Joe's Farm Grill

A few weeks ago some friends of my wife and I who live in Avondale, AZ called to tell us that they had made the trek across Phoenix to come eat at a restaurant they really liked, and they wanted us to join them.  The restaurant was Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert.  It's funny because I had eaten at Joe's Farm Grill once before when I used to only live a couple miles away from it, and I thought to myself, I don't remember it being a place so good that I would drive the 45 minutes to an hour that it would take to come from Avondale to go there.  I thought to myself, maybe I ordered the wrong thing.  I still live relatively close, and I decided I ought to give it a second chance since it also meant getting to see good friends.

First of all, I really like the concept of the restaurant.  It is not a sit down waiter and waitress style restaurant, but the items on the menu aren't fast food at all.  They have lots of outdoor dining so it has a nice relaxed ambiance, and really, the menu adds a fine dining twist to a lot of otherwise common grill atmosphere menu items.  It sounds right up my alley, but somehow my experience went wrong .  My expectations were high, but the problem started with the twenty foot line out the door.  I admit it was a weekend, but that kind of line warrants really good food, and when I finally got inside where the line did not end, I noticed first of all that they have two registers, but only one was open.  Maybe someone called in sick.  Inside the restaurant, they have cool flat panel TV menus that slideshow through and feature various dishes.  They are particularly proud of a feature they landed on Food Network when Guy Fieri came to sample some of their signature dishes and had the video of this feature on loop for you to enjoy while you wait in line.  After waiting longer than I cared to keep track of and having watched this looped video enough to be tired of it, I really just wanted some good food.  I had seen its montage enough that the signature dish I chose was their Ahi Tuna Sandwich. 

What I got was a nicely seared piece of ahi tuna with a colorful Asian slaw stacked high on a fresh homemade bun that was smeared with wasabi mayo.  Again, it sounds good right, but it ended up being a one note forgettable sandwich.  I have had a better ahi tuna sandwich at Chili's.  Located right within Gilbert's Agritopia, an urban farming community, the produce was local, fresh, and looked gorgeous, but the ensemble lacked flavor and punch.  I paid extra to get their signature rosemary panko breaded onion rings instead of fries, and I was underwhelmed by those as well.  It wasn't that any of it was bad, but it was  forgettable, and I so expected the opposite.  Thinking back to my first visit, I ordered their ribs and pulled pork with sweet potato fries, and this experience reminded me that those items were forgettable as well.  I also had to wait forever that night, and it was a week night.  In the end, Joe's Farm Grill swung for the fence, but two strikes is enough for me to declare, 'You're out.'  I appreciate their effort at being an original diner style restaurant that cares about sustainability and tries to give you a fine dining experience at a reasonable price, but on the weekend, make sure both registers are up and running, and if you're going to loop your video to brag of Food Network's visit, give me food that I will remember above my annoyance with having to watch the fifteen minute vignette too many times through.