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    Joyful Cafe

    3.9 (19 reviews)

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    Wonton noodle soup
    Melinda K.

    It was a soft opening, and the service needs more improvement. There's that one waitress who was scattered all over the place; we had to flag her down twice for a takeout box. We ordered congee and wonton noodle soup for lunch. The food was not of the same quality as we had coming back from SoCal. The restaurant was small with a few tables outside. I hope the service and food improve by grand opening day.

    Wonton noodles soup
    Art L.

    Soft opening... service is adequate As for food (港式粥粉麵飯)average grade B Wonton noodles soup 雲吞麵 B Pork liver 豬潤 C Re-Do B- Porridge 白粥 A- Sweet Chinese pastry shaped like cow tongue 牛脷酥 A Braised tofu 滷水豆腐 B+ Chinese long donut (油炸鬼 油條)A- Chinese herb jello 龜苓膏 B+ Food is above average but not excellent but they have some unique dishes that you can't find in SF South Bay. Wonton has 1/3 ground pork (not Hk authentic) which is the main issue. The ingredients fall apart apparently with too much moist of the pork meat. Maybe they use frozen meat & defrosted. Anyways, it falls apart when biting into the wonton. Noodles in the wonton is not authentic hk style; thicker but tastes good and not soggy. The soup in the wonton noodle soup is actually not bad! Has 枸皇 yellow chives. I like this type of restaurant, hope they improve on quality of the food. Will come back coz can't find similar cuisine within 40 miles. And need to try their other 1/2 of the menu. Decor is simple & functional which fits this style of restaurant. Will definitely come back to try their Chinese bbq items like roast pork; roast duck; several varieties of chicken, etc.

    Pork kidney (not recommended)
    May L.

    I normally don't give such low ratings but I couldn't give this place more stars because of the food and service. My friend heard from one of his friends about this new restaurant in Milpitas so we decided to give it a try and traveled from San Francisco. We arrived at the restaurant and waited about 15 minutes for a table since we were a party of six. The restaurant is not very big and they didn't have many large tables. Most of the tables were set up for four people. After we were seated, we waited a few minutes but weren't offered water so we had to ask a server for it ourselves. We ordered eight dishes in total. The pork kidney was very tough because it was overcooked so we had to send it back. The staff was able to remove it from our order. We also ordered two clay pot rice dishes. The cured duck and preserved meat clay pot rice was okay but the beef and ginger clay pot rice was not good at all. The beef was tough. The mixed roasted BBQ platter was not good either. It didn't taste fresh and seemed like it had been sitting overnight. The only dish we really enjoyed was the house special fish noodles with fish broth. We also ordered two steamed dishes. The steamed pumpkin with lotus seeds was very bland and not good at all. The other steamed dish was the steamed bok choy, which we thought would be good but we were disappointed. It was bland and dry. If they had added some sauce, it might have tasted better. We also ordered a fried donut but it never arrived, so we asked the staff to cancel it. I understand that this restaurant has only recently opened and I don't want to be overly harsh but both the food and service were very poor. When we asked for the bill, we were initially given the wrong one. In addition, the pork kidney that had been canceled was still on the bill and the fried donut had not been removed either. The owner came over and asked whether the bill was ours. It turned out that the server had given us another table's bill. Because we were busy chatting, we didn't carefully review the second bill after pointing out the missing adjustments on the first one. The owner then began correcting and instructing the servers at our table, which I felt could have been done privately after we left or in the kitchen. Overall, our experience at this restaurant was disappointing. Because there are so many other dining options available, I don't think I'll be returning.

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    2 months ago

    Super authentic Chinese. The marinated ranch chicken was a standout with a ginger sauce that was to die for.

