Joe’s Take Away

Joe’s Stone Crab was at the top of my list of places to try during a brief visit to Miami Beach last month. It was one of those places I’d seen on TV years ago that looked appealing enough that I obsessed about it, just a bit, long before I had any reason to hang out in Miami. It turned out that our trip caught the very tail end of stone crab season – we left on May 15, the very last day to get stone crab.
I was pretty pleased about this, but looking at the Unilocal page for Joe’s, I got concerned that it might not be open for Sunday lunch, so after arranging an Über, I called the restaurant to make sure we could eat there. The person on the other end of the line said that unfortunately, they were not open for lunch. I was pretty obviously devastated – there was no way we could make Sunday dinner – but hung up the phone and canceled our Über. My husband and I then spent twenty minutes trying to come up with alternate lunch plans, sitting in the heat outside of our hotel, before I decided to scroll through all the top rated lunch spots in Miami Beach on Unilocal and found Joe’s Take Away. So dear Joe’s Stone Crab phone guy – maybe worth mentioning to the sad tourist who wants stone crab that there’s a take-​out spot with the same food right next door that is open for lunch. Could’ve saved me a lot of headache.
Anyway. Joe’s Take Away was fun, a sort of cafeteria style restaurant with take out service and plenty of seating. Very little in the way of atmosphere, and it felt a bit weird eating expensive seafood out of plastic boxes, but the crab was tasty and I had a good time. Service was quick despite a fair line, and we got a buzzer to let us know when our food was ready. We found a table on the patio, which was nice.
I got the crab for lunch, of course, a medium order, which came with seven stone crab claws. These weren’t cheap, but the larger claws got very expensive fast. The crab was fantastic. Sweet, fresh, meaty hunks of crab, easy to extract from the well cracked shells. I ate them with melted butter and that nice mustard sauce, both great condiments. It took me a while to get through it all and I made a goddamn mess, but it was a real experience. My husband doesn’t eat crab, so he got a thing of ginger salmon, which was fine, if kind of expensive and not exceptional. We shared a slice of key lime pie for dessert, and this was good, tangy and satisfying.
With all the confusion, our lunch at Joe’s Take Away ended up eating a full three hours of our day. Probably not worth it every time, but I’m glad we went and checked Joe’s off my U.S. food tourism list. I might even go again if I hit Miami during stone crab season, now that I know the drill.

I still wouldn’t get most of it to go, but if you are on the beach and want Joe’s but don’t want to wait, or rinse the salt off this is great. Same food, I’m guess straight out of the kitchen, without the restaurant.
They have a small number of self seating tables there, and it is great for a low key lunch or dinner with high class food.

I struggle. I struggle so hard.
The good: Sweet mother of god that chocolate chip cookie. I think it’s fair to say it’s the best I’ve ever had.
The Meh: The Lobster Roll, The Mac N Cheese were both decent meals. Not amazing, but pretty solid. The Key Lime Pie was also pretty yummy. The crab claws were ok. I almost consider them bad because they were supposed to be the star and were probably the item we enjoyed the least. Just ok. But anything is decent when drenched in butter. God I love butter.
The Bad: The price. Done. $ 100 for plastic containers of just OK food for 2. What a sham. It was totally on par with the uppity neighborhood though.

When you walk in, you’ll see a sitting area off to the right and multiple stations. Be sure to walk around to each station to get an idea of what you want. Ordering is a breeze at one central location among the stations. We ordered the select stone crabs (7 for $ 39.99), the lobster mac and cheese ($ 12.99) and a whole key lime pie ($ 22). They will also give you a can of whip cream with your order. They cracked the crabs for us as well for easy eating.
We came here around 11:45 for lunch and it wasn’t busy. Take away was easy and since we came by bike, the cashier put everything in a bag that we placed in the front basket. Easy and quick experience with Joe’s famous quality!

As a Miamian for over 25 yr I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never been to Joe’s. I love me some stone crabs, crab cakes, crab bisque — you name it I love It all. We were with my 3 yr old so we decided to visit the café vs the restaurant bc you never know how these toddlers will act in public. We arrived when they opened on a Saturday morning and the place was pretty dead but filled up fast. Everything we ordered was fantastic — bisque, lobster roll (incredible), claws (amazing!) and those sweet potato fries are the best fries I’ve ever tried. Ever. Key lime pie was also pretty damn delicious. We’ll be back soon!

Pricey but so worth it. Stone crabs are a rare treat that you should really savor and Joe’s is my go to spot for them every time I’ve come to Miami.
We ordered 7 cracked medium claws to go for $ 32.95. This included sauce, drawn butter, and 2 bread rolls.
There was a sign saying stone crab season ends mid May so hopefully you get your fill of these things!

