WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA – Some restaurants inspire so much excitement that it can be hard to believe the food and atmosphere could really live up to the hype.
On the excitement side, I’ve never seen anything quite like the community’s feelings about the launch of Original Joe’s in Walnut Creek.
As soon as the nearly century-old, family-owned Italian restaurant group announced that a new location would come to the former Stanford’s near Broadway Plaza, the local community followed every update, passionately waiting for the day that Original Joe’s would finally open.
I covered Original Joe’s extensively in the lead-up to the opening. Now, I finally got a chance to stop by and have a meal there.
So, does the food and atmosphere live up to the incredible hype? Read on to find out!
The Road to Joe’s
It was not an easy road to get to where Original Joe’s Walnut Creek is today. Before the restaurant opened, the family behind Original Joe’s completely gutted and remodeled the former Stanford’s spot.
For months, construction fences surrounded the future Original Joe’s, and construction workers constantly flowed in and out as they totally rebuilt an outdoor patio and appeared to create a new interior from the studs up. The work stretched well beyond the initial timeline.
Excitement peaked when we caught a glimpse of the Original Joe’s sign going up.
When the restaurant finally opened last year, the mayor had a ribbon cutting, hundreds of people came out, and Walnut Creek declared the opening day “Original Joe’s Day.”
All seemed good for a few days. But within the first week of opening, a devastating kitchen fire shut the restaurant down again.
Initially, locals hoped this would be a short closure. When it dragged on, people started to worry.
Finally, locals glimpsed chefs practicing inside Original Joe’s and servers getting to know the menu again.
To much joy, Original Joe’s reopened late last year. I stopped by with my wife in January so we could try it out.
The Atmosphere
I can tell you right off the bat that the community excitement about Original Joe’s has not faded at all. When we arrived at the restaurant on a Saturday night, the drop-in wait time was three hours.
Luckily, we had a reservation—but those can be incredibly hard to get.
Saying that there were strong vibes of excitement surrounding the restaurant would be an understatement.
Nicely dressed people spilled out onto the street around it, and stepping in the front door, the restaurant was filled with people talking, having drinks, and laughing together—and that was before they even got to their tables.
The new space at Original Joe’s is beautiful. It looks completely different from anything else in the spot before, and the extreme lengths that Original Joe’s went to to build this restaurant are obvious.
It has strong art deco influences, capturing the feel and excitement of the Roaring ’20s.
There’s a subtle green-and-gold theme to the interior, with a giant demonstration kitchen filling one side of the restaurant and massive gold chandeliers overhead.
Photography on the walls shows people in the ’50s and ’60s out to dinner and having a great time. That’s mirrored by the actual people filling every table in the dining room.
Original Joe’s has larger tables around the outside for big groups, and smaller tables toward the middle.
There’s even a very cool-looking section of two-person tables right by the kitchen, where you can sit on a date night and watch servers running back and forth, chefs conjuring big balls of fire, and meticulously placing items on pristine white plates to prepare your dinner.
The atmosphere here makes a huge difference. The second you step inside Original Joe’s, you feel like you’re part of a giant, community-wide celebration. It would be hard to come here and not feel some amount of joy and excitement.
Even the servers and chefs seem genuinely excited to be working here. One server told us that he had worked at many other fancy restaurants in the 925, and there was absolutely nothing like the experience of working at Original Joe’s.
Despite the bustle of the dining room, each table feels fairly secluded. It’s loud, but not so loud that you can’t carry on a conversation. Many of the tables are separated by giant glass walls filled with glowing bottles of spirits used for the bar on the other side of the restaurant.
Of course, atmosphere and vibes aren’t everything. Coming to a restaurant like Original Joe’s, you’re there for the food.
The Food
Original Joe’s menu focuses on giant portions that can easily be eaten family-style. They have classic Italian dishes, as well as several of their own innovations.
We started our meal with a massive, flowering bouquet of zucchini fries. These are an Original Joe’s signature, and it felt like every table in the restaurant had one of these dramatic starters.
The fries were delicious—hot and crispy on the outside and meltingly tender inside. They even felt a bit healthier than with the potato-based alternative!
Our server told us that a single order of zucchini fries can serve up to six people. We had a lot to take home.
