Joe’s Pizza and Subs

When it comes to hot link sandwiches, I’ll take a cheeseburger. Someplace else. God awful. But it took a long time and cost a lot. Isn’t that what really counts?

Great sport for some filling delicious food! Lots of options to choose from. And the service there was super nice us after hours crowd. Chicken parm sammiche was bomb!

My name is Josh and I was addicted to Joe’s Pizza, Subs, and mainly their chef’s salad. I’m now 8 months sober but miss this place dearly. Sure their pizza was hella greasy and their subs, sometimes sub par (see what I did there? :P) but this was by far the best place to watch a game and to get a quick bite. Just watch, once the NBA Playoffs start, there will be no better place in all of SC to watch the Warriors. Joe’s is basically SC’s version of Moe’s Tavern which is the highest praise I could possibly give to an establishment.

I really hate to leave bad reviews. Especially about this place. This has nothing to do with their food, but about a horrible customer service experience.
On Tues 1÷19÷16 at around 10:40am my husband and I came here to get out of the rain and for their amazing Philly. We parked in front which is meter parking, and walked in. I was looking at the menu and my husband asked for change for a dollar so we could stay and eat. The girl promptly said, «I am not suppose to give change.» «There is a change machine down the street.» To which I responded «Even though we are ordering something?» She just blinked at me… She didn’t even say anything. So my husband and I left. It is pouring down rain and you want me to walk down the street for change. … You lost patronage today.

I wish I was able to rate a zero! The food was horribly bad. We ordered a spaghetti, chicken wings, fries and garlic bread and left them all untouched! The restroom floor was covered with soap because of a short faucet that led all the water down! There was no warning sign, so my daughter slipped down as soon as she stepped in. Avoid this place!

I’m pleased to say that my recent visits have been more pleasant.
I’m still not a fan of the sandwiches and burgers, but the owner does a halfway decent falafel, hummus (that’s hamas if you’re ben carson) and baba ganoush.
I like the tap wall-it’s smaller then some bars, but is nicely balanced between local beers, macro beers, and mass market beers.
I had a pretty good happy hour sitting by the window watching people while drinking beer and munching on mediterranean food

Unfortunately, I’ve tried this place a few times with co-​workers and I won’t be going back for dine-​in. The area where the soda dispenser and back to the bathrooms smells awful. It literally smells like musty, dirty cleaning towels are used to wipe things down. You can catch a wisp of it in the dining area at times but I’m sure that’s why they keep the doors open. The food isn’t bad and I’ve heard good things about the pizza to take out may be an option.

I didn’t know it was possible to make a bad egg salad sandwich until I got one at Joe’s. The egg salad had too much mustard and the eggs themselves tasted bland. How does that even happen?
The only reason they get two stars and not one is because the customer service was good, the sandwich size is not too shabby, and there’s several vegetarian options. I would only go here again if I were desperate and nothing else was available.

This is THE place to go for New York style pizzas.
They sell pizzas by the slice but it’s a limited selection: plain cheese, pepperoni, veggie, and maybe combination? I came late Christmas Day (thanks for being open) and what I saw was cheese, pepperoni, and veggie.
A super extended menu that will have you ponder for awhile because everything is enticing. Who doesn’t like sandwiches? Burgers? Clam chowder? Onion rings? Falafels?
Gavin wanted pizza, Tess wanted clam chowder, and I ordered a Philly cheesesteak. I made it a combo for less than $ 2 more. I am not sure if it included a drink or not but I was in the mood for fries. I know. my macros went through the roof since Christmas Eve.
You order. You pay. You seat yourself. Remember your #!
I got a slice of pepperoni for myself as a starter and I could not remember the last time I had great pizza here in Santa Cruz — I would much rather eat Tostino’s pizza if I must choose but serendipity led us here last night because everywhere www closed. I wanted to have dinner in San Jose but after picking Tess up, she expressed that she wasn’t hungry yet. It was past 6PM. Drove around 41^st Ave. and Capitola but landed here.
Whilst waiting for our food to come out (speedy service), I saw 2 officers from the Santa Cruz Police Department walked in. They picked up about 5 boxes of pizzas. I saw w/​my own eyes that the owner or manager did not charge the officers. One officer went to the ATM machine to put money in the tip jar. In a world full of greed and personal agenda, I was so happy to have witnessed such a beautiful thing.
Once our food came out, I commented what a wonderful thing they did. The girl that took my order was the same girl that delivered the food to the table was sweet and said cheerfully, «Merry Christmas». Regardless, these folks were working, being away from their loved ones. I appreciated the entire staff because everyone was welcoming and warm. Plus how awesome for them to comp the officers’ order?
+ Tess enjoyed the clam chowder. huge chucks of clam
+ the pizzas were greasy but so damn delicious
+ fries were freshly fried
— my cheesesteak was under-​seasoned and cheese-​less
Definitely the cheesesteak wasn’t their strong suit but I know exactly where to go if I want pizzas from now on. I don’t have to drive to San Francisco or San Jose for good pizza anymore!