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    Yin Ji Chang Fen

    Yin Ji Chang Fen

    4.2
    (554 reviews)
    0.0 mi
    $$

    Super delicious congee and rice noodle rolls, and best part, they're reasonably priced. After…read morereading Yelp reviews about how busy they get, we came right when the restaurant opened and got a table immediately. It's a good thing we did because the restaurant filled up completely 5 minutes after ordering. The inside of the restaurant is clean and modern, they have some art up on the wall that was cool to look at. The food was definitely the star though. We tried the BBQ pork and shrimp noodle rolls. Both were really good but my favorite was still the shrimp. I loved the veggies in the roll too. They can be a bit hard to pick up and eat because they're massive and cut into thirds. Other than that, the rice noodles are thin and silky and hold the sauce nicely. The sauce is also delicious. We also ordered the fish congee which was simple but comforting. It comes out PIPING hot so don't burn your tongue. Fish was tender and flavorful. Overall no complaints and the service was quick. Highly recommend!

    Delicious food, kind service, and calming ambiance…read more Ordered wonton mein, fish jook, taro dumplings and bbq pork chang fen. Enjoyed wonton, jook and chang fen the best. Chang fen was silky, smooth and full of lean slices of pork. Taro root dumpling was delicate and fell apart as soon as we attempted to put it on our plates. Flavor was not what I anticipated. Look forward to returning for more chang fen.

    Photos
    Inside seating
    Inside seating
    Fried dough in rice paper, Shrimp rice roll
    Fried dough in rice paper, Shrimp rice roll
    Sparerib with Black Beans over Steamed Rice

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    Sparerib with Black Beans over Steamed Rice
    Jun Bistro

    Jun Bistro

    4.7
    (975 reviews)
    2.3 mi
    $$
    Family-owned & operated
    Women-owned & operated

    Wait for dinner on a weekday holiday was about 10 minutes. Ordering is done through QR code on the…read moretable. The truffle and mushroom rice tastes incredible! The Chinese sausage pieces sprinkled throughout added extra flavor too. The bowl is deep so there seemed to be roughly 5 cups of rice. Unfortunately the laksa shrimp fried rice was disappointing in comparison. It didn't have much flavor overall - better than plain rice but definitely needed more seasoning. The menu lists homemade laksa sauce as an ingredient but we didn't taste that, and the dish wasn't spicy at all either despite the 1 chili pepper rating. But it looked just like the menu picture so maybe the description is wrong. Fried chicken with tom yum sauce came with 6 pieces. Very juicy. We also enjoyed the herbal roasted prime steak with sausage rice. The delicious rice had the taste of fish sauce. Most of the short rib slices were soft and a few were slightly chewy but overall decent quality. Some of the fattier pieces of meat were still attached to the bone.

    We tried three dishes and enjoyed all of them. Wild…read moreMushrooms Conserva was a very small portion appetizer but it has a nice variety of mushrooms marinated in a well-seasoned spicy oil. Yunnan Signature Fried Tofu was excellent. Crispy on the outside, yet tender and juicy on the inside. Their house-made pepper salt paired well with the tofu. Very small portion too. Laksa Shrimp Fried Rice with the homemade laksa sauce, we asked for extra laksa sauce and used it as a dipping sauce for the fried tofu. The service was great throughout the meal. The staff was friendly, attentive, and welcoming. We also loved their takeout containers. Overall, good food, great service, Will definitely come back to try other menu items

    Photos
    Banana leaf wrapped seabass
    Banana leaf wrapped seabass
    Stir-fry assorted wild mushrooms
    Stir-fry assorted wild mushrooms
    Soymilk Beef and mushroom hotpot

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    Soymilk Beef and mushroom hotpot
    HL Peninsula Restaurant

    HL Peninsula Restaurant

    3.3
    (687 reviews)
    2.1 mi
    $$$

    Excellent taste & good service . A gem , I had lunch there , absolutely enjoyed . I would highly…read morerecommend

