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Mon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Mon-Sun. 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
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I realized that I don't often eat dim sum without friends who speak Chinese. This time none of us spoke Chinese, but we faired alright. There was some confusion between us and we weren't able to satisfy all of our tummies with our favorite dim sum choices. What is that oval-triangular shaped, sticky-sweet deep fried outside, with a slightly salty pork ball inside, anyway? I got my lo mai gai so I was content. Only content because I think this lo mai gai was not extremely... glutinous.
Halfway through our meal, one of the employees accidentally spilled my tea on me as she was setting a dish on the table. How come I'm not surprised by this? I wish there was a dim sum place somewhere that would consistently provide good service. The service here was okay. Another employee pushing a cart around actually took the time to explain the dim sum she had to offer. That was nice for a change.
I think it would be helpful to non-Chinese speaking people if there was an English/Chinese dim sum menu available. I'll need to ask if they have one next time so we could figure out that one dish...
Arrive early. If not to avoid the long wait at the restaurant, then for the horrendous parking situation. Better yet, drop someone off to reserve a number at the restaurant while you find parking.
After a week on an island without Asian food, my soy sauce withdrawal was giving me the shakes. Ten minutes after touching down at SFO, I was in the car beelining it in pursuit of bitty hot pockets of Chinese love! Naturally the quest brought us to Cupertino Village, a plaza of Far East goodness filled with foods and products that can't properly be ordered in the English language. Entering the parking lot, I think my knees may have quivered with joy.
A quick ushering to our seat and parade of steaming dishes got us masticating in no time. We experiences none of the aforementioned abysmal service, just tray upon cart of temptation. The classics were decent: the giro jyozi (chicken dumplings) nicely skinned and delicately flavored with slices of ginger though served lukewarm, xiao lum bao were thick walled and heavy with meat lacking in soup, and the zhong zhi were wrapped in rolls instead of pyramidal coolness though they tasted fine. The dofu pi with shrimp was deep fried and overly crispy. Steamed version next time, for sure. And the red dyed baby octopus with bright green seaweed salad was a garish Christmas plate that should definitely be skipped.
The seafood dumplings turned out to be stellar: then shrimp dumplings with transparent wraps and leeks were excellent as were the silo-shaped pumpkin and shrimp with an orange exterior. That's right, pumpkin. In a dumpling! Life altering, I know. I'll have to try the mango version upon my next visit. With a side of dao miao (mustard greens), of course.
The $1.50 tea charge is grumble-worthy, though I don't know of any other joint that gives you a choice of brew (puehr, jasmine, oolong). For the first time in my years of dedication to the fine art of dim sum face stuffing, I paid over $45 dollars for two people. Maybe not highway robbery, but I did feel dirty afterwards. And yet, for the genuine, handmade experience and unique offerings, I'd certainly make the pilgrimage again.
I love Joy Luck Palace. I think its the best dimsum place in the South Bay and one of the better Cantonese restaurants here. My parents and I have been going to JLP for years and are friendly with the staff, which means we usually don't have to wait long when we arrive for brunch/lunch.
If you don't want to wait in line for weekend dimsum, but aren't buddy-buddy with the hostess yet, you should call in to get a number ahead of time. This will reduce your actual wait time once you arrive at the restaurant.
If you're feeling a bit of a pinch on your wallet, you can always venture next door to the little cafe and order typical Hong Kong lunch plate type meals. All their BBQ items are delicious, as well as their noodle soups. MMM.
I like the dim sum here..it's tasty and they have unique choices sometimes but their service suck!!! The wait is long on weekend too...come early or expect a long wait....
Food & location is 4.5 stars
Service: 2 stars
Long Wait: 2 stars
Came on a Sunday during brunch for dim sum, it was packed. The dim sum was good but I didnt see a big selection. As I was leaving I realized they had a huge selection on the dim sum menu, but no one offered me one. So I tryed to select items as they walked by with the carts. Same carts, safe food kept passing by.
Tip:
Ask for a dim sum menu
try something different like the chicken feet- they are tasty
We had lobster flat noodle which was unexpectedly delicious. Lots of ginger to offset the lobster. Then we had pea-shoot leaves, and some sliced fish. Both were okay: not great, but decent.