I gave then a one star cuz I cud not give them a 0. The food was OK, it took a really long time to get it. But the thing that bothers me the most was the service. The guy at the cashier box treated me so poorly I will never go back again.

The food used to be good here and have better management. I got a really bad Cheese Steak yesterday with uncut unedible meat. I called to today to let them make a replacement and the guy said ok but when I got there they wanted half price. Sad you mad such a bad sandwich Joes. Bye and good luck because I won’t be back … EVER!

We ordered one turkey, bacon, cheese & avocado sandwich and one cheesesteak… Food was great! Staff was pleasant. The place has large TVs that have sports on. Somewhat of a bar-​type feel. I ordered a blue moon and was definitely not served a blue moon but was still fine. Would recommend to someone who wants a quick, good bite to eat!

I woulda rated higher if not for a multitude of things that were less than pleasant here. First one was the blonde girl who takes your order. She was really grumpy and if she rolled her eyes anymore I wouldn’t be surprised if they fell out! It wasn’t just us. We had the joy of sitting next to the cash register and I watched her scowl and yell at a ton of customers. The place smells like it hasn’t been really cleaned in a long time. Smells rancid. Bathroom has overpowering smell of chemical cleansers like they dumped a whole bottle here. But it still is dirty after all that. The philly cheese steak was good.

Lentil (?) soup was hot but unexciting, falafel sandwich below average. The place was dead. Food seemed to take forever to come out.
Plenty of TVs for whatever sports programming you might be into.

I have been to Joes before and the food has always been good. Tonight however it was… AMAZEBALLS!!! Jim was there and he started us off with Blue Moon orange sherbet floats. I have never thought of mixing beer and ice cream but holy yes please! Then I let him order for me and he picked cheesesteak which I was skeptical because I grew up on the the cheese steak shop in castrovalley. But this was honestly by far the best cheesesteak I have ever had!!! Will definitely make this a date night must!!!

best cheese steak ever!!! yum… and they made it to order. I like mine hoagie style, without peppers or onions, change cheese to provolone and add mayo lettuce tomato and black olives. BOMB! they make it perfect every time.
I usually go over to the store on Branciforte.
They also have the best Baklava!

Joes is a pretty good place for fast style food. An added bonus would be they’re Mediterranean food which is pretty tasty. Last time something funny happened — my buddy and I got the same thing and we were charged different prices. Not a big deal but just funny– I’ll try and provide a picture.

This could very well be my best downtown experience. We stopped in here for a quick bite before our movie. Erica helped us and was just a delight to talk to. The food came lighting fast and even though they forgot the bacon, Erica quickly brought us a side right away. They have a great selection of beers on tap. I ordered the pastrami bacon sub. So good!!! The pastrami was very lean not like some of the cheap greasy pastrami I’ve encountered elsewhere.

The roomies, bf and I were looking for some dinner before the metal show were going to at The Catalyst. We walked by this place and saw that they were playing the Warriors game so of course we decided we had to try this spot out. I blame myself for not looking at the Unilocal reviews beforehand because this place had bad service with even worse food. We should have just walked out of there when the girl at the register literally had to turn around every time we asked her something to ask the person behind her for the answer. Due to this girl’s incompetence ordering our food took 10 minutes. Then the place was practically empty yet our food took 30 minutes. Perhaps the clueless girl was socializing rather than running the food out to people. When I received my chicken sandwich, it was the most pathetic and sad excuse for a sandwich ever. The sandwich was all bread and I could literally count the pieces of chicken. Don’t believe me? Look at the picture I posted. The chicken was so dry and bland to top it off. I also didn’t appreciate that the doors were left wide open despite the freezing wind blowing through the dinning area. Overall, when you’re in Downtown Santa Cruz do yourself a favor and don’t eat here.

Portions are substantial. Consider sharing or at least scaling back the fries. The hamburger that my six year-​old daughter ordered was massive. She got through about one quarter of it.
Joe’s serves exactly what you’d expect. This is comfort food, and you’ll get your fill. The prices are reasonable, especially considering the location.