Joy Luck Palace

I ordered a pecking duck and a fry rice
I finished up the pecking duck and waited for 30 more minutes for my fried rice to came.

Joy Luck Palace is located in the Ranch 99 plaza in Cupertino on the junction of Homestead Rd and Wolfe Rd. This a a dim sum destination for lunch. It will be packed on a week day mostly with Chinese and that’s how you know its good.
The quality is very good. As far as Cantonese style Chinese, dim sum is nothing short of delightful. Small dishes dominate and its pick what you fancy. Best to go with someone who is knows their way around the Chinese name for things. If that is not possible, ask the server chances are they have a few words in English like «shrimp».
Here are my favorites: pork Shu Mai, steamed Pork Buns (Char Siu Bau), Har gaw (shrimp dumplings), steamed pork ribs in black Bean sauce, pot stickers, Lotus sticky rice, Oyster Sauce Chinese Broccoli, roast duck, Chow Fun Shrimps black bean sauce, salt bake prawns. Ask for the hot sauce in the jar.
Be adventurous. Discovery may lead to treasure you might never know otherwise.
Highly recommended.
The place is very large and even if you have a wait it will not be too long. Best to be there before 11:30.
Notes:
When multiple people dine, trying new things, becomes easier. Chance are someone will eat things that you did not care for once ordered.
Best to seat near the center «lanes» where the cart come by often. It is not unusual to start to eat within a few minutes of sitting. (White rice can be added «ala carte» as a dollar stretcher usually only a dollar for a bowl — help fill you up.)
Best to dine between 11:00 am and 2:00 AM at the peak of lunch on Monday through Friday. Most variety on those days.

Last time I’m coming here. Plain and simple there is zero service. Food isn’t great and you literally have to fight to get your food. The worst experience

I understand some of the angry reviews posted here. I’ve been to Joy Luck Palace twice: first time on a Saturday noon. Second time on a Saturday night.
Our first time, on Saturday noon, was a complete disaster. Our waitress was absent, didn’t bring us tea (but he charged us for it!), English language was absent as well. I felt almost lost, having to desperately call the people with carts that brought almost the same dishes all the time. Still, food was delicious.
I decided to give them a second chance and I made a reservation for dinner. They greeted us with smiles and the same waitress as the first time (who remembered me and what we ordered the first time) helped me with the menu (I wanted to choose a dish, and he kindly recommend me another). no dim sun on a Saturday night. the restaurant was pleasantly empty, with the exception of three of four tables.
Classic music and great ambiance.
Food was as delicious as the first time. Plus the waitress packed all the leftovers in a delicate way. Plus, my kids didn’t like the dessert, and we got another for free.
So, I understand the negative reviews. Lunch time can get crazy (I almost waited 30 minutes), and the employees are mostly overwhelmed.
If you want to have a delicious dinner, skip the dim sum menu and just go at night. you’ll not regret it ;)
Tumbs up! Love Joy Luck Palace

This is neither a great Chinese dinner house nor a place that is so poor that I wouldn’t go even if you treat. Definitely a 2.5 star restaurant.
We had a party of 6, most areCaucasians.
First, the ambiance and service: typical Chinese, can’t complain. But if you expect a higher end western dinner house, you will be disappointed.
Service is decent. We ordered 6 dishes and three came out almost simultaneously. The captain immediately went into the kitchen and held the rest of the dishes.
As to food:
West lake minced beef soup — too much scallions, not terribly tasty but acceptable. A C+.
Peking duck — a B+.
Filet Chinese style — quite good, a B+.
Sushi pork ribs — ok. A solid B.
Mushrooms with bean curd skin — simply awful. Too soupy, no taste.
Crab claws — too greasy. Nothing to brag about. A c.
Shrimp chow fun with running egg — again taste is missing. A B-​.
All in all, no more than a 2.5 star. There is no WOW factor here. Or a three star to round up.

My parents love this place. and I’m a fan too. Dim sum during lunch hours and tasty plates at night. Joy Luck is conveniently located in the Ranch 99 plaza in Cupertino. Be forewarned this place, as well as the plaza parking lot both get quite packed during weekend lunch hours, but the restaurant wait isn’t horrible.
They have standard dim sum items that taste well made with good ingredients. What I love here, that I can’t seem to find at any other dim sum restos though, are the sesame balls filled with black sesame paste. Usually I only find red bean or yellow bean. Must get the yummy black sesame paste ones here!
Dinner is tasty. Their Kung Pao Chicken is tender and juicy. They have an excellent Seafood Tofu Claypot and steamed fish (market price). Dinner menus are pretty pricey and start out at $ 13.99 for their cheapest dishes, averaging around $ 16.99.
I’ll be back, with the parentals.