We got there late... at about 9:20 p.m.. The kitchen was closing at 9:30 p.m. so the service was a little "hurried". It was interesting to watch them run a little "relay race" from our table to the kitchen with each order of a dish. If anything can be said about effort, they certainly tried really hard to get our order in quick and we got our food really fast.
The food was still pretty good, despite the rush.
The jury is still out on this one but so far it has been a good experience. I'm just glad to have found some decent authentic Chinese food in the South Bay!
Right up there with Dynasty in Grand Century. I LOVE LOVE LOVE their food. Maybe my friends knew what to order or I was really hungry that day, but the food was bangin'.
We ordered the usual stuff:
stir fried baby sprouts
peking duck
sweet and sour pork
etc.etc.
And they were good.
But, the one thing that I dream of everyday is that fish soup. I have no clue what the name is, but it was a pretty expensive dish. My friend chose the fish and they used the fish to cook the broth and then served the fish and broth separately.
Oh my god. I would die happy if I could have this dish again.
nothing wrong with this place. but nothing great about this place either.
for dim sum, its expensive and mediocre. dont understand why theres a line for this place.
for regular food, i'd rather go to the other side (to the Joy Luck Palace - Bistro) and get some chinese food that's good and worth it and cheap. there are tons other chinese restaurants in cupertino village that are more reasonable and better tasting.
Hard to remember the last time I came here it was so long ago. I remember a fairly ordinary or even sub-par experience, but I'm glad I went again today because everything was perfect.
Arrived at 10:40 am on a Sunday and the restaurant was 3/4 full - so the hours on Yelp probably need some updating (says they open at 11 a.m.) We were given a table in a corner near the fish tank - perfect for us since we had a stroller with us and the baby could be entertained by the fish.
Sitting in a corner or along a wall for dim sum is usually not good since you usually end up having to flag people down, but from the moment we sat down, there was a continuous stream of offerings. There were the carts, as always but I noticed many more hand-carried trays than other places. This may be their secret for another perfection which is that everything served to us was piping hot.
When our tea came, the waiter actually poured the tea for us - I can't recall the last time anyone has done that. All of the servers were very polite and attentive. If we mentioned we were looking for one dish, they said 'deng yi xia' (wait a little) and in a few moments they had passed on the word to whoever had the dish to come directly to us.
The usual suspects - hao gao, cha su bao, xiao mai, chung fung - were all great. And the black sesame balls were just oozing goodness.
From beginning to end, excellent service and excellent food!
First of all, I should say that this rating is for dim sum. Also, it's based on my most recent experience. That said, here we go with my experience with Joy Luck Place.
So, I used to come here relatively frequently. Whether it was for take-out or to sit in for dim sum during my lunch hour, it was a good place to come to. The dim sum was pretty good as I remember. The siu mai were of particular note as they were served on large mushrooms. They had most of the regular offerings, though, and it was all good. The pricing was fairly decent, too.
So what happened? One day (almost a year ago now), the service just went downhill. Downhill's probably an understatement. It really just STOPPED. My sister and I were getting together for lunch, and we were seated in about 15 minutes, and then we waited for food for about 45 minutes. No carts were going around. The waiters never even brought us our tea. We did manage to get some ice water, and also some pork spare ribs. So, after waiting all that time and getting nothing, we decided to leave. I left the money on the table (exact change) and we left.
I decided to come back here again with my girlfriend some weeks later. After all, I'd been here many times, and it was always great. Maybe it was just a fluke. So, this time, it was a Saturday afternoon, and we stopped in. This time, we didn't get ANYTHING. No tea, no water, no service at all. It was obvious that it wasn't just us either. Every 15-20 minutes or so, we would see a cart come out, and people would just pounce on all the items. Clearly, people were so hungry that they were just eating anything they could. Needless to say, the carts never got around to us.
I don't know what happened to this place. It really did used to be a good restaurant, but they must have lost a chef or something, because they just don't get the food out. It's really hard to rate a restaurant on the quality of their food when the food never gets to you.
They have a chain (I believe. Same name and unique dishes) up in San Bruno, and the service there is much better.
