Second time back in joy yee with my friends. My friend and I came in looking for bubble tea but we ended up eating lunch there. We had eggplant, string bean and eel fried rice. EEL FRIED RICE IS THE BOMB. It was so good! The food however looked big but was not filling. We had to order honey beef short ribs again. The eggplant and string beans were excellent! Would totally recommend these dishes. For bubble tea we ordered mango passion fruit freeze, watermelon freeze and mango freeze. The mango passion fruit tasted exactly like mango freeze. I couldn't taste the passion fruit. However, the bubbles in the drink taste the best that I've ever had. Every drink that I got tasted like fresh fruits. Would recommend to come back for bubble tea only. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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They have an outside ordering line exclusively for drinks. They are so fast and efficient here. I legit got my drink 2 mins within ordering. The menu is very extensive with a lot of options. I opted for a dragonfruit flavored slush as I don't often see other places offer dragonfruit flavored things. Definitely a good treat on a hot day read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

We came and dined in. It looked pretty packed but we got seated and ordered right away! Don't let the crowd outside scare you away from dining in or asking about wait times. This is an Asian fusion place that gets food out pretty quickly. They have a lot of variety to choose from with Chinese food, Thai food, Korean food and others. Since it's a fusion, don't expect super authentic food. The food comes out pretty fast in a random order. My favorite was the cuttle fish! It was so soft and good, it wasn't too chewy. We also ordered kimchi seafood fried rice with an egg which tasted okay. Servings are pretty big so it's good for ordering family style food. For drinks, we ordered boba and they came out super quick and tasted really good! The place was pretty dirty, probably from all the people coming in but glad they are having a lot of business! read more

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Their drinks hit the spot. They've been consistent even back in the days when I live in Chicago. My favorite drink is the watermelon freeze with lychee jellies. It is such a good combo. Perfect drink for the hot and humid weather of summer. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I'm so so happy to see Joy Yee still prospering after starting in early 2000s in Chicago Chinatown. I remember thinking how wonderfully delicious their food was back then and still is now. I was visiting Chicago for my mom's birthday and she wanted to have her birthday lunch at Joy Yee. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs, but we are not going to complain about leftovers! We ordered: Beef Jap Chae Japanese Tofu two Mushroom Lemongrass Chicken wings Vegetable Vietnamese spring roll The wings didn't taste much of lemongrass, but everything else was great. The portions are generous. The tofu dish is our go to every time we come here. read more

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Literally one of my favorite spots. Their drinks are better than any other spot and there's a reason people wait so long in the summer at their outdoor cashier window. Some of my favorite dishes are the garlic broccoli and the pad Thai. One down side- It can get LOUD here, and busy. But service is always fast! I usually have had no problem being sat and once I am I'm usually shocked when my food already arrives minutes later. They also validate for parking if you need so don't forget to do that! read more

From LA here, me and my family were vacationing in Chicago, A friend brought us here coz he said it is one of the best restaurant in chinatown. Well he wasn't lying in my opinion, yes i think this place is one of the top 5 restos in chinatown chicago. That night we had 2 kinds of fried rice, rice with salted fish and rice with chicken and pinapple, and they were so good. We also had the mixed seafood, string beans and sesame chicken. They were all equally good! The only comment I have is that, they were so oily. very very oily esp. the string beans. That dish is floating with oil. My kids had to drain it to take out that oil! Other than that everything else is good. We also had different kind of bobas! taro boba, matcha, avocado and forgot the other one. They were amazingly good! Prices are reasonable, service is very fast eventhough the place was very busy that night! Place is clean enough. So yah I wish there would be one here in LA read more

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My boyfriend and I came to Joy Yee Noodle to grab lunch. Overall, it was an okay experience. We were sat right away. The menu is HUGE. Definitely a lot to take in and a lot to choose from. In the end, we ended up ordering the kimchi fried rice with chicken and the seafood fried rice. The food was alright. My kimchi fried rice was bland and my boyfriend said that the seafood fried rice could've been better. Service wasn't too bad. All of the workers seemed to be working as a team so they'll come and refill your water even if they weren't the ones to take your order in the beginning. It feels like Joy Yee tries to get customers in and out as fast as they can. I'm not sure if I'd come to Joy Yee again to try other food, but I know I'd be a returning customer for their fruit teas/drinks. read more

