A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Renda at Bay Street Cafe. She told me that her boss/owner, Chris, had recently purchased the Bay Street Cafe and wanted to have me over for lunch and let them know what I thought of their offerings. One day, a restaurant is going to invite me out and the food is going to be horrible, just not today. You’ve probably walked right by this place and never gave it a second thought. You might want to reconsider this. Check out my Food Porn Video Slide show below:
233 E Bay St LO2
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904)634-0328
Location: It’s on the bottom floor of the Blackstone building, right across from the Old Courthouse Annex. It has its own entrance in and out of the building.
Latest Health Inspection: 07/09/2013
Critical Violations: 0
Intermediate Violations: 1
Kid Friendly: Yes
Food: For some reason, I had a hankering (yes, that’s a southern word) for a Philly Cheese Steak. So, I had decided beforehand that if they had one on the menu, I was getting it. Time for a disclaimer, NO, I’M NOT FROM PHILLY, SO YOU ARE CORRECT, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. There, does that make some of you fill better? I’m just a fat guy that likes what I think is a good sandwich. Back to the food review. I ordered the Philly, it came with a side of fries. I ordered a drink and some kind of pecan praline bar (it’s baked by Let Them Eat Cake). The manager said they had good ranch dressing so I ordered a side of that. If you’re wondering why the ranch, I’m fat…I like to dip random things in ranch.
When the Philly Cheese Steak came out, the first thing I noticed was that it had a healthy amount of seasoning on it. I don’t mean that in a bad way, this was a positive. There was a lot of taste to it. I liked the added pepper and the jalapeno (I ordered those). The meat was perfectly cooked, not over cooked. I’ve had tons of overcooked ones, it must be because the meat is thin and people think it doesn’t matter since they are putting peppers and cheese on it. They are wrong. I digress, they cooked it perfectly here. There was decent portion of meat on the fresh bread. I loved the sandwich and it’s a great value at under $7.
The fries were seasoned, served hot and crispy, but not overly cooked. They were crinkle fries which is great if you dip them in ranch, it gives the ranch something to grip on to 
I have to say this about the ranch dressing, it’s homemade and it’s easily the best ranch I’ve had to this day. I loved the stuff. I wanted to paint it on my face like war paint. Maybe put it on my lips like in this clip of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs
Extras: There is plenty of on street parking when I went at lunchtime. It’s a neat restaurant and has great food, try them out and support a local business, you won’t be disappointed.
The Good:
– Good prices/portion sizes
– Fast service (they know you have things to do)
– Very clean
– Good food
– They serve breakfast and lunch
The Bad:
– I think the only bad thing is: that they don’t sell the ranch by the gallon. Just and idea!
WC42Y7SNNM6D
jaxfoodcritic
I love food and I love to make people laugh. This blog started out as a place for me to just vent about some crappy food and turned out that I stumbled into some good food along the way. I'm a father of 2, husband, and master of nothing.
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I previously went there for breakfast at least once a week when I worked downtown (pre Chamber days). It’s close enough for a quick walk over though, that Philly looks delicious! I may need to revisit them
Great review! I’ll have to swing one day for lunch if I’m in the downtown area!