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I was going to go four stars, but then I ordered takeout indian from 2 other places in manhattan and brooklyn and remembered how good Joy really is.
for a sitdown place, forget it. you'll be the only one there. but for delivery, Joy is perfect. charcoal roasted nan... thick, delicious chicken tikka masala.... gooey saag paneer.
you can't beat it. for my money, best takeout indian food in brooklyn.
before I get into this review, let me preface by saying the food was amazing. Good, got that out of the way.
Service was...HORRENDOUS. We were ignored when walked in the door, sat down, when we put down the menus, got our food, when we were waiting for the check - you get the idea. Service was...shit, I already said it was bad. Yeah, it was bad. There was one nice dude, but the rest of the family can go suck my samosa.
Let me start by saying, it was 10pm on Saturday. Not a creature (or at least not a customer) was stirring. The place was straight up empty. We ask the guy to sit at the four top table by the window. He says, "thats for four people. Sit at the table for two." We were like wtf? You do realize this place is EMPTY, can we take the table for four?!
Anyways, he finally allowed us at the four top.
I like the Chicken Tikka Masala. The chicken pcs were extra tender and flavorful. The naan was served super warm and soft.
The baigan bharta was just ok. Very fresh but lacking flavor flavor intensity that Indian cuisine is known for. Maybe I should have ordered the saag.
I will give them another shot if they deliver to my area. Definitely not trying to interact w/mr friendly waiter, ultra possessive of his tables.
Not a single person, let alone a party of four, came in while we were there, btw...
My go-to Indian delivery place and I have little desire to try any other Indian food in the neighborhood. The food is the perfect level of spice, but they'll adjust it to your liking. My favorite is the chana saag -- chick peas and spinach. Order one meal and make it last for at least two meals! Yum...
Everything I said about the food in http://www.yelp.com/bi... applies here too. One difference is here the Bollywood-blaring flat screen TV is present but at least isn't quite so prominent, which is a plus if you ask me. And the service here only guilted me into coming more often 1 out of 2 times instead of every time!
Oh dingy yet fancy, obviously family owned businesses, how I love thee. Joy Indian Restaurant falls into the perfect equation of so many similar restaurants; you can tell the owners truly put some effort into making a "nice looking" restaurant, but still, it's never going to be "hip". Tableclothes, fabric napkins, water goblets, all nice feeling but a dingy, dim room and the swanky neon NYC skyline!
But, seriously, I would go to this type of restaurant 10:1 over Olive Garden, TGIFridays, etc. ESPECIALLY when they make delicious food like Joy Indian does. It had been a long day of working for a friend who lives a block from the restaurant. After leaving her place, I was starving and it was late dinner (8:30). I had quickly Yelped the area before I headed out and saw this was close and had decent reviews. Plus, INDIAN. Rarely do I get to eat Indian, and the good stuff even less often.
In that "I'm starving" mode, I saw the dinner special and my always indecisive nature decided to go with that. $17 for appetizer, soup, bread, entree, raita or chutney, and rice pudding. I got the veggie samosas, mulligatawny, poori, raita and lamb (LAMB!) madras curry.
The samosas were first out, hot out of the fryer and delicious. There were two nicely sized samosas, and they were studded with corn and peas, and the potatoes were very nicely spiced. Mulligatawny was a soup I had only heard of, never tried, and this was delicious. A hot, spicy hybrid tomato-lentil soup, here it's blended and smooth. It was abolutely delicious, especially as the night had an early fall chill in the air. The poori is thin, poofy bread that has crispy parts and chewy parts to it, and whew boy is it addictive! It was a touch greasy, but generally delicious! The raita had an interesting vinegar tang to it, and helped greatly to calm down the heat of the curry. Which, was divine. Spicy, lots of delicious lamb meat, a hearty side of rice with peas and carrots (fresh, flavorful, not bland, mushy veg). The curry was really, really good and I can't articulate it much better. The fact that lamb costs the same as beef, and it tasted good, makes this place a go-to now. I took most of the curry and rice home with me because I was so full otherwise, along with the dessert. The rice pudding was much more liquid than what most Americans probably think of pudding. It was a nice, spicy breakfast/dessert the next day!
