Famous Joes

I really want to like this place. It was my regular Friday night karaoke night for a while. But.... I just can't.

More often than not, the food makes me sick. It's not that it tastes bad... when I'm at the restaurant it taste's great (except the wings), but when I get home my system never thanks me for eating it. At first, I thought I'd ordered something greasy or spicy that was playing havoc, but it's continual. Because it's an every visit thing, I have no choice any more but to blame the restaurant. After seeing that they've failed their inspections, I feel validated about that opinion.

They used to have a really great KJ for Friday night karaoke and they also had a pretty fun poker league. The karaoke has become a joke. The DJ is lax, doesn't keep track of an "order" to ensure that everyone gets a fair amount of turns to sing. I waited the entire night for a single song while watching other people get 4 and 5 songs, and when I said something about it I was not only told that I'd already sung, but I was told my turn was coming back around in "3 more songs"... that turned into 5, before I asked and was told my turn was "just 3 more songs..."

The servers in the restaurant are fabulous. They're very personable, knowledgeable, and attentive. The bar-side servers on a weekend night are pretty lax. Admittedly, there are a lot of people but still.....

My family loves Famous Joes!!!  We eat here several times a week.  Great place with fantastic food and good prices.  Nice gathering place for the kids' sports teams to meet and eat after the big game!  Famous Joe's has more TV's on the walls than Best Buy, so NFL fans will love watching all the big games here on Sunday afternoons.

really like this place.  there are still a lot of gnats around the bar and in the bathroom.  these guys were asked to close due to meat not being kept at the proper temperature, gnats found in bottles of liquor, several issues that i read that they cleaned up immediately and were allowed to remain open.  i just don't see that they've maintained the standard after the inspection.  my wife won't eat anything from here and as much as I've tried to fight it, i now will really only drink beer out of a bottle from here due to the gnats and inspection results.  who wants to get sick from trying to enjoy yourself at a bar, .... noone.
again, i like the place and the people, things are just not being kept up to snuff here.  google "famous joes inspection" and read for yourself.  the first one is killer enough, i didn't get to the second result that states they actually closed due to failing two health inspections before writing this review.

From the AJC "After posting a 54/U on a routine inspection Sept. 24, the restaurant received a 68/U on its follow-up visit Oct. 2. Famous Joes was asked to close and a formal hearing was held at the Gwinnett County Environmental Health office to discuss what improvements were needed"

To make things worse "According to the East Metro Health District website, Famous Joe's, located at 3290 Hamilton Mill Road in Buford, "voluntarily closed for earning a grade of 'U' on a follow-up inspection, after receiving a grade of 'U' on the last routine inspection."

i really hope they resolve these issues, this was my neighborhood bar for a short time, with the gnats hanging around - not so much anymore.