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| - This one is a keeper. Let's start with our server - Linda. She was friendly, helpful, and frankly delightful. She has this lovely London accent, and it was very pleasant chatting with her - at length and on topics ranging far beyond the menu. But she was also serious about wanting us to enjoy every aspect of our meal. This was not the typical waiter mumbling "is everything okay?" as he speeds past your table. Linda was seriously concerned that everything was perfect, and anxious to fix anything that wasn't. She even told us about a shortcut that shaved 15 minutes off of our trek back to the Caesar's Palace parking lot, without having to walk all the way through the Forum Shops. (By the way, we also learned that the better way to come by car is to park with Joe's own valet at the entrance off the Strip.)
As this was our first visit to Joe's, our first impression of the food was going to be the bread basket. Check. A very nice assortment of fresh bread, rolls, and flatbread. I was not prepared to do the laborious claw-cracking that would have come with ordering the house specialty Stone Crabs, but I did want to try the crab so I started with the crab cake appetizer. I don't really expect to find Maryland-quality crab cakes anywhere in Vegas, and I still don't, but this crab cake was quite good. Plump lumps of crab without too much filler. Still focused on the crab, my next course was a small cup of the crab bisque. It was excellent. Just the right amount of crab flavor. (Actually, the small cup was not on the menu, but Linda to the rescue - she arranged for a cup rather than a bowl of the soup, so I could save appetite for the main course.) Which was... Chilean Sea Bass. A very nice piece of fish, perfectly cooked. My only quibble is that the Miso glaze, although flavorful, left the top of the fish tasting a bit over-salty. If I was awarding Michelin stars, this small imperfection might have been an issue. But these are Yelp! stars, and I'm still giving 5 of them.
My wife had the seafood salad. My wife is a bit picky about her ingredients, but there was Linda again - going over each component of the salad, and getting the kitchen to hold all the ingredients that were not to my wife's taste. She loved the salad. We also shared a side of hash brown potatoes, which was plenty big for two people - we couldn't finish it. The hash browns were unusual - a mound of potatoes that was very crispy on top, but light and fluffy inside. My wife and I both enjoyed them very much.
Joe's is very popular, but also very large. Don't be fooled by the small bar area and patio, which is what you see as you walk in. After 5 p.m. the main dining rooms open, with lots of tables. Somehow Joe's does a good job of packing a lot of tables into their space, without making it feel crowded and still keeping down the noise level. I found the decor to be very comfortable, without much decoration. A mural-sized photo of the original Joe's in Miami, and a few photographs on one wall, were the extent of the adornments in our dining room, and that was fine for me.
Finally, price... I thought our meal was a very good value. Even with cocktails and wine, we were out the door for well under $200. That's pretty good for a restaurant that Yelp! rates with three $$$. There are a lot of good values on the menu, and you could easily eat at Joe's on a reasonable budget. Give it a try.
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