Joanna's

Not sure if the person below went to the same place as my wife and I did tonight, but we've just got home from a beautiful meal, perfectly cooked using quality ingredients, in a warm, friendly, stylish restaurant, with nice, caring, attentive staff. Kudos especially goes to our waitress - sorry, didn't get her name - who was able to decipher our fumbling attempts to remember the name of a muscat liqueur we once had in Joannas years ago, and found it behind the bar, despite the fact that it wasn't on the menu any more. We have both worked in the catering industry, so we know our stuff, by the way!
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Ben Spencer
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, May 14, 2012

Boring, overpriced food and a detached attitude from the staff we encountered who didn't care about whether our meal was satisfactory.

This place sets itself up as somewhere 'nice', but really, it has delusions of grandeur. Like other reviewers, we were starving afterwards and won't return.
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Anna
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Went there a couple of nights ago, on spec, our second visit in as many years. A table for two in the window was no problem (though this wasn't because the place was empty, far from it). We cut straight to the chase and ordered mains, a burger for my wife, and the pork belly for me, with sides of fries and mash, from the friendly, smiling waitress. They were all, it has to be said, superb. The burger was made with good quality beef mince, it was cooked perfectly (medium, natch), and the cheese and bacon and lettuce and tomatoes in it were good quality too. My pork belly in apple and ginger gravy was delicious, tasty and unctuous without being icky and fatty, while the mash was absolutely spot on.

But do know what impressed me the most? The ale. Yep, unusually in restaurants, the beer list wasn't confined to three different types of lager (two Italian imports and the other a domestic Heinecken usually). No, they had Timothy Taylor Strong Pale Ale, one of the nicest in the land, and not only that, it wasn't served chilled to within an inch of its life, but, as it should be, at room temperature. I had two, needless to say, while my wife had two generous glasses of delicious house white. An espresso ice to finish, and we were more than satisfied. A tad under £50 in all.

Thing is, I think the apparent simplicity of the menu at Joannas fools people into thinking it's a bog standard eatery doing the same food everywhere else does. It absolutely isn't, their attention to detail and use of very good produce is why the place is so good, and why it's been packed to the rafters day in day out for many years.

We will be back.
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nik devlin
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Just wanna say once again that my dining experience was absolutely fabulous, and my dinner guests were over the moon about the food and service.

An experience we won't soon forget. Thank you guys for making it a very special night for all of us. I'm glad that Joanna's was part of our night.
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Louise
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Slightly surprised with these reviews below. We popped in out of the rain on Sun 2 Jan 2011, when our usual place was shut. After 1 it got busy. At 12.15-12.30 we were seated and served up a good bottle of 2006 red graves, a fine medium rare rib steak of same size as at The Ivy and Daphnes, though not quite as moorish it was a good one, vg side of spinach, limp and dreary chips alas. But the english mustard helped those to reduce in number. Wife had roast beef with vegetables yorkshire pudding and gravy. Service was efficient eastern European lady and attentive not pretentious. There is nice wooden detail to the restaurant and the bar was making cocktails. We have a tradition of going to the nearby Numidie which we love and the A torre Portuguese cafe we love too, so had overlooked Joannas. It is slightly more expensive than thsoe two but served us well and certainly deserves far better write up than what it gets below, based on our £68 experience.
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Bill
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Monday, January 03, 2011

Really pretentious, rude manager. Won't be going back.
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3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Friday, June 18, 2010

We used to eat here regularly but haven't been in for about a year or so -- mainly because we've been saving up for a wedding. So we thought we'd treat ourselves to celebrate our six year anniversary two weeks before our wedding. We were disappointed. Much has changed in the year we have been away.

Starters: Basket of bread with oil and butter -- the breads were lovely as usual. Small point -- the butter had been taken straight from the fridge so was difficult to spread, and the ramekin of butter was also half full of water -- I tipped the water out. I swear small details like this were never overlooked before.

