Joe’s Chili Bowl at the Terrace View

Such a disappointment, I had high hopes for Joe’s Chili Bowl located atop of Citygarden however I was let down. I decided to give Joe’s Chili Bowl a try because of a buy one entrée get one free coupon in the St. Louis Own Value Book. When I arrived I have to admit that the inside is pretty nice, but still a little small however the views of downtown and Citygarden are amazing. One thing I did find odd, was that the large door was open on a 95 degree day which made the inside a little uncomfortable.
Once seated I decided that Chili wasn’t for me today, so I decided on a burger however the waitress suggested the Joe’s Burger Dog, which is essentially a burger with a hot dog. Needless to say I was not impressed with this, I should have avoided the suggestion and stuck with a plan burger. A friend of mine ordered the Bacon Wrapped Cheddar Dog topped with onions, which appeared to be good however neither of us noticed any bacon on the hot dog it was pretty much covered in cheese and onions so if there was any bacon it was hidden well. The fries were average probably frozen, so keep that in mind. I have a feeling that the focus here is the chili so I think if I return I will be giving it a try.
I really think that a burger join would be great in this location, something along the lines of ShakeShack in New York would be amazing however with Bailey’s Range right down the street there are better options for burgers downtown.

I wish I could give this place zero stars. I ate there with my family last week after a lovely morning in City Garden and waited 45 minutes for food! Adding insult to injury — waited an additional 15 for the check to arrive after requesting it. To anyone even thinking about eating here — unless you’re really into waiting around for barely decent food — avoid at all costs!!!

While on a lunch break with some co-​workers, we were wandering around for a place to eat. 6 North was closed and we weren’t feeling the food trucks available. This place looked cute and inviting. It’s an all glass box tucked away nicely inside City Garden. Unfortunately its location and appearance are the best part of the experience.
I ordered the salmon burger, one friend ordered the hot dog, and another ordered a chili-​burger-​fry concoction. My salmon burger was okay, nothing special about it. The fries were good, because they were comparable to McDonald’s fries… My coworkers had a similar experience with their food.
The real kicker about Joe’s Chili Bowl is the service. If they could up their service this place would easily get another star. Both the food and drink took a long time to come out. After we were served, the waitress never came by to deliver the check. We had to get her and ask for it. We went to the counter to pay, I asked to split the check, and he split it into 2… not 3. I guess there could have been some confusion, but it didn’t seem too complicated. It was taking too long to fix the bill, so I ended up paying for it all and getting paid back later. I’m leaving out a lot of detail regarding the downtime it took for them to break up the check too.
Overall I had a «meh» experience – I wasn’t scarred or anything. If they could really upgrade the service I think more people would add a star.

I went here for lunch one afternoon in July.
I enjoyed the space-​it was very open and you could see the surrounding downtown businesses and City Garden, which was very nice. It was pretty hot in there, though, even though they probably had the AC turned on. If it weren’t for the cold chairs, we might as well have sat outside-​at least the air wasn’t so stagnant out there.
I had the bacon wrapped cheddar dog which was phenomenal. The french fries were delicious too-​they tasted just like McDonald’s. The food was pretty good diner food, but I’ve definitely had better service.
First of all, there weren’t even that many people dining in there and it took our waitress around 10 minutes to get us our drinks. When she finally got us our drinks, she proceeded to complain about her day and appeared to be very overwhelmed with her job. The wait time to place our food orders was about another ten minutes. When we got our check, we asked if it could be split. We didn’t specify among three people, but it came back split into two checks but not according to seat. They literally just split it in half. That was annoying. Then they disappeared with my friend’s credit card and came back ten minutes later after finally running the card. Overall, the whole experience was pretty annoying. It wasn’t awful and it was definitely a cool place, but it was just really underwhelming.

Really nice people and great food. The waiter was new but great. He gave us a good tip to go to the City Museum which was awesome. Thanks! We had the chili dogs and the kids had spaghetti.

I am having a string bad dining experiences lately and this restaurant added to downward experience. The service was okay, but the food was horrible. We had the vegetable and turkey burgers. We had to request a second order of French fries because they gave us cold fries. We gave it one star because my son liked the macaroni and cheese. We prayed that we would not get sick, since we are out of town.

We stumbled on this after finding a Groupon. The food is great! I had the white chicken chili – so good! The service was just fine, they got slammed with out of town convention attendees when we were there but even with only 2 servers they did a good job. Prices are good and the location is perfect! Now we just need them to add delivery!

Being an all glass walled dining area located in city garden the view is great. The service is fast and very friendly. The food is pretty good but is overpriced compared to other options in the area. Good for a lunch meeting but to pricey to make a part of my regular lunch spots.

This delightful dining pavilion is set in the lovely City Garden park/​sculpture garden. Never seemed overly busy which also meant that the servers were super nice. The fountains nearby make for a nice white noise background to block the sound of vehicles in the vicinity, too.
I had the White Chicken Chili Mac Supremo. Very hearty portion and extremely tasty. My associate enjoyed a cup of their regular beef chili and she told me it was very good. A little bit of heat but not overwhelming.
Highly recommended. They even are open until the early evening hours if you want to grab a bite after work.

