Stop #21: Joe's Chili Bowl

Tony's Review: Well we made it to Joe's Chili Bowl before they decided to randomly close early again and I'm glad we did. This place is in the middle of CityGarden and has a ton of outdoor seating and is actually pretty nice. Double high five to the weather for not being 100 big ones so we could enjoy watching a bunch of little brats swimming in the water fountain (aka other kids pee).

The slinger covered all the bases and was huge, it was guaranteed that my little baby stomach wasn't gonna hold all of that trash. Biggest difference in this slinger was the use of french fries versus hash browns, while the fries were really good they still did get in the way when you try to shovel a complete bite in your mouth. The chili was great which is a huge relief when you're eating at a restaurant with chili in the name (Chili's should take fucking note). Eggs and toppings were prem-o with a good ratio of cheese and onions and those onions were tasty as hell. The biggest/weirdest thing about this thing were the two massive sausage patties that covered the entire bottom of the plate. Normally this would be pretty cool but the sausage had a really mild taste and obviously never graduated from Flavor University. And the size of them just really made it more obnoxious, if that had been burger patties or two smaller sausage patties this slinger could of easily been in top 5.

Even though we ran into some meat difficulties and they're pushing fries on you it was still a great slinger and you should check this place out before they close for good

Tim's Review: I've always had a good feeling about Joe's chili bowl. I thought this place was going to be great and I was right!! This place was a winner.  It's a damn shame that business doesn't seem to be going so great. We went on a Friday around 6:00 and there was maybe two other tables. I guess that means more chili for me.

I was a little skeptical about the fries at first. Don't get me wrong, I love fries, but I just wasn't so sure they have a place in a slinger. Well, Joe's chili bowl proves that fries work just fine. These fries were perfect! They weren't anything fancy. No crinkle cut, no curly non-sense, and waffle fries a overrated anyway. These were straight up, good eatin', fries.  I do have to agree with Tony that at first, it seems like they get in way. You go for a fork full of egg, chili, sausage... (I like to get the full boat on every bite) and the fries are sticking out all over the place.  I probably look like I jackass trying to bend all these fries into my mouth. Well, the great thing is, after a few minutes and good mix-up with your fork, the fries get all nice and soft, smothered in chili, and that takes care of that! I'll gladly welcome some fries in my slinger. The sausage was definitely the weak link here and, like Tony said, there just wasn't a whole lot of that spicy sausage kick. I actually thought they were burger patty's when I first took a bite.

I actually liked Joe's so much that I went back 3 days later. And guess what?? it was great the second time too! I wanted to get a better sample of the menu so I passed on the slinger and went with the chili cheese dog. Tell me how good that looks.