Joe's, Ryde

A long time ago, Joe's was undoubtedly the coolest place in Ryde, arguably the Island. Fickle fashion moved on, things changed, Joe's star waned. But now, it looks like it's on the way back.

Caesar salad

Joe's still has a stylish atmosphere, and now the smoking ban has worked its magic, it's at last an atmosphere one can breathe. Joe's is still serving good food at decent prices. They even have linen tablecloths and napkins now, the décor has been smartened up, and there's a substantial fish and seafood menu as well as the usual stuff. Matt is delighted to report that his all-time favourite Joe's Old Fashioned Lemonade is now back on the drinks list - any glass of lemonade made with a whole fresh lemon has to be good.

So, Joe's is back. Great service, good food, and very reasonable prices. Recommended.

Matt and Cat sat at their favourite window table, watching Ryde go by. A little scenario played itself out across the street - a crazy guy waved his can of Tennent's and jabbered on at passers-by. Before long, a neatly dressed chap who obviously knew the drunk turned up, calmed him with gentle remonstrations, and the two walked off quietly arm in arm. Perhaps it was a metaphor: Matt and Cat, safe indoors, felt as if Joe's was an old friend who'd returned after a long and worrying absence.

Cat's Caesar salad was a mighty portion, with mountains of chicken, ham and the occasional salty anchovy nestling in generously-dressed leaves. She happily crunched her way through, as Matt wrestled with an attractive side-salad served alongside his beer-battered haddock and chips. For some reason the salad was served vertically - in a narrow, tall pot. It looked spectacular, but offered an interesting challenge to the diner. Perhaps even more challenging was the curious aroma that arose from the battered fish. Matt quizzed Cat about her chicken - was it smoked? No, it was not. Was her crunchy Parma ham smoked? No more than normal. Could it possibly be the haddock, then? And so it transpired: the haddock was smoked. Not overpoweringly so, but enough to permeate the whole dish.

Smoked haddock and chips - yes, that's right, smoked.

Whilst Matt's got no objection to aspirant Heston Blumenthals meddling with classic dishes, he'd always prefer some warning of this to allow an informed choice on his part. The specials board made no mention of the haddock being smoked, and frankly, it was an experiment that Matt might have chosen to forgo had he known. He checked with the very helpful waiter, who confirmed that yes, this was smoked haddock and it was meant to be like that. Still, never one to let gastronomic prudery stand in the way of a meal, Matt tucked in and enjoyed the meal for what it was. It was actually pretty good, once Matt had got over his indignation.

So, Joe's is back. Great service, good food, and very reasonable prices. Recommended.

PermalinkPublished: 1st July 2010
16364 views
Categories: We like, Restaurants, Cafes, Ryde