I was excited to take my out-​of-​town family to this restaurant for our Christmas dinner. My mom likes good Chinese food (since we’re Chinese), and I thought it’d be a nice treat for her. They were rude to us from the moment we walked into the restaurant — and not in that quaint, cliché rudeness you see in movies. Nope; it was rude like they had JOY in being A-​HOLES, like they were too good to serve us.
For instance, when we came with our party of 8, they said that we had 3 children, so we can fit in a table for 6. (Apparently, a child is only 33% of a person.) There weren’t even enough chairs or place settings for us. When they weren’t obviously pretending like they didn’t see us, they then scoffed at us when we asked for water, utensils, plates, and the basics to eat a meal.
For a dinner that was over $ 200, I think I would have expected some cursory customer service and maybe even a few niceties. My mom hated her meal and said she never wanted to come back. Our kids were crying because the food took forever to come out; so long, in fact, we had to leave to get a snack for our kids. Thanks for the amazing Christmas. At least now I know your real restaurant name shouldn’t be «Joy Luck Palace» but «Palace of No Luck And No Joy.» For short, I just call it «A-​Hole Palace.»
For the holidays this year, Santa brought me a special gift: a multi-​course meal of Merry effing Christmas. I’ve never gotten one of those before! Thanks, Joy Luck Palace!

I wish there’s a way to provide a negative rating. This place does not deserve even 1 star. Went here for lunch on Christmas day, and I’ve been to places with bad service, but this place tops it all. Usually a waiter is assigned to check on you, and make sure you are being served, we did not even know who are waiter was, until it was time to send back the vegetarian fried rice we decided to return because it took forever to arrive. We asked for water, and no water was ever served. We wanted to order off the menu, and asked one of the waiters, and was responded with a dismissive yeah, and then the damn fool just walked away, so we were sitting there waiting since we’ve already finished the dim sum that we got from the carts that were walking around, and since there was not a lot of selection from the carts we were really wanting to order off the menu.
Never returning to this place again, and hope this damn place close down already. HORRIBLE!!!

this Chinese restaurant is one of our favorite places to get dim sum. (Koi Palace hasn’t opened yet so…) they always have plenty of variety n always give the customers a dim sum menu with pics to order from. (LOVE that.) their prices r above average but u would expect that from a good clean n large food establishment that makes above average dishes. the parking is a bit of a bear cuz it’s in a Chinese market plaza. definitely not a lot of empty spaces on the weekends so beware n plan ahead.
the service is lacking, of course, when they r crowded. the dim sums in the push carts go around til they get sold out so the same dim sums come around for a while. that’s y I like the menu. i usually just c whatever I want to order n ask a waitress to get them for me. that’s a great thing, especially when u r totally craving food!
Tofu wrapped pork n veggies: good sauce. very savory. the tofu skin is cooked well.
Shrimp Dumplings: this is a must order for me. good amount of shrimps. they aren’t huge but they suffice.
Braised Chicken Feet: (guessing they r braised.) so good! they came piping hot n so flavorful.
Crispy Shrimp Balls: these aren’t as big as the ones at King Egg Roll n a bit oily.
Pumpkin Shrimp Dumplings: never tried them before so decided to order. they r actually just like a regular Shrimp Dumpling except it’s round n includes a few tiny pieces of pumpkin. not enough pumpkin flavor to me. it’s listed under Special Weekend dim sum. probably wouldn’t order again.
Scallop n Shrimp Dumplings: this was surprisingly good. loved it. I could taste both ingredients in each bite.
Egg Tart: someone else ordered this. I didn’t care for this cuz I know how to make them n I make them so much bigger than these tiny one bite ones. (yah I know they r all tiny in Chinese restaurants. I just like to complain.) they r ok if u want a small taste.