EDIT:
I've recently gotten take-out from here, and the quality of food is still great, but when I went to pick up, the place was almost deserted (as far as dim sum restaurants go). I'm guessing their bad service has really had a bad impact on business.
the problem with this establishment is the lack of service..it seems like quite a task to get water, pay for a bill, as well as the lack of carts coming around..granted my g/f and I were seated in the back area but that shouldn't matter..it also wasn't too busy so that should be no excuse
--they also didn't have the fried shrimp balls, which are one of my favorites..the food we did have wasn't bad at all; too bad the crappy service brought down the entire dining experience
--one last thing..while filling out my check at the front (took way too freaking long to even get my check), the dumb man had the audacity to literally hound over me to see how much tip I was "supposed" to give him..back off homie
Worst. Service. Ever.
I've never written a sentence where the words were separated by periods before, but this place deserves it.
Came here for Sunday Dim Sum at noon. Was seated at 1pm, which was fine because it was busy and I can appreciate waiting for good food. All they had was sticky rice, fried shrimp, and chicken feet.
Where was the har gau, siu mai, char siu baau, or other classics? Seriously, it was 1pm and the place was still bustling with people. Dim Sum was definitely *not* over.
The worst part of it though was this waiter who asked what we wanted to drink. When my 2-year old daughter wanted her own glass of water, he scoffed at me, and went on his way. I flagged him down again and he said he'd bring it, but he never did. I think he looked at me a few times with disdain or mockery. Seriously, how could you not give a glass of water to a cute two-year old! (see profile photos)
In any case, I'm so annoyed that I'm tempted to call BCIS, formerly INS, on all the illegals working here. That's the vindictive side of me and it'd probably be considered bad karma... instead, I Yelp.
Go to Dynasty across the street instead.
PS - To the badly bleach blond waiter, two things:
1) Don't think you're better than your customers. You work at a Dim Sum place. Keep it in perspective.
2) The bleaching your hair blond went out of style back in... oh wait, it was *never* in style.
My mom was craving rice and dishes for dinner and this was the closest place I could think of. Considering my mom is from LA, any Chinese place up here is usually not up to snuff and Joy Luck was no different. She dud manage to muster a back handed compliment by saying Joy Luck was not bad for the Bay Area. The one dish that got Joy Luck this lovely compliment was the yellow-haired chicken dish. I have to say it was pretty tasty. All the other dishes, some beef dish, a tofu dish and a fresh fish were only okay. And desserts, although complimentary, were not good at all. Still trying to find that one Chinese restaurant to take my mom to.
Peter J. is spot on. Their service stank today. Their food sucked. After waiting for our party of 3 to be seated for about 80 minutes, we were finally seated at 1:30PM. They seated us at an uncleared table, well, they tried to. After 10 minutes standing in front of a filthy table they finally cleared it. So, it is now 1:40 and they have almost no Dim Sum. 2 carts went past with only a few items on them. In desperation, we grabbed a few items which are not our favorites. What they did have was cold and obviously not fresh.
After whining they finally came up with ONE Sui Mai. One. We left unsatisfied, pissed off and hungry at about 2:20PM after having 5 very substandard, cold types of poorly prepared dim sum.
We will never return.
Service was horrible. They make you wait and give people they know the tables first. When our number was called, the hostess gave us a demeaning look and then showed us our table.
Food is nothing but ordinary and overpriced. Nothing to really rave home about. They have the usual har gaw, shiu mai and other dim sum but quality and freshness is nothing compared to Koi Garden.
Good food. Iffy service.
Came here to have a FEAST with my family after discovering Dynasty was closed due to an electrical problem.
My table of 13 family members chose an array of food containing a plethora of proteins... duck, chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, scallops and lobster. And we threw in a dish of just veggies to break up all the meat. =P The best dishes were...
Beef Chow Fun: It's a dry chow fun with tons of flavor. It wasn't too oily and the beef was tender. I could totally eat the whole plate in one sitting. A++!
Honey Walnut Prawns: These are the first honey walnut prawns that AREN'T drenched in that sweet mayo. The prawns managed to stay crunchy AND the walnuts were actually great! It wasn't too sticky and gooey like other places where it gets stuck in your teeth. A+++!! =D
By the way, make sure to avoid the Salt and Pepper Pork Chops. It's dry and comes in UNCUT pork chop pieces. How are you supposed to eat it with chopsticks?? And it was a little too dry and not tender enough.