This place isn't technically near me, but it's not far on the train and it is absolutely YUMMY. Go in, and eat in if you're brave. Great service, delicious hot from the kitchen food, and the entertainment of watching the patriarch of the family make sure the son/nephew/young man doing delivery has his shit together. What can I say, I'm a sucker for dinner and a show.
Beef Bhuna does it for me every time. I love the spices used in this dish, especially the cardamom seed pods. Yummy :)
I'm really hooked on this dish, so unfortunately I haven't tried anything else.
I'm one of those people who only ever orders Chicken Tikka Masala and a naan, and then sits alone in a corner eating it till I feel light-headed.
So, while I'm enthusiastic, I'm not really conversant in Indian cuisine.
Last night everything went tOpSy TuRvY when I had dinner with a kindly vegetarian couple, and we wanted to share dishes amongst ourselves alla famiglia.
We had the Masala Dhal, Sag Aloo, and a chickpea dish whose name escapes me. Really good, y'all. Enough to make up for the fact that the garlic naan was just OK. Seriously, that was good food in America right there. Their serving dishes are deep. It seems like you really get a lot. A lot of delicious food.
I pathetically scoured and re-scoured the menu for alcohol, but they don't serve it. Can you really bring your own? Cause I'm gonna Go Big next time if that's the case. (tastefully)
Oh dear-- is that a picture of the tikka masala right there? Why are you doing this to me? Sarah B want that thing.
Craving Indian...This is the spot. Large portions, well seasoned, thick and spicy sauce. I recommend the chicken tikka. The chicken madras was fiery and required additional naan bread.
Best Indian in the area. If you dine in, you'll be treated to the romantic glow of an electronic light-up NYC skyline mural, and it's BYOB. I usually get Aloo Motor Gobi, garlic naan and cucumber raita. Staff is really nice. Only drawback is that delivery can be slow at times.
I've been looking for a staple Indian place (relatively) close to home, and I've found it! Too bad I live just far way enough that they can't deliver.
We walked in and there was one table eating. Typical for that time on a Sunday. There was Bollywood on the TV and linen table cloths. We were graciously welcomed by the staff, who made small talk with us about Bollywood, laughed, and was overall very pleasant. I had the vegetable curry and my friend had the chicken tikki masala. Both things were great. Endless rice. And the waiter gave us a little ice cream at the end! Sweet. The service and food were both great. Definitely going back there.
I did indeed fly cross-country this summer--not necessarily FOR Joy Indian, but knowing I'd get to go there definitely helped.
For the first time, friends and I ate in-house. I accidentally ordered Chicken Tikka (I naively hadn't realized that the masala was a separate dish) and was woefully dismayed when my chicken arrived at the table with no sauce. Thankfully, the people at Joy are lovely and happily took my tikka back to masala it. When it returned it was the same Heaven I'd been dreaming about for the past few years; moans and hearty grumbles ensued.
This is the place with the best Chicken Tikka I've ever had.
As stated in a previous review, and on…
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This is the best place for Indian food in the Slope. The restaurant itself isn't the best-looking, but the prices are decent and the food is delicious. The chicken tikka masala is good and the chana shaag is my favorite.
I'm taking away 1 star because lately I've gotten the chana shaag and it's totally oily and not as tasty. But on good days it is total comfort food.
Based on our first encounter with Joy last night, I simply cannot understand how this place receives such consistently good reviews. Simply put, the food was marginal at best. Vegetable samosas, a standard no loose choice of a starter at any Indian restaurant, were dried out and appeared to have been reheated or kept under a hot lamp in the kitchen, a presumption further supported by the fact that they arrived a whole one minute after ordering them!. Lamb Vindaloo, a traditionally spicy dish, suffered from a complete lack of flavor. It wasn't that it wasn't spicy, which it most certainly was not, it was uninspired and bland. Upon complaining to our waiter, the meal was sent back to the kitchen for a much needed boost in flavor. While the dish returned tasting much better than its previous incarnation, it was still sub par.
