Joy Luck

My big sister was in town for the weekend, so of course the family wanted to all get together for dinner. As has become tradition, we decided to get Chinese food and we opted for what is quickly becoming the family favorite: Joy Luck, located at 10745 S. State St., Sandy, UT 84070.

(I say family favorite because the family as a whole loves it... I personally do not, but we'll get to that later).

The Atmosphere (5/5)

The first thing you see when you walk into the restaurant is a half-wall fish tank full of several colorful fish. I tend to spend several minutes in front of the tank, just watching them live their little fishy lives. I'm always so enthralled by the aquatic distraction that I barely notice the rest of the restaurant, but based on the pictures Matt took, there's nice, calming dimmed lighting complimented by soft yellow walls and dark wood accents. Overall, it's a very comfortable atmosphere.

The Service (5/5)

The number one thing I use to judge the quality of service at any restaurant is the number of times I see the bottom of my water glass. Our server at Joy Luck did an excellent job keeping everyone's water full. I don't know if that's because he's just that good or if it was because we were right by the serving station and the water pitcher was right there for him to easily grab every time he passed by. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt though and say he's just that good.

The Food (3/5)

The picture above is of Matt's dinner: Beef Lo Mein with a side of hoisin sauce. The food overall was good; it was the "asian flavor [Matt] was going for." However, it did come out disappointingly cold. There are very few things more off-putting than cold Chinese food. Luckily, this was Matt's dinner, not mine, so I wasn't the one who had to eat it.

The picture below is of my dinner: Sesame chicken with fried rice, an egg roll and a fried prawn. Before Matt even had a chance to take the picture, the prawn was off my plate and donated to someone (anyone) else. I don't do seafood. Ever. Once the offending item was taken care of, I was able to dig in to my atypical dinner. Normally, I go for Lo Mein but was feeling saucy and opted for a different dish. It is really difficult to mess up fried rice, so I wasn't too surprised when I enjoyed that portion of the meal. It did need a little bit of soy sauce to help the flavor along, but that's to be expected of basically all fried rice dishes. Even the most delicious ones are made even more scrumptious with a little soy sauce. The egg roll, on the other hand, was a huge surprise: I LOVED it! Typically, that would've left my plate for someone else's immediately after the prawn was gone, but I decided to try it and am so glad that I did. The cabbage inside wasn't soggy. There was a good amount of pork throughout the whole thing (which is always appreciated) and the shaved carrots added a nice touch of crunchy sweetness.  Literally the best egg roll I've ever eaten! Now for the star of the dish. Although the flavor of the sesame chicken was pleasant and the chicken was cooked well, the breading was a little soggy and off-putting. Either there was too much breading on the chicken to cook thoroughly or the grease was not hot enough, causing the breading to soak up the grease without actually being cooked all the way through. On top of that, and I've found this every time I've eaten at Joy Luck, the food was uncharacteristically sans salt for Chinese food. I NEVER put extra salt on my food because I don't really like salt. This chicken had me reaching for the shaker several times throughout the meal and by the time I'd eaten maybe a fourth of the chicken, I gave up on it entirely.

Conclusion

Chinese food, when done correctly, is one of my favorite styles of food. In my family's opinion, Joy Luck is the place to go when the Asian food craving hits. Aside from the subpar offerings however, I do really enjoy the fish tank wall and the comfortably private atmosphere one experiences at Joy Luck. I will continue frequenting the establishment with my family and have a good time because being in my family's presence is my happy place and no amount of disappointing food can ruin that for me.