The lobster bisque here is incredible! The atmosphere is very relaxed, but the food is top notch.

I absolutely love this place !!! I always order the lobster bisque, the lobster rolls, the lobster Reuben, and the smoked fish dip. The lobster bisque consist of this wonderful salty, creamy concoction that is instantly satisfying and filling. The lobster roll is amazing. The only one that I can compare it to is the one in DJ clam shack in key west. It is FULL of lobster … Not these small lobster lacking varieties you often see on the beach. And the flavor !!! Slightly lemony but not greasy in the least. It’s not heavy but will fill you up. The lobster Reuben is a bit more greasy but still satisfying and again filled with lobster. Finally the smoked fish dip is great. Although nothing out of the ordinary, it is fresh and tasty .
Order ahead first (on the phone) and skip the line !

Wow, where to start. This is connected to the main restaurant but costs less and is the same quality. We went here with some family. The service is fantastic. What you do is, walk up to the counter, place your order and then they give you a portable buzzer. The buzzer went off about ten minutes later and we picked up our food at the counter. Including our drinks.
They serve a limited supply of alcoholic drinks and some soft drinks. The food is outstanding! We tried the stone crab claws, fries, Mac n cheese with lobster, bread, crab sandwiches and a few other odds n ends. We enjoyed all of it!
The crab meat just melts in your mouth and the lobster is cooked to perfection. Be sure to stop in and try some on your next visit!

Stone crab claws!!! Stone crab might be my new favorite type of crab. The shells were already cracked and easy to peel off. Eating them was relatively low effort for crab, and the meat was delicious.
Market price for the claws ranged from 7 medium for $ 29.95 to 4 jumbo for $ 89.95.
There is a wide selection of food here in addition to stone crab. The fried chicken ($ 6.95 for a half chicken) was good. The crab bisque ($ 9.50) and creamed spinach ($ 7.50) were both really rich – good in small doses but hard to finish.
We came here for lunch on a weekday. There wasn’t much of a wait for our food.

One of my Favorite places to grab a bite to eat in South Beach!
Located next to Joe’s Stone Crab on Washington Avenue. There’s free parking across the street in their private lot or they also provide valet parking for a fee. The restaurant is big with plenty of tables and chairs as well as a counter with some stools. They also have a bar in the middle of the room. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus they have some Killer Desserts! I have tried the stone crabs, lobster, shrimp, cole slaw, lobster Reuben, crab bisque, fried chicken, lobster, and meatloaf. My favorites are the stone crabs, fried chicken, lobster Reuben, and the crab bisque. The stone crabs for the most part are fresh but sometimes they’re frozen and they stick to the shell when they are. The lobster Reuben sandwich is Amazing. If you like Lobster and Reuben sandwiches then you should try it out. The fried chicken is moist and tender and perfectly season. The crab bisque is rich and buttery. The cole slaw is not the traditional one that you get. Try it out so you can see what I’m talking about.
My favorite desserts are the Keylime Pie and the napoleon. The keylime pie is sweet and tart with a Graham cracker crust and the napoleon is flaky and full of creamy goodness. They also have other tasty desserts, salads, ceviches, soups, and sandwiches to chose from. They also sell merchandise related to seafood.
The staff was friendly and helpful in describing the different menu items.

Worth the hype for sure!
If you’re looking for a casual way to enjoy a legendary meal, Joe’s Take Away is the best option ever.
We got the 7 medium claws, a greek salad, crab bisque and shrimp cocktail.
The shrimp cocktail had delicious, large shrimp (5 pieces) for $ 15 — totally overpriced, but if you don’t care about cost it’s super tasty.
The 7 medium claws come pre cracked and are sweet and succulent. It was $ 29.95, which IMO is an excellent deal
The crab bisque is really, really flavorful and creamy. Takeaway portion is 16 oz, which is more than enough for 4 people to each have a little bit.
Greek salad comes with tonnnnns of toppings and is huge! Perfect for 2 people who love salad, or 4 people who want a little bit.
Highly recommend!