The prices may seem a little pricey, but my table ot $13 people were able to eat 11 different dishes (including double orders of soup and LOBSTER -- Lobster alone was $40 each) for less than $300 including tax and tip. Not too shabby!
I would come back here for dinner. Not sure how their dim sum is but this place is a little too out of the way to go try it. Seems like Dynasty down the street is the more popular choice, but I prefer Hong Kong Saigon Seafood Restaurant. Besides, I wouldn't want the taste of mediocre dim sum to ruin my image of this place. =P
the food here is ok, but the service is soooo not worth it! we've been giving this place so many chances, but we're finally fed up.
last time we were there, we left mad. our waiter only brought our tea, and we couldn't catch him after that! he went to every big table in his area, 2 right next to us, and wouldn't even look in our direction. after we were done eating, we waited at least 30min for him to get our check. after failing to catch anyone's attention, my hubby finally went to the counter to ask for our check.
we should've just walked out. and we had our 3mos old baby with us, good thing she didn't fuss until the end!
of course, they also never brought the crappy complimentary dessert. this place truly has the worst customer service.
my favorite here: the shrimp flat noodle thingy..
i used to not like the shrimp version and i only liked the beef. but this place has changed my mind
i've been lucky here and i dont believe ive ever had to wait for more than 5 minutes.
the dim sum is standard.
i enjoy coming here cuz theres one server who ALWAYS gets the hard dim sum to sell. you see other ppl with the easy ha gow and shiu mai and then you see one poor lady with something that looks not so yummy and her tray is full. next thing you know the guy comes out with her tray and its almost empty. how does he do it?? we've watched him on several occasions and he never fails to get rid of that one tray that never sells. its quite entertaining... he's the loudest one.. look out for him next time!
_________________________________________
EDIT 10.03.09
i had it at a 3 star review yesterday and out of the blue the pook said we should come here today. the last time i was here may have been easter. so its been a while...
there were only 3 of us so we didn't order much. we ordered the standard ha gow and shiu mai with my fave shrimp flat noodle thing. and that rice thing.. lo mai gai or whatever its called... hmmm of course we had pork buns... and i think that was it.
im bumping it up a star cuz i guess i never realized how big the dim sum is..i mean the ha gow is like this big thing of shrimp and not mostly the white part on the outside. you can actually flag someone down and they will come. when you ask for water they bring iced water and it doesn't take forever. and on some occasions if you ask for something that is not on a cart yet they will go back and get it for you if its ready.
so that guy we like to watch was here today. we call him the legend. he has glasses and is one of the only guys who is a cart/tray person since most of the other guys are the ones in jackets who take care of your water tea and bill.
about $30 for the three of us and i was stufffffed. can't wait to go back!
Food = good flavors. Quality is okay...but see below.
Roasted duck = needs less fat. But I guess that is duck.
Braised tofu with shiitake mushrooms and greens = good flavor but lots of grease.
Pork belly over mustard greens = delicious. Perfect flavors, good blend of fatty and lean..addicting.
Deep-fried flounder = a bit strange as it was a 'filleted' fish, that was deep fried, and the 'good flesh' of the fish were cut and deep fried as well. Flavor = lackluster. We were expecting the deep-fried flounder smothered with soy sauce, scallion and savory sauce.
Beef and gai lan in malaysian sauce = very odd combination, reminiscent of fish/shrimp sauce but worth a try.
Service = friendly, if a bit slow.
Decor = simple and tasteful.
Parking = nightmare when busy...
Prices = reasonable for the portions, but like I said, some things, need less grease.
Dinner: 2.5 stars. Not excited about yelping this one since a lot of the food was just ok. Nothing outstanding.
From Good to Ok:
- Salt water chicken. While the portion was tiny (looked like a quarter of a chicken or else half of a small chick), the meat was super tender and with the ginger salt vinegar, just superb.
- Steamed whole fish in ginger sauce. A classic. Can't really go wrong with this. Tender flaky meat in a light soy ginger sauce. Great on rice.
