Joe Beef used to be high on my list of places to hit in this city. Too much talk about it for years. Then the explosion, David Chang is talking about these guys and every NY chef mentions Joe Beef somewhere. We finally went last friday and I wanted to wait before writing this to see if my view would change once the dust settles. Basically, it was ok but I wouldn't really go back.
Our reservation was taken at the right time, no tricky "Please sit at the bar while we get your table ready" BS move that we all usually go through. When we got seated, our very nice and helpful waitress (I didn't get her name) informed us that there's no paper menu, you have to read the chalkboard. This is fine and charming, but it was so dark that we had to get up and get near the bar to be able to read it (since the board's been erased a few times and is filled with chalk dust). The menu is a huge mess. Can't really understand what is a side dish vs an appetizer or a dessert. This part of the review might make you say "How old is this guy?" but i'm 35 and have better than 20/20 vision. I couldn't see it. When the waitress asked us if we had questions about the menu, I asked her about something, she looked up and even she had to walk to the bar to read it. So handwritten menus on the wall are nice and rustic, but make sure they can be read from further than an arm's length.
I'd like to note that whole we didn't really LOVE our wine, our waitress tried to make us return it. Kept saying it wasn't an issue and all that but we feel bad doing that if the wine is actually good, just tastes different than you expected. We stayed with it. It was a bit too fruity but I want to point out that the service regarding this was excellent.
My girlfriend had the duck which was cooked like a flank steak. It was pretty good. Slightly over cooked on the edges but it was still a good dish. I had something called the truckstop piglet. It's like a lasagna of pure pork. Layers and layers of pork. This would normally make me dance! But the level of salt was too high and halfway through my meal, I was really starting to turn on my meal and I was eyeing her duck. The concept of the dish was good with enough acidity in the sides (pineapple confit and cherries) to balance the fat of the pork.
Our desserts, I had a layer cake with chocolate and caramel I believe. It was very good. Very light tasting thanks to the very thin slice I got (I hate big desserts). my girlfriend had something, I can't remember the name at all, but it was some sort of almond and pistachio cake with a mountain of soft serve ice cream on top. She was in heaven! Definitely the highlight of her meal.
I love the look and feel of the place, the menu.... yeah it kinda bothered me a bit. But really, the level of salt on my meal was brutal. I tend over salt my own stuff, but this was pretty bad. I won't write off the place based on one visit, but I can't see myself wanting to go back unless there's some event there like a birthday or something. $250 bill for both of us, and we didn't really LOVE our food.
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