We also tried a Dungeness crab cake. It was served with a cream sauce and was an ample portion—another delicious way to start the meal. (Original Joe’s hosted us so we could try the restaurant out–thanks!)
Original Joe’s brings out big containers of bread to get you started as well. There was sourdough, focaccia, and a cracker bread served with fresh butter.
With so many places now charging for bread service or eliminating it altogether, it’s nice to see this old-school touch is still alive.
Original Joe’s has an extensive wine and cocktail list, too. I tried a coconut margarita, which was outstanding.
My wife had a pomegranate martini, which was also excellent and a perfect complement for the appetizers. A glass of sauvignon blanc chosen by our server was terrific, too.
For our entrées, we tried the veal piccata, another Original Joe’s signature dish. Thin slices of veal were breaded and cooked in a delicious butter and lemon sauce with just the right amount of capers.
This was a perfect portion if you want some meat without feeling overwhelmed.
We also tried the lamb chops. This was a massive dish, with each chop encompassing two lamb ribs.
Pulling them apart, I found extremely high-quality meat—beautifully marbled, surrounded by delicious fat, and easy to munch on like an amazing lamb lollipop.
Again, the portions here are huge. We had plenty of lamb left to take home.
And each entrée doesn’t come alone—it also includes a side of pasta that would be big enough to serve as a full entrée at many other restaurants.
The meat dishes were excellent, but the pasta truly stood out. A simple spaghetti with meat sauce was outstanding, with incredible care clearly put into both the pasta and the sauce.
Ravioli served with one of the entrées was also excellent.
Original Joe’s is clearly a place people go to celebrate. I would say about half the tables in the restaurant were celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or other momentous event.
Here at the Bay Area Telegraph, we were simply celebrating life! So when the server brought out our desserts, they included giant sparklers—a cool touch we saw at least ten other tables throughout the two-hour meal.
The butter cake dessert was excellent—crumbly, not excessively sweet, and served with vanilla ice cream.
We also tried what were essentially mini donuts, fried fresh and served with a strawberry dipping sauce.
The glowing, crackling sparklers—again, massive and much larger than the typical dinky ones you see at restaurants—really completed the celebratory feel.
The Verdict
So, does the new Original Joe’s live up to the hype?
Absolutely.
It’s hard to set such high expectations and actually meet them, but if anything, I found that Original Joe’s exceeded our expectations.
Mark my words: this is one of the best new restaurants in Walnut Creek in a generation.
Everything about the experience was beautifully executed. The renovated interior feels like it transports you not only to a different place, but a different time—with sweeping gold accents and dramatic chandeliers, and lots of beautiful photos connecting the restaurant to its downtown legacy.
The celebratory vibe starts with the other diners and extends through the waitstaff and even the chefs.
When I went to photograph the kitchen, one of the chefs even stopped to compliment me on the angle I’d chosen. Everyone here seems incredibly happy to be involved, and everything about Original Joe’s feels well thought out and expertly managed.
With so many people dining, a restaurant like Original Joe’s could easily slow down and feel unpaced and overcrowded.
It didn’t at all. All of our dishes came out promptly, and the restaurant made zero mistakes. Given the popularity of Original Joe’s, that speaks volumes about how well it’s run.
The food was excellent as well. Old-school Italian classics combined with a California touch made for a meal that felt both timeless and local.
Dramatic dishes like lamb chops are almost always good, but Original Joe’s true artistry comes through in the dead-simple dishes like pasta.
To make spaghetti and meatballs truly shine takes a lot of work—and Original Joe’s manages it.
A restaurant with this level of popularity could easily lean into overly fancy food and excessive prices, but the menu felt comparably priced to other Italian restaurants in the area. And again, the portions are absolutely massive—you can enjoy a meal with your family and still take leftovers home.
With all the challenges in getting started, I was afraid the true Original Joe’s experience might never arrive in Walnut Creek.
It’s here.
If you can possibly get into this spot for a meal—either by staying up late to snag a reservation as soon as they open, or by braving the extremely long drop-in line—you should go.
Original Joe’s set itself up for an incredible level of excitement and expectation, and it has met—and ultimately exceeded—that bar.
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