Nick McLay

Review of Joseph Decuis

I had heard tales far and wide of how great Joseph...

I had heard tales far and wide of how great Joseph Decuis is but had never ventured to go see. Last weekend was my wife's birthday and she wanted to try Decuis' Burgers and Blue Jeans. This is a Friday night thing in the courtyard where they cook "gourmet burgers" for a fraction of the typical meal at Decuis. It totals around $11 for a burger, $4 for a basket of fries, etc.

First time we went, on my wife's birthday, we all had burgers and a basket of fries and my wife and one of my sons had the soup too. The fries were generic, frozen fries you can get anywhere. I was shocked they were not fresh cut. Moving on, the burgers were juicy; so juicy that we noticed they were pretty well under cooked. Not pink but bordering on red. The taste was amazing but I was disconcerted by the redness. The soup was not hot; at all. The salads with the burgers were very small but were amazing tasting. Fresh ingredients but again very little of it. They close the meal by giving cookies that are very good in and of themselves. This is a nice touch.

Due to their reputation I figured this experience was an aberration so we attended again the next Friday, on 5-15-15. My wife and kids again ordered the fries while joking that they are not fresh. We also ordered burgers and I ordered the 1/4 chicken. The fries never did show up. When I asked the waitress to check on tehm she said, "they should be out soon because they are cooked separately over there......" whatever that means. Our meals arrived. The burgers were all now overcooked, pretty dramatically. Dry and tasteless. The vegetable medley with them was very good but small. I ordered the chicken. It was VERY dry and thoroughly uninspired bordering on inedible. We did not complain about any of it but the waitress upon approaching our table and seeing all our food was consumed said, "I'll go see where your fries are". I told her not to waste her time now as we were all done with the whole meal, obviously. No apologies here at all.

She then returned with the bill and said "Thanks" and walked away. My sons started laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. We had such high hopes but now my sons said they want to go somewhere else for graduation dinner. I'm all for that. Two meals in a row kind of shows you what you can expect.