3000 E Ray Rd, Bldg 1, Gilbert, AZ
Review Highlights
Joe’s Farm Grill Review (Gilbert)
Rito’s Mexican Food is a restaurant inside a house. But this review is not about Rito’s. Several miles away in Gilbert, AZ, you will find Joe’s Farm Grill, which was also a residence. It has since been converted into a modern restaurant.
The 12-acre farmhouse is located about a quarter mile northwest of the Higley and Ray intersection. From the road, you cannot get a good look at the restaurant because it is surrounded by very mature trees.
The restaurant is probably one of the biggest attractions in the town of Gilbert. They have even been featured on the Food Network (several times).
Just north of the restaurant, there is a decent size veggie garden (known as Agritopia) that you can walk through. According to the website, “most of the ingredients are grown” on the property.
When you enter the restaurant, the setup is a bit different. The menus are oriented just inside the dining room entrance. There is no host table, but there is a semi-present wait staff.
It is more of a fast-casual set up, but with elements of a full service restaurant.
Just beyond the menus are crowd control rails to guide patrons toward the cashiers. I believe they want you to explore the menu and have your food choices selected before reaching the cashier.
You can also carry the menu with you in the line if needed. Once you place the order, you can sit anywhere and the wait staff will bring your food.
Oddly, they gave me a buzzer but it never went off. Somehow, the server knew where to bring my food.
The menu reminds me of something you might see at a brewery. While it is classic American food, there are some things you may not expect to see on a typical menu (e.g. BBQ ribs, Detroit-style pizza, Sonoran hot dogs).
They also serve breakfast all day. But this fo’ sho’ aint Denny’s. At Joe’s Farm Grill, everything is elevated. If you order sweet potato fries, they include a side of pineapple salsa, for example.
For this visit, I ordered the farm burger, apple fritters, Caesar side salad, and a vanilla bean milkshake.
When they brought it to the table, I noticed everything on the plate was “Instagram ready.” Cool.
I started with the farm burger. Certified legit. The Caesar side salad had the dressing already on it. Excellent. The cheese on the salad was not typical cheddar. It tasted like fresh mozz’ or something similar. But it was not shredded yellow/orange cheese.
The apple fritters… crazy. Yep, you can taste the apples in it. They are served warm and they top ’em with powdered sugar and a side of caramel sauce.
Finally, I tried the vanilla bean milkshake…
I typically never purchase shakes because they are usually overpriced. But I thought I’d change it up this time. Glad I did. First thing I observed was the size of the shake. Usually, restaurants serve tiny 8 oz shakes. The ones at Joe’s Farm Grill are more like 20 oz.
There is just something about seeing the frost on the outside of a steel cup. Then they topped it with whipped cream and a cherry for added effect.
But they didn’t stop there. They precalculated that “shake people” can sometimes be picky. So they included a fancy spoon with a really long handle [just in case].
But it was good. I couldn’t tell if the vanilla bean was only sprinkled on the top of the shake or blended throughout.
The food was great and I felt the overall experience was truly one of the best in the valley.
Joe’s Farm Grill definitely gets the green stamp: Justin Leonard Approved.
One last thing that was different: the bathrooms had TVs and also toy action figures/dolls encased in glass on the wall. Peace