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[To-go drink stand review] Overall: A solid option for boba or a smoothie. There's a reason the line is so long! The good: Both the fruit smoothies and buuble teas are fantastic here. They have a ton of flavors to choose from (head-spinning at times) with lots of different flavor profiles (fruity vs. chocolatey, or even coffee). They give generous amounts of tapioca too, if you get it (which you should). The service is relatively fast given the amount of people in line, and the drinks themselves are a good size. The not-so-good: Prices are tad too high and some of the flavors can be misses (looking at you brown sugar). read more

We decided on Chinatown when our nephew was in town visiting, and we chose Joy Yee because it's popular and has a large dining room so we knew we wouldn't have to wait long, if at all. The wait we encountered was actually waiting for someone to come take our order. Their menu is huge but we easily decided on what we wanted. Lots of yummy drinks too. My daughter loves the ramen here and she always has leftovers. (Her bowl was meant to be shared but no one else wanted any so she had a lot!) Once we ordered our food came quickly. Nephew ordered the sesame chicken and he liked it a lot. Hubby had garlic chicken and it was tasty, but some of the chicken was scorched. I had the chicken and shrimp pad tai and didn't care for the noodles. They were rubbery and didn't taste good. The chicken was plentiful but there were hardly any shrimp. (Maybe 4?) It was not the best dish and I definitely wouldn't order it again. I will stick with their fried rice next time. The kids had boba drinks which they both liked and we shared Crab Rangoon which was awesome. To sum it up, if you order the right things, you will like it. Oh and they automatically add an 18% gratuity for parties of 4 or more. (Most places do that at parties of 6 or more), plus they have suggested tip amounts on your bill so if you have 4 or more and you don't notice, you will tip twice. It's a bit deceptive. We asked and the waiter confirmed that the service fee on the bill was the gratuity. 18% was plenty for the service we got. read more

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I was surprised to see that Joy Yee got less than stellar ratings on Yelp. This was one of the places I came to when I visited Chicago about 8 years ago and I remember thinking it was amazing. I got the combination lo mein when I came and thought it was the best lo mein I ever had. So I was looking forward to seeing if it was still good or if it had changed for the worse. The place is in a central area with a lot of other restaurants, bubble tea places, etc... They have a pretty specious venue and there were a lot of people but no wait when I came last night for dinner. I was looking over the menu and I saw that the bubble tea here is very expensive; like $6 or more. I was like, damn. So I got the combination lo mein again ($12.50) and I was surprised to find that it was just as good, if not better, than I remember. First off, I guess they give out family style sized portions here because it was hugeeeee. The portion given could easily feed two people. I had three helpings of it and still had a lot to take home. : - ) Secondly, everything about this lo mein is perfect. All the vegetables are perfect and none of them are unnecessary. They put chicken, shrimp, and beef in the lo mein and all of them are very tender and flavorful. The shrimp especially are huge and they're so good. The noodles are a little thinner than typical lo mein noodles, but they're really good. A lot of lo mein is overly oily and heavy, but they NAILED the oil ratio on this lo mein because it was neither too dry nor too greasy. So I have to say that Joy Yee lived up to how good I found it the first time. I think my rating might have been different if I got the overpriced bubble tea, but I have to give credit where it's due based on my experience. read more

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Man do I love giving well deserved 5 star reviews. The service is really good and the staff are attentive and they work fast. Definitely recommend to those who love Chinese food! Overall definitely a 5/5! read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

We came here because we've heard a lot of things about it. It was a packed night and staff was very busy. The food was good, not amazing, but portions are pretty big. It took a while for food to come out and the prices were a bit high. The rice dish I got was good, just your average stone pot. You can order boba and bring it with you to your table which was cool! There's plenty of seating and space. It's a good casual place, so bring your friends, family, or a casual dinner date. Also, the bathrooms are upstairs!! Parking is a bit difficult around Chinatown, but we took the subway. I would come back for the boba, it was delicious, fresh, and big for the price. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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The food was wonderful and delicious. I genuinely think this was some of the best Asian dishes I've had. The food was tasteful, and had big portions. The Bulgogi tasted incredible. The Kimchi fried rice was even more wonderful. The ambiance is really nice. It's brightly lit and the glass windows make it look fancy. The decor adds a great touch. I will say the service was not the best. The servers didn't really come so often, only to order food and pick up our disused at the end. They're kind of just standing around amongst themselves. I would give this place a 5 star review, however the lack of service really makes the customer experience okay. read more

