Joseph's Grill — Restaurant in Saint Paul

If you like regular bar fare, this is your place. Good size portions to fill one up just not seasoned well.

My guy and I had a hankering for steak and found our favorite steakhouse was closed for vacation and thought to stop by Joseph's. The serving staff was courteous, friendly and fast. Alas, the main dinner left a lot to be desired. We ordered our steaks rare and medium. When they arrived, not only were they not prepared as requested, our side dishes were mixed up on the plates.

We had to find humor when another waitress came out with plates and presumed it was okay just to switch our main entree around by ourselves. My guy chuckled and asked me, "Wait, wasn't that the cook's job to get this correct? Wonder how much he earns and if I could get a job here."

The original waitress came back and apologized and said the whole order would be redone. More humor arrived when we saw that our new steaks, although cooked properly this time, were far smaller, flatter and a tougher cut of meat. At this point we just needed to eat and finished up our meal. We did laugh as my guy said that we now received the "complainer's cut" as he dubbed our replacement meal. Even if there was no such thing, I believe he hit the nail on the head.

When our waitress returned at the end of our meal and asked if everything was okay, I. . .for one of the rare times I speak up. . .told her no. SHE apologized and said she would talk with the manager. It wasn't HER fault the meal wasn't prepared correctly. And although the manager was quite nice about giving us our meal for free, we knew we couldn't stiff the waitress who was working hard to keep things right. We left her a tip for the amount of the meal and realized we would most likely not be back.

Oh, and not just because of this particularly evening. Over the years we have visited this restaurant and I've found the lunches were rather tasty and the Asian Chicken salad is heavenly, but the evening meals have declined in quality to the food that most any bar and grill around town serves. In other words, heavy on the cheeses, imitation seafood and fried finger foods. They used to have a better variety of appetizers a few years back that we always enjoyed stopping by for, but the menu has changed and is now way too similar to other places around town.

We may go back. . . .we may not. Best suggestion is to save your money on the main dinners which are rather spendy and may not be prepared to your liking and stick with the appetizers which are filling and reasonably priced if not terribly seasoned well. At least you will have an okay meal within a decent...

Dear Joseph's (like I'm writing a pen pal or something...)

Each and every year, I am required to pay a visit to Joseph's to celebrate my wife's grandmother's birthday - it's her pick. I always ask my father in-law to try and persuade her to pick a different place, but we end up at Joseph's anyways. Hey, it makes grandma happy! :)

Unfortunately for this foodie, I end up leaving unsatisfied and hungry. Over the years, I've had their burgers, Philly, sandwiches, pork dishes, fish tacos and during my most recent visit, the Lebanese plate. Burgers are nothing to brag about and I have stayed away from them for good, the Philly is a roast beef sandwich with onions and cheese, the sandwiches are mediocre, the pork dishes are so-so and the fish tacos need some work. As for that Lebanese plate, I would stop serving it!

The Lebanese plate special (on Saturday nights) includes beef and chicken kabobs, tabouli, Lebanese rice, garlic sauce and flat bread. The best part of this meal, was the flat bread. The chicken came out dry, but somehow not fully cooked. Figure that one out! The beef wasn't terrible, but a little tough. The rice was dry and I was putting the tabouli on my flat bread.

Sure the happy hour is good, but everyone has a decent happy hour within 10 miles of this place. Appetizers are appetizers, you can find the same quality anywhere and I'll always enjoy a cold beer! :) I can always suck it up for grandma though, I just need to find something that's worth eating so I don't have to eat before or...

It would have been a fine experience I'm sure but the waitress was very timid. I tried to be nice and understanding about most of the issues but our order was kind of all over the place when she set down our plates. We had to switch them around to the right people. It wasn't busy, there were 6 of us so maybe it was hard to figure out where and what we got, fine. But then my order was jumbled with my brother-in-law's order. He got no tomato, no cheese bacon burger. I got a chicken sandwich with cheddar cheese instead of swiss. Somehow his burger ended up with cheddar cheese and no bacon, my order ended up swiss, and bacon. I didn't think my sandwhich even came with bacon. Anyway, I tried to let her know that our orders got jumbled and maybe they could make us some new sandwiches. I thought I was clear, precise and nice about the whole situation but she was really sassy with me and told me that it was my fault that our orders got mixed up. I get people make mistakes but I did not appreciate being told that I was in the wrong when I was very clear in what I wanted and beside that fact that I didn't deserve to be sassed at after I was nice to her the whole time. I assumed she was either having a bad day, maybe it was her first job... either way. Maybe it was a good learning experience, I don't know... good luck and hope you have a better day tomorrow. Treat others...