Joy Luck Resturant

My first ever hot pot and I loved it. Service was good, the place was packed, so we had to remind the waiters about getting us more food. Other than that, food was great. We had the half spicy and half clear broth, and it was delicious. The veggies were fresh and tender, and the meat was tasty. Very happy and will recommend!

Tasty, cheap and homely food. They have quite a lot of vegan options available and they are very accommodating. I ordered the vegan sesame noodles, which came with crunchy pickled vegetables, and the braised tofu dish. Both were delicious and especially the braised tofu was very comforting and tasty. Just really enjoyed the food generally. Food tastes home cooked and comforting, and the vibe of the restaurant is very much no frills, but the staff is very sweet.

Absolutely no frills restaurant with outdated decor, but with some great dishes if you order well. The sesame dry noodles are amazing and are the main reason I keep returning. The dry green beans with minced pork and claypot aubergine are also worth ordering. There are always groups having hotpot here too so I'm sure I'll try that one day. Service is abrupt but that suits me fine.

Joy Luck is placed in the China Town main road, Gerrard Street, and you could easily find it by his green and red façade sign. I was on a solo mission this time, so I got in and I was sat by the window, although with the window posters, not really great views to be honest. The local is pretty small (unless there are more floors upstairs that I didn’t get the chance to visit), and it doesn’t stand out by its decoration, pretty simple by the way. But… I’m here for the food! I took a look to the menu, although I already knew what I wanted. I had seen its Lanzhou La Mien, a beef noodle soup, but I couldn’t find it that easilly in the menu, so I asked to the waiter and he pointed me in the right direction. If you go there, it’s on the noodles, soup and dumplings page, and it’s the top option in the left column. Basically it’s a rich broth with hand-pulled noodles, and your choice of beef or pork. I had heard as well about their dumplings, so I picked some to complete the lunch. I had to say that the service was really good, despite my multiple questions and last minute change of mine, however, the waiting time was way too long. After almost 25 min, I had the dumplings in front of me. I went for the pork and chives option. 10 dumplings, £7.80 (not bad). They are just boiled, not pan fried, not spicy, but I had to add the spicy kick with some chilli oil. They were actually pretty good. 7 out of 10 in a dumpling-awesomeness scale. Five minutes later, I had the bowl of soup as well. The broth was pretty rich (for a Chinese soup), it had a decent amount of handmade noodles, perfect size cutting and really tasty, coriander and pak choi as veggis and the beef was at the right point of chewiness. Again, I add to it some chilli oil and flakes to make it extra spicy, and… oh God! That was all what I needed. Actually it’s a really nice soup, better that the Baozi Inn one in my opinion, and much tastier that other places. Price around £10 for the soup, which is average for London China Town standards. I didn’t try any of the drinks in this occasion, but it’s definitelly a place to come back, so next time. More pictures in Enjoy Travel Eat blog.

BE CAREFUL about two or one star rating. I was born and grew up in China, I assume that I have the credits speaking"authentic" of the food in this restaurant. Some people complained about the services??? However, I just saw a disappointed example this afternoon, a group of customers argued or yielded I guess towards a waitress, as one of them ordered a sort of noodles. The waitress came back from kitchen few minutes later noticing that the kitchen couldn't serve the noodles because of no noodles in the kitchen, all served. Then this customer began to be hysterically unreasonable, she blamed the waitress for not telling her"no noodles"when she ordered, and her companies even joined into a short debate entitled"should customer be God and be respected?" or whatever and this "short" debate lasts for the whole time before they finished they refuelling their supplies. MARK that__________________________________________________________ How can the waitress tell her whether there were noodles or not before double check with the kitchen? If you don't respect others, how could you and how dare you expect others respect you? And respect you for what?! For your ignorance or arrogant or WHAT?! Teach me! Good noodles dishes though, try different types I recommend.

This spot is known for its Chinese Hot Pot and various hand-stretched noodle dishes. For example, Wuhan style thin La Mian noodles in super spicy sesame-peanut-garlic sauce, knife shaved wide noodles, or fern glass noodles in a spicy tangy soup with ground pork, peanuts and coriander... These are not often found in other Chinatown restaurants. Also worth trying - their fried dumplings, the braised aubergine with peppers and potato, and the sizzling stuffed lotus root. Good value, delicious unusual dishes, no frills bustling place. You don’t come here for the decor or atmosphere, you eat at Joy Luck for their tasty, authentic and cheap dishes. It’s always busy with mainly Chinese guests and the service is friendly, helpful and quick. My friend doesn’t eat meat and they adapted several dishes for us without problem. One of my fav places in Chinatown!