Joy Kitchen — Restaurant in Andover

Edited for clarification as requested by Joy Kitchen management 2/3/18: By now I have forgotten the date, but we ordered the tuna roll, Philly roll, spider too and some other fried roll I cannot remember. Yes this was definitely the Joy Kitchen in Andover at the intersection of Hanson Blvd and Bunker Lake Blvd. It is less than a mile from my home and was upset it was not a better visit. The options located specifically in Andover are lacking, so we had high hopes/expectations.

Original Review: My wife was craving some sushi and we had heard great things about this place for months. We arrived to our table quickly and got our drinks, but once we ordered our food we waited for almost 45 minutes to receive just three sushi rolls and a child meal. We were hoping this was one of those worth the wait situations, but it was not. One of the rolls was so bad I actually had to get to the bathroom to spit it out because I wasn't sure the roll would be the only thing coming out of my mouth. My wife also thought this roll was disgusting, so we ate the other two, which were middle of the road flavor. When we our server came to pick up the plates she asked if we wanted a box for the full roll we barely touched and we told her how bad it was and she apologized. Then she came back with the check and still tried to charge us for it, so we had to make a big deal about how we would not be paying for something we felt was disgusting. Finally after ten minutes of her explaining it to someone else, it was taken off of our tab. Would not go back for sushi again, but if I can get myself over this visit I would consider going back for something not on...

Came in to get sushi and an order of chicken pad thai. It was a Monday night and not that busy inside. The guy told us to sit wherever we wanted. It took him a while to bring us our menus. I put our sushi order in right away because we were hungry. Then he took our order around 5 minutes later for the pad thai.

We waited and waited for the sushi...it was around 20 minutes and no sushi yet. I went up to the server and asked when it was coming? He said soon. Finally it came and then we waited around another 10 more minutes for the pad thai. He never refilled our waters or grabbed the dirty plates!

When our pad thai finally arrived at the table it had a weird smell to it. My husband and I both didn't like the taste and it wasn't very hot! So, when the guy finally came back to ask how it was...we told him it wasn't what we thought it would be...he said that it's a hit or miss with a lot of people.

So, now we just want to leave. He asked, did you want something else? We said Chicken Lo Mein since he told us it would be on the house. We asked for it to go. It came up quicker than the other food. Here's the kicker...he still charged us for the Lo Mein when he specifically told us it would be free! I even confronted him on what he had told us...but, he still charged us after this whole big mess...we won't be going back . . .

Too bad because we live so close to this place and like to support our local businesses. JOY KITCHEN.... you need to get more trained servers for the inside dining customers, instead of worrying about all the takeout orders...get a new system...

I love having another sushi option nearby, and while the sushi was good, it wasn't amazing. They have the normal options with maybe a roll or two that would step outside of what you'd see on a normal menu. If you're looking for a sushi place to eat sushi, this place will do the trick, everything appears to be fresh, if you're looking for sushi that will blow your mind, this probably isn't the best place to try. The service was fine; nothing notable, expect for maybe a bit awkward. The server seemed to speak softly and maybe mumble a bit, so it was hard to know what was being said a few times. We arrived around 5:15pm on a weeknight and were the only couple sat, a few other tables filled up, but the place is super quiet and you could hear all the conversations echo through the place. The other reason I've docked an entire star off my review is due to the fact that there is NO SUSHI BAR! I really love being able to sit at the sushi bar and watch and interact with the sushi chefs. I was super bummed when we walked in to no bar. Please note: my review is solely based on our meal of sushi as we ordered nothing else...