    My second time here for lunch. There's no wait on a weekday last time. 3 of us came here on…read moreSaturday around noon, and had to wait for about 20 minutes for a table, which wasn't bad at all. Even though their parking lot had a lot of cars, it's so big that there're still plenty of spaces. Their inside was huge as well. Because of the high ceiling, it didn't feel too crowded, even though it was packed. They had a lot of servers, too, though getting the attention of one took a while. Our server highly recommended their sea bass 2 ways (congee and chow fun) on their daily special menu. We would have ordered that if they still had fish at ~2lb, but they only had fish at ~3lb, which would be too big for us, as we would like to order some dim sum as well. So, we just ordered from their dim sum menu. The 2 different house teas we ordered came out pretty quickly, but it took a while for the food to come. The Sauteed Turnip Cake in XO Sauce was the dish I liked the most. It could still use more XO sauce, though. Pork & Crab Roe Siu Mai was gigantic; taste was normal. I wished they had chili sauce at the table. We're too busy catching up and didn't bother to flag down someone to get some. The Fried Bean Curd Skin Roll w/ Shrimp was not bad, just a bit oily. The Fried Chinese Donut Wrapped in Rice Noodle w/ Dried Shrimp was on point; it came with a peanut sauce on the side. The Chicken Feet w/ Black Bean Sauce were well cooked and off the bones. The Salted Egg Yolk Lava Black Bun wasn't too sweet; the inside was more runny than we expected. We're already stuffed after having 6 dim sum dishes. Overall, dim sum was solid, but on the more expensive side. While their service was typical for a Chinese restaurant in the Bay Area, they did apply a 16% service charge to the bill automatically, which was stated on their menu.

    Photos
    Interior
    Interior
    Wagyu steak and asparagus
    Wagyu steak and asparagus
    Spare ribs

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    Spare ribs
    Cheung Hing - Milpitas

    Cheung Hing - Milpitas

    3.3
    (230 reviews)
    1.9 mi
    $$

    My party of 6 came here on a Monday around 11am and there were only a couple of tables that were…read moreoccupied. They gave us a paper menu where we could write down how many of each dish we wanted. It was a little hard to flag down the waiter though to put in our order as he was waiting on every table and they had put us in the back of the restaurant at the larger tables. Once our food was in though, it was a while before our dishes were served. They slowly kind of trickled in so once we finished with a couple of dishes, the other ones would come out. At the end though, we had finished all the food and were waiting on 1 more dish that we had thought they forgot about. We had to wait for a while for it to come out but after it came out, we just paid the check right away. The dishes themselves were pretty good. I really enjoyed the siu mai as it was large and firm/crunchy (something that I didn't expect siu mai to be). My favorite dish was the rice noodle roll with crunchy shrimp as there was a difference in texture between the soft rice roll and the fried shrimp that kinda reminded me of the texture of youtiao. Overall a pretty solid choice for dim sum though it is on the pricier side.

    I don't usually write Yelp reviews, but the customer service here was good enough that I wanted to…read moregive this spot a shoutout. My family and I came in around 6pm on a Sunday, and the restaurant filled up quickly by 7pm. Even with the dinner rush, the staff stayed attentive to our table and even joked around with my parents, which made for a really warm atmosphere. We ordered pumpkin with egg yolk, honey walnut shrimp, steamed oysters in black bean sauce, live steamed sea bass, sweet potato leaves, and fried rice. The sea bass was the standout, perfectly steamed with a mild, well-balanced soy sauce flavor. The honey walnut shrimp was a solid classic (hard to mess up). The pumpkin with egg yolk had a nice savory crisp on the outside, though I'd have liked the pumpkin itself a touch softer. The oysters were surprisingly large, and the fried rice was generous with egg and didn't skimp on portions at all. Overall, the price-to-portion ratio was well worth it compared to other spots we've tried. For dessert, we tried the salted egg yolk baked bun, taro baked bun, red bean sesame balls, grass jelly, and osmanthus jelly. The red bean sesame balls were my favorite, not too sweet, with a great chewy texture. I heard they're sometimes given out free on weekends, which is a nice touch. The grass jelly came with a ginger syrup that made for a light, refreshing finish to the meal. Pretty decent food and great service, I'll definitely be back to try more of the menu.

