest. I felt as If I were dining with these strangers seated just inches beside me, frequently rubbing elbows and catching hostile glances from the unsavory ones. At one point I thought the patriarch of that particular group was on the path to a heart attack after a simple mistake from a member of the wait staff. This mistake (a spill) couldn't be avoided due to the ridiculously small space in which he had to work. This all could have been avoided via better decision making in the seating of patrons or, better yet, a complete overhaul of the dining floor, something which needs to be executed ASAP if Joey's is ever to earn my business or any sensible customer's...

Took the family to dinner on a Wednesday evening. The facility was about half full. It didn't take long to be seated.

Ordered the crab ragoons as an appetizer, they came out quick, were warm, and tastey. A little light on the stuffing but the dipping sauce was top notch - sweet with a little heat.

After this the level of service diminished. The staff were polite just not on top of things or proactive. After the appetizer it took 10 mins or so before we saw our server - they never checked to see if we were satisified with the appetizer. We finally ordered our entrees, my salad came out quick but none of the dishes were taken away yet from the appetizer. I asked for a water refill which took several minutes. 20 some minutes later our meals arrive. Again dishes weren't picked up ahead of time so placing the meals required two servers.

I ordered the Cajun Combo with the fish cooked cajun style. This combo included shrimp - I assumed they'd be jumbo when in fact they were your run of the mill frozen mini shrimp. The flavor was good but not nearly as spicy as I expected. Everything on my plate was luke warm. The portions were on the small side particularily for the price. I had to flag down our server several times for more water at the table and for dipping sauce (which we asked for when ordering) for my sons meal. Both items took several minutes to arrive. Again the server was polite and did apologize.

Overall average experience at best. Atmosphere is charming, quaint, clean, with a unique hand made aesthetic. Vast amount of drink choices at fair prices. The food was average. Taste was good but had higher expectations for the price. Portions were small and presentation was hit and miss. My wifes meal looked professional and mine looked a step up from a reheated tv dinner. The shrimp and chicken tenders appeared to be cheap frozen heat-ups. The fish was great. Service below average. Although polite the server never checked on us and we were left wondering when they'd reappear time and time again. Food was luke warm. Again not bad by any stretch just not outstanding - which is the expectation I had given the restaurants presentation and price. Family of four and our bill was just over $100 with two...

The restaurant we intended to visit was full for the night and we are so grateful we ended up at Joey’s by chance. We had the best time here! Awesome customer service. Server was friendly, attentive and gave awesome food and drink recommendations. She even offered to have certain seafood selections customized to our liking, even if they weren’t on the menu that way. The drinks were tasty, fun and very affordable. The food was incredible. The crab rangoon actually tasted like there was crab in it, the garlic and parsley potatoes were cooked evenly and had the perfect amount of seasoning, the onion rings were made by hand and lightly fried to perfection, their warm corn muffins were crispy on the outside and deliciously moist inside, and their signature fried fish was the highlight of the night. It was juicy, tender and tasted like heaven. I reply hope I didn’t catch them on a “good night”, because I will be dreaming about this exact meal until the next time I’m in town. Excellent...