Joe’s Chili Bowl has all the elements for success.
However, there’s never anyone around when we come by. My wife and I have stopped by twice over the past few months and were very happy with our service and food. Both waitresses were incredibly nice and made us feel at home. The first time they let me order a breakfast item during dinner time. Anyone who makes me brinner is alright with me!
JCB shares the block with City Garden, which should draw in families and tourists, but we were the only patrons both times that we stopped by. Is it downtown? Their prices are on the lighter side of expensive, where a burger and fries will run you ten dollars. Still, I can’t see the problem here.
Again, the service was wonderful. The manager/​owner was in last night, and she was talking up all the wonderful special that they have during the week. She even turned off football because I wanted to watch the Cardinals game. Well, we were the only patrons, so she’s gotta please us!
Check out JCB on Tuesday night for two dollar wells and AB products. Friday night is karaōke, so if you’re looking for somewhere different downtown, perhaps you should give Joe’s Chili Bowl a try!

I give Joe’s Chili Bowl 5 stars for their customer service! Every time I go in, they are so friendly and accommodating. I recently began eating more veggies and less meat and their vegetarian chili Mac supreme is delicious! It satisfies my craving.

I came here in June with the bf and his family.
The view was great and the space was decent. I think that’s all I can say about this place.
First of all, our waitress took about 20 minutes to get us our drinks. The reason? She was waiting on a guy to finish serving his people so she could get him to help her carry the drinks over. Seriously, take two trips please. I’d be willing to get my drinks 2 minutes later than other people at my table if i can get them within 5 minutes of ordering!
Secondly, the food was meh. I go a chicken salad, expecting it to be at least decent and i hated it. There was way too much mayo and not enough flavor. I had a bit of the chili here — not bad but not as good a my own. The cheese fries were also just OK.
My boyfriend’s dad (or maybe his dad’s wife) got a beer. She ordered it with the food. It arrived AFTER the food.
It would be excusable if this place were super packed and the wait staff was zooming back and forth. nope. We were one of 3 or 4 groups eating there and we could see them standing in the doorway talking.
All in all, I don’t really want to come back here if I can help it. :/

This is a great pre-​game stop for a bite to eat, with a fantastic setting in City Park.
On our stop in, our server was absolutely fantastic, attentive and friendly. She was extremely helpful in confirming that our menu choices did not contain allergens for us. Very much appreciated.
We selected a bowl of chicken chili and a bowl of veggie chili. The chicken chili was pretty ordinary, but certainly edible and good. The veggie chili was very good — they use a splash of merlot to give it a nice little bite.
Our only complaint about the chili was the serving size. We each ordered the larger bowls, and they came out in what we consider to be cup sizes (and confirming our receipt, we did indeed get charged for bowls). And for a restaurant with Chili in the name, we would have thought the chilis would be less ordinary.
We also split a large caesar salad, that our server very kindly split onto two plates and said she gave us extra. The servings were definitely generous enough on the salads.
All and all, our bill was just under $ 20 — which seems kinda spendy for two cups of chili and a salad.
Otherwise, we very much enjoyed our pre-​game snack — but did end up needing to buy something at the game at inflated prices anyway to tide over the appetite.

This place was alright. The name of the joint isn’t very suitable in my opinion since they offer way more than chili.
My friend and I both had the $ 9 mac and cheese each. I thought it was good, but worth $ 9? Probably not. I think the only special thing about it was the melted cheese over the top and they added chopped onions in the shell pasta.
The drinks we had were an alcoholic version of a strawberry sweet tea. It had peach scnapps, strawberry, vodka, and some other components. I’d love to get that again since it was really good.
Our server was nice, but she was lacking in the service itself. We waited long periods of time to get refills and such. The place probably had only 2 or 3 other tables besides the two of us.
I can’t really say this place is anything special. You get a great view of the City Garden which is nice, but in all honesty, the menu is lacking a bit of an edge. I would even say the menu is comparable to an upscale Jack in the Box. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s a harsh judgment I’m giving it.
I may come back, however, I wouldn’t make a point to plan a trip here unless it was to get a drink here.

When Fiala’s Terrace View closed last year, it wasn’t a huge shock. The café wasn’t necessarily bad at all… it was just a little more spendy than the casual, largely administratively-​employed Downtown lunch crowd could support (I assume…).
Enter Joe’s.
Opened recently in the same space, with the same furnishings and the same signs, only the menu and servers’ attire seems to have much changed. In a lot of ways, that’s a good thing.
The good:
* The menu feels a lot more appropriate to City Garden’s everyday summer clientele: kids, families, tourists. As others have mentioned and their website confirms, the restaurant’s name is deceptive. Chili is available, but so are hot dogs, fries, pizzas, a number of entrees (Italian-​inspired), etc. Think expanded diner.
* City Garden is a great backdrop for al fresco dining, whether viewed from the Bowl’s patio section or by getting food to-​go as suggested by Matt L. Take advantage.
* I haven’t been disappointed by the meatball sub or chili dog combos as far as meeting flavor expectations. Other requirements like «being able to get in and out within an hour», «clean table» and «server doesn’t disappear» were also met.
The bad:
* I understand that it’s more expensive to operate a restaurant as opposed to a food truck or street grill. Understanding doesn’t quite help me bridge the gap between the $ 3 that the vendor two blocks to the south charges for her hog dogs (Viennas no less) and the $ 3.95 at Joe’s… plus «Downtown» dining tax ($.40)… plus a «don’t-be-a-jerk» gratuity. I haven’t gotten out for under $ 10 yet, and that’s without having one of the $ 2.25 sodas (yep… standard Coke products).
As an occasional, this place is fine (as in, «you’ll probably want to plan an occasion, like a date night, an afternoon in the Garden or lunch with a friend from out of town»). Otherwise, you’re simply spending more than you have to.

