Joe's Kitchen & Coffee House- Restaurant Review

My sister and I went to the opening of Joe's Kitchen today at the Intu centre in Derby, it's the first one in the Midlands to open. I had been so excited to visit for months. This review breaks it down into four areas: interior, service and the drinks and food.

So first the interior
Joe's Kitchen has a lovely rustic and casual feel, I love the funny quotes on each table which is accompanied by a black board (on the opposite side) which guests can doodle/write on, the fresh flowers are really pretty and the interior is very different to anything I've seen in Derby.  It looks very upmarket and the music that's played is very chilled out.

Second the service:
We arrived at the restaurant around midday. The gentleman was very friendly and did inform of of the 30 minute wait for food as it was their open day, but we were informed we could be seated for drinks. We were shown to our table and provided with the menu.

Our waitress was Grace, she is such a lovely girl who was very attentive and it was really nice that she made conversation with us by asking how our day was. She had impressed me on the knowledge of the dishes and was very good at tempting us to try dishes (such as the Eton Mess). The wait for the food didn't take long and Grace would keep us in the loop of how long it was going to be. Based on this I rate Grace's service a 10/10.

Now for the drinks

I like how there is a really big selection of drinks, from soft drinks to freshly made juices, cocktails, wines and much more. 

 

My sister and I ordered the homemade lemonade & the Watermelon Smash (above), both were very refreshing but my favourite was the lemonade, it really quenched our thirst. I rate the lemonade 10/10 and the Watermelon Smash 7/10.

Finally the food:

As you can see Joe's Kitchen has a good selection: from all day breakfasts to pancakes and burgers. To start we ordered the Vegetable Patches (Houmous with raw vegetables):

 

It was accompanied by warm flat bread pieces. I'm not usually a big fan of hummus but this was such a fresh starter, the vegetables included carrots, beetroot slices, celery, kale and spring onion. The only limitation to the dish was that it was difficult to cut the spring onions and I think there should be more bread as there is more houmous to bread ratio. Therefore I rate the starter 8/10.

Main Meal
Next was the main meal, I picked the Fish Fillet Sandwich & Alysha picked the Club Sandwich. 

The portions were big, we waited less than 15 minutes for our mains and they arrived piping hot. Alysha rated the Club a 9/10.

I wasn't too happy when I received my sandwich, to me a fish fillet is a big chunk and to my surprise I was served fish fingers! I was quite upset that it hadn't been stated it clearly on the menu, I feel the name needs to be changed from Fish Fillet to Fish Fingers so people know what to expect and aren't dissapointed. Based on this and it having too much tartar sauce, I rate it 6/10.

Dessert
Grace presented us with the dessert menu which included a selection of brownies, apple crumble, fruit salad and more. Grace stated that her favourite dessert from Joe's Kitchen was the Eton Mess, so we ordered one to share.

It was very fresh and delicious, I liked that they swirled in fresh berries and cream. There was a good ratio to meringue too. I was happy that I ordered this as it ended the day on a high. I rate the dessert 9/10

I really think there is so much more to Joe's Kitchen. Although my main was dissappointing, I would rate it 8/10 as a whole. I am very keen to try their other dishes and I will keep you guys informed!

Lot of Love,

 Kimren xo