Joy

"Joy is a popular Taiwanese restaurant that's convenient when you want a satisfying meal in less than a half-hour but would rather eat popcorn kernels off the floor of your car than do a drive-thru. Owned by the same people as Pine & Crane, the order-at-the-counter spot has a small menu with a ton of variety. They serve daily cold appetizers, a few different soups, noodle and rice sections (we love the salty, savory Chiayi chicken rice), and fantastic sandwiches made with their flaky homemade scallion sesame bread. Almost everything falls under $15, and even when it's crowded, you can be in and out before your meter expires along York." - brant cox, sylvio martins, andrew ryce, cathy park

"This hip, fast-casual Taiwanese spot in Highland Park offers a focused menu of classic street foods, including rice bowls, noodles, and buns, along with a rotating selection of cold appetizers like crunchy lotus roots and wood ear mushrooms. Joy is the sister restaurant to Pine & Crane with locations in Silver Lake and Downtown, but its menu is more solo-dining friendly. Some items are carried over from Pine & Crane, like the minced pork on rice, but Joy also introduces some exclusive dishes, such as the flaky thousand-layer pancakes, which are best filled with egg, cheese, chile sauce, and basil. Saving room for dessert is a must — the shaved ice and soft Hakka mochi dusted with finely crushed peanuts and black sesame are excellent choices." - Kristie Hang

"Dish: Slack Season Noodles The Slack Season Noodles at Joy, the Taiwanese restaurant in Highland Park, packs a ton of comfort into a small bowl. The deep flavors don’t come from its toppings–a single, beautifully tender shrimp, some seasoned ground pork, and green onions–but from the soup’s clear base. The shrimp and chicken broth impart a subtle (but necessary) ocean flavor to the chewy wheat noodles. Add on some shrimp wontons in chili oil or a thousand-layer pancake while you’re here–both are great and balance the soup’s simplicity with some huge punches of flavor." - brant cox, kat hong, nikko duren, sylvio martins

"This casual and cozy Taiwanese restaurant (a sister restaurant to Pine & Crane) is always a kid favorite. While there isn’t a dedicated children’s menu, there are enough items to keep them happy: shrimp wontons, thousand-layer pancakes with egg and cheese, desserts like fruit shaved ice, and fun drinks like Japanese Calpico. Bonus: the restaurant is spacious with a lively atmosphere." - Eater Staff

"With noodles, rice bowls, and thousand-layer pancakes to be had, it’s no wonder that most folks stumble out of Joy properly stuffed and likely without dessert. But hold back some on the savories, because the hakka mochi is worth saving room for. Served alongside mugs of warm tea, the mound of mochi arrives dusted in irresistible peanut and black sesame powders." - Cathy Chaplin, Eater Staff