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This place was so . I had the watermelon freeze with mango jelly and it was super refreshing. I ordered the coconut shrimp appetizer and the garlic tofu(super flavorful and great portion). The server was attentive even though it was super busy and all the other staff would rotate in. We sat outside and it was nice, my only complaint would be the chairs. They were not comfortable read more

Service is great. Food is bland and over priced. A bowl of soup is over $13. We order the beef and broccoli and the shrimp fried rice. Both left nothing to be desired. If you're cool with mediocre, then go. It's always packed, but not worth the hype. The read more

I'm a big fan of Joy Yee Noodle. Every time I came back to Chicago, the first stop is always Joy Yee. I personally love avocado smoothie a lot. Sweetness is adjustable. I always go for less sugar. Another thing I like here is the service speed is super fast. I got my drink within 3 mins after the order was placed. So don't be scared by the waiting line. It moves pretty fast. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Avocado smoothie - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Visiting Chicago and heard their selections of boba tea was large and it was good. They definitely have an overwhelming amount of selections. Due to COVID-19, they have windows outside where you can place food and drink orders. They also provided QR codes to check out the menu and have a larger post for all of the drinks posted outside. The long was a little long, but it moved quickly. I had the red bean milk tea with light ice, underwhelmed. I LOVE red bean so I figured I'd like this but it doesn't have the same richness and creaminess as actual red beans. Don't get it. I also tried the coconut freeze with boba based on another Yelp recommendation. This was a much better choice. If you aren't a big coconut fan, this definitely isn't for you. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Red bean milk tea with less ice 4/10 - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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This place is the bomb. I didn't get to eat all I wanted because we only came for the drinks, but had a taste of their fresh spring roll. It was good, the wrapper a bit too wet as it fell apart by just splitting it apart. The drinks were awesome though! We had 2 avocado, lychee/jackfruit and a banana boba. $6 for a huge drink is awesome when it's almost that price for a dinky size in Cali. We don't have this on the west coast, but they should expand there. We have quickly and those mom & pop places, and noodle world that does similar food as here and boba specials, but this place is awesome. I will definitely be coming back when I hit up chi-town again. read more

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Restaurant was clean and orderly. Service was fast and friendly. Food was pretty good, I did not expect the pork chop with garlic noodle to be as good as it was. Tasted like Vietnamese com suon. Lunch special prices were very affordable. read more

Came to Joy yee noodle to get a drink since everybody and their moms had one all over the square. Ima a taro lover. I ordered the taro milk tea.It was meh, I've had better and the bubbles were not chewy. It was kinda hard. They have so much options I won't let one drink let me down. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Joy Yee - one of the most popular places in Chinatown! Until today I always was a fan of their bubble teas which are the best in town and the variety is mind boggling. Tonight however we got dinner here. With Covid they have covered outdoor seating - very comfortable even in the winter. Covid arrangements are pretty neat - Tables are immediately being refreshed with new paper covers and all disposable eating utensils plastic were provided in a careful wrapped plastic. Staff was prompt and service was great! We ordered off their Specials menu and honestly all the items were superbly tasty and very filling. 1. Szechaun Wontons - Pork wontons in spicy oil, very nice! 2. Grilled Chicken with Spicy Kimchi Fried Rice - Wow, wow, wow. Must have! 3. Free Range Chicken soup with Crystal Noodles - Another must have! Delicious broth - one of the best in town. Will surely be back and the above items will always be my to-go for pick ups and deliveries! read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

The food was terrible..... they gave us dirty used utensils and there was PAPER in our food. We had them send it back to the kitchen. The service is terrible and the staff is awful. This place is VERY DIRTY!!! The onlyyyyy safe thing to get is the boba drinks. The food might make you sick BE CAREFUL! Eat at your own risk! read more

