Original Joes San Jose - San Jose (CA)

3 /5 Apryl Chiem: Did not realize this Original Joes was not affiliated with any other one until after ordering since their pasta looked off. Ordered a spicy vodka rigatoni for myself and was disappointed on the taste and look. All of our rigatonis were soupy and tasted ok. The bread is not free, $5 per basket. We thought it was since they offered but we shouldve double checked with the server. Service was ok, a little slow. We werent allowed to order our main dishes with our appetizers despite being ready and we ended up waiting 40+ minutes for them. I dont recommend coming to this location, maybe try the other ones. The wait isnt worth it. The only thing I really enjoyed was the calamari sticks.

5 /5 v l: I just have to say, Original Joes is one of the last great restaurants of Downtown San Jose! With that being said, I keep ordering the steak & sausage rigatoni because I love the taste of the sauce! Its so flavorful & forfilling of a warm beautiful dinner. Im only guessing that its a cooked down red wine, but, what do I know? I know I love to eat, I love eating here & my family does too! Thank you so very much for a wonderful evening! Well be back. Asta lavista.

3 /5 Jason Foard: Solid 3 Stars. First time at Original Joes and I have mixed feelings. The food was tasty but lacked creativity. My Steak Sandwich was too rare and served on a toasted bread roll. Thats it, just meat and bread. Flavorful but dull. Accompanied by steak fries. I actually used ketchup as a condiment for my sandwich. I know a lot of people would probably kill me if they saw this but I had to work with what they gave me. Our appetizer was Fried Calamari, no complaints. The other entrées were Chicken Parm and Pasta Marinara with a giant Meatball. Simple and tasty but lacking presentation. Our server was David and he did a great job. His knowledge of the menu was substandard and he showed genuine concern and professionalism. We appreciate David and thats why we tip our waiters 25%. We arrived around 7pm on a Saturday evening. Plenty of parking options in the area. No wait to be seated even though it was very busy in the Resto. Original Joes has an attached bar called The Hideout. Full bar with flat screens to enjoy the game. We may return to try it someday. So to reiterate, our first visit at Joes was good. Food lacked pizzazz, but is decent. My dull Steak Sandwich and fries set me back $35. Maybe some veggies and condiments to accompany it would be a good idea? The Pasta Marinara was flavorful not too salty and great portion size. Chicken Parm was simple yet tasty. Our Tiramisu was unfortunately inedible. Something was bitter and off putting in it so we sent it back. Oh well, no biggie. I look forward to returning someday.

4 /5 Andrew Schwafel: Unable to make reservations at a very popular busy spot. However, we were told we could call thirty minutes before to put our name on the waiting list. This is key because if you are waiting. Theres only enough room for about 8 to 10 people in the lobby. And theres notoriously 20 to 30 waiting. It seems to always be cold around the ankles no matter where we have ever sat in this establishment. This is because the front door keeps opening and allowing cold air to gush in. The food was amazing despite the fact we were deceived on the linguine with clams. We were told the white sauce was a wine sauce. Not a cream sauce. This is detrimental for somebody who is lactose intolerant. We had tickets to a show, so we really did not have time to return it and ask for something different.

2 /5 Manzano Thomas: Overwhelmingly expensive for the experience. Steaks were fine and cooked to the expected level, sides are expensive (12$ for a backed potato or vegetables or ... anything). Dessert ("cannoli") is not on par with its price (thats a single cannoli in a big plate), the dough is good and crunchy but the cream had virtually no taste. The room is very noisy despite having all tables separated by mid-height walls.