Cav's Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Marco Island

Well, it's Strike Three for Joey D's on Marco Island for us. We have been going to Joey D's for several years, but after the last three visits, we won't be going back. And it's sad, frankly. The quality of the food and the service has reached a point where we end up leaving almost angry, kicking ourselves that we went back and gave them another chance. Our last visit was our final visit. We arrived at the restaurant at 4:45 pm, thinking we would beat the crowd. The restaurant was about 1/3 full and there seemed to be plenty of wait staff. We ordered relatively quickly, a regular crust cheese pizza, some salads and a pasta dish. An hour later, the food arrived at the table, including a side dish that was supposed be hot, but arrived cold. We have been to Joey D's many times during the last few years and know the manager by name. In fact, there were many times during the pandemic that we were the only customers in the dining room. We made a point to go out and patronize restaurants constantly over the last two years to support struggling restaurants and to tip generously, hoping to, in some small way, make up for their lost business.

But with new management, Joey D's is now hard to visit because of the maddeningly slow and seemingly indifferent service. And it's not because of the pandemic or staffing shortages; it is because of scheduling mismanagement. The manager, in his own way, confirmed this. We told him about the poor service and he told us we should arrive earlier. Mind you, we arrived at 4:45 pm to a restaurant that was not busy. He then said the problem was that we ordered a cheese pizza; he schedules his second pizza chef to arrive an hour after the 5:00 pm rush. Lots of customers, he said, are frustrated because it takes so long to get a pizza around 5:00. (Making us wonder, "Why not schedule the pizza chef to come in an hour earlier during the daily rush?") So, bottom line is it takes an hour to get a regular pizza (not deep dish) if you arrive any time close to dinner time, unless you want to eat around 4 pm or 7 pm, he told us.

Our server was nice, but not attentive, and that has been the case for the past few visits. (On the previous two visits, both were new hires, so we were very understanding when they goofed up orders because they were inexperienced and overwhelmed.) on this visit, during the one and a half hours it took for us to get our food and our check, our server came back to the table once on her own. We flagged down another waiter to ask her to return to our table for drink refills. Somewhere toward the end of our meal, she went to work in a different area and transferred our table to another server, who never arrived until we asked the busboy to help us get the check. We waited another 15 minutes to get the check. The new server came over to our table and said she was too busy to come to our table after it was transferred to her.

When we were leaving, the manager commented again about the slow service but assured us that simply nothing can be done to improve it. It was, unfortunately, an empty apology.

My wife and I are strong advocates of local businesses and have extreme patience, not just at restaurants, during this difficult time. We know how hard it is for the existing staff, being short-staffed, running out of supplies and dealing with seasonal demand. We patronize constantly and we tip generously, except for avoidably bad service. And we know Joey D’s is not a high-end restaurant with five-star service: At Joey D’s, it costs $70 for a pizza, a salad and a pasta dish. We also know that new trainees make mistakes, and we expect to wait longer than usual because of the pandemic. But it sometimes reaches a point, at some restaurants, that it is not the pandemic or labor shortages, or seasonal traffic or new hires. It’s just poor management and poor scheduling. That's, sadly, our impression of what has become of one of our favorite restaurants on...

Don’t be put off by the strip mall look of Joey D’s in Marco Island. Upon entering you’ll see probably the biggest oval bar in Marco. The decor is mostly sports bar but we were greeted by a friendly staff. I ordered a plain iced tea that was pretty awful. Either the water they mixed with it or the tea itself had a very off flavor on both glasses I had (thinking the second would be better). But it got better. I had the Beef Barley soup and it was hearty and full of mushrooms, tiny meatballs, and barley. I would recommend the soup. My wife ordered the Jenny salad with mixed greens, grilled chicken and balsamic dressing. She stated it was flavorful and filling. I had a side salad with balsamic dressing and it was very good with no wilted lettuce or negative comments to follow. The lettuce greens were crisp and the cherry tomatoes fresh. My entree was the Pasta with Clams in red sauce. I ordered mine with medium heat. The clams were cooked perfect, my angel hair pasta was just over Al dente which is how I like it and the sauce was bold with tons of flavor and smoothness. The heat was just right. Our server was attentive and very nice. A very good restaurant/bar to get a great meal without the expense of the “main drag”...

Just threw out a large part of one of the worst pizzas my wife and I have had the misfortune of trying to eat. We had eaten calzones and meatball hoagies at the restaurant once before and found the service to be good and the food was decent. Today we ordered a carry out large pepperoni, mushroom and extra cheese pie. It was ready right on time and was piping hot. That's where the good ended and the bad began. The grease from the pepperoni was so abundant that it leaked through the protective paper in the box, through the box and on to the leather seat of our car. Fortunately we were able to clean it off before it stained the leather. Then came the worst part....trying to eat the pizza. As I already said it was loaded with grease and the crust was way overcooked. We felt like we were eating the cardboard box. Plus, the mushrooms were conspicuous by their absence and we could hardly find the cheese at all let alone extra cheese.

A friend had told us Joey D's on Marco had gone downhill from years past and to not get a pizza from them. Guess he was right. Joey D's advertises on the box "Voted best pizza in Naples FL and the Jersey Shore". HA, HA, HA that's a funny joke. Must have been the...