Huge chinese restaurant boasting seafood menu and dim sum
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 12/7/2004
Rating: 8
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Coming in as a wish list item, Joy Luck Place is situated in downtown San Mateo on 4th street. You cant miss this place, its probably one of the largest restaurants on 4th.
I just missed their takeout area so I had to order off the menu. I went with the special crispy noodles. While waiting for my food, I took a stroll by the aquarium tanks that held the lobsters, fish, and other animals that would find its way to your plate. Did I mention this place is huge? I can imagine this place is a madhouse for dim sum. I got my food to go and while transporting the food home, woooowwweee, the seafood was stinky. I understand seafood does carry a smell to it, but this was almost a warning sign.
I opened it my tray and was greeted by a couple of shrimps, scallops, calamari, bbq pork, chicken, and assorted vegatables. Poured over the crispy noodles, I mixed it up and came back a couple of minutes later, it was now ready. At first glanced, it looked oily but wasnt too bad. The fishy smell was apparent but not in the taste. Seafood was not overcooked and easy to eat. Noodles were skinny and at $11, a little expensive but could be shared between 2 people. I would order this dish again but hopefully the smell wont be as overwhelming.
I had a hard time deciding what to rate Joy Luck Place since I only had 1 item from their menu. Their menu has a nice selection of seafood dishes and Ive heard their dim sum is decent. I was debating between a 7.5 and an 8 but the deciding factors in giving it an 8 were the cleanliness and the hours. One of the cleanest chinese restaurants Ive been too. They are open from 8am to Midnight....late night restaurants will always hold a special place in my heart.
RETURN VISIT for Jason!3/19/2005 - 9 Rating: Made a return visit last night and wow oh wow was it good! I doubt eating it late has anything to do with it because Im eating the leftovers right now and it is making one tasty lunch. I ordered the shrimp over crispy noodles and house special roast chicken.
Noodles - nearly flawless, wasnt too salty, shrimps were cooked perfectly (no fishy smell this time), noodles were a mix of chunchy and soft noodles, some veggies here and there. I would order on every visit.
Chicken - how the heck do they get chicken this juicy and flavorful? It was wonderful!
When it comes to Chinese food, I grade extrememly hard as I am very picky when it comes to this cuisine. Joy Luck Place has made me a happy person and will easily make a return visit.
Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 165
Reviewed: 5/22/2006
Rating: 7.5
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I am rating the Joy Luck Place within Cupertino Village.
Tonight was an unplanned dinner. Several friends and I decided on Joy Luck Place at the last minuet. Haven worn my Jatbar t-shirt, I was hoping not to attract any special attention. It is safe to know that Joy Luck Place has not heard about Jatbar yet, as we did not receive special attention.
I am not a big fan of Joy Luck Place. I have been here on several occasions for dim sum and dinner. I find the price to be higher than average and the portions to be less than average. The restaurant tends to cater to a higher social class as the service and presentation tend to be above average. Within the Cupertino Village, Joy Luck Place has two sections. On one side is the higher end restaurant and in the back they have a lower end restaurant, which is still considered pricey but less extravagant.
Joy Luck Place presents them selves as an elegant and high-class restaurant. Tea served hot, water served in a clean glass goblet, and plates often replaced with clean ones in the middle of ones meal, especially if a shellfish dish is involved. There is typically more than one waitperson looking over the tables to attend to the customers needs. The way they serve a dish is different from many Chinese restaurants, in where a person would carry out the dish and another person would place the dish onto the table. In addition, the restaurant itself is extravagantly furnished and has elegance to it. The seafood aquarium is usually stocked and looked at in awe by the patrons.
All this comes at a cost. The cost is the price to meal ratio. The prices here tend to be much higher than comparable restaurants, close to sticker shock realization. The portions here are not as extravagant as the price of the dish. The dishes, plated with the intention of receiving high presentation marks, but typically filled with fillers. If the fillers were not present, the dish would look almost empty.
On this day, we decided to choose a prix fix menu for four. The prize was $75 for a 5-course meal plus free desert. We had plenty of selections to choose. What I found odd was there were choices to choose from the Chinese menu, where as the same prix fix dinner on the English menu cost $88 but with a set menu.
Our soup was heavy on the cornstarch as it was a bit thick but full of flavors and tasted light to the pallet. I am uncertain the type of soup but it did consist of some roasted duck. Next, they brought out the stir fried clams in garlic sauce. There were a good 12 to 15 clams, but this included some closed shell clams as well. After that was the roasted duck. The duck here is much tastier and less fatty than served elsewhere but the portions are also a lot less. Not only the portion size but also the size of the duck is smaller.
A dish that exclusive to Joy Luck Place is the sea mushrooms wrapped in a beef fillet. The beef was very tender and I do love tender beef, but the dish was tasteless. There was a nice sauce, but tasteless at that. Despite the dish having no salt or very little salt this was still a treat to find beef so tender and cooked through perfectly. Our final dish was the ginger and scallion crab. Nothing special here as the crab size was obviously very small but still was enough for four people to share.
Last, to come was desert. The desert was a lightly sweetened broth with dates, and several other kinds of ingredients. The desert is very easy to make but typically not served elsewhere.
Over all the dinner was enjoyable, but most places having just spent $92.00 after tax and tip would resolve in plenty of leftovers as well as everyone being stuffed. In our case, everyone was near the point of being full but not quiet there. Once again, I was the last person to finish the meal. The wait staff decided to clear out the dishes for everyone else at the table, and since I was the only one still eating it looked odd that only my plate was still on the table. Ok! I get the fact you want me to finish and get us out of there.
If you decide to come here for dim sum on a weekend, prepare to come early or wait on a long waiting list. This place is extremely popular for dim sum as well as weekend dinners.
I had the XO Sauce Noodles and the Fujian Fry Rice
“The food was great. Apparently they can't get their pricing straightened out though. The menu on this website says the two items should be $9 and $11 each. When I got there, they charged $13 each. That's a $6 difference. Sort of a rip”
11/12/2007 3:05:07 PM
Foodvacuum ate...
Dim sum
“Lots of choices. Prepared well and everything was vewry tasty. ”
