A Not Your Average Joe’s opened up in the past several months in (North) Bethesda.  I have checked it out a couple times for happy hour (which has some decent specials) but haven’t ever eaten there.  I am on their mailing list and got a birthday email worth $15 towards my next visit to the restaurant.  Great.  Maybe I’ll go and actually try their food.

Decided to go last Friday.  It was very busy but was able to grab a spot at the bar.  Let the bartender know I had a $15 b-day email I was going to use, he was cool with that.  Made it towards the end of happy hour and snagged a margarita for a good price.  Sipped that for a bit while I enjoyed their amazing warm bread that they serve with olive oil, garlic (and normally cheese, but I get it without).  So addictive!   There were some decent menu items to pick from, some a bit restrictive for lactards.  I finally saw a seasonal item that the bartenders recommended — Cider Glazed Chicken Kabobs, which were grilled and glazed with zeigler’s apple cider, served over a warm farro golden raisin salad, roasted spaghetti squash and toasted pumpkin seeds.  Put an order in for that and shouted for a glass of red right before HH was over to have ready for when the food came out.

Eventually (maybe 30 minutes later) my food arrived.

The chicken was warm and the squash was cold, not even room temp.  I mentioned this to the bartender, he was very apologetic and the manager came and told me they would get me a new dish.  About 15 minutes later a new plate came out with half the chicken and still at lukewarm temps.  I picked at it a bit but was not really hungry.  The manager came to apologize and was kind enough to take it off my bill.

I still had the margarita and wine on my bill.  I presented them with the coupon I had from the email, which I had read VERY carefully prior to going to dinner about what it might or might not cover (aka alcohol).  No where did it say anything.  The ‘fine print’ read “P.S. As much as Joe loves birthdays, we’re obliged to include the usual disclaimers: This offer is nontransferable, not valid with other offers, only one per person and doesn’t apply to take-out.”

The bartender came back to me and told me that even though my coupon was for $15, I would have to pay for my $10 worth of drinks.  The manager made him do that, couldn’t do it himself.  Long story short, it was not pleasant, they eventually let me leave without paying, so I could fortunately leave the bartender a nice tip.  Overall not pleased with the restaurant, except for their great bread.