Kevin T.
Yelp
My brother and I were actually lined up to go to a nearby spot, but got caught off guard with a cash only policy. This place seemed generally quite popular so can't be too bad right? While Joy Dumpling definitely gives a good meal on the slightly cheaper end of things (great value), the dishes we got had a lot of hit or miss aspects to them so it's hard for me to find a good reason to come back when competition runs hot in the dumpling space.
Service was generally good in that classic efficient chinese manner, though most things were done offline (in terms of menus, ordering, waitlists, etc.) so it seems a bit more old-school in that sense. There's probably going to be a wait, but throughput seemed reasonably high even for a Saturday night so we didn't wait too long for party of two.
Since it was a new shop for me I did want to try a bit of dimsum and noodle variety, since they seemed to be their forte. Then we plopped a veggie dish on top to help round out all the carbs we were inevitably getting. The variety of dishes was pretty large and I couldn't quite figure out what region this most represented (just seemed to be quite a jumble).
==Xiaolongbao [2/5]== The XLB had very gritty texture to their meatballs, which was very unpleasant to eat. My brother didn't even finish his allocation of XLB (which is unheard of honestly, first time I can recall he's done that). XLB skins were really thin, but also tore extremely easily. Broth in the XLB was okay at best and wasn't very flavorful. Bit ginger heavy on the meatball flavor.
==ShenJianBao [3.5/5]== SJB were unusual (to me anyway) in that the bao part was extremely dense and chewy rather than being more bready, though I believe this is a regional variation (it's a nice kind of chewy though so this wasn't negative in any way). Flavor was decently strongly gingery and porky, and the bottoms had a crisp sear to them, but meatball's gritty texture was rather offputting and unfortunately ruins it for me. Same issues with the XLB, but helped by the other positive parts of the baozi.
==Sichuan Eggplant [3.5/5]== The eggplant had a good amount of heat and reasonably tender eggplant chunks, but the seasoning was rather inconsistent. Some parts were much saltier than others, so it made for rather big jumps from "not enough flavor" to "too much, need water". The eggplant was cooked quite nicely tender though, so when the bites were good they were solid, but sadly the inconsistency kind of makes it hard to recommend.
==Beef noodle soup [3.5/5]== Though visually a heartwarming sight and loaded with lots of noodles, this dish was just alright. Though packed, the noodles were extremely gummy with a pastiness to them that were honestly a struggle to finish. At least the broth was good and the beef chunks were tender and flavorful bites, but that unfortunately doesn't overcome the major weak link. Might be a style thing, but it's definitely not mine.