Jose's Family Restaurant — Restaurant in North Township

I’m a business traveler that eats out probably a few hundred times a year. Half of that is some pretty expensive fine dining. I’m also a hobby home cook. So I’ve got a pretty refined pallet. This night I was just looking for a local greasy spoon. I just wanted to eat , get back to my room and work. I drove by BDubs, several fast food joints and then I saw this little “Main Street” type area. I flipped a u turn and drive down this street. A sports bar, a pizzeria, a beer joint, and then down the block I saw some more lights so I drove another block. And there was Jose’s. Right next to a Mexican restaurant.

A Peruvian Italian restaurant. What? Almost empty on this Tuesday night I ventured in. Was pleasantly greeted with a smile and a “You can sit anywhere.” Perfect. Just what I was looking for. Home town family owned greasy spoon.

I ordered the Chicken Marsala with double vegetables. When it came I could tell right away that the vegetables where perfectly cooked.

Once I began to eat I realized I had made a huge mistake. This was no greasy spoon. The vegetables were in fact perfectly done. I know that doesn’t sound like much but perfectly cooked vegetables are very good. Just the right amount of soft crunch. A minute or two longer and there a nuisance on the plate. But that was just the beginning. I picked up my knife and fork to try the chicken. I quickly realized I could throw my knife away. The chicken was amazing. Going forward I cut it with the side of my fork. But the star of the plate was by far the Marsala sauce. It was amazing. It had this hint of sweet to it. Probably the best Marsala I’ve ever had. And, like I said, I’m a hobby home cook. And Italian is probably what I love to cook the most.

If you’re near this place and you don’t stop in, you’re...

I visited Jose's this week to try their Highland Restaurant Crawl Special of a pork chop and rice for $5. Keep in mind all of the participating restaurants were offering $5 specials for the night, and their specials were discounted items from their existing menus. This was nothing like that.

I was presented with a 1/2" chop as big as the palm of your hand, and cooked until it was shoe leather. There was also about a cup of insignificant rice. The chop was also mostly fat, and what was meat was hard and basically inedible. If it was spiced, I tasted nothing out of the ordinary.

I didn't think the restaurant wanted this to be my introduction to their food, so before writing this review, I contacted them via Facebook. I wanted to give them the chance to redeem themselves. I thought they would want to give me something to pull me back, even a small discount, but no. Their answer was that this is Peruvian cooking, and I should just come back and try some more.

Now...if you were presented with that sad pork chop, what in the world would make you want to go back?? I've seen other negative Yelp reviews for Jose's as well which makes me think someone from there either doesn't care, or has too big of an ego to admit when something went wrong.

I told them they might want to reconsider their choice of food offerings for the next Restaurant Crawl as this is prime advertising, and it shouldn't be wasted. Hopefully they will heed my advice.

Until then, I would seek out one of the many other, better choices in the area for dinner....

UPDATE: Although I am a fan of the food at Jose’s - I am probably not returning since they not only added a 4% Credit Card Fee - but on top of that they are now charging a 10% “TAKE OUT” fee.

Too much nickel and dime for me. Other restaurants don’t charge those fees - so it’s not worth it for me. Just know what you are getting into.

This restaurant is a hidden gem in Highland. Wow the food is good and the service (carry out) was phenomenal.

Everything was labeled and we had instructions to know what goes together in our order. (See photos)

We tried more of the Peruvian dishes which were a nice surprise. I would love to dine in for the food to be the freshest but we loved just about everything.

The talapia was tasty. Although it was cold when we got home, I added them into my air fryer and crisped them up. Voilà! Awesomeness.

The appetizers we chose were the potato and the tamale. WOW! I could make them a meal. The size is larger than I expected.

The risotto - WOW! This was by far the best meal of the night!!! It was rich and creamy and fresh tasting. The chicken was also just as amazing. It lasted for a while other day since the portions are on the larger size you may have some leftovers.

The only dish we were disappointed with was the Civiche. I think the accoutrements overpowered the seafood. And it wasn't the best taste in our opinion.

But you can't go wrong with everything else....