We stopped at Joy Yee on our visit to Chinatown based on the many great reviews and we were not disappointed, this was, without question, our favourite meal in Chicago so far and we’ve had many to write home about!!
The drink selection alone is incredible. We chose a Pineapple Mango with mixed jelly and a Kiwi with lychee jelly, both tasting unbelievably fresh and vibrant. Sweet, but balanced, the kind of drinks you don’t want to end.
For starters, we shared fried chicken and pork dumplings with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. Absolutely divine. Crisp, perfectly cooked and packed with flavour.
Mains were spicy shrimp chow mein and grilled short ribs over kimchi fried rice. The portions were huge, genuinely eye-opening for us coming from the UK, but the quality matched the size. Every element was bold, balanced and impeccably executed.
Special praise must go to our server. We didn’t catch her name, but she was warm, attentive and genuinely made us feel welcomed. She is a real credit to the restaurant and deserves recognition for such wonderful service.
An outstanding experience from start to finish.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Crystal Edwardsen
A joy EE evening as always. Last time I got the beef pho bowl. This time I got Thai basil shrimp delicious and I've tried crab rangoon Yum 😋
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Angeles U.
The service was amazing and they were very kind to serve us, the food was delicious, the only bad thing was the bathroom; it wasn't clean.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Peko
I like the painting of anime characters in Chinatown.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Beverly Jennings
It was 3. Degrees and I wanted hot tee. They do not have this item on their menu, no longer sell. Otherwise the food was good, had a lot to choose from
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Elizabeth Dorwart
We stopped in on a weeknight at prime dinner time and the place was pretty empty which should’ve been our first clue.
We ordered the chicken lo mein and crab Rangoons, both of which were good, but not the best I’ve ever had. Even average lo mein and Rangoons are still pretty good. Thank goodness for sriracha to add a little something.
The service was not particularly friendly and seemed they would have preferred we hadn’t come in. We felt it best to eat and leave quickly because the vibe was not welcoming at all.
Not worth a return when there are plenty of spots in the same strip with better food and friendly service.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Stephanie Chothen
Staff very friendly food good valiated parking totally awesome
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Bakhtawar Usman
Hot and sour soup was lukewarm and tasted like American Chinese from north side. Orange chicken had an artificial “orange” sweetener flavor. Fried rice was plain and needed seasoning. Chow fun was so plain that we couldn’t eat it. Portion sizes are large. Very disappointing overall.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 4
Kauser Khan
This used to be my go to place but I was extremely disappointed after my recent visit with my family. The food tasted okay and 2 out of 3 bubble drinks were awful. I was charger extra for each drink that already costed around $8. To top it off, for 2 adults and two children under 7 & 4, I was hit with an 18% service fee. The receipt said 4+ which to me is more than 4 people. I paid over $80! for 1x lo mein 1x fried rice and 3x drinks. I will not be returning again. I felt robbed.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 2
LaTonia Nicole
The food is so good and fresh. I love the consistency of this restaurant.
No service at all but you still have to pay at least 18% of tip when you get the check. I’ve been ordering take out from here for years and the food was pretty good. One bumper is that when you order Pho you need to make sure that you tell the servers several times to cook to noodle more and longer. The noodle is very hard. My whole families complained about it and none of us finished our food. Order take out and Cook them at home then the food is perfect.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 4
Service: 1
Jesus Foster
If you have time to kill this is a great spot. But the parking is a pain. Seems like the cooks have a party in the back getting in and out of random cars. Just taking up parking spots. The food is cold and bland. Save your money, time, and safety. Not worth the drive. Too sketchy with the cooks in and out of the back.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Benjamin Andrew
$9 for a smoothie. Ordered a Berry Best with strawberry popping boba. They made it wrong and used the wrong boba. No problem. Asked her to fix it. She proceeds to dump the wrong smoothie into a new cup. The cup is not full because she's avoiding pouring the boba from the bottom of the cup into the new cup. She then overloads the new cup with strawberry popping boba to make up for the missing liquid and and gives me a 3/4 full smoothie.
For $9.
Then ignores me when I ask her to actually fix it.
Never again.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Edith Ramirez Rastetter
This restaurant has unfortunately gone downhill. The food quality has noticeably declined—our noodles were hard and rubbery, the tapioca in our drinks was also hard, and the Pad Thai noodles looked and tasted completely different than before. Overall, the food was very disappointing.
The service experience made things worse. We were not informed that the restaurant now automatically adds a 20% gratuity to every table. As long-time customers, we were accustomed to gratuity being applied only to large parties, so this came as a surprise. I would not have minded paying it if it had been clearly communicated.
What’s unacceptable is that we were not provided an itemized receipt explaining this charge. Because of the lack of transparency, I unknowingly left an additional tip on top of the automatic gratuity. This is unfair and misleading.
Due to the decline in food quality and deceptive billing practices, we will not be returning.
Lylybell Vega
Food doesn’t taste the same, they’ve lowered the quality of their ingredients. Worst of all they leave the itemized receipt out of your check and don’t mention a 20% service charge which is a tip, but you won’t know that because it’s only on a itemized receipt that they DONT give you. I’m totally okay with paying 20% in gratuity but you have disclose that when you give me the check so clients are not adding another 20%. That’s so deceptive. I had to ask for my itemized receipt and they snatched our closed out check before we could make changes.
