Cannoli Joe’s

Just had 100 ppl meeting last night with awesome service with waitresses, bartender, and managers!
Fantastic banquet room! Very roomy! About food? I love their meatballs and dessert!
Thanks for great service and good food! Hope to have next year’s meeting here again!

I didn’t even know this place existed until one of the owners (Skeeter and the Cannoli Joe’s events coordinator, Vanessa) threw a Christmas party for Big Brothers, Big Sisters complete with brunch, presents for the kids (which were awesome, btw!), etc.
Very impressed.
Sure, it’s a buffet but I really thought the food was excellent. Hate to say it but the food was better than a recent experience at upscale Trento off 360.
My little brother, Jordan, and I tried everything from Lasagna to Pizza to Pasta and dessert and all of it was good.
Seriously, well worth a try and who doesn’t like businesses that support local causes like Big Brothers, Big Sisters?
Note: this was an unofficial Christmas Party and if you are a big who would like to be included in 2012, please message me. Skeeter seems to hope it will grow and loves the idea of giving back to Austin… Awesome guy.

WOAH! I knew this was going to be bad, but I was scathingly unprepared! It’s like Cannoli Joe’s is making a conscientious effort to serve the Worst Food Ever. Someone truly special must be camped out in a dank sub-​basement of this monstrosity, eternally stirring a cauldron of old shoes, rotten turnips, and burnt garlic, occasionally dropping in clumps of burnt hair for seasoning, marinating in nonstop hatred for all living things. It’s an affront to humanity.
I just wanted to stuff my stupid face with piles of starchy edible whatever with my lady friends and then go to David’s Bridal to work out my PMS feelings in a healthy manner (a WHOLE OTHER REVIEW for some other time), but that vile meal of curdled cream sauces, the fishiest of cheapest fish, and inexplicably stringy, gummy ice cream completely destroyed our collective will to do anything but vomit.
In fact, we were blowing chunks even before we left the restaurant. Their vomitorium (aka bathroom) is clean by sight, but unfortunately still undeniably plagued the by mossy aroma of a hundred thousand wet farts. Against all hope and strength of will, we continued vomiting out the car windows the whole way home. It was a long car ride. I prayed to exotic gods for merciful death. I’m still vomiting right now. While I type this. It won’t stop. Please kill me.
All that said, it does feel like involuntary and profuse group purging strengthened the friendship of the members of our dinner party tonight. Thanks Cannoli Joe’s! We’ll cherish the memories.

Eh. I think it used to be a bit better. For some reason this seems to be the go-​to place when my husband’s family gets together. I personally am not a fan of buffets and mass food like this and I honestly feel for how much I eat, the buffet is very overpriced.
Last time we went I tried a little bit of everything and just wasn’t hugely impressed. I was excited when I saw an eggplant lasagna, but the sauce in it was WAY too sweet, which to me is a very bad sign at an Italian restaurant.
The pastas were ok, the salads tend to have too much dressing, the pizzas are definitely nothing to write home about, and the rest is just the same sauces on different meats and pastas.
They do cook things up fresh and if you keep an eye out and time things right, you can get food just as they serve it up.
Honestly, it’s a good place when most of your family likes chains and is afraid of trying something new. We had a child with us and it’s good for that. They were able to specially make her pasta and butter since she’s so picky. That makes things much easier.
I would recommend avoiding this place around Mother’s Day and other holidays where they bump the price of the buffet price up and throw maybe 3 extra dishes on the list. Not worth the extra price.

(Apologies for the pictures — I didn’t have my camera) This was the first «real» meal that I had in Austin, and it was for the bachelorette party. I thought it was a tad odd that after the girls all got massages and felt relaxed they would want to get stuffed at an Italian buffet. After a few wrong turns, we made it to the place, and I’d say that it looks pretty neat on the outside. Its exterior walls are painted with scenes of Italian buildings. Inside it looks like a street in Italy with the food stations looking similar to shops and street vendors.
I ended up getting one and a half plates of food. For $ 8, it was a decent lunch considering it was all you can eat. However, as far as Italian food goes, it’s definitely just mediocre. I liked that the food was created in small portions by an actual cook behind the serving station; I could see the cook mixing up some vegetables and sausage before she put it out on a small serving plate. That was the cool part because I like knowing that my food isn’t mass produced. However, the recipes must have been generic enough to be able to made by many and probably be liked by many. None of the dishes stuck out to me as being much better or much worse than another. At least it wasn’t a terrible meal though!