Roast belly pork starter was both dry and fatty -- felt like it had been sitting in a warm oven, so the meat had dried out, but the fat hadn't been rendered down. Not the sublime and unctuous starter we remember eating two years ago.

Chicken Liver Parfait was fine -- wasn't presented particularly nicely, but the actual parfait tasted really good.

Main courses: Rump steak and frites -- steak was cooked well to medium rare and was well seasoned. However, the frites tasted a bit old -- like they had been fried more than once.

Roast belly pork, mash, savoy cabbage and apple sauce -- pork was ok, although I think the sous chef could have made a bit more effort with removing the hairs from the skin. The fat wasn't rendered down enough for my taste, but it was well seasoned. The cabbage was nice -- still green, well seasoned, with a little bit of bite but not too much. The apple sauce was far too sweet. The portion of mash was on the small side, and I felt that it was a bit too heavy with cream and butter -- I've eaten better mash in this restaurant. On this occasion, the mash did really feel like it had been microwaved -- I don't have a problem with restaurants using microwaves when they need to, so long as what ends up on my plate tastes fresh. In this instance, the mash was claggy.

Side dishes: Petit pois a la Francais: We thought the peas in cream were a bit rubbish to be quite honest. Far too sickly with the cream and the onions. And we might sound like we're being idiots, but the petit pois wasn't petit pois, the petit pois were garden peas. I like garden peas, but garden peas are bigger than petit pois. Fact.

Broccoli and baby carrots: The broccoli florets were not cut nicely and the baby carrots hadn't been scraped enough so looked a bit too rustic. They had been steamed, which is fine, but not seasoned or dressed in butter or olive oil. One expects more for £2.95 or so.

Dessert: Apologies for being creatures of habit, but why has the Chocolate Nemesis been replaced with Chocolate Brownies? The Chocolate Nemesis with Clotted Cream Ice-cream was one of the best desserts ever. And now there are brownies, which you can pretty much find on any pub menu. I didn't go to Joanna's for that reason. So we skipped dessert.

So we finished our food because we were hungry, and when the waiter asked how it was, we said it was fine, but were not particularly enthusiastic. And the food was fine, in the sense that it was ok, but it wasn't great. Joanna's really used to be a gem of a local restaurant, and I fear it isn't anymore. Should we have taken the opportunity there and then to go into detail about why we weren't content with our meal? Maybe we are too British. And for a waiter to face a barrage of 'underseasoned/undercooked/overcooked' rubbish isn't really fair. The food was ok, it was edible, it just wasn't lovely. And for Joanna's prices, you sort of expect more.

Of course menus should change, develop, move with the times etc. but the overall quality, and not just quantity, has significantly declined. Whether this has something to do with their staffing problems (i.e. semi-permanent ads for chefs in the window), or the usual credit crunch excuses, who knows?

What we do know is that we left Joanna's sort of full up but very dissatisfied.
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H
6 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Just done the same, came home hungry. Why oh why do they do it? How much does a plate of vegetables cost? Too drunk to write anymore but if you are hungry go to Pizza Hut
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Ripped off Rod
2 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, August 30, 2009

Should have read the reviews. The food was fab but still bought a kebab in Penge on the way home. I think the fact you are served such a small amount is the fact they are trying to make you spend more money on ordering additional veg and pots. Its not right in a credit crunch.
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albert yousuf
3 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Saturday, August 15, 2009

I have to agree with the previous review. I went for a meal there last night and wow has it changed. I first went there when the current owner parents owned and run it. Back then the the food was fab and plenty of it NOT ANYMORE. The skate last night came with one very small potato sliced into three and that was it!!!! When you have been working all day that is not enough. The bill was £65 for a starter main course and a glass of wine for two not good value. They even charge you for a basket of bread!!! I left there feeling ungry which is never a god sign. The staff were very friendly but only visit here if you are on a diet.
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3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, July 29, 2009