20 comments

Comment from: Natascha
We paid our first visit on Saturday and had full English, poached eggs on toast and mushrooms and 2 coffees, food was lovely and the coffees too. We paid £13. It was so good we went for an evening meal and I had a lovely pasta and haloumi dish, wine, cocktail and cheesecake. Again the food was great and the staff were lovely. We will be back soon
27/04/10 @ 22:10
Comment from: Daniella
Myself and my partner ate here a couple of weeks ago and had a really good experience. The layout is now more 'restaurant-like' and the service was excellent. For starters we decided to go for a sharing platter consisting of slices of pitta breads, olives, hummous, sundried tomatoes and a lovely sweet onion relish. This did not disapoint. My partner is not even a big fan of onion but devoured the relish with great gusto. For mains my partner had the sirloin steak and I had the open fish pie. The fish pie was presented as a bowl of excellent mixed fish and seafood with a disk of feather light puff pastry perched neatly on top and was full of flavour. My partner was lost to me by the steak and conversation outside of the universal language of food related 'mmmmm's' all but ground to a halt. A really good evening was had here and we shall be back!
17/07/10 @ 11:27
Comment from: mattfromryde
Visited on Sunday for a late lunch. Front of house team very good - attentive, friendly and quick. Meals decidedly mediocre I'm afraid. My seafood pasta was described as accompanied by garlic bread. It was, a slice of thin toasted square white bread covered in a garlic butter. I thought for a moment that they must have run out of something a bit more rustic, but then my friend's Ciabatta turned up. Why would you serve a piece of supermarket value bread with a £9 bowl of pasta? It didn't add anything to the meal, if anything cheapened it. The ciabatta and caesar salads were deemed ok by friends, but uninspiring. Better food on offer in Ryde I'm afraid, but still a great place for a cocktail or two.
27/07/10 @ 12:47
Comment from: Connor Hawkins Email
Visited a little while ago and found it to be a great place.. the food was great. I just read the write up on this establishment and Was surprised to see that there was nothing in there about how the place got its original name of Joe Daflo's. The Place was owned in the 90s by Mark King.. the Lead Singer of LEVEL 42. and the name was comprised of all 3 of his kids names put together to come up with Joe Daflo's.. anyhow.... famous history or not. the food was great and will be returning soon......
06/08/10 @ 16:37
Comment from: J
Had one of the worst meals ever at Joes, last night. My friend and I arrived slightly later than the other three in our party, and we were nearly turned away. Mussels came with no bread, and when requested it eventually arrived still partly frozen. The Tuna steak arrived with no potatoes and only a very tired shaggy salad. The potatoe arrived when we had all finished! No appology either. The side salad with the tagattelle was dressed with salad cream.....the tagiattelle was almost cold.....total bill for 5 with wine and no deserts (not even offered) £140. What a rip off.
22/08/10 @ 12:35
Comment from: John
Booked a table for 8.15pm in the fish restaurant and was told after we ordered there would be a wait as it was very busy. Ordered turbot and filet of sea bass. One hour later they came with a whole sea bass. We sent it back but was told they had run out of filet of sea bass and as this was more money but not going to charge us any more problem solved.I chose the filet of sea bass as I do not like picking through bones,tails,fins and a head. They did offer any other meal but having waited for one hour we declined. They then gave us the bill and told us they had not charged us for the meal we never had!!! Called to have a word with the manager who failed to see our position as we were offered an alternative meal. Eventually he begrudgingly did not charge for either meal.He missed the whole point that the evening had been ruined and we will not be going back there ever again. The problem was not with the sea bass but with the manager!!
28/08/10 @ 22:51
Comment from: Becky
Decided to have a Sunday lunch at Jo's. Admittedly it was scooter rally weekend and the bar was fairly busy but there were plenty of tables free. We can only describe the experience as very dissapointing. Over priced food which was cold and had to wait over forty minutes to get it. They had run out of mushrooms and when we asked if we could subsitute another ingredient we were told this was fine only for it not arrive with the meal. Tagliatelle turned to penne and the garlic bread was a piece of cheap white sliced bread with garlic butter and herbs on. No vegetables came with the pork and the house red was nearly £6 a glass. A very over expensive mediocre meal. This is my second bad experience at Jo's in recent weeks. It seems that the new owners and management team really are not up to scratch. For a predicatably busy weekend i saw 3 staff working front of house. From what used to be a very comfortable value for money restaurant standards have definately slipped. I shall not be returning.
29/08/10 @ 22:02
Comment from: lex
do they have a website? i can only find southampton joe daflos....

Matt and Cat respond: Hi lex, thanks for your comment. Don't think Joe's has a website. Google says their phone number is (01983) 567047. If you go and eat there please feel free to add a comment to our site!
13/09/10 @ 15:23
Comment from: Ian
Ate here with my wife a couple of weeks ago.Had a fantastic meal and great wine to complement it. The starter was Sardines which were warm and just so delicous.My main course was fillet of Sea Bass and my wife had the Turbot again so tasty and fresh. Didn't have dessert or coffees. Would recommend again good value and good food and a good selection of wines.
22/09/10 @ 14:08
Comment from: Barry
Brunch midday midweek at Joe's in Union St Ryde for the first time since the owner before last. Quite liked it then, but LOVE it now.

Friend had cooked breakfast: bacon, sausage, runny fried egg, mushroom, hash brown and grilled tomato all very good and fresh, toast acceptable with good butter; baked beans in their own ramekin; only pot of tea failed to please but this is a matter of taste. Great ingredients and great value at £4.95 or so. Really no need ever to have an English breakfast anywhere else in Ryde ever again.

I had softly-poached egg with fresh hollandaise and spinach on a good toasted muffin: near-perfect at £4.25 or so. Coffee was good enough to have a second large Americano: could be a LITTLE better but this is personal (e.g I like the coffee (only) at Tesco Ryde).

Quality newspapers on sticks like in an Austrian cafe. We chatted very agreeably with two fellow guests for 10 minutes or so, only to discover that they were the modest man-and-wife non-foodie proprietors with a decades-long retail presence in Ryde.

Very good service, large menu; will be back to have dinner soon and to try the NEW fish restaurant upstairs. Somewhere you can take anybody no matter what their tastes.

Hard to find ANY suggestions for improvement: maybe come in at 6 am and bake home-made breads?? make the tea and coffee PERFECT?

We love.
12/10/10 @ 16:27
Comment from: Barry
Update. Back for a light lunch this weekend with a different friend.

I had a large fish pie with a dish of vegetables in cheese sauce included on the side: beautiful taste of fish with lovely herb flavours in a good fish sauce, quality ingredients, topped with potato mash lightly grilled; a snip at £6.95. Vegetables good but could improve slightly.

Friend had broccoli & stilton soup, which, though not novel was perfectly executed: about £3.50 with a roll and butter!

Guess what? A new chef is making his own bread: friend had a white roll, I had walnut bread: both perfect.

For coffee, still ONE of the best on the Island; this team can make it THE best.
16/10/10 @ 14:45
Comment from: natalie
Talk about a transformation! The last time we visited the Island
my husband took me to Joe's on Union Street for what was supposed to be a nice dinner.It wasn't!
The place was grubby;the service hard work;the food?at best o.k.

