Joey's is a difficult place to summarize. Its a small chain based in Canada with locations around the Northwest, including Seattle and Bellevue. I first went a few years ago because I heard about their "sushi tacos." Think fried won-tons shaped like a taco shell, stuffed with sweet sushi rice, topped with crab salad, wasabi aioli, sesame seeds, and drizzled with some sweet soy sauce. TO DIE FOR!
The problem is that the chain has made its reputation as being a kind of upscale hooters. The wait staff (in the Seattle/Bellevue locations anyway) are hot young things with tight skirts and all dolled up. Individually they are more normal looking, but together, well, think Robert Palmer girls (too young to know that reference? You Tube it!). The location caters to a lunch crowd of alpha-male Financial District types (MLEIV went there for lunch with her office when it first opened, said she ignored the wait-staff and was drooling over the hot clientele... *drooling is my word, not hers ;) ). Its hard to get over a restaurant's clientele and image, so the food must be really good.
Joey's has some genius chef sitting in their HQ who is tragically shackled by the place's image/marketing. Much of their menu is really boring steak/lobster/hamburger fare. But they throw in some gems that showcase the chef's skill (they always seem surprised when we order there, always saying "now, that has onion in it, are you OK with that? Have you had that before? Its really spicy!" If you weren't such a pretty, dumb blonde you'd recognize us from last time and not worry that we don't know what we are ordering!):
Mediterranean Basa: creamy tahini over subtly spiced rice, blackened basa on top. My favorite main course there: tasty, filling, and healthy!
Viva Salad: MLEIV's regular dish, not some boring hunk of iceberg lettuce, no this has mixed greens, sweetened with apple, tarted with cranberries and red onion, crunched with a thin fried flatbread. I love when people make salad something interesting.
They had an amazing chicken enchilada with a complex, chocolaty mole, but I guess no one else ordered it--last time we were there it was gone. :(
They are also a great place for drinks. They have what is basically a slurpee machine with alcohol in it! Gin and tonic where the gin comes in the form of a ball of slurpee ice melting in the lime-y tonic water. mmmmmmmm
Its a pity that they think they need to gimmick themselves up in order to make money (and maybe they do, I'm not a restaurant investor) because they would be much more interesting if they unshackled their chef and let him just make us excellent food.
Though I won't complain about the Robert Palmer girls, they are a lot of fun to watch even when, sometimes, the service sucks because the stupid blonde eye-candy can't remember what I ordered.
