First off, I know I had been covering primarily county establishments, but since this city restaurant is not too far east into the city limits and we visited, I thought why not. We visited Joey B's on the Hill on Sunday for lunch to meet some friends, and I thought I would give my thoughts. First off, I never realized the Hill extended all the way to Hampton and thought Joey B's looked and felt less "Hill like" than the more core Hill establishments on Macklind or east from there. It seemed much too easy to park there for it to truly be on the Hill! Inside it seemed more like your typical bar & grill type place as opposed to the more Italian-centric restaurants in the Hill, with all the waitresses dressed in matching black shirts and shorts and flat screen monitors circling the walls. The menu did include Italian entrees, but they were all preceded by a larger selection of salads, pizzas, sandwiches and burgers which made the Italian entrees seem like more of an afterthought.
I looked the menu over and decided to go with the Firecracker Chicken sandwich with their fries. Others selected Reuben sandwiches, burgers, or house salad. Our friends insisted we all tried the fried cheese as an appetizer so we sampled them and they were very good. They were simple small wedges of provel cheese, coated with breading and deep fried and served with a marinara sauce. They were small enough to not be overwhelming and made a very nice appetizer for the meal with the melted provel being a nice mild flavor to go with their flavorful marinara sauce.
The place was fairly busy for Sunday lunch, but our waitress, Alexis, was very attentive and brought our food out in a timely manner. The fries were thin, crisp and well salted, and reminded me of Steak 'N Shake fries. Joey B's even had A1 sauce on the table which I like with my fries. My chicken sandwich was drenched in a spicy buffalo sauce that also went well with the fries so I could dip them there as well. At first I cut my sandwich in half thinking I could save half of it for a meal later, but after eating the first half and being a little hungry, I ate the second half too. The sandwich was quite a mess to eat and I ate the last of it with a knife and fork, but I like messy food so that is a plus for me. The chicken was tender and had a good coating on it, and the pepper jack cheese added a nice touch as well. I thought it was a good, solid sandwich but nothing exceptional.
My wife had been there before and had remembered receiving a much larger salad than the house salad she received, but she still thought it was fine but nothing exceptional as well. I think everyone enjoyed their sandwiches, but it was all fairly standard bar & grill fare and nothing earth shattering. Both my son and daughter had burgers and enjoyed them, but they much prefer the ones at Five Star Burgers to the ones at Joey B's. Still it was a nice change of pace and a decent place to go and have a solid bar & grill type meal while still pretending you are eating "on the Hill".
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