That was 18 months ago.
We decided to give it another go as we were staying in Yelfs Hotel opposite (that's another story!)

The place was clean and bright;the service was brilliant;the food?(bearing in mind we ordered from the specials,the main menu and the fish restaurant menu) was as good as I've eaten.

For a change,someone seems to be doing something right.

We look forward to going back.

26/10/10 @ 19:38
Comment from: MintyMat
Took my wife and 2 kids (4 & 2) here for a birthday meal. Very pleasantly surprised. Attentive staff, goodie bags for children. Extensive, affordable, quality kids' meals. Excellent mains, using IOW produce. I had stuffed peppers with blue cheese, Cindy had the IOW Burger. Both were great.

We'll be back.
06/05/11 @ 23:27
Comment from: sniggup
Ten of us, six adults and four children (2yrs to 10yrs) ate here a few weeks ago just before lunch on a Saturday, as is with Big Families, everybody wanted something a bit different, the excellent waiter and kitchen staff were happy to oblige, most of us ate from the Brunch menu and were impressed with the quality of the meals, the prices and the variety on the menu. Our kids were all well behaved but it was nice to be made welcome nevertheless.Good to see Joes on the Up again!
18/07/11 @ 19:19
Comment from: John
I was very disappointed by a meal we had as part of a party. Firstly they brought some food out cold, (which was returned but later appeared on the bill), they also brought the wrong dish out for someone else, who queried it and was told they would not be charged for it, it again appeared on the bill. Then when the bill came it included drinks on it that people had already paid cash for at the bar!
I also resent having to pay extra for veg to go with my meal as it appears most meat dishes only come with a form of Potato, Who wants breast of duck with only potato. I feel that it is overpriced as veg is extra. I will say there is nothing wrong with the food as long as it is cooked, just there customer service and the price.
I shan't be returning!
09/10/11 @ 20:02
Comment from: Paul
Stopped at Joe's last night for a meal and was so very disappointed , The service was very good which was the only plus point on their side.
The cutlery was dirty which wasn’t a good start, We had the bread and olives to share which one would think you couldn’t get wrong but as it turned out you can if the bread is stale and hard, Then moved on to the main course which was the Fish gratan.Looked good but we couldn’t work out why the waitress bought us a cray fish sauce to go with it until she explained the chef had said it may be too dry .By now the alarm bells were going off and then we tried the food which i have to say was so salty that we both gagged on the first and only mouthfull.We left moments later very and shall not be going back.
29/10/11 @ 10:46
Comment from: T Quinton
On 22nd January 2012 it was my birthay. One of my daughters booked for 6 people for lunch time that day for 1.00pm. When we got there they hadn't reserved a table and the server ended up moving tables together for the six of us. The tables were dirty and sticky and had to ask the server to clean them. The meal was under par. Myself I asked for mixed fish risotto,unfortuanetely the rice was overcooked and the fish (I did not see much) was tough. The burger buns which three diners had were very big and very dry.The Cajun chicken was a hit- 2 people had it! The service was very slow. but we realised that there only two severs on duty and one had to see to the bar as well. The only redeeminging feature was the desserts (usually I dont have a dessert but because I couldnt eat my main meal) I had sticky tofee pudding as well as one of one of my daughters and it was delicious.The brownies which my other daughter had were dry. One had the cheesecake which he felt was too small but the rest enjoyed the ice cream! On the whole we were very disappointed especially as my daughters wanted to give me a birthday lunch!
23/01/12 @ 19:33
Comment from: da yw wyth
Well, I must say I recommend their breakfast - served up until lunchtime. And for that a bit of stickiness/grubbiness does not go amiss anyway! Great sausage, and I do not say that lightly!! Gorgeous coffee, the best I've had so far in Ryde. (Bagel wrap and Chocolate apothecary come close). The only fly in the ointment was the ultra-hard butter served up with the lovely warm toast. Why oh why spoil such a sumptuous galleon of a ship with a meagre ha'pworth of tar?
23/01/12 @ 23:31
Comment from: sarah
Had an awful lunch at joes, considering the food is pretty basic here didn't realise you could make it(reheat it) so badly! Even the suet pudding was stone cold in the middle, the lasagne was the size of a playing card with no flavour at all. I am a chef myself and this wasnt rocket science....really should rethink the kitchen team and to be honest the front of house team aswell, who have no clue how to deal with paying guests.
Will definately not be returning, bring back ian whitehead!!
27/02/12 @ 20:28
Comment from: da yw wyth
Well, thanks to listening guys, and providing butter at just the right consistency!

However, the quality of the rest of the breakfast has plummeted - less on a sumptuous galleon, than a leaky tin bath!

This place must have done a lot of economising on its ingredients, sausage was lower end and not top - eggs barely edible and bacon ghastly.

Coffee still the best in Ryde, however.....
02/06/12 @ 20:16

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