Sherman's Food Adventures: Joey's Urban

Joey's Urban

*Restaurant is now closed*

The dreaded Groupon/Living Social trap got me again.  Drat!  Normally, I would actually do some research about a place before I give my hard-earned money away for a coupon that I might or might not end up using.  But I took a chance this time, partly because of the name - Joey's Urban.  Hey, I remember Joey's Only...  I used to get my fill of fish n' chips there. So there was not much of a risk right?  Oh how I would learn to regret that blind trust...  So I bought the darn thing and asked Big D to join me in the food adventure.  He was not up to the adventure at all...  His pained expression was the total opposite of a foodgasm.  Reading some reviews revealed that I may have messed up.  Oh no!  What have I done?  Who could I possibly convince to eat there with me?  Aha!  Viv!  LOL...

Rolling up to the place, I didn't expect it to be a counter-service restaurant, considering the prices.  Whatever, I had a coupon right?  We started with one each of the Ahi Tuna and Joey's Fish Tacos.  The tuna was cooked pretty nicely with a completely rare centre and only a slight sear on the outside, (which was dusted with plenty of seasoning).  However, the taco itself was not great.  First, the shell was dry and second, the shredded marble cheese did not go whatsoever with the tuna.  Maybe with beef, but not rare tuna.  The fish taco was afflicted with the same problem.  Lose the cheese for goodness sake. Too bad really because the fish was fried just right being flaky and moist with a crisp exterior (a bit greasy though).  Moving onto our next fried item, we had the Calamari.  It was a very modest portion for the price.  It was fried up crisp, but the squid itself was a bit too chewy.  Furthermore, it was pretty much oil-logged and the bland dip didn't help things.

Oh the fried fiesta didn't end there, we had the Cod and Chips next and yup, the piece of fish was greeeeasy.  At least it was crispy while the fish was moist and flaky.  The fresh-cut fries were not bad.  They were somewhat crisp.  The most disappointing part of the dish was the tartar sauce.  Honestly, it was more like Miracle Whip than tartar sauce.  They can do better than that... Last but not least, we had the Poutine.  The gravy itself wasn't bad being a decent thickness and not overly salty.  The cheesecurds were small little bits which were mostly melted.  Meh.  Pretty much sums out this food adventure.  I expected better.  This was not worth the prices they are charging.  Luckily I had a coupon...  or maybe not...

The Good:
- Proteins were cooked nicely
- Service was good

The Bad:
- Greasy
- Expensive
- Some things need to go back to the drawing board

Joey's Urban on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

KimHo said...

I have been to the Joey's Only (not to be confused with the Joey's chain of casual dining of restaurants) in Kamloops and, given it is their "parent" company of sorts, your description would ring a bell. Of course, charging extra for a more upscale setting does not necessarily do it if the food does not scale accordingly. Then again, you pay premium in Pajo's (in Steveston) and they don't even offer seating of their own!

Having said that, now that you know the combination of the cheese and rare tuna does not work, if by any chance you were dragged back (most likely against your will?), if you were to order the same taco and ordered it without the cheese, do you think it *might* work? Just for reference purposes!

LotusRapper said...

I've been to "The Only Seafoods" twice in the '90s. It made McD's feel upscale. A guy two seats away from me had what looked like a 9"-long blade knife in a holster under his jacket. Maybe he was expecting some tough cuts of fish ......

Sherman Chan said...

@KimHo I think if they didn't put cheese into it, it might've been better. But that is only one example of mediocre food here.

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