    Photos
    Interior
    Interior
    Eggroll (veggie)
    Eggroll (veggie)
    Clay pot fried rice

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    Clay pot fried rice
    Koi Palace

    Koi Palace

    3.2
    (1.8k reviews)
    2.6 mi
    $$

    Came as a party of 2 on a Sunday 12pm~, quickly seated despite there being a crowd at the front…read more(seemed like it was for larger parties) Placed in our usual order despite the service being a bit slow. Chicken feet came out first, this is my mom's go-to, however, I actually quite enjoyed this. Seasoned nicely, and the texture was JUST right, not too soft nor chewy, would order again Next was the Har gow and shrimp rice rolls. These 2 are my usuals and I thoroughly enjoyed both. The dough of both dishes were steamed nicely and the portion of the rice rolls were very impressive (6 shrimps per portion). Now the fried shrimp beancurd rolls were surprisingly extremely underrated. They were crispy on the outside yet the shrimp filling was bountiful and delicious, 100% worth ordering. XLB were forgettable. Unfortunately we did also order the pork spare ribs in black bean sauce and siu mai but they never arrived so we ended up canceling them.

    I don't know even how to begin this review, because this place was BEYOND AWFUL. We have been here…read moremany times over the years because of our Chinese family friends. First, let's start with cleanliness. The bathroom was disgusting. If this is where the cooks relieve and wash their hands, yikes! Literally a biohazard. Trash overflowing and everything was sticky and the toilets were very dirty. Just yikes. Also if you look at the dining inspection score on the Santa Clara county website, it scored a literal 20/100. This is worse than competitors for kitchen cleanliness. This explains the many food poisoning reviews here. We got served raw food and things that looked a bit spoiled here and luckily we spotted it and didn't get sick. Read the inspection report and it's really disgusting. I'm not sure how this place is still open. I get service at Chinese restaurants serving primarily Chinese immigrants isn't top tier, but this place takes it to the next level in being abysmal. The front desk staff is belligerent and they DO NOT RESPECT YOUR RESERVATION and make you stand outside and wait for up to 30 minutes. This happened to us a couple times. Also if you are an English speaker/non Chinese speaker, the front desk staff only speaks mandarin for the most part so good luck too if you are a Cantonese speaker. They also hold and reserve table numbers for refused to jump the waitlist and reservations. That was just the host staff, the waiters were not better. Waiters were very hard to flag down and sometimes they see you and ignore you because they don't want to serve you and do their job. They also are too busy sometimes and seem overworked so their employer (a very rich duo of brothers) need to treat their employees better and train them better so they have a better attitude for customers. We also had one waiter when cleaning our table poured our water glasses into a bowl then dumped in onto the carpet onto the ground which was a first for me and my family. This was very memorable in a bad way. The environment is also very uncomfortable to dine in. The seating is packed in so tight that it's so loud you can't hear the other people at your table. It's also a fire hazard since several emergency exits were visibly blocked by tables, chairs, or people crowding at the entrance. I've seen reviews here and on Google claiming to have reported the restaurant to the fire marshal. This seems to be true because there were several times the restaurant de densified the dining room before densifying it again weeks later. If a fire broke out, this would be deadly due to exits being blocked and the restaurant being over capacity. This place is just waiting for something really bad to happen. This place is also very expensive and claims to be an elevated authentic dim sum experience targeting Chinese immigrants and ABCs. And it sucks for the price paid given the food, service, and environment (and the literal fire danger they put you in) Finally, as many have complained here, there is a mandatory 18% gratuity and they demand a tip on top of it. They hide it from their menu so you don't find out, but that's illegal in California to hide a mandatory gratuity. Honestly, the gratuity isn't worth it for the nasty service and food anyways. The only have it because the owners know their restaurant is so bad they have to put a gratuity because otherwise people won't pay tips. What a joke of a business, I'm not sure why so many people still support it by singing its praises here and patronizing a restaurant that clearly doesn't care about either its employees or customer.

