Little Joey's
 

We just a horror show of a Valentine's Day. First, my wife made reservations at Carrabba's, her favorite restaurant. When we arrived fifteen minutes before our reservation time, they couldn't find our reservation. They searched and searched and couldn't come up with it. Finally I asked how long the wait was and was told 145 minutes. For those of you that are mathematically challenged, that's two hours and 25 minutes. But they would make a note and try to push us up.
We decided to go to Little Joey's. We ate there before several months ago and really liked it. This time however was a different story.
We arrived and was told that it was a 25 minute wait. We saw them add our name to the list on a notebook page. We decided to sit at the bar and have a glass of wine. The notebook was right in front of us. We could see we were next on the list when a girl came by and picked up some menus and called out "Steve". That is not my name. We watched while she seated the people who were the next ones after us on the list.
She came back and realized her mistake and apologized. I wasn't too upset and we made a joke out of it. We got seated very soon after that.
We waited quite a while for our server. When she finally came, we knew exactly what we wanted and ordered. She asked if she should bring the appetizers and salads first and we let her know that we were very hungry.
The soup and salad came very quickly and I asked her about bread. she apologized and said she forgot and went to get us some bread.
She was gone for quite while and finally came back with the bread and our appetizers.
I asked my wife how her soup was and she said that it was very salty. A lot of soups are salty so I didn't think much of it. Then I tasted my appetizer. Clams Oreganata. It too was very salty. But, I hadn't eaten all day so I ate it up. Jenny ate about half her soup.
The the entrees came. I had Veal alla Joey and Jenny had Shrimp and Chicken Scampi. Again, both dishes were incredibly salty. If I wasn't so hungry, I wouldn't have eaten it. I ate about half and Jenny had about two bites of her pasta. The meals were delivered by a different waitress who asked if we needed anything else. I asked for another glass of wine which I never got.

When I say salty, I really can't describe how bad these dishes were. I hate when people use this term loosely, but this food was inedible. For me not to finish a meal is highly unusual. The food was so salty I was beginning to feel ill. Imagine drinking the Atlantic Ocean and you begin to get an idea what I'm talking about.

A number of years ago, I had a cook that worked for me and everything he made was super salty like this. Turned out he was a heavy smoker. Smoking kills your taste buds and smokers tend to use a lot of salt because of this. I'm guessing that this chef is either a heavy smoker or is addicted to salt.

Anyway, when the waitress finally returned she saw that we had hardly eaten and asked if we wanted desert. Duh! We told her no because we were afraid that it might be too salty. She looked surprised and asked if the food was too salty and we nicely explained that it was indeed. She said that she was sorry and thanked us for letting her know and said that she would tell someone.

Then the bill came and I was charged $4.00 for the wine I never got. We called the waitress back and showed it to her and she was surprised that I never got my wine. She apologized again. She took the bill and subtracted the cost of the wine. We gave her a credit card and when she came back with the credit card slip it was for the amount with the wine still on it. She took the bill back again and came back with the correct charge and a voided slip.
I understand that it's Valentine's Day and places are super busy so the stuff with the waitress and hostess was not a major issue for me. But the salt, salt, salt salt and more salt is inexcusable. Believe me, I do not use the term inedible lightly.

So I got home and decided to send the restaurant and nice e-mail advising them that they might have a problem. I can't find a website or e-mail address for them. How do you operate a business in this day and age without a web site or e-mail address prominently displayed?

Maybe I'll drop a note in the snail mail tomorrow.

Always remember, just Google .... Little Joey's Italian Restaurant - Home
And there you have it. Sorry to hear about the salt. I never use salt and have never had that experience at Little Joey's. If I did, the food would have gone back. Happy Valentine's Day.

I have never been a fan of too much salt. I would have sent it back.

Sounds like the cook used salt too liberally. I usually eat what is in front of me, but it sounds like they were having a bad day all around.

A good server doesn't forget things requested, and I don't care how busy there were. It's not acceptable.

We didn't have reservations anywhere, stopped by Red Lobster and it was packed, so we meandered down to Bonefish, it was busy, but we were seated within ten minutes, had a great meal, service was excellent.
Hat's off to the staff and how quickly they seated and served dinners!

Thanks, I did Goggle and it didn't come up. All I got was Yelp and several other sites like that.

When did Carrabba's start taking reservations?

What did the manager say about the over salted food issue?

Nice picture in the paper today.

Little Joey's has fair to midland menu, quality and service. One of my old time favorites is pasta fagioli and Little Joey's doesn't even resemble my mother's so it has to be wrong.

We are at the apogee of the tourist season in this mislabeled retirement community and so we all have to grut and bear it, the traffic the crowded stores golf courses, et al. But as one poster said on another thread "she doesn't care because there is plenty of sunshine to go around"

By the way the cook may have had one of those unfortunate moments when seasoning the stock the cap on the shaker came off. You think he is going to began again:D

Snowbirds are not tourists, they are owners for the most part.

Mistake 1 - Eating out on Valentines day
Solution: Jar of good marinara sauce, some Italian sausage, one onion, a little garlic, some dried spaghetti. Fill up a container at the Sweetbay salad bar, a bottle of good red wine....No waiting and I just saved you about $20..

Hi villagerjack: Seasonal residents are owners agree. My only point was that from November through April is when people normally rent. January thru March being the most sought after. I know a number of owners who are still working and rent our their homes most of the year.


Personal Best Regards:

I'm with Richard...why go out on Valentines Day when the restaurants are packed and the kitchen is stressed. I usually cook a special meal on Valentines Day for my wonderful wife and we go out a couple of days before for our special dinner.

I've worked in restaurants off & on for years. Now in our golden years my husband always offers to take me out to dinner on holidays and my answer is always the same... take me tomorrow or the next day but not on the actual holiday. I know too much about what goes on in most or all restaurants on special occasions. The owners/managers of dinning establishments have good intentions of making a special day special however usually they end up overbooked with overworked staff with inadequate food and that equals unhappy diners. I'll enjoy my home prepared meal any day.

Ditto to Ricard1336's comment.... Eating dinner out on Valentine's Day and New Years Eve is for ametuers!!!

after eating at Little Joey's, I noticed, plastic plates, cafeteria silverware, terrible salads.
maybe it is a pizza parlor that also sells Italian dinners, word of advice, stick to the pizza.