Not Your Average Joe's

291 Turnpike Road, Westborough, MA and other places in Massachusetts, and two awkward restaurants in Virginia and Maryland

What we ordered: 

Southwest Burger- House-made BBQ
sauce and cheddar, topped with onion straws

Pros:

Delicious bread 

Onion straws

Cons:

Limited selection

Overeager waitress 

Can easily be seen

The Experience

Party in the USA #merica

As proud Americans, the weeks prior to and after the 4th of July are extremely busy for us. One day is just not sufficient time to celebrate the greatness that is the United States of America. But between the fireworks, glow sticks, and listening to the Star Spangled Banner on repeat, we were able to fit in some burger sampling. Prior to the sampling, Emily also dropped her precious iPhone, Stefon, into the sink, but still put on her game face for the tour, can you say dedication? Or obesity.


For the fourth stop on our burger tour, we ventured to Not Your Average Joe’s. This restaurant is located in what can only be referred to as Westborough’s “Little Asia," surrounded by Chinese and Indian cuisine that we carefully avoided. Also nearby is the often forgotten country club Indian Meadows. Clearly Westborough is culturally confused, because last time we checked, there aren't any meadows in India.

Shannon was upset we didn't hit up
Ming III for some pan Asian cuisine

Joe’s advertises itself as “creative casual cuisine.” Look at that alliteration, someone must have excelled in fourth grade English. This tagline was quite concerning. As future trophy wives, we prefer black tie optional dining, not casual. What are we, farmers? Eli Whitney was alive a billion years ago, the theme is a little too late.

The menu at Joe’s had a whopping four burger options! They also had a turkey burger and a veggie burger. These two options are not being included in our count, because if we wanted something that tasted that bland, we would have put ketchup on a cardboard box and called it dinner. Emily decided on the Southwestern Burger, as she is never one to pass up the opportunity to clog her arteries with crispy onions strings. And like Outback all over, Victoria and Shannon decided to copy said order as they have great admiration for Emily’s sophisticated palate.

While waiting for our burgers, we got to enjoy the flavor sensation that is NYAJ’s bread. The flaky bread topped with onions is delicious when doused in an oil and parmesan cheese concoction. We were unable to control our consumption of said bread, and found it was difficult to eat our burgers after devouring a whole loaf of the focaccia goodness.

Emily was very upset about her iPhone troubles.
She was at Joe's to eat her feelings.

The last five times Emily has feasted at NYAJ’s, she has had the same waitress. And every time, Marlow loves to ask how your meals are prior to you actually taking a bite of food. Without fail, this leads to extreme awkwardness, as you actually have no idea how your meal will taste. In response, we just mumbled and stared at our burgers until she walked away.


The burgers were certainly juicy and at times a little hard to eat. Also, the "creative casual cuisine" motto really threw off everyone's burger eating etiquette (two can play the alliteration game). Should we cut our burger up? Into halves? Devour it? Had we known this tolerance for casual attire existed, Victoria wouldn't have put such an effort into getting ready. She was wearing her fanciest gym shorts.

Important Things to Consider

-Bread baskets are dangerous.  Unless you plan on asking the staff to literally roll you out of the restaurant, you may want to avoid devouring the bread like feral children the way we did.

-NYAJ's is one of those restaurants that thinks it's fancy because it serves you ketchup in a small tin dish.  Ummm, no thank you.  In this instance, fancy is another word for cheap.  We are all aware that this ketchup came from a bottle of all-American Heinz 57. I mean really, you might as well ration us each a single packet and call it a day. For avid ketchup fanatics like Shannon, a full ketchup bottle on the table is a necessary accompaniment for any burger.  

-The intimate dining experience at NYAJ's and the prime location along route nine make the restaurant the prime place to run into people you really hoped you would never see again post WHS graduation. If you are lucky enough to score a booth, you have the ability to hide which relieves some stress. But otherwise, dining at NYAJ's is a risky choice. You will definitely be seen at this place, so we recommend not looking like you just came from the Walmart across the street. 

RATINGS (1-10 Scale)

Price (too expensive-1, fairly priced-10)...8

Service...5

Sides...8

Size...8

Presentation...8

Menu Choice...7

Deliciousness!/Flavor...8

Time to Get Food after Ordering...8

How Much Do I Feel Like I Have to Vomit After Eating (yes-1, no-10)...6

Bang for your Buck...8

TOTAL...74/100