Rowan Q.
Yelp
The previous restaurant in this location, Silver Plate, was a joy to have and when it was hit hard by the pandemic, I honestly felt so sad as there aren't many great pan-Asian choices in the Roscoe Village area as accessible as Silver Plate was. A few months ago, when I saw that they had installed Joy-Yee signs to replace the Silver Plate signs... I felt joy again! (no pun intended)
Joy-Yee is a bit of a journey for me to go to, so I really only go there whenever I'm in the area of one of its locations. Evanston is pretty far north from me, and Chinatown/UIC are pretty far south. Those aren't distances I'm willing to drive to just grab a quick dinner, so having a Joy-Yee within walking distance is so great to have.
I'm a basic Filipino boy and almost refuse to get anything else except the tomato beef cubes. As someone that absolutely hates raw tomatoes... this dish is fire and just as quality as it is at any of the other locations. Can't complain.
Something I was surprised by was their garlic noodles. There was a picture of a dish with garlic noodles and the noodles looked so good that I asked the waiter if I could just try the noodles by themselves, even though that option wasn't on the menu. The waiter understood and got me exactly what I wanted: literally just a plain plate of garlic noodles. Props to him for knowing how to denote something that wasn't technically on the menu, and also, props to the chef because the garlic noodles are FANTASTIC. If I had to venture out of my comfort zone with a different dish, I'll probably try something with those garlic noodles next time.
In terms of their colossal drink menu, it's so expansive that I honestly haven't really found anything I've liked in the 10+ years I've been going to any Joy-Yee's location. This location is no exception; I've tried maybe like 3-4 different drinks here and they're all adequate but nothing too special to me.
Service is pretty good; in the beginning there was a waitress that needed us to point out every single item we were ordering on the menu so she could write down the code. I definitely don't expect new waiters to memorize every single menu item, but it was a bit frustrating having to comb through the menu to re-find the items I wanted instead of the waitress just writing down the order we provided to her. I have not seen that waitress since, so I'm not sure if she's still employed there or not, but just something to look out for. It has also been several months so if she is still there, I'm willing to have faith that she's memorized the menu a bit better.
As others have mentioned, seating area is pretty small so takeout is this location's forte. However, my girlfriend and I have dined in several times with no issue, and because most people get takeout here, it's never really crowded.
Joy Yee is a very welcome addition to Roscoe Village, and although I miss Silver Plate very much, I think Joy Yee is a worthy replacement, and I hope at least that they retained some of the staff from Silver Plate.