The outside seating att this place had a wonderful view. The food is priced cheaply and with specialty drinks at 4. Who could go wrong a wonder cheap date night out

I came to Joe’s Chili Bowl hoping it would be something similar to Carlos’ hot dog stand mixed with Chili Macs, classed up by the ambiance of the CityGarden.
Instead, it was more like the Jack in the Box at 2 a.m. on Kingshighway when service is terrible, combined with getting kicked in the stomach (which is how I feel, post meal) but without the benefit of having drinks in you to make the food taste like the best food imaginable.
Came down here with coworkers for lunch on a gorgeous day, hoping to enjoy the city garden. Ended up ordering to-​go, because it was looking like all the tables were full. Well, the tables WERE full when we got there, but 30 minutes later when our food STILL wasn’t ready, we probably could have sat down.
I don’t understand what takes so long – is it scooping the pre-​made chili into bowls? Or perhaps throwing a hot dog into a bun. They certainly aren’t making the chili fresh to order. In fact, i think I’ve had similar chili on the top of my hot dog at a high school concession stand. If a menu item is on the restaurant’s marquee, then it shouldn’t taste like it’s from a #10 can.
I have to admit one part of my meal was fascinating, and that was the almost-​teal, electric green relish.
If you go, be drunk. If you aren’t drunk, don’t go.

The chicken chili was pretty good.
The regular chili… well… uh…
so have any of you had Old Vienna Pork Steak Chips? That first bite is kind of like when you open your grill/​smoker and you get this WOOSH of smoke filling your senses. Except in this chip’s case, it’s OMFGBBQ WTF DID I PUT IN MY MOUTH?! But then… all logic says that you just toss the bag you wasted a buck on… but then you take another bite. WHY?! Because it’s there?! You might as well keep going, because I mean what the hell are you gonna do. Eventually you sort of get numb to it and you probably get ¾ of the way through until you’re like you know what. Fuck this… and in the end… NOBODY’S HAPPY.
Anyway. That regular chili was pretty much the same experience. Actually, it was the exact same experience.
The fried cannelloni was absurdly expensive for just a couple bites.
It’s gonna be a while before I try this place again. That chili might go well on a hot dog. With cheese. And raw onions.

I had high expectations of Joe’s Chili Bowl because of the owners but I was VERY disappointed. I love the space in City Garden especially on a nice day with the large opening and lots of activity. That is really the reason for the single star, without the atmosphere I would have wanted to give zero!
My friend and I went for lunch on Thursday, the weather was nice and all outdoor seating was full so we were seated inside by a friendly waiter/​host. After being seated we waited for a while before someone stopped by to take our drink order. She wasn’t dressed as the other servers so I imagine she was a manager as there was one other lady wearing the same type blazer. She was very hurried and wanted to take our order but we had been talking and weren’t ready. We shouldn’t have waited since it took a while for her to come back to us. Special note: why is this place called Joe’s Chili Bowl and the focus ISN’T chili? Very strange. I ordered the chicken chili cup and a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of ranch. My friend ordered the chicken chili and a hamburger. The manager didn’t inquire how he wanted it cooked. She didn’t ask how I wanted my chicken sandwich cooked either and she should have because his hamburger came well done and my chicken sandwich not so much. When it has that strange rubbery texture it is not pleasant. The flavor was good but I couldn’t eat it with that texture and with the level of service we were getting — non existant — I didn’t bother sending it back. Chicken chili was eh, I didn’t finish it and would have taken it home but it seams the only thing available to put it in was a drink cup or a box. Neither option seemed valid to me, and again I thought of the fact that the owners have current successful restaurants! How can they not have proper to go containers for chili when chili is part of the restaurant name.
Bottom line, it won’t be a choice for lunch for me. I like the space but nothing else. Poor service, below average food, too many better options so I will skip a return.

First off, you have to know that this place is 100X more than just chili. Not really sure about the name choice, but there are selections a-​plenty. I’m impressed by the HUGE menu. I haven’t had a chance to sample very much of it, but so far it’s been really good. Service is good, staffing is friendly, and it’s really nice to be able to sit outside at Citygarden and have a nice meal… can’t beat the view. Also, apparently you can get anything/​everything on the menu to go. So, order up, and take it for a short walk and sit anywhere you like. I think this place has potential… better than the last place, that’s for sure. Did I mention that they have a HUGE menu? Dear God… oh, and if you have room, you have to try the cheesecake or the cookies for dessert.