After a long and foodless day at the beach, I sat down at Joe’s Take Away with Bohemian Rhapsody echoing in my head:
«Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?»
Joe’s Stone Crab is for when you are dressed to the nines.
Joe’s Take Away is for when you are slummin’ it.
The food is largely the same, minus the fancy schmancy dranks and bigger variety in-​house.
Regardless, there is nothing incredibly «take away» about Joe’s Take Away. I mean, hell, look at my picture of their «take away» food. They pack your order to go, but you can eat it at the store. Plenty of seating is available inside with a really nice and casual dining atmosphere or on a small closed patio outside.
You order at the counter. In addition to the regular menu, check out the specials du jour. You can pick up bottle drinks or order from a coffee/​lemonade bar. They give you an onion roll and a brioche roll with your order.
Order the stone crab. I got a half order of 4 claws. (Benefit of eating at Joe’s Stone Crab is their HAPPY HOUR. Go look at the menu and die a little.)
DO NOT RECOMMEND:
Fruits del mar (seafood) «ceviche» — Cooked to absolute death. Beyond the state of rubber and unpleasant to eat. Since I’m service industry myself, I took it back to the counter and nicely asked if I could swap it out for something else. Manager didn’t seem to believe me but told me that this is actually not made on site. Stay away from this one item. Everything else is legit.
EVERYTHING ELSE:
— Shrimp and scallop ceviche– BOMB. DO IT.
— Stone crab claws– Pre-​cracked. Yes.
— Crab bisque– thick and adored by the two eating it.
— Fries– crisp and seasoned so well.
— Fried green tomatoes– I didn’t know I was getting an entire vine of tomatoes. Fried to order, a TON of perfectly thick slices of breaded tomatoes. Share this with many friends.
— Flourless chocolate cake– I’m in a coma, and this was the last thing on the list.
If I had more time on that side of Miami, I’d be back tomorrow for Round 2.

Went to Joe’s Take Away for Saturday lunch. I ordered the Select Stone Crabs with the Hashed Brown and Joe’s Famous Key Lime Pie.
Quality
Joe’s is widely known the place when it comes to Stone Crabs and you don’t really have a choice but to get them when you eat here. As could be expected they were absolutely delicious along with the special mustard and butter sauce. The Stone Crabs come with two rolls, one onion roll and a regular roll, as a perfect accompaniment to the crabs. The Hashed Brown was okay, but I would probably choose a different side next time. The Key Lime Pie was good, but it was too cold and it made the crust very difficult to split up and bite into.
Quantity
The Select Stone Crabs came with six relatively large claws, plenty enough to share. The small Hashed Brown was still very big and definitely enough for two or three people.
Value
When you are known to be the best you can expect things to be a bit more expensive. At Joe’s Take Away that is the case, but I felt everything was worth the cost except the Key Lime Pie, which was far from the best.
Ambiance
Joe’s Take Away is a great alternative if you do not want the frills of Joe’s Stone Crab, but still want the delicious food. Joe’s Take Away is set up so you can order market style and then sit down casually at the bar, at the inside tables, or on the small patio. The lines are short so you don’t have to worry about long wait like you would at the actual restaurant. It is set up much more casually than Joe’s Stone Crab, so you also don’t have to worry about coming right from the beach. The background music was playing quite loudly, which was strange, and it was a mix of new popular songs and classic Motown hits. I’m not sure who was controlling the volume, but they definitely should do something about it.
Crowd
Everyone knows Joe’s and everyone wants to get their fill of Stone Crabs when in Miami, so Joe’s is a tourist haven. Even at an odd hour Joe’s Take Away was still very busy with lots of small parties and couples drinking champagne and eating crabs.
Service
You order at the counter and you pick up the food when your buzzer goes off so service is not a big part of the experience. The clean up staff though was very friendly and efficient at clearing tables for those waiting.
Parking
There is plenty of street parking in the area as well as a valet for the restaurant. However, later at night you should probably expect to be fighting for a spot.
Extra
Joe’s Stone Crab is an institution and Joe’s Take Away is a perfect companion for those looking for a more casual experience. Definitely a place worth stopping by when visiting Miami as they do Stone Crab right.

Seriously appreciate that Joe’s Take Away exists! Off the name I assumed it was literally take away food, but this place actually has a lot of seating as well as a bar! To top it off the staff was very nice, and cleared our table while when we were doing eating, which I did not expect from a take away place.
We ordered the key lime pie, stone crabs, the stone crab bisque, and fried green tomatoes and everything was delicious! I definitely think the pie and the bisque are must gets; I don’t even like soups/​bisque but I could eat this all the time (it was especially good with the free bread it came with!) I also have to mention that the fried green tomatoes were one of the most perfectly fried items I have ever had! I would definitely come back here again to try the fried conch and other fried items. As for the crabs, they were pretty good but nothing I was wow’d over; I was more impressed with the other things we ordered.