Chana masala, a chick pea based "stew" was equally as bland. Paired with stale, undercooked vegetables, it too tasted "old" and reheated. The outer portion of the chana was still hard, implying that none of the ingredients were cooked together, and instead a can of chick peas was poured into prepared sauce prior to serving.
The two stars I awarded to Joy rest wholly on the laurels of the waitstaff. The service was attentive and friendly. Water was refilled without asking, and we received a complimentary scoop of delicious mango ice cream for dessert. These few pleasantries however, are not enough to warrant a return visit to Joy. Alas, the search for good Indian food in Brooklyn continues...
This place is pretty good. Point taken, I've never been to the actual restaurant. We just ordered (delivery) twice.
Food came in 20 minutes, prices are OK, food is pretty good. Maybe not as good as a home-cooked indian meal, but still pretty good. Can't say much about the competition in BK because I don't know any of the other places to compare it to, but this one does it for me. :)
They also have some pretty amazing lunch specials. Amazing because the price tag on them is almost too good to be true.
Some places are good for what they are. They are unpretentious. They don't make excuses. They don't change menu's regularly(or can't afford to) and simplicity in service works for them.
Joy Indian on Flatbush avenue in the slope is the epitome of that sort of eatery.
Walk into Joy and one will not be impressed by the decor(simple tables, old tablecloths and minuscule sconces).
The Manager will greet you in a very friendly manner.
The food here always satisfies. Now that is true for most Indian restaurants but at Joy the seasoning is consistent as well.
Folks this is not 'Tabla', and as such, coming here means sticking to tried and true staples. Get the Mulligatawny, it won't let you down. Get the Samosas, they might be a tad on the dry side, but nothing the 'Condiments' Can't fix. Order the 'basic' Naan(getting the cheese or garlic is 'reaching' and you most likely won't be gratified.
The ubiquitous 'Mango Lassi' is very refreshing and a must have to start. In my experience, I've never had a 'bad' Lassi anywhere, so maybe that's not saying much. Still.
Try the Biryani, Paneer or Tandoori dishes here, they are wholesome, simple and good.
I always try to cram too much food in @ Joy, but that's because it feels like home when I'm there. I'm never rushed by the waitstaff(small space that it is) and the neighborhood residents that frequent Joy have come to know what to expect.
Alas, Joy has no alcohol, but feel free to BYOB.
Joy is also one of those 'Slope locations whose proximity to Prospect Park make it a good option for food to take to the park. Get a Pelligrino from a deli, some ice cream and a Blanket, and you're all set.
We order from Joy at least once a week. Love the food! My favorites include shish kabob, saag paneer, and kurma. My only warning - sometimes dishes can be a little bit oily.
Dining in, the staff is always attentive and friendly. Don't let the empty dining room scare you away. This place is the best.
Joy is my favorite Indian food in Slope/Prospect Heights. The service is great + incredibly friendly. I'd recommend their chicken tikka masala, malai kofte and navratan korma. Their curries, breads, and classic dishes are all delicious, and far above average for the neighborhood.
There's also a killer Brooklyn Bridge light-brite picture thing thats fun to stare at, along w/ a stream of Bollywood movies.
Oh, and BYOB...
EDIT: 5/3/08. They are really shady with the pricing for delivery here. Some days the tax is randomly added, some days the price charged is more than what is stated on the menu, today they charged me $2 for rice that was supposed to come with my food. Ugh..I have decided not to order from here anymore on principle. Unfortunately, this is the only edible game in town that will deliver to me (for indian). :(
This is my go-to place for indian in the area. Lately, the food has really slipped. In the past few days I have experienced a way too sweet (and unnaturally fluorescent red-orange) paneer makhani, and also a flat crunchy poori (supposed to be large and fluffy). Even the chana that accompanied the poori were not as spicy and flavorful as usual. I did like that they put in some bell peppers - it something different that helped make it pop a bit. I found myself picking out the peppers and eating them before the rest.
Unfortunately, even with this downward spiral (two deliveries in a row), joy is still one of the best indian restaurants in the area. I like that they deliver to me in boerum hill (even though joy is in the slope). I haven't had it lately, but I loved the chicken madras. Very spicy, and i daresay comparable to mom's. Also recommended is Dumpakht .
