Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab: True to Its Roots (Chicago-Area Restsaurant Review 17)

Joe's Seafood in Chicago is an offshoot of the original Joe's Stone Crab in Miami, and it shows. Lisa felt the stone crab portion of our appetizer was the by far the best part of the meal. Joe's Seafood is a very popular restaurant in the near-downtown Chicago area, so reservations are required, even for dining at 4:30 on a Sunday, which we did. But we feel the place is a bit overrated.

We started with a shellfish appetizer called the Second Mortgage. It included the stone crab, shrimp, lobster, and ceviche (which neither of us ate). Steve did not try the stone crab, but liked the shrimp and lobster. Though she loved the stone crab, Lisa thought the shrimp at Joe's not quite as good as Shaw's in Chicago, as it tasted a bit fishy, and the sauce was a little too tangy for her. She also did not care for the lobster. However, she's only liked lobster at two places -- one in Florida and one in Indiana.

At first, Lisa and Steve both planned to order the tomato, onion and blue cheese salad, because they like it so much at Wildfire, but the waiter recommended a similar salad with bacon, that he said tasted like a bacon, lettuce and tomato, so Steve ordered that. He wished he hadn't. The bacon was not crispy, and the blue cheese was not among the best he's tasted. Lisa thought he didn't miss too much, because the tomato, onion and blue cheese was a bit too oniony and sweet.

For main courses, we both had the bone-in fillet, medium rare. Steve loved it because it was deeply charcoaled, the way he likes, and perfectly medium rare. Lisa doesn't like charcoal flavor on steaks that much, but she thought the meat itself very good.

Steve had a banana cream pie slice for dessert and Lisa ordered chocolate cream pie (of course). The chocolate was so-so. Steve thought the banana cream at Joe's was slightly better than average.

It was hot outside, we broke from our tradition and ordered white wine. We each had a glass of Gewürztraminer, which was slightly sweet and very cool and good.

The bathrooms at Joe's Seafood were very nice. Lisa liked the Women's bathroom better than Steve liked the Men's because there were no towels in the Men's Room or else Steve couldn't figure out how to use the automatic towel dispenser. It took Lisa a few minutes to figure out how to use the one in the Women's Room, but it was very nice to have a hands-free dispenser. Also, the stalls were like small separate rooms, and both bathrooms were very clean.

Our total bill at Joe's Seafood was about $200 with wine by the glass.

Our rating for Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab, 60 E Grand Ave., Chicago, IL:

7.5 of 10 Steak Knives (or Fish Hooks, if you prefer seafood) and 2.5 of 3 Bathroom Brushes