Joey's Bar and Grill
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 8:00AM 
Deerfield Plaza
344 Chandler Street
Worcester, MA 01602
(508) 797-3800
I’m often asked how I find new restaurants. In and around Westborough it seems you don’t need to look too far and you’ll bump into something. When thinking outside Westborough, the clear winner for recommendations is Jessica Fidrych, the high energy owner of Chet’s Diner in Northborough. It seems every visit to Chet’s we discuss my latest review (“You’re right, El Basha - Westborough is a miss…you need to go to Worcester”), a suggestion is made for a new place (Tacos Acapulco), or sometimes there is even a contest.
On a recent visit, new mom Jessica asked, “Have you ever been to Joey’s in Worcester? It’s great. We should go. What are you doing tonight?”
With that I was off to a new restaurant!
This is one of those places I really like. Small, locally owned and run….the kind of place you’d miss if you didn’t know it was there. This is a new location for Joey’s after spending five years on Coes Pond. The menu is an eclectic mix of steak, seafood, pasta, barbecue, ribs.
Arriving at 5:00PM, the place was already filling up. We sat by the door with the newborn, as there was some extra space for the highchair.
After a nice bread and garlic/olive oil dipping, we started with the meal with appetizers of pan fried mushrooms and lobster rangoons.
The mushrooms were served with a prosciutto gorgonzola cream with crostini. If you say to someone, hey, I had some mushrooms….it really wouldn’t do justice to the delightful cream sauce.
The rangoons were about what you would expect, and also with a great dipping sauce.
Just as dinner was getting underway, Fred and Elena Economou (from the Westborough House of Pizza) stopped by. What are the chances two restaurant owning families would be in the same place on a Saturday night? Joey’s must be doing something right.
Dinner included:
- Special 16 oz Prime Rib. Sometimes prime rib is just ….dull. This was flavorful and tasty
- Seafood pesto with homemade linguine, haddock, scallops and shrimp
- Mixed greens salad with three jumbo shrimp
Dinner was really quite fabulous. The staff kept coming over to the table to check on us….or were they really coming by to say hi to the little one? No matter, the staff 
was pleasant and attentive….without being annoying.
It turns out Jessica has a bit of a sweet tooth (who knew?) and so dessert was a must. I’m not normally a fan of dessert trays, and the one at Joey’s was different. Every item appeared fresh and delightful…not like something left over from last night. Crème Brulee and a Chocolate Tuxedo cake were the hits of the dessert course.
Overall….a great time and a great meal proving again how Worcester has some really special restaurants….and not all on Shrewsbury Street.
Hours
Lunch Monday-Friday 11:00AM – 4:30PM
Dinner
Monday – Thursday 4:30PM - 9:30PM
Friday & Saturday 4:30PM – 10:30PM
Bar remains open after kitchen closes each night
Joey’s Bar and Grill gets a GREEN LIGHT…go and enjoy.
About the RAG scale:
Green Light – Go and enjoy
Amber Light – Use caution
Red Light – Save your time and money