Address: | 1026 Race St, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA |
Phone: | +1 215-592-7227 |
Site: | joytsinlaurestaurant.com |
Rating: | 3.9 |
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A Private User
This was our first time at an authentic Chinese Dim Sum restaurant. We read the reviews and chose Joy Tsin Lau in the heart of Phillys Chinatown. We were not disappointed. I had the chicken feet (Fung Zao), the BBQ spare ribs with black bean sauce (Pai Gwat) and, of course, the Har Gao - steamed shrimp balls. My personal favorite was the gelatinous Rice Noodle rolls with shrimp inside (Cheung Fun.) This is not something available in our local Chinese restaurants. For dessert we recommend the round sesame balls with bean paste inside. Dim Sum is about tea, so I went with the Jasmine tea and managed to down two pots. Their Chrysanthemum tea also is recommended by others. Overall the service was good. The "Dim Sum Ladies" brought the different carts by our table often and offered the various items. One cart has its own hot plate so your food comes right off the grill. However most Dim Sum items come in the little round steam baskets. The servers didnt speak much English but the host and hostess did and answered any questions we had. My wife eats mostly vegetarian and that was one downside. We were able to order some spinach dumplings and an order of Chinese broccoli off the cart. You just ask for "vegetable" or "greens" and theyll dig down and get you something. If youre a pure vegetarian or vegan, then the Dim Sum is probably not your best choice - just order off their regular menu which has a fine selection of 25 different vegetarian dishes. We got there just after they opened on a Saturday and it was already crowded and bustling but we barely sat down and the first Dim Sum Cart Lady came by to plop some succulent dishes on our table. So do a little homework if youve never done this before. If youre new to Dim Sum as we were, go to Wikipedia and type in Dim Sum and it will give you a good idea of the different types. At Joy Tsin Lau they do not bring a menu to your table, so ask the host or cashier for the Dim Sum menu and it has a listing of what types they offer. Of course you can always just point and try your luck. With each dish you get off the cart, the Dim Sum Lady just adds it on your bill (in Chinese characters!) A bill in a foreign language may scare you, but not to worry - all three of us were stuffed and the bill came to $33.
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A Private User
WORST EXPERIENCE EVER. DO NOT GO HERE. The manager has a major stick in his butt, the waitstaff is slow and incapable of good service, and the food is BAD. Went there with my friend who has never had dim sum before. I grew up coming to China town for dim sum and I couldnt wait to reminisce. Ocean Harbor was crowded, so we came here instead thinking it would be just as good. WRONG. The manager was not friendly and it felt like we were a burden to him. We got seated right away because there was no line, and it took at least 10 minutes for one of the carts to make its way around to us. We tried to ask what the items were and the waitresses did not understand us and just tried putting everything on our table even though we didnt want it. The shrimp dumplings were stringy and rubbery, the pork dumplings were greasy and generic, and the sweet and sour pork was AWFUL. It was cold, and tasted like cheap hot sauce. I picked out a lot of bones after almost chipping my tooth on one of the overcooked pieces of pork. I asked the waitress to take it off the bill and she basically refused and tried to offer us another cold, unappetizing substitute in its place. I wanted to stick around for dessert but it took 20 minutes for the cart to come to us, and when it did, there was nothing left on it. There was not one memorable tasting item from today, and we got out of there as fast as we could. For crappy food, the value is pretty good. We payed 8 dollars a piece, even though we barely ate anything. These people need to get their act together and work on customer service.
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Angela Nguyen
I was here last night for a private event on the second floor and my experience was awful. The catering was so bad, they kept changing the food every minute so we didnt have enough time to enjoy it because by then, the plate was gone and something new was in front of us. We informed the waitress to please slow down and she just gave us a face of disgust. How rude, she didnt even care! Also, we found a bug, let me repeat, A BUG, in our soup!! That is NOT sanitary and is extremely disgusting. When we confronted the waitress about it, she didnt even care. She thought like we were asking for more soup. Excuse me, no. We want you to learn from this and make sure it doesnt happen again. I dont know how it is on the first floor, but based on my experience from the second floor, Im never coming back. If i could give them zero stars out of five, I would.
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Lei Wang
Only ate there once due to an online travel advisory post. However our experience turned out quite disappointing. Old style interior decor, food is not very impressive. We ordered a combo for two, quantity was OK but quality was so-so. The most disappointing dash is their rice soup (皮蛋瘦肉粥) - not fresh and taste bad. 3-star Service. Waiters are busy but did not check out my table that often, felt a little ignored. Positive sides: price is reasonable and I like their red-bean sweet soup. Overall, 3-star. I personally would NOT recommend it to any of my friends.
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Michael Rullo
In addition to causing a food poisoning outbreak that led to dozens being hospitalized last year, they have so far been cited on 1/7 and 1/14 in 2016 for offenses that include: lack of refrigeration that is capable of keeping food at 41 degrees or below, storing food outside (some uncovered), storing pork intestines at 57 degrees in a walk-in refrigerator, failing to have a door that is capable of closing on the walk-in refrigerator. Eat here at your own risk.
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James Smith
Service SUCKS. It took 30 minutes for someone to come to our table and take our order. Wonton soup was flavorless might as well be dirty dish water. Our waiter accidentally dropped one of our beef skewers and insisted that there were 3 per order but we know there were 4. The entrees (Pepper steak and general tsoas) was actually pretty tasty but doesnt make up for the poor service and dirty atmosphere. Go to dim sum garden if you want good food and nice people.
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Cindy Luu
First, the food. Shrimp wasnt cleaned right, so the food doesnt taste fresh. The taste is bland and the food dry. Second, the service. The servers were rushing for no reason and the place wasnt even half full. With the low traffic, the server shouldnt wait until we took the last bite to take our plate away at their first convenience. No care from them, horrible sloppy service. I havent been here in years. Im so disappointed.
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Tatyana Malyutin
The taste of the food was quite good, but ALL dim sum dishes served to us were ranging from warm to cold in temperature at 11:15am (which is a big minus), and after visiting their bathroom I really question the cleanliness of the kitchen as well as the whole restaurant. Somehow none of the dim sum places in Chinatown Philly didnt convince me that its possible to have a good dim sum experience here.