Papa Joe’s

The server Cindy or the boss as she called herself was rude and condescending. The food was average at best. Pasta plate for $ 15. I’d rather go down the road couple miles to Bellas in Boone where I can get great quality Italian food and excellent service rather than put up with this again.

Our waitress wasn’t friendly, everything was dirty, there was nobody there, and yet we still hung around for our meals, which were obviously frozen. In a party of five, all of us looked up at each other with the expression: Are we really going to eat this? After eating one bite each, we determined it would be wise to leave. We couldn’t leave fast enough. This is possibly the worst restaurant I have ever eaten at. Top three easy.

I don’t like to leave poor reviews but the food is really not that good. Tastes kind of frozen like
Staff was pretty nice, it was clean but just not good food. Lots of places to choose from, wish we would have chosen differently.

My friends and I came from a wonderful 4 day weekend up the mountain. On our way home we stopped here (@ PJ). Our selection of restaurants had such a wait that was expected to be over an hour long, «we settled.» We sat right down!!! Not a huge crowd! The ambiance was not as welcoming but thats ok (some of the best food comes from places that are not modern or up-​to-​date). We had a party of twelve. They sat us four to a table. No problem; we were ready to eat and go on our merry way! «My table,“sat for 30 minutes before she took our drink order! During the 30 min. wait there were two couples that sat down (about 15 mins a part). 45 min rolls around and one couple got their food. I was worried/​uncomfortable but again no big deal. Now, the 2^nd couple got their food and the waitress came over to my table to top us off. I asked her how much longer. She said, «I’m not gonna lie. They have not started on your food. It’s gonna be 15 min. before they start.» Wait. What? Why? My other party that was wondering the same thing was getting a little uneasy but did not display this. An hour later one of the members in my party went and spoke to the manager (who was also a waitress). The manager/​waitress was so unprofessional, so aggressive, etc that our best decision was to leave and pay for our coffee. There was another table beside us and one of the members in their party were bothered! He stated that it was not right. And to not pay for our coffee. We could not figure out why we were being unfavored or treated like we were not paying customers! We were yelled @, told that we needed to go to dining school (is there such a thing?), and ignored. We were racial profiled and treated as trash! My group of friends are well educated, friendly, and tip well! This was a mom and pop resturant. There was not a shade of color until we got there. I wish I could give a negative zero but there is no such thing. Please do not solicit this establishment. If you want great food and friendly people go a block up the road and stop by Foggie Rock. We explain to them what happen and this place went over and beyond. I appreciate the professionalism. The manager @ FR said she was not surprised. She even describe the manager to the T. She told us that Papa Joes’ was the worst place in town to dine. I hope the owner reads this. This is the 21^st century and it baffles that people are being treated as such! If we did look ungroomed (but we did not) we should have been treated just like a person with a million bucks.

If I could give less than one star, I would. This was quite possibly the worst food experience my family has ever had. To call what we ate «food», does a disservice to the real restaurants in the are. Out of the 9 of us that ordered, 1 person was passingly satisfied with their meal, one person flat out refused to eat their dish, and the rest of us choked down the slop that we were told was what we ordered.
— The pizza was worse than any frozen pizza you could go pick up at the food lion down the road. The crust was basically paper, the cheese was hardly melted, and the sauce was just tomato paste.
— The baked ziti was wretched. Literally. It was spat back into the take out container.
— The «Hot» wings, were anything but.
— The chicken in my chicken Alfredo was burnt to hell, and otherwise entirely flavorless. It’s as if the chef has NEVER heard of salt before.
— My dad said the Lasagna was easily the worst he’s ever had.
— Even the broccoli in my mothers dish was disgusting.
Another reviewer said it best. We don’t know how this place is still open. If the food we had tonight was any indication of this place normally is, I’m surprised the health department hasn’t shut them down on principle
Wait. I take that back. There was one redeeming quality about the meal. It united our family in the hatred of this «restaurant».

I live in this area and hated to see the negative reviews. My wife and I eat there regularly and honestly have always been met with welcoming courtesy no matter the wait staff. Generally we order the salad and a pizza and both are exceptional. I especially enjoy the home made Italian dressing. We will continue to frequent Papa Joe’s and hope others will do the same.

This was a great mom and pop type of place. I went in with three other people and we all shared a large pizza. I met papa Joe and he was a very nice guy! He made sure we loved our pizza, which we did. It was made to perfection! Our waitress was also very helpful. We aren’t from this area and she gave us directions to a few places with great views along with great service. The bathrooms weren’t the greatest but they were clean! It’s an older building so I expected such. Great dining experience overall!

