Big Joe’s Pasta House, Palm Harbor, FL
Review of Big Joe’s Pasta House
Palm Harbor, FL
We first noticed Big Joe’s while shopping at Steve’s Produce next door, Steve’s is, hands-down, the best place in the area to buy all your fresh fruits and vegetables, plus they have very nice Greek specialty food items and a butcher counter with lots of meats to choose from. Big Joe’s is next door in a small strip mall shared with a liquor store, Ozona Fine Wine and Liquors, with a very friendly owner.
The sign outside Steve’s is a bit loud, not in keeping with what you might expect from a fine dining establishment. We decided to give Joe’s a try after a number of friends highly recommended it to us. The overall ambiance of Big Joe’s pasta house was like a New York Italian Restaurant. The music, overall décor, the picture of Frank Sinatra on the wall, the waitresses with their New York accents, all made me feel like we had been transported up North.
Upon arrival we were warmly greeted by a server and shown to a table in the non-bar side of the restaurant. This section has tables and chairs while the other side of the restaurant had booths. Our server asked for our drink-order and I was disappointed to hear that they didn’t have any beers on tap at the current time. The beer choices were of the domestic variety, I ordered a bottle of Yuengling. After our drinks were delivered our server asked if we wanted to order an appetizer, mentioningthat they had French Onion soup as a special. We each ordered the soup and enjoyed it very much.
When the soup was delivered we ordered our entrees. I ordered the eggplant parmesan with angel hair pasta and my wife ordered the Carbonara-Alfredo-Pancetta-Pea-Mushrooms. She asked if they could serve her meal made without the peas and they were happy to accommodate her special request. Tossed salads came with our meal with a choice of dressing.
The entrée portions were very large and the food was good. The tomato sauce had a very distinct flavor that I couldn’t identify, perhaps a special spice. I enjoyed the flavor of the sauce and the eggplant parmesan was very cheesy and delicious. My wife’s dish was very rich and creamy. After the soup and the salad we didn’t make much of a dent in our entrees but we each took home a box for another day.
Overall, I would say that the experience at Big Joe’s Pasta House was good. The food was tasty, the prices reasonable and the service was excellent. This is not what I would call a top-tier Italian restaurant, But, they surpassed my expectations, based on my first impressions, and we’ll be back!