Peasants rejoice! We can enjoy the decadence of Joe’s without waiting in hour long lines and can even pay less in a casual atmosphere!
At first, we wanted to try Joe’s Stone Crab but learned they didn’t take reservations. We go in and see many dressed to the 9’s and then see the wait list is about an hour to two hours. Instead we decided to venture into this place to the left called Joe’s Take Away. We found out it’s literally the same food, in a much more casual environment. (they do have a bar by the way)
We ordered key lime pie, stone crab (of course), stone crab bisque, and fried green tomatoes. In order from the best to worst (not that any were bad at all): Stone crab bisque, fried green tomatoes, key lime pie, then stone crab surprisingly. The stone crab didn’t actually have any defining taste that was any different from any other crab, although I do enjoy Maryland blue crab probably the most. The stone crab bisque was just delicious though… the taste wasn’t overwhelming while the texture of the soup was at the perfect spot of creaminess but not too thick. The fried green tomatoes were fried perfectly, not too hard, but enough so that the tomato inside was cooked well. The key lime pie was tart but not on the side where you would have to pucker up.
Overall this place is great, and unless you want to go to Joe’s Stone Crab just to say you went into the restaurant, there’s literally no reason you should pick that over Joe’s Take Away. You even get a slight discount since there’s no wait service. This is another locale that I’m gonna visit again if I come back to Miami.

If you are on vacation in Miami and want to splurge on some good seafood. Come get some crab claws here. They are serve cold, pre cracked, and comes in variety of sizes. I got an order of medium sized claws and it came out to be pretty hefty. I also got a lobster roll and it was good. Everything was good but be willing to cough up some dough to eat here. It was not cheap. I think mine came out to be $ 60 and it was just me… The medium sized claws came with six claws to an order and it filled me up.

Skip the wait and come straight here instead! Same food as Joe’s Stone Crab, but it is a casual spot where you pick up your own food and find a table to sit at. Definitely beats the two hour wait at Joe’s! We ordered the seafood platter, medium stone crabs, lobster bisque, lobster reuben, and several drinks.
Food was pre packed, so we got almost everything instantly (except the reuben and the soup). The seafood platter consisted of half a lobster, two oysters, two shrimps, and two stone crabs. The crabs are already pre cracked, so no need to go through the trouble and crack everything yourself! The platter was so tasty– everything was extremely fresh and the lobster even had extra bits on top! The crab was definitely one of the best I’ve had! Oysters were also nice and sweet.
The lobster bisque tasted super thick creamy pasta sauce, so we actually took it home and made pasta out of it the next day. I guess the soup is based more on preference, as it was too thick for us! The lobster reuben was SO good; they used marble bread and the outside was nice and crispy while the inside was soft and just perfect. The cheese was melted perfectly over the lobster, and I could not get enough of this sandwich!
So glad I finally got to try Joe’s this time around, as it was definitely worth it! This is a must visit while you are in Miami– wish I was able to take some home with me!

I love Joe’s Take Away! So much I had to eat here twice! The food is pretty much the same at the restaurant, but this place is much quicker. You can satisfy your seafood craving without having to wait!
Of course we got the crab claws, lobster sandwich, crab cake sandwich, lobster bisque, and shrimp appetizers.
Literally everything is 100% fresh and TASTY. The crab claws had so much meat in them! They are pre cracked for you so all you literally have to do is pick it open. You don’t get the taste of ocean water in the crab meat either. It is absolutely amazing. I usually don’t eat crab, but Bc their meat was so tender I just had to!
The workers are so friendly as well! Hello to Feddy! He remembered us the second time we came back and said hi.

I wandered around the place in my bathing suit… stared at all the tan people… picked out massive crab claws… a Greek salad… found a register (so many registers)…paid $ 62 and gasped… sat down… watched people closing their eyes and sighing when they bit into little key lime pies…
And then it was my turn. They packed it all up like they thought we could wait a second longer, that we had willpower to march down the block and pop a squat in the sand to eat it. Unpacked in all it’s glory it was the most beautiful sight I’ve seen in a while– pre-​cracked massive stone crab claws, sweet smelling and tipped in black. The meat was succulent and fresh, sweet and simply divine.
I also tried the scallop and shrimp ceviche. red onion, cucumber, cilantro, lime juice and massive chunks of tender scallop and shrimp. So fresh and perfect. Everything I tried was superb-​Greek salad, potatoes, fresh rolls. To bring all of it to the beach and indulge in such glory under the sun would be an ethereal experience.
Cranky TSAs as my witness, I will take a Airport Flyer on a long layover at MIA to eat these crab pinchers and try the desserts people were moaning (literally) about. I am from Seattle… we have lovely Dungeoness and Snow crab up here. It is NOT stone crab pinchers, sadly to say.
One of the best meals I had in South Beach by far.