For eat in, its pretty basic, byo, and no corkage fee.
I'm starting to believe that if you want the finest food NYC, you'z need to be coming to Park Slope, Brooklyn. Joy Indian is no exception.
I've been to this restaurant about a dozen times and all I can say is that it is consistent and tasty. Usually, I order a variation of a paneer as well as veggie samosas and garlic naan. A combination that could only be beat by the addition of a bit of their scrumptious mango chutney.
There's so many things to like about this place it's hard to list them all. Though it is easily the best Indian in the Park Slope area, I have yet to have a problem getting a table. In addition, the service is excellent and I don't know what it is, but I love their LED lit cityscape picture of New York...so cheesy.
I wholly recommend this place to anyone with a hankering for Indian.
By far the best one in all brooklyn!! Me and my whole family go there for all our occaisions. my only wish is that they delivered to my house... They always accomadate my needs.
Serviceable food, but the departures from the norm were not positives. Aloo paratha was a plain paratha, folded over on top of what seemed like the same potatoes that were in the chaat we had had for an appetizer, rather than being bread with potato filling in the layers. Saag paneer with extra dairy was extra-fancy; chicken tikka masala with extra dairy was merely bland. Bengan bharta had large slices of tomato in it: weird, and not a good addition. Bhindi bajji (with teensy, baby okra!) had nothing strange about it, but wasn't a crowd-pleaser. The onion kulcha and garlic naan were simply forgettable.
Would I eat here again? Yes. Will I try to find a new Indian restaurant in the area? Absolutely
This place has officially proven itself in my books. Along with its twin restaurant in Crown Heights, this joint takes the cake and is the standard by which Indian dining or takeout can be judged in South Brooklyn. Nuff said.
Cautiously optimistic, but I need to try the dine-in experience before this one graduates to three… Read more »
I was wandering up Flatbush looking for something different to eat for lunch when I happened up on this Restaurant.
Oh what JOY, looked at the take out menu, but decided I had enough time to go in and sit down.
I got one of the Lunch specials, Curry Chicken, balsamic rice, and purri bread and added Spice tea.
All was so good, I tried to eat as much as I could fit into my stomach.
I had half wrapped up for supper. They gave me a complementary bowl of rice pudding that was spicy (not hot), and so good. It was music to my taste buds.
I will surely eat here again. I took a few takeout menus to give out in my office. They do deliver, OH JOY.
I ordered a Roti with almonds, coconut and raisins to take home. It also was very sweet and good.
This restaurant gave me such JOY this afternoon.
The wait staff was so pleasant and kind, I could have kissed them all.
So if you are in the area, it is on Flatbush, btn. Prospect Pl & St. Mark Ave., go in sit down and enjoy a treat for your taste buds.
The food here is OK, but ultimately just mediocre. Kinda flavorless. Service was quick (the entrees arrived before we'd finished our appetizers) and attentive, although they did forget our mango chutney. We added salt to all of our dishes, something I've never had to do at an Indian restaurant before.
I'd eat here again, since it's a convenient location, but stick with the basics and avoid the fancier dishes.
MMMM I thought the food was absolutely delcious and everyone who worked there was soooo nice. I was so full but it was really hard for me to stop eating, it was all sooooo good. I loved it, and I'll definitely go back.
I love the food here, especially the veggie selections since I am not a big meat eater. I ordered the channa aloo (I don't remember it exactly but it was chick peas, potatoes and curry sauce.) It was so good. The appetizers I ordered was some sort of patties and veggie pastries. They were also good. Our waiter was so nice, as well. The food came at a fairly decent time but then again, we went there during lunch time on Friday and we were the only ones dining in. And to top it off, the waiter came back with two complimentary drinks from the chef (I think he did this since we were the only party there during the time) so we were getting special treatment. And to top it off, the bill was only 24 dollars. The place is fairly cheap and this would definitely be one of my regular spots.