    Photos
    Koi Palace
    Koi Palace
    Peking duck | ig: eats.w.eva

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    Peking duck | ig: eats.w.eva
    Golden Sun Palace

    Golden Sun Palace

    3.2
    (347 reviews)
    0.1 mi
    $$

    This restaurant has been around for a long time serving Cantonese cuisine in Milpitas. They have…read moredim sum available during lunch in addition to their regular menu items. A few dishes they do well here are the salt and pepper spare ribs (pork chop), salt and pepper fish fillet, dried scallop with egg fried rice - all their varieties of fried rice are yummy. Servers are courteous but if the restaurant is busy, servers don't come around as often as they should. You may have to flag them down. I recommend asking for everything up front if you don't see what you want at your table. For example, certain condiments or dipping sauces for your dim sum or glasses of water, extra napkins, etc. Request that stuff when the wait staff first show up or when you order. The ambiance is your typical Chinese restaurant. Simple and clean enough considering how long this restaurant has been in business. Nice chandeliers. Busy on the weekends for those coming in for dim sum. Restaurant is a decent size and has tables that are good for larger parties as well. Located in a busy plaza which houses many eateries near Lion Supermarket.

    This place shocked me...I liked it! I have been here several times now to wait out the traffic in…read morethe Bay Area after work. The staff is friendly and nice including the owner who knows my go to meal which is beat tendon stew with turnip. I have had other dishes and they are all superb and delicious. Not sure what all the complaints about the food are but I have dined in a lot of Chinese dim sum places including Koi Palace and I love this place more. I have not ordered a dish I did not like and I have tried quite a few of the chef specials already. Ambiance is huge and wide open with nice tables and cloth. I go after work at around 7pm and there is a nice spattering of regulars but I know this place gets crowded in the weekend.. Price is fair but the food and ingredients high quality so I don't care as good food trumps price. I love this place and am happy the owners and staff recognize me. The food is superb and tasty and the ambiance perfect when not busy. I highly recommend coming here for an awesome food and chef to table experience!

    Photos
    Golden Sun Palace
    Salt & Pepper Spareribs
    Salt & Pepper Spareribs
    S19 / Steamed Rice Noodle Roll w/ Shrimp

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    S19 / Steamed Rice Noodle Roll w/ Shrimp
    Pearl Bay Restaurant

    Pearl Bay Restaurant

    3.7
    (636 reviews)
    4.7 mi
    $$

    這個版本比較自然,也適合 Yelp / Google Review:…read more The waiting time was shorter than expected. The seats were comfortable. The tea tasted great. The dim sum was fresh and high quality. I would definitely consider coming back for dinner.

    We don't eat at a lot of Chinese seafood banquet restaurants in the Bay Area, but we came here for…read morea family dinner, and it reminded me of HL peninsula and various seafood / dimsum places in Vancouver. Pearl Bay has high ceilings and a gigantic screen, and it seems like a lot of wedding banquets take place here. They have a hot deal weekday special that's $488 for a table of 10-12, and it was a lot of food. I think they limit it to a few tables a night. Service was not bad - they refilled ice water multiple times, which was surprising for a Chinese restaurant. That said, it would have been nice if they had actually announced what dishes we were getting. The menu included: - Chicken soup - Stir fried beef with vegetables - Cold marinated chicken and geoduck - Fish maw with pea sprouts and shiitakes - Fried egg tofu - Steamed fish - Twin lobsters with vermicelli - Suckling pig with steamed buns - Fried rice The highlight was the fish roe fried rice: great texture and flavor. Other things were variable in flavor. For example, the lobster was good, but the vermicelli texture and flavor were lacking. The banquet menu we got was good value and was more than enough food. I am definitely interested in trying their weekend dim sum.

    Photos
    Interior of restaurant
    Interior of restaurant
    Deep-Fried Pork Dumpling
    Deep-Fried Pork Dumpling
    Fried rice

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    Fried rice

    Joyful Cafe - cantonese - Updated August 2026

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