- Shrimp with Snap Peas. Good ingredients made this simple dish tasty.
- Scallop Asparagus Stir fry. Nice big ocean scallops with tender shoots of asparagus.
- Chicken w/ Root Soup. Probably not quite the right name, but it's served in cool tall clay pots. Super rich flavor in the broth. The root pieces were interesting, sort of like potato but not.
- Stir fry Beef with Onions. The beef was super tender. Slices were a little too big since we were trying to share across our table of 10 but the flavors were on target.
- Fried crab. The crab was cooked perfectly, so not over nor under. But the breading batter was a little thick for my tastes. Not a lot of seasoning either unlike other crab dishes I've had.
- Soy Sauce Roasted Chicken. This was a little dry.
- Complimentary dessert of green bean soup. The taste was fine but the look was a little gross - imagine off green mung bean - a little thick - sorta sewage like - but it did taste fine.
Overall the place is like most Chinese restaurants with Chinese food and pinkish table cloths. The waiter was nice enough to find a candle for our birthday cake. And after the symbolic first cut, he went ahead and plated the rest. That was nice.
Total bill with tip: $210.
Wasn't fantastic for the price, hence the lower star rating.
Joy Luck is one of those places you go by default. Most likely you live in the South Bay and you don't want to drive very far to get dim sum so you go to Joy Luck.
We usually come here early Saturday morning because this place gets packed quick...it's EVERYONE's default dim sum place. The food is good, but sometimes it feels like they only have the same 10 dishes over and over again. And to top it off, this isn't cheap! Dim sum should not cost that much...have you seen how cheap it is in Alhambra and Monterey Park??! It should not cost me almost $5 for a plate of lo mai gai...it's just sticky rice! Other than that, they charge you per person for tea so drink up.
I guess as a default dim sum place, it'll do. Joy Luck, you are lucky there isn't much competition in the South Bay...
It's been real hit or miss with me with this place. I go here often but last time this place sort of embarassed me because I took visiting family here and the food and service was subpar. My family thought my tastes had disintegrated.
It's another dim sum place. The obligatory fresh seafood tanks on right, the host stand at the door as soon as you enter and a huge room with tables. Mostly six tops and whatnot.
The first time I was here, I was floored. I only recently discovered Dim Sum within the last 6 years so was impressed by Joy Luck's hustle and bustle. But subsequent visits opened my eyes wider to the crappy service. They rarely have enough dim sum carts rolling around so you end up mobbing one as soon as you see a fresh one come out. If you want anything, you gotta grab a waiter and put him in a sleeper hold.
Warning: Sundays are the asian mob days so be ready to get pushy and for a long wait. I mean, like easily over an hour wait. And the PARKING! good god, the parking. A parking lot thats inadequate AND full of old asian drivers to boot. You do the math.
i used to come to this place back in the day, but it seems that things have gone downhill considerably. the selection is limited, even a peak time on sunday, which is when the most variety should be available. we kept getting the same carts over and over again. we had been eating for at least 20 minutes until i even saw shiu mai. i never even saw cheong fun, except for on the table across from us. by the end of the meal, i just gave up on it. we only got to order 4 or 5 items before we decided to call it quits. i was extremely disappointed in the shiao long bao, which were not that juicy, and quite bland.
on a good note, the chicken feet were pretty good, and they had a shrimp/scallop dumpling that was not bad as well. wehn i say the service was good, bear in mind that this is relative to chinese restaurant standards. they gave us water before we had to ask for it, and they brough the tea out right away. when i asked for spicy mustard, the lady pushing the cart grabbed it for me right away. most unusual! anyway, i probably won't be coming back because they just didn't offer enough of an assortment.
I like Joy Luck despite their questionable service.
Their food is usually good (although it can be very oily) and they have a daily special. I also like their set menus which are good for large groups.
I've also been here for dim sum and it's pretty good too. There is usually a long wait though so be prepared.
*Joy Luck Place is now known as Joy Luck PAlace, see photo*
...website on Yelp page is no longer valid.