I’ve been coming here for years and I’m sad to say that me and my family will not be coming back. Just terrible. When I brought this up to the server all he said was “ok”. Disappointed is an understatement.
We stopped at Joy Yee on our visit to Chinatown based on the many great reviews and we were not disappointed, this was, without question, our favourite meal in Chicago so far and we’ve had many to write home about!!
The drink selection alone is incredible. We chose a Pineapple Mango with mixed jelly and a Kiwi with lychee jelly, both tasting unbelievably fresh and vibrant. Sweet, but balanced, the kind of drinks you don’t want to end.
For starters, we shared fried chicken and pork dumplings with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. Absolutely divine. Crisp, perfectly cooked and packed with flavour.
Mains were spicy shrimp chow mein and grilled short ribs over kimchi fried rice. The portions were huge, genuinely eye-opening for us coming from the UK, but the quality matched the size. Every element was bold, balanced and impeccably executed.
Special praise must go to our server. We didn’t catch her name, but she was warm, attentive and genuinely made us feel welcomed. She is a real credit to the restaurant and deserves recognition for such wonderful service.
An outstanding experience from start to finish.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
A joy EE evening as always. Last time I got the beef pho bowl. This time I got Thai basil shrimp delicious and I've tried crab rangoon
Yum 😋
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The service was amazing and they were very kind to serve us, the food was delicious, the only bad thing was the bathroom; it wasn't clean.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I like the painting of anime characters in Chinatown.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
It was 3. Degrees and I wanted hot tee. They do not have this item on their menu, no longer sell. Otherwise the food was good, had a lot to choose from
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
We stopped in on a weeknight at prime dinner time and the place was pretty empty which should’ve been our first clue.
We ordered the chicken lo mein and crab Rangoons, both of which were good, but not the best I’ve ever had. Even average lo mein and Rangoons are still pretty good. Thank goodness for sriracha to add a little something.
The service was not particularly friendly and seemed they would have preferred we hadn’t come in. We felt it best to eat and leave quickly because the vibe was not welcoming at all.
Not worth a return when there are plenty of spots in the same strip with better food and friendly service.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Staff very friendly food good valiated parking totally awesome
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Hot and sour soup was lukewarm and tasted like American Chinese from north side. Orange chicken had an artificial “orange” sweetener flavor. Fried rice was plain and needed seasoning. Chow fun was so plain that we couldn’t eat it. Portion sizes are large. Very disappointing overall.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 4
This used to be my go to place but I was extremely disappointed after my recent visit with my family. The food tasted okay and 2 out of 3 bubble drinks were awful. I was charger extra for each drink that already costed around $8. To top it off, for 2 adults and two children under 7 & 4, I was hit with an 18% service fee. The receipt said 4+ which to me is more than 4 people. I paid over $80! for 1x lo mein 1x fried rice and 3x drinks. I will not be returning again. I felt robbed.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 2
The food is so good and fresh. I love the consistency of this restaurant.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
No service at all but you still have to pay at least 18% of tip when you get the check. I’ve been ordering take out from here for years and the food was pretty good. One bumper is that when you order Pho you need to make sure that you tell the servers several times to cook to noodle more and longer. The noodle is very hard. My whole families complained about it and none of us finished our food. Order take out and Cook them at home then the food is perfect.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 4
Service: 1
If you have time to kill this is a great spot. But the parking is a pain. Seems like the cooks have a party in the back getting in and out of random cars. Just taking up parking spots. The food is cold and bland. Save your money, time, and safety. Not worth the drive. Too sketchy with the cooks in and out of the back.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
$9 for a smoothie. Ordered a Berry Best with strawberry popping boba. They made it wrong and used the wrong boba. No problem. Asked her to fix it. She proceeds to dump the wrong smoothie into a new cup. The cup is not full because she's avoiding pouring the boba from the bottom of the cup into the new cup. She then overloads the new cup with strawberry popping boba to make up for the missing liquid and and gives me a 3/4 full smoothie.
For $9.
Then ignores me when I ask her to actually fix it.
Never again.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
This restaurant has unfortunately gone downhill. The food quality has noticeably declined—our noodles were hard and rubbery, the tapioca in our drinks was also hard, and the Pad Thai noodles looked and tasted completely different than before. Overall, the food was very disappointing. The service experience made things worse. We were not informed that the restaurant now automatically adds a 20% gratuity to every table. As long-time customers, we were accustomed to gratuity being applied only to large parties, so this came as a surprise. I would not have minded paying it if it had been clearly communicated. What’s unacceptable is that we were not provided an itemized receipt explaining this charge. Because of the lack of transparency, I unknowingly left an additional tip on top of the automatic gratuity. This is unfair and misleading. Due to the decline in food quality and deceptive billing practices, we will not be returning.
Food doesn’t taste the same, they’ve lowered the quality of their ingredients. Worst of all they leave the itemized receipt out of your check and don’t mention a 20% service charge which is a tip, but you won’t know that because it’s only on a itemized receipt that they DONT give you. I’m totally okay with paying 20% in gratuity but you have disclose that when you give me the check so clients are not adding another 20%. That’s so deceptive. I had to ask for my itemized receipt and they snatched our closed out check before we could make changes. I’ve been coming here for years and I’m sad to say that me and my family will not be coming back. Just terrible. When I brought this up to the server all he said was “ok”. Disappointed is an understatement.
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