Not Your Average Joe's - Westwood — Restaurant in Westwood

"My wife had dinner on Tuesday night and decided to order a meal for me to take home. She ordered chicken parmigiana and brought it home for me. I was happy she surprised me with the meal until I opened it to eat. To my surprise there were two pieces of chicken that were very thin (less than one quarter inch) and over cooked. It in fact was black on the surface which would have been OK if it wasn't so dry and tough. It was chicken parmigiana but you would never know because the two pieces of chicken had two small circles of cheese on each piece that was also over cooked so it no longer looked liked cheese because it was so dried up. It should be noted that you could see how over cooked the chicken was because there was no tomato sauce on either piece. The spaghetti was also over cooked so bad it was like mush in my mouth when I tried to eat it. The sauce was only on the spaghetti with the two pieces of chicken placed on top with no sauce on it at all. In summary this meal was in the kitchen over cooked and someone thought if it was packaged as takeout no would notice how bad it was but I did. Chicken parmigiana should be somewhat thick and moist with lots of cheese covering all the chicken with abundant sauce. The pasta should be al-denti and have some body to it not over swelled up and mushed. You guys should be embarrassed by this meal that would have been returned to the kitchen if it was ever served to a customer in the restaurant. Very sad your quality was so bad. Please let me know why this...

I had several below average dining experience here. I've been here many times, this restaurant used to be good but since it's morphed into the restaurant from hell. The food is pretty overpriced for what it is, Definitely no value. The staff is terrible at best; they routinely miss the basics like bringing a glass out when serving a canned beverage or asking how the food is after serving it. They probably don't ask because the food is terrible. I had the beef tips, and they were burned to a crisp and served with more fat than meat. The tables are rarely clean, so it's common to see plates and glasses from previous customers still on the table. Also, the staff lacks any basic food safety skills. We routinely saw the pizza chef using his phone with one hand and serving with the other, no gloves on in sight. On our last visit, there was more staff than customers. During this visit, we saw our waitress move the food from where it came out of the kitchen to the warmers where it sat 10 minutes before bringing it out. The second time this happened, we realized it's easier to get the food from the kitchen yourself then wait on the lousy waitress. So that's what we did; yes the meals for five people came out at different times. This is also the closest location from the headquarters, so the leaves don't fall far from the trees, meaning the issues with this restaurant are deeply rooted within the corporation. If you care about your food, safety, or dining experience avoid this establishment...

They were able to separate foods for my kid who had aversion to jalapeños and lettuce. Which was great to allow him access to try new foods, albiet a known form of nachos. The pork was flavorful, a mixture of sweet and salty that I can not place but would want their marinade recipe. It was solid.

The bread amazing as always, but light on the olive oil and heavier on cheese, maybe they changed the recipe since their Randolph test kitchen closed. I feel indifferent to it. The bread is the same, but the dip has so much cheese that it's changed. Like a grocery store changing around all its isles, it's different than it originally was. Is that for the good? Indifferent.

While the food looked great, it was severely missing key flavors. No lemon in Chicken Piccata; which, while it had a ton of capers, which I like, just missing any acid and more one note, than flavor and tone. Chicken was cooked great.

The watermelon sangria was mixed poorly, with my S.O. getting 90 percent of the alcohol of the entire pitcher she felt. Again, it didn't taste like watermelon despite looking great. Even asked for no ice in it, even if we got half a pitcher full. We expressed we didn't mind, still got served with ice, and it tasted like a watered-down drink. The sangria pitcher did make 4 glasses, but it was mostly ice, so it was just watery and nearly clear.

Kid liked the burger, but what kid doesn't...