0 star. Food is regular, tips already charged into the bill. If I didn't check the receipt, will double pay the tips. I mentioned it to our waitress, her response is "You are not from Chicago, right? We charged automatic tips since you have four people", which reminded me, last time we had three people and still been charged automatic tips. Will NEVER go back to this restaurant chain again. The waitresses and waiters are always rude, and good at blaming clients, different excuses every time. The bus boys who actually serve the foods are friendly. Dishes' prices keep going up, while the serving sizes keep going smaller. No wonder they used to be packed with people, and now no waiting time during busy hours. read more

Great spot, got some pho, wontons, fries, and boba tea. The boba was yummy and pretty large. The portion size on everything was actually super nice. The menu is unbelievably huge and every item has a picture to go with it. Everything we ordered was delicious honestly, the service is nice as the waiters just kind of stand out in the dining area like they're on standby if you need anything. Cool vibe and right at the front of chinatown so it's an easy choice. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - potstickers (left) and wonton beef pho (right) - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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This place is absolutely amazing! The waiters were very nice and attentive. We ordered the vietnamese fried squid, the cuttlefish fried rice, kimchi fried rice, sesame chicken, the green beans side dish, and boba! Each dish was so delicious. The prices are good for splitting amongst a group and will definitely fill everybody up well. The location is also in chinatown so you can walk around and take pictures afterwards! Definitely recommend and I will be back soon! read more

Stopped by after dinner and was too full to get anything. My friend let me taste his drink and I instantly knew I would be back the next day for my own. My friend got a strawberry kiwi freeze with tapioca. It was incredible. The perfect amount of tart and sweet! I kept my promise and went back the next day. I decided on the lychee preach freeze with tapioca. It wasn't as tart and sweet as the kiwi strawberry, but it was still delicious. It was perfectly refreshing on a warm Chicago day. The only minor inconvenience is that they seem to only have once size that you can order. I personally would like to be able to order a smaller size. With that being said, the one size that is offered is quite large and a steal for between $5 and $6. All in all, I will be back to try some other flavor and topping combinations! read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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So we decided to visit Chicago this week from Miami Any time I visit a city I always stop by Chinatown for some dim sum but some how a lot of places don't service any after breakfast time ugh sucks so we came here to see if we could find some but the Chinatown town here is not like New York or California not a pretty nice place but this place was amazing they had over 40 flavor of bubble tea yum and the food was super good we ordered the sweet and sour chicken and the just too give you a heads up the food is a good amount for 2-3 people. No I didn't find any dim sum maybe I'll try for breakfast read more

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Solid. can't go wrong. Love the veggie noodle dishes and especially the Tarro Smoothie.

Food was good! The particular night we went, there was no music playing, and we were the only people in the Restaurant other than the owners, so it was an interesting atmosphere. We will come back, though, as we live down the street, and maybe the atmosphere is a little better on a busier night. read more

I have walked by past this restaurant many times when I lived in chicago, but never went in to go eat because it always looked so crowded inside. This time since I was with a larger group, and we weren't sure what else to eat I suggested this restaurant. We went around 4 pm and were starved since we hadn't eaten since 10 am. They had alot of people waiting in line for drinks but luckily we didn't have to wait for food. We ordered way too much food, the portion sizes here are huge and you can easily split 1 order between 2 people and be super full. We ordered the korean spicy noodle special, a large pho with everything, spicy green curry chicken fried rice, and a plain thai noodle. My favorites were the spicy green curry chicken fried rice, and the pho!! The chicken fried rice was a massive portion and the flavor was great! It had a great curry flavor, and was actually spicy. The spicy noodle did not have any korean flavor and was pretty disappointing, it was chock full of seafood but wasn't tasty to me. The pho had a very generous portion of tendons, beef, tripe, etc. You won't go wrong sticking to the basic here, but if you order stuff that looks special prepare to be disappointed. read more