We received recommendation from our friends to try this place. The food was about average compare to the other Dim Sum places I been to and the service.... I already understood the fact that you will never get excellent service in your typical Dim Sum restaurant. But this one is almost on the bottom of my list and I'm happy to say that they didn't run out of ice (see review for ABC seafood restaurant)
When we arrived at the restaurant, I was pleased that we were called to be seated right away. The problem was we all stood there in front of the table that has not been set or cleaned!! I was shocked!! Why call us to be seated when the people that used the table just barely left!! We stood there and waited for the waitress to change the table cover and place new plates and chop sticks. I even had to helped and clean the crumbs on my chair with tissue. Already a BAD FIRST IMPRESSION!! My favorite Dim Sum dish is the Taro root dumplings and for some reason, not just this place.... Its almost always the last one to arrives on our table!! I guess it must be just bad luck but its either I don't see this dish at all or I'm already full and this dish decide to finally show up. And with this restaurant, we were able to get only one order and it was over cooked. We also ran out of soy sauce and we all know we need this to eat with our food!! The soy sauce was this small white ceramic elegant looking container and that is probably the reason why it ran out so fast!! On a large party, they had to fill it up twice. Honestly.... I don't really care how nice looking the soy sauce container is, especially in a Dim Sum restaurant. The bill also was an eye opener!! WIDE EYE OPENER!! We been eating at many Dim Sum places and we never recalled having to pay this much before. Both me and my friends were looking at each other.... Did we eat that much?!
WOULD I RECOMMEND? No
WOULD I RETURN? No
This place gets very busy for dim sum on the weekends. Anna the host is one of the nicest ppl so I don't mind waiting.
The food is very good here, but sometimes they run out of food on the weekends. Not much selection. I came here on a weekday at 2pm for a late lunch. They handed us a menu, and we ordered the typical ha gow, siu mai, rice noodles, lum mai gai, spring rolls, and etc. The food came out hot!
I come here for dinner sometimes, and I'm always pleased.
Just be prepared to wait on the weekends as it's popular for a reason.
The food was okay. The service was terrible.
Went here this weekend on a Sunday. Got in right when they opened so didn't have to wait. I didn't get my normal variety of dim sum because they just didn't all come during the hour I was there. I was a little disappointed because I do have my set items I like to order for dim sum. However, the ones I did get were good tasting.
I do like Loon Wah better not necessarily because I think their dim sum is better tasting but because you can order dim sum off a check list to ensure you get all your favorites and also because they offer both southern and northen style dim sum.
FOOD:
1.) Dim-sum = O my.. my friend was right. The dim sum places in Cupertino are much better. I used to be fine with the Dynasty in San Jose, blissfully ignorant. But Joy Luck's dim-sum is much tastier, fresher tasting, and comes out hot
SERVICE:
Not bad, I remember them being nice
ATMOSPHERE:
Normal dimsum atmosphere, on ground level, not as fancy looking as others, a little crowded feeling
This is the place that spurred me to start writing Yelp reviews. My friend and I had been craving dim sum for weeks so we built up large appetites and came here for weekend brunch. We got seated within 5 minutes despite the large crowd at the door, but everything went downhill from there. We sat there for 2 hours, and after only being able to get 5-6 small/medium plates, we left frustrated and still hungry.
Other than the server pushing the cart with the fried foods, it was nearly impossible to flag down anyone else after they had stopped at our table once. One lady angrily pushed her cart off without giving us anything while we were still deciding what to order, and she ignored us every time she rolled past us after that. We asked another server if she had shu mai and she said no, then when she stopped for the old Cantonese couple next to us I was pretty damn sure that I saw her pulling off a lid to reveal shu mai to them. I observed the staff very patiently helping the Caucasian family on our other side order. We happen to be 2 young, non-Cantonese ABCs...draw your own conclusion from that.
I'm normally very patient and accustomed to no-frills grouchy Chinese service, but the treatment we encountered was downright insulting. Next time I'll gladly drive much farther to get my dim sum fix than take my business back to this place again.
I'm increasing my rating for Joy Luck Place. My family has been having dim sum here for years and Joy Luck Place has consistently high-quality dim sum. The ingredients are fresh. They don't skimp. And they add new items to the selection.