I’m not usually hard on restaurants, but this was the worst dining experience I’ve ever had.
We walked in and were greeted with a grunt by the burned out old waitress, who was wearing a hoodie. She took us to an empty room and sat us at our lonely table in the center — there were three flies buzzing around, no customers.
The first and biggest problem happened before we ordered, when a member of our party found what she thought was a fly in her tea. We were unhappy, obviously, and politely asked for another glass. Two others in our party were drinking tea and asked to switch to coke. The waitress offered NO APOLOGY for the apparent bug, and instead explained, «oh, that’s just from the guys we have working on the air conditioner, and I promise, your tea wasn’t from the same urn. I’ll get you another.» We were floored. The lack of an apology was ridiculous enough, but now we’ve learned that it wasn’t even a bug, it was a black ball of crud from a decades-​old air conditioning system. When she returned with more tea, we politely asked for coke instead — her response was to mutter an «okay,» turn around, sigh and huff off. When she brought back the sodas, she brought diet instead of the regular we’d ordered. The one member of our party who elected to keep his tea had it taken and replaced with diet coke.
That treatment alone was grounds to leave immediately, but we decided to ride it out — we were pretty incredulous and were looking at Papa Joe’s as a joke by this point. We wanted to see how the rest of the meal would play out.
We ordered calamari as an appetizer, it was predictably terrible. Chewy, obviously from the freezer, fast food quality. Our entrees included: spinach ravioli, which was agressively flavorless, topped with watered-​down ragu and served with bread that might as well have been a chunk of rock salt; baked ziti, which consisted entirely of boiled noodles and the ragu; a school cafeteria-​grade chicken sandwich. These dishes were all insultingly priced: $ 10 sandwiches, $ 15 pasta plates, $ 20 meat entrees (we didn’t try any of these, thankfully).
There was a slimy bottle of Italian dressing in the middle of the table — it stank. The bathrooms felt like a gas station’s. The radio was playing Katy Perry and other weirdly inappropriate music for a restaurant that claims to have ambitions of providing a fine dining experience.
The worst part of all of this is that we’d chosen to visit Papa Joe’s for a birthday dinner. We’d visited before, years ago, and it was excellent — we didn’t think to check reviews first since we’d liked it so much before. I’m not sure what happened to the place in the interim, but it’s laughably terrible now. They offered nothing but a mumbled «happy birthday,» spoken in passing when we mentioned the occasion. They didn’t even give us a desert menu.
I have to agree with the other reviewers in that I have no idea how this restaurant is still in business. Only go if you’re in it for a laugh.

Like the other reviews, this restaurant also needed major improvements in my opinion. My salad was drenched in dressing and a few leafs of iceberg lettuce poked out. The ravioli was tasteless and the spaghetti sauce was very bland. The prices were not cheap but we paid and then went to subway to eat something quickly before all stores closed.

We decided to have our wedding rehearsal dinner at Joe’s for about 30 people. They made the evening so wonderful and stress-​free! Everything was set up when we arrived, the waitstaff was very helpful and friendly, and the food plentiful and delicious (we had pizza, salad, and lasagna). I have eaten dinner several times at this restaurant and enjoyed it each time I visited!

Like many places in the area, Papa Joe’s seems stuck in a time warp: both the menu and the décor scream early 1980s. Given that everything seemed unchanged since its 1982 establishment, it became rather obvious that the owner (s) of Papa Joe’s is simply coasting along until retirement.
The menu consists of typical Italian-​American fare: spaghetti, lasagna, chicken parm, veal parm, chicken carbonara, chicken puttanesca, etc. The prices are moderate for a «tourist» town; entrees average about $ 15. A soup or salad is included with most entrees.
The salad was a nice mix of lettuce but not much else; «Papa Joe’s Homemade House Italian» dressing should have been labelled «Good Seasons,» as it was obviously made from that brand of mix (with maybe a little sugar added). At least the salad was fresh and cold.
Each person in my group had a different dish, and we were all underwhelmed. My lasagna was a nice portion size, but it lacked any discernible flavor; in fact, every component of the dish, from the meat and sauce to the layers of cheese, was very bland. (In truth, I actually poured some of the Italian dressing over the lasagna to make it taste like something… that helped!)
The service was decent and rather quick, though the waitress mentioned over-​and-​over she was tired and her «brain wasn’t working.»
All-​in all, I can’t recommend Papa Joe’s, even as a «retro» adventure.

Wow, not a good experience. We had a nice young waitress but apparently too young to serve wine, so we ended up with the «old, mean waitress» as well. The food was bland, servings were tiny. Especially considering the prices (for a run of the mill Italian joint). My kids said their dish seemed like Lean Cuisine.

I have never written a bad review for a restuarant so please keep that in mind.
This was the worst experience my husband and I have EVER had at a restaurant. It started with us getting the «older mean waitress» I have now read about in other reviews. She stood at our table for a good two minutes writing something down in her book before even acknowledging us. Finally, my husband asked how she was doing and she replied that she was tired. Honestly, I don’t care much if the wait staff is not stellar, I just want good hot food.
We ordered mozzarella sticks as a starter and a glass of wine for my husband. The sticks came out and you could immediately tell they were from a frozen bag. I have had better at a fast food joint. I had to ask 15 minutes later (when she finally checked on us) for my husbands wine again as it never came. We ordered a mushroom ravioli and a fettucini alfredo for entrees. The salads came out ~ greens with two tiny grape tomatoes on the side of the plate. Ok, Im nervous now, especially since this place is not cheep. Looking around I notice that no one looks happy, and the majority of customers are exhausted parents and groups of children. The customers to our left are complaining about their waitress as well…
When the food finally came, it was just terrible. My husbands food was stone cold. The ravioli, (most definitely from another frozen bag) were not drained properly so he had a half inch of red water in the bottom of the plate. I figured we could send it back, something I have never done, and get him something else. But then I tried mine and it was just as bad. Cold, and the alfredo sauce was already separating as you can see in the photo. The pasta was over cooked and falling apart like egg noodles. There was no «Papa Joe» walking around asking how everyone was as one of the other reviews said. We were so upset that we just wanted to pay and leave. Actually, I did not want to pay as we did not eat anything but I am not the kind that causes a scene. When the waitress came back and asked if everything was ok we said no. She just blinked at us and so I asked for the check.
Overall~ Cold Sloppy Tasteless Food, NOT HOME MADE, dirty floors and silverware and a rude waitress.