I spent my most boring New Year's Eve ever here -- my girlfriend Andi and I decided to be radical and do NOTHING on New Year's Eve ... we went to our neighborhood Indian restaurant, which was empty, then went home & watched Angel Heart on TV. Whenever we've gone to Joy since we reminisce. Joy is a perfectly fine Indian restaurant. There are no surprises here. The food is good, the service is impeccable (always reminds me of White Teeth by Zadie Smith) and the prices are perfectly reasonable. It doesn't have the twinkling lights of East 6th Street, but I'm glad it's here in the neighborhood.
It was a nasty, stormy night, and I had a craving for flavorful spicy food, so Indian sounded good. And delivery was a must. So we decided to try Joy Indian, since it's relatively close (less than 5 blocks away, should be quick delivery) and Yelpers gave it good reviews.
We ordered the Vegetarian Special Dinner (for 2 people), and our selections were the mulligatawny(lentil) and the palaka (spinach, lentil) soups, the veg samosa and mixed veg pakora for apps, the chana aloo (chickpeas and potatoes) and baingan bhurta (baked eggplant with onions, tomatoes), and poori for bread. This meal comes with basmati rice and a little dish of firni (Indian rice pudding) for dessert. The soups were similar in flavor - both were creamy lentil soups, but the palaka had spinach in it, nicely spicy for me (too much for him). The apps were both fried - the samosas were ok, but didn't seem all that fresh, and I wasn't a fan of the pakora at all, just too much batter. The chana aloo and the baingan bhurta were flavorful and had a kick, but both were very greasy. In fact, there were little pools of orange grease sitting on top, ick. So between the 2 fried apps, the greasy entrees, and the poori, which is like a lightly fried flour tortilla, this was like a heart attack in a bag, delivered to my doorstep. I hadn't had Indian food for a while, and this was a reminder of how heavy it can be, even though I love the flavors.
Overall, this was a lot of food, far more than we could eat, even though we were STARVING by the time it arrived, and here's why: it took 1 hour and 15 minutes for the food to arrive! Now remember, this place is less than 5 blocks away, so this, to me, was unacceptable. I know it was crappy weather, and maybe they were a little busy, but I placed the order at 9pm, so they should have told me that it was going to take more than 30-45 minutes, which is typically what I experience with most food I order from various spots around the hood. When I called at 9:45 to check on it, they said they were backed up and it would be another 10 minutes, but in reality, it was over 20 minutes later that the food arrived. I was a hungry, grumpy mess when the delivery guys rang the bell, but I tipped well because it was such a crappy night to be a delivery guy, so I felt bad for him.
So I would give the food 3 stars because it was ok - not bad, not great, lots of food for the money, but I'm docking a star for what I felt was bad service. If we order from there again (big IF) and we have a better experience, I will certainly revise my review, but until then, I'm going with 2 stars.
Joy has a reputation as one of the best Indian places in or near Park Slope, and it's been a staple in my delivery regimen for the past two years.
Having acknowledged that, I have to say this place is slipping. Put plainly, the food just isn't that good. Over the past few weeks, I've had delivery and eaten in, and I haven't been impressed with the quality of the meat and vegetable ingredients or the complexity/flavor of the gravies. Recent examples include a way-too-sweet makhani and a not spicy and not tangy vindaloo with dried out chicken.
The dining room is rather plain but charming in the evening with candlelight and white linens, but sadly the food just isn't that good. I we think we (and they) can do better.
Another place that I've only order delivery from, but I love it! The food is relatively quick to arrive and priced well. We usually split an appetizer and end up so stuffed we can't finish our main dishes! Great tikka masala and vegetarian dishes as well.
Very Good Indian food at a decent price. Now my review may be biased because I love Indian food and was starving when I stumbled into this place, but you can not argue with the reasonable prices and the fact that I was full when I left. I of course ordered my favorite dish (which is also what I consider to be a true test of an Indian restaurant) Chicken Tikka Masala and it passed my taste test with flying colors. The person I dined with enjoyed their Chana Masala also. The services was also fast and good (on a Saturday night), and the staff was attentive. My only minor complaint about this place is that the Mango Lassi was a little to mango-y with not enough Lassi (in my opinion). Ohh yah and one more complaint is that they must have assumed that we loved sitting in their establishment and had nothing to do the rest of the night because, after we finished and they took away our food they took FOREVER to bring us the check.
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