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Of course, bubble tea. You know it, I know it. Sure, they may be more like fruit smoothies than your traditional boba, but they're still damn good and the best in town. No powders here. But I've always kind of brushed off the food. It's always been decent, but also generally on the bottom of my list of places I'd want to go to when visiting Chinatown. I came with my partner and parents to Chinatown for some dim sum, but when we found out the wait was two hours, we decided it was ok to settle for Joy Yee since they had no wait but still had outdoor seating. You know what...settled's the wrong word. And it had been a few years since I had the food here, and I feel like I haven't been giving it a fair shake - it was surprisingly good! Of course we got fan favorite beef cubes in tomato rice, and I had forgotten how big those steak chunks are. We also got the Thai spicy noodles which had just the right amount of heat, and shrimp fried rice which is always a solid choice. Overall, we left full and happy, and that's all you can really ask. By the time we had finished we realized we'd still be waiting for dim sum so that's a huge plus too. Maybe it's easy to overlook Joy Yee because it's so popular, but I guess it's that way for a reason, and I'll make sure I come back sooner than "a few years". read more

This review is for their Boba! We came across Joy Yee because we saw a ton of people walking around Chinatown with their unique cups. I loved that they had so many different options and ultimately settled on a mango smoothie with mango chunks (complimentary!) and green tapioca. The green tapioca were much smaller than typical boba and were fun to chew but definitely a choking hazard lol. Be sure to sip carefully if you order them! My friend ordered a peach tea with boba and hers was a little too sweet for both of our tastes. I saw a ton of people mostly ordering non-traditional drinks so I think their smoothies may be slightly better than their teas. This place was very pricey (~$6-7 for a drink) but I think the portion size makes up for it! read more

Joy Yee Noodle - mango smoothie with mango chunks and green tapioca - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Came on Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly the line wasn't very long so I decided to try Joy Yee on more time. I got two drinks - strawberry banana freeze with tapioca and kiwi fruit green tea with basil seeds and with no sugar. Strawberry banana freeze is pretty standard flavor. They use real banana and strawberry but I could taste frozen fruit flavor and purée flavor in there. The tapioca balls were really bad. Overcooked and no flavor. This was the first time I've had tapioca balls that didn't have flavor. I had no choice but spitted out the tapioca cuz it tasted really bad. Kiwi fruit tea with no sugar...well this drink I shouldn't ask for no sugar cuz it literally tasted like unsweetened over-brewed green tea with slices of kiwi and basil seeds. I ended up using folk to eat the fruit and threw the drink away. I might ordered the wrong drinks or what. The quality and taste was really bad... read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Drink window - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Good service. Reasonable prices. Average food. I really can't recommend this place because there are several restaurants in the area that are so much better. read more

This review is only for the milk teas since I have not had their food. I've had the boba teas about 3 times now, each time thinking I just ordered wrong. The first time, there was a line outside and it was super duper busy. So I got some jelly that I did not order in my drink, and I didn't like them. It was too much work to get in line and try to get them to fix the drink so I left it alone. Second time, I got a flavored milk tea with pearls and I didn't like the flavor. As with the third time. The honeydew milk tea had some vinegary taste to it that was just wrong. I had expected more sweet than tart. Honeydew! For drinks at $6 per cup, just not worth it. I think all the options just is too much. I'd rather get less options and a good old solid plain milk tea that is done right. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Best smoothie in Chicago! I ordered a strawberry kiwi smoothie with lychee jelly and it was to die for! Highly recommend to anyone who's craving greatness in a cup! read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Kiwi strawberry with lychee jelly - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

This review is for their smoothie station. The menu is extensive and there are often long lines. We ordered durian and avocado smoothie and dragon fruit mango smoothie. Both are really good!!! Will definately come back for more. read more

Joy Yee Noodle - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Durian avocado smoothie was so good!! The avocado made the drink so creamy and it really went well with the durian flavor - so it's not too overpowering. I added boba into my drink, but it tasted really undercooked and hard. I'll opt out of the boba for next time, but the drink itself was great. The taro cream drink was good too. The flavor didn't taste artificial, and it was really creamy and good. There was also boba in this drink and it was really hard unfortunately. At least now I'll know next time to just get the drink by itself. The line always looks super long, but service is quick! You'll have your drink ordered and out before you know it. read more

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Everything! Especially the Boba! The food was hot and very delicious. There was no dirtiness or anything related. It's definitely a 5 star!