today, i was driving around downtown and decided i would get some lunch. i thought i would sort of drive around the galleria area and see if anything jumped out at me to eat. well, not literally, of course. i saw the new olive press and thought i would give that a try. unfortunately, i didn't have any change on me, so i couldn't fill a parking meter. riding a motorcycle does have the drawback of not having a ashtray full of change. so how do you park in an area that is almost exclusively pay parking without $? you go to a place that validates!

enter joe's steakhouse & grill. i've eaten there once before and had enjoyed my experience. that time, i had the lunch buffet ($7.95). it was good, but i wasn't feeling in the buffet sort of mood. instead, i wanted to order off the menu.

menu 1

menu 2

menu 3

as you can see, they have a pretty decent menu. good selection, from salads to steaks, burgers & sandwiches. my first thought was, "i'm at a steakhouse, why not get a steak?" well, although i could always go for eating a steak, i didn't really feel like paying to eat a steak. to me, they seemed a little pricey for lunch. then again, a good steak is worth the money, and a good lunch is worth the money. but not today. today, i was feeling like paying a little less, and was in the mood for a sandwich or burger.

i was trying to figure out if i wanted the cowboy burger or the tri tip sandwich when the waitress came to take my order. since i wasn't sure, i asked her what she thought. she seemed pretty genuine when she told me that both were very good, and that was a tough decision. she said that if i liked spicy food, the tri tip sandwich would be a little better, especially with the option of chipotle sauce. i was sold. and, i even switched up the cheddar or jack cheese choice with some pepper jack. now, i was almost getting the cowboy burger in tri tip sandwich form. the only thing missing was the onion rings. i solved that by getting rings instead of fries. and for those of you outside of california, here's a little piece on tri tip.

i'm not sure exactly how much time it took between ordering and receiving my meal, but it was a good amount of time. not so fast that i assumed they had everything sitting in the back, ready to go, and not so slow that i was left wondering what happened to my meal.

ah, the food. very good. in fact, much better than the meal i had here on the buffet. the tri tip was tender and tasty. the chipotle sauce was nice, and the combination of spices between the sauce and pepper jack cheese had my lips tingling. it even opened up my sinuses a little, but maybe this is too much info. so back to the food. i even liked the bread. i was a little worried that the bread would be toasted, which i dislike. but it wasn't. instead, nice and soft with good texture & taste. held together well, didn't get soggy from meat juice, sauce, etc. the tomatoes on the sandwich were nice and fresh, and i really think the lettuce was top notch. i'm serious about that one. frequently, the lettuce you get on sandwiches at lunch places are wilted iceberg pieces or shred. i'm not positive, but this might have been romaine or looseleaf lettuce. good stuff. as you can see, i enjoyed the sandwich. one thing, i didn't eat the onions on the sandwich. i like red onions, but i'm not a big fan of raw onions (prefer them grilled). if i had realized that there were onions (should have read the menu a little closer) i might have asked for them grilled, but probably would have just told them i didn't want the onions.

the onion rings, good as well. seriously. the flavor was good, and they weren't over-battered like some places do. also, they weren't too greasy. i mean, they are onion rings after all. fried food is going to have a little bit of grease to it. the rings tasted great when they were hot. what surprised me was how they tasted after they had cooled down. you know how sometimes the last few rings you eat just taste gross because the oil has all cooled and the flavor changed? not these. after i finished my sandwich, i still had four rings left. i ate two of them and was happily surprised that they still tasted as they should. at that point, i was pretty full and left the other two behind. sorry guys.

to drink, i just had a soda. that was refilled 2 times. hey, it was warm outside, i was thirsty. whatever. but, i did skim the wine/beer list. i'm not a wine connoisseur, so i don't know how good of a selection it is. but, in looking at it, i thought it was cool that they featured california wines. i did think that the beer list was a good selection.

wine list 1

wine list 2

beer selection list

finally, i felt that the service at joe's was great. really, the waitress was very friendly and helpful. i appreciated that she gave me an honest opinion on the options, and that they accommodated my substitutions without any problem. also, she was on top of drink refills, something that is my unofficial measure of service quality. the restaurant was clean, the temperature in the restaurant was cool and nice. the music playing wasn't too loud, and although i don't really listen to new country, i didn't mind it in a steakhouse. and, as i mentioned before, they validate. let me say that a third time, they validate parking! that's really cool to me. and, since i decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator in the garage, i got to work off a little bit of lunch right away.

so, to sum it up, joe's good. food good. lunch prices fair (i don't know about the dinner menu). service great. validated parking. you should definitely go and eat there. honestly, next time you're downtown (an event on the fulton mall, a game or concert at the chuck, jury duty, the philharmonic, concert @ selland, need your marriage license, whatever) and want to get a bite, go to joe's.

Joe's Steakhouse & Grill
831 Van Ness Ave
Fresno, Ca, 93721
559 486-3536

(oh yeah, this is cross posted on my personal blog, too.)