Joy's cafe Bistro İzmir — Restaurant in Konak

I’m in town visiting in laws and family. I decided to venture out on my own while my husband was out doing business. I made a stop here to grab a quick bite to eat before heading to the areas I wanted to see. I’m a foreigner. I’m visiting from the United States. My husband is originally from Izmir. I chose this place based on reviews, saying how attentive the staff was and how there were English speakers here were very helpful. Unfortunately, I experienced none of that. It’s summer and it’s very hot. I sat down and was shown how to access the menu in English. After a few minutes, I picked out a few things and waited for someone to come over so that I can tell them my order. So much time went past. People that came in after me were seated and handed water And utensils and had their orders promptly taken. I almost got up and left . Finally, a man comes over and takes our order. Still, water wasn’t given to us until much later. We are finally given our food. The staff was going around to other tables, making sure they were OK and collecting empty plates and trash. No one came up to us once asking if we needed anything else or anything at all really. Even when we were done eating, no one came up to collect our plates or our trash….just an empty water bottle. The restaurant was not busy at the time. Instead, we got multiple stares. After sometime sitting down, I decided to get up and pay for our check. The woman that took my payment was very unfriendly and rude. I handed her my card and while my car was processing, she was just staring me up and down.

Izmir is a lovely place. This is not my first time here. I am working on learning the language to communicate better with locals, but as of now, I just know simple, greetings, and phrases. I typically don’t travel around the city alone so communication is never a problem. I felt like we weren’t welcomed here at this restaurant. I’ve been here for a few weeks now And I haven’t experienced this type of treatment at any other restaurant or establishment. For the most part, people here are friendly. I guess, depending on your ethnicity/race, that is what determines How the staff treat you here. As I mentioned, I’m visiting from the United States, I am black though. That’s the only reason I can come up with as to why I received such cold treatment. I wasn’t being rude, I was friendly, I would say please and thank you. Although, Customer Service was bad and I didn’t enjoy the food that much, I’m giving two stars because my child really enjoyed the burger. I look forward to trying other places, but I definitely won’t be back here. Working in the medical field, I’m taught to treat people equally no matter what they look like, or where they are from. The people here should do better. Instead of staring and being rude, providing good customer service would’ve been awesome. I’ve traveled all around the world, never experienced this type of blatant...

Our experience at Joy’s was amazing as foreigners visiting Izmir. Food was great with attentive service. When we went there for dinner, they even had great live music. Please get the homemade cheesecake - it was AMAZING.

We were so tired of tourist trap restaurants in Istanbul (before getting to Izmir), so glad we...

Been visiting here daily whilst we are visiting Izmir from the UK. This café is very clean, the staff are very attentive and friendly and the food is exceptional. They made us feel very welcome, even provided blankets when the wind picked up slightly. Thank you for welcoming us and for the...