New to me this time:
Rice Noodles stuffed with bitter melon and pork
Daikon Radish Pastries (deep fried, not baked)
Pea Sprout and shrimp dumplings
I had never seen bitter melon inside rice noodles and had to try it. I loved it! The bitterness of the thinly sliced bitter melon and the pork really went well with the sweet soy sauce. The rice noodles were great, too--soft, chewy, and held together when picked up.
I know the daikon radish pastries aren't really new, but I usually don't order them. This time, I decided to go for it, and I really liked it. Even though they're deep fried, they aren't greasy. In fact, the baked egg custard tarts are much greasier. The pastries are crisp on the outside and gooey on the inside with a savory daikon compote.
The pea sprout and shrimp dumplings weren't my favorite. The pea sprouts just don't taste that good inside a dumpling. Chives and shrimp go together much better. If you like pea sprouts, order the stir fried garlic pea sprouts. Joy Luck Place does a good job with pea sprouts, from picking them properly (removing the tough bits) and cooking them to bring out their natural sweetness.
We, of course, also had to order the Beef Chow Fun and the daikon radish cake. Oldies, but goodies. Especially here.
In sum, Joy Luck Place is worth the wait. And an extra dollar or two per person for much better food is totally worth it!
I ordered beef chow fun here the other day at lunch--it was great, oily but not greasy. It was the… Read more »
What the heck happened to this place? This restaurant used to have good service and the dim sum tasted better. Me and my friends went to Joy Luck a couple of Saturdays ago and we were told that the wait was only 30 mins. So we had decided to wait. By the time we were seated, it was over 1 hour and it was too late for us to drive and find another dim sum place. When we were seated, we'd ordered some chow mein and it took us 4 times to ask where the chow mein was and it finally came after 30 mins of us ordering it. The dim sum people kept missing us because we were seated in a corner by the front. We tried to call them, but they just ignored us and kept walking away.
Until this establishment improves their customer service, we are not coming back.
With lines like 45 minutes to 1 hr, you would think this place was good. NOPE. It sucked for service, it sucked for variety, it sucked...
I was hoping to find a "good dim sum" place in south bay. But alas, this place sucks too.
was following my fellow yelper's suggestion to call ahead. I called ahead and got #65. I get there and they are giving out # 57. so I get #59 and I ask about #65 and the lady says, take 59 and crosses out my 65. so my calling ahead got me nothing.
Then I proceeded to wait like an hour plus!! meanwhile, I saw there were VIPs who got red numbers e.g. someone just walks in and they get #35!! what the ??? or they walk in and get #77 and get called before all the rest of us!
And then there was another line, inside the restaurant!
so finally, I am going hypoglycemic, so I run over to sheng kee to buy some pastries while I wait. Thinking, any minute now. Nope.
so, then I break out my adorable 2 y/o to see if she can guilt them into getting us a table, b/c she is about to climb the walls after waiting 1 hour!!
we get our table, (I think we were up anyway). the food options were minimal. no har gow, no shrimp with chives, no taro cake.
xiao long bao - pitiful. made me wish I had waited at HC dumpling instead. could've gotten my table, and eaten and left by now. didn't come with ginger. only came with 3 pieces.
nol mai gai (excuse the butchering of the language) nothing impressive. only egg and meat. other places have better stuff in it.
the BBQ long noodle was good though.
the BBQ pork bun - was not your standard red but some brown yuck.
the jook - was plentiful for $6
parking sucks. the line sucks. the food is mediocre. the line in front is ridiculous and "un-American" in that it is not first come first some, but some insider thing.
so, don't come unless you are an insider and you like so so dim sum
This was my second time at this place for dim sum and this was an unpleasant surprise! The food is still good but the service is piss poor! We had to refill out own water (next by the service table), bus our own table and waiting forever for food to come by. I did not get my chicken feet!
For the price, Dynasty is down the streets would be a better bet!
Ahhhh, came here for lunch on a Monday around 12:30 and they basically had only 10 different dishes going around and around. The place was packed, but with no lines, and still no food? There was three of us and we left with only 5 stamps on our paper, 2 of our dishes were the same while the other 3 were different. What happened?!! I'm guessing it's only good here during the weekends or maybe it's just been that long since I've been back?! Can't say I'll return here to try again during a weekday, perhaps a busy weekend would be better.
