Joy Dumpling — Restaurant in Cupertino

2/21/2020 - Came for the soft opening. Food was enjoyable and wait staff was quite friendly. A lot of food items were out, which is understandable as they are working things out. Still a bit disappointed that a food item would be okay to order and they would come back to us 10 minutes later and inform us we can’t have the food because it is out. Then we would later see the food item being served to another 30 minutes later! I understand that this is their process of working through things so my review will not be based on those things till my return visit when they are open open.

My reason for a one ⭐️ deduction from 4 is this: One waitress recommended one noodle saying it was chow Mein a dry noodle but it was chow ma mein which is a soup noodle. Another waitress came and dropped off the dish and we pointed this out politely, she got defensive and explained that it was what was said on the menu but it was not clear to us as our Chinese isn’t too strong and her colleague had told us it was a dry noodle. No worries, I like chow ma mein too but didn’t appreciate that they were not accommodating or willing to apologize for their lack of clarity.

Overall food is pretty tasty albeit a bit $$ for what you get. Soup Dumplings (xlb’s) are pretty solid But they were mostly stuck together and often broken when picking up even when we were careful. I tried two different types and their fillings were not bad. The regular and the crab were both good but a bit disappointed by no potstickers to try. Anyways, their A Tsai was good and we enjoyed their green pancakes and beef rolls too. Parking is ample but just have to watch what time with quite a few restaurants in area and many people who cannot park their cars well.

I give 3 stars till an update because of the noodle incident and also because they were constantly unclear as to what they had and did not have. Food was decent and would equate to 4 stars but feel that 5 will require a bit of work on improving their service and other things. Definitely an option but as it advertises “joy dumpling” you’d hope their dumplings...

This place is spacious inside. If you come during peak time, there's usually a line. Their food comes quickly, so the wait usually isn't too bad.

The XLB is juicy inside and the dumpling size is bigger than Ding Tai Fung's. I'd say the skin is as thin and comparable to Ding Tai Fung's too. We tried all three kinds: the regular pork ones, pork with crab meat, and the shrimp with loofah squash. They're all good.

The flavor of the three-cup chicken is good, however, too many bones. They chopped the chicken with bones and there were fragmented bone pieces. You'll need to be careful when eating this dish.

Their steamed beef dumplings are good, but a bit on the salty side.

The sliced beef and cucumber roll with green onion pancake is so-so. Only has one thin slice of beef and there's not enough meat inside, compared to other restaurants I tried.

Their fried rice are tasty. We tried a few before and they're all decent. The picture below is the Sakura Shrimp fried rice and it's very flavorful without being too salty.

The steamed sole fish (filet) is surprisingly good. Worth a try if you haven't ordered this before, and no fish bones!

Their scrambled eggs with prawns is good. A lot of prawns and tasty eggs. A good protein dish.

Their sauteed veggies are pretty good too. We tried the sauteed A-choy and bitter melon with garlic. Both dishes are decent.

The boiled tofu with house special sauce is excellent.

If you don't want to wait for long line at Ding Tai Fung, this is the place to come. Of course if you want way better (Americanized) service, go to Ding Tai Fung. This service at this place is like typical authentic Chinese restaurants, don't...

I have to admit, our first visit to Joy Dumpling was quite disappointing. While the food was generally okay, arriving at noon meant finding most popular items, like dim sum and pan-fried dumplings, already sold out.

It seemed nearby tables were over-ordering the popular items, leaving nothing for later guests. The restaurant's ambiance was classic Taiwanese-Chinese, though parking was a bit tight.

Despite driving 25 minutes for what seemed like a promising lunch, we were let down by sold-out menu options. Come early, especially on the weekends if you don't want to risk what happened to us.

However, the pork and crab dumplings we did try were tasty, but the recommended fish dumplings had thick skin, and the egg yolk tofu didn't live up to the hype. The pea sprouts were good.

Overall, it wasn't the memorable birthday lunch we hoped for, and with other dining options nearby, we may not return...