Did prices go up? Our 5 dishes cost about $27 w/out tip! I just thought that was crazy.
Besides the wait on weekends during dim sum time, the food is great. Can't complain about any dish… Read more »
Neg points for Joy Luck Place! Came here this weekend for our family gathering, not only were the waiters unresponsive they were rude. It seemed like they were just there to push some carts around and fill up people's teas.
We didn't get to see all the dimsum carts because we were seated at the far corner of the restaurant and we had to keep asking waiters for the dimsum items that we like. "It is coming" that's all they kept on saying. In the end, our party of 7 who normally likes this place were outraged by their negligent attitude of serive skills and decided to not come back any time soon.
Bad service : ( BOOOO
The food here was surprisingly good for the most part. I was a little nervous when I got to the parking lot and saw that it wasn't a "banquet" style restaurant. For some reason, I thought it would be bigger from people's descriptions. My fiance and I were quickly seated. We ordered the Beef Chow Fun (dry, no gravy) and the Sizzling Shrimp and Tofu in Shrimp Paste with Spring Onions. While waiting, the waiter dropped off some complimentary soup. I'm not sure what it was, but it was not good. I ate a few spoonfuls and it did start to taste better, but I still didn't finish it. My fiance described it as duck carcass broth soup. He also thought it was very pungent. Even though it was complimentary, they still need to make it taste good for goodness sakes!
The chow fun came out and it was perfectly made. The bean sauce covered every noodle. None of the noodles were stuck together. The beef was super tender. They threw in some bean sprouts for crunch. Perfect.
The sizzling shrimp and tofu was so very flavorful! They used soft tofu and fried the skin so it was chewy. It must have been marinated in the shrimp paste because it was not bland at all. One thing I'd like to see is more and bigger shrimps. They were a little cheap with the shrimp.
The customer service can also be improved. At one point, I waved the waiter down for some rice and he held up his hand at me and walked by. He obviously saw me, but decided to rush to the food counter to stand and wait for the next dish instead of helping me. He never came back to our table. What was up with that? I had to flag down another waiter for service.
It's unfortunate that I can't expect good service at Chinese restaurants. If I did, most of my Chinese (among other Asian) restaurant reviews would get 2 stars. I am kind and try to focus mainly on the food. For that reason, I give 4 stars. I will release more star power when they serve a better complimentary soup, give more shrimp, and end with a nice complimentary dessert (bean soup, oranges, cookies....something!)
Solid dim sum but not impressive. Haven't been to this place in 7 years but always thought it was one stronger dim sum places in the South Bay. So was hoping to get a pleasant re-introduction to this place... but for some reason I left still wanting more.
Nicely packed during weekday lunch so that was a good sign. Clientele included area high-tech ppl as well as Chinese parent and grandparent-looking type people.
Had all the standard ha gow (shrimp dumplings), rice rolls (shrimp and beef), sticky rice in lotus leaf, sesame balls, pork ribs in blackbean sauce, pork buns, etc. They were all decent except for the beef rice roll - the beef tasted hard and a bit weird.
Bottom line: 3.25 stars. A solid dim sum option among Joy Luck, Dynasty, and Pan Tao within the mile radius of Cupertino but think I still much prefer Dynasty since they have more options and dim sum that tastes better overall.
This is a pretty good dim sum place, the only thing I would complain about is the services. I asked for water three times and still it didn't come. When asked the forth time, it came. I was pretty annoyed. As for the dim sum, I actually have to flag down the cart waiters to even get any food on the table. It might be where i was situated, near the kitchen!!!
I ended up ordering:
Chicken feet: pretty good, had better
Xiu Mai: very good, the best out of all dishes
Some green vegetable with garlic (looks like spinach): pretty good
Ribs: good
Hai cao (shrimp dumpling): decent
Shrimp stuffed with green vegetables: pretty good)
Shrimp roll w/sauce: good
Custard bun: good, but wasn't that warm
Overall, I would come back.
Cupertino, CA
Category: Chinese
Sunnyvale, CA
Category: Dim Sum
San Jose, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Cupertino, CA
Category: Seafood
Cupertino, CA
Category: Chinese
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