I’ve been back for dinner several times. We always go with the Peking duck. I love that it comes with buns rather than the thin wraps. Kinda weird that there are bones though… Walnut shrimp is always a safe and good choice to go with too. I’ve tried a few of the clay pots– ehh not my thing. The seafood one at least had good vegetables in it. I’ve also ordered a few other dishes– nothing to rave about. We didn’t finish them and I can’t even remember what they were to be honest.
Service is pretty good here. Very clean restaurant. They do check the tip on the bill before you leave the restaurant though. Typical Asians…

Joy Luck is still one of my favorite dim sum places in the South Bay. They offer your dim sum staples and other not so common items as well. Service is a hit or miss, and you’re almost always guaranteed a wait if you’re coming around peak hours (11:30−1).
Dim sum menu and quality is above average in my opinion. And they have my two favorite dim sum dessert items: the soft black sesame balls (that come out gooey and so warm) and the refreshing mango sago.
If you’re not willing to wait or you don’t mind ordering dim sum off a menu rather than the typical cart pushing ways, then joy luck also has a smaller store in the same plaza that you can head towards. They serve dim sum as well as other items on their menu there.

Had a really bad experience here with my wife and my parents. And it seems like my issue is pretty consistent with most other reviewers.
The service was pretty damn terrible.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but when the servers walk by with carts, they are supposed to let us know what they have in the cart and offer us any if we were interested. This was not the case at Joy Luck Palace. Most servers tend to walk right past you with the carts, not even saying a word. We had to stand up and chase each cart down to actually get food.
Dim Sum option was not very impressive at all. They didn’t even have Shu Mai that day. How the hell do you not have Shu Mai when you’re a dim sum restaurant?! Most of the stuff were greasy oily veggies and meat that we were not too interested in.
Definitely won’t be making the trip back. Too many decent places in the south bay to go to a bad place twice.

Okay, the food is delicious but the service is atrocious.
–I asked politely to switch seats as soon as they sat me down there because the A/​C was super strong. I know high-​maintenance requests like that are super obnoxious, I used to work in the food industry. With annoying customer requests, though, I also know that you have to at least make some effort to conceal your annoyance. No, this suited waiter SLAMMED down the cup and chopsticks onto the table, made a sassy face, then moved us.
–My mother found a short hair in her tea.
–There was one young woman waiter who was very helpful and efficient. She brought out the tea and water we requested very quickly. Besides that, when we tried to flag people down for tea, they would blatantly ignore us, look away, walk past etc. And it was 1:30 on a Tuesday, not busy at all.
So, tl;dr great food, shitty service. But if stuff like that doesn’t bother you, then go for it.

Food was great: ¹⁰⁄₁₀. Service and price were not: −10÷10.
All of my poor mother’s attempts to flag down a waiter to take our order/​refill tea/​basically anything were blatantly ignored. There were workers «scanning the room» but they would «conveniently» not see our waving hands. Moreover, at one point, the orange-​haired lady straight up WALKED AWAY in the middle of my mom’s sentence about whether or not our dishes (one that took 30 mins to come and another that never came at all) was ready or not. Like okay, I get it. Sometimes customers are terrible and you really don’t want to talk to them! But is it so OUTRAGEOUS to try place an order?!? This place takes the Cantonese dimsum bad service to a whole new level. I have never met workers so unapologetic about their rudeness. Sad, just sad.
(and while I was writing this review the waitress started arguing with my mom lol)

Very limited choices of dim sum… I want my fried seafood taro dumpling, but they don’t have it :(and they also didn’t have my favorite tofu dessert… AIYAHHHHH! :(
I’ll stick to Fu Lam Mum in mountain view.

Came here again for dim sum on a Tuesday morning, as it opened 11:30ish. The wait, was none! However it did get packed as the time went by so that was a good sign!
The food was quick and fast — dont think this was a good thing because some of the dishes were cold. I really dig this place when it’s super packed on the weekends because at least you know that everything is fresh out of the steamer. During the weekdays, the dishes were cold and nasty.

Your average Dim Sum Spot.
The location is cool. It is in the middle of the Cupertino Village Shopping Center.
Been coming here since I could hold a chopstick. The ambiance is a local dim sum spot gentrified. The dim sum ladies are still walking around with the dim sum carts.
The dim sum itself is pretty pricey. It is excepted due to the location.
Quality: Check out my pictures for how they look. Most dim sum taste fresh. The fried dim sum was soft and not crisp.
Overall: Will return when I feel like ballin’ out on dim sum.

BEST BEST BEST DIM SUM PLACE IN THE BAY AREA
Service isn’t great but food makes up for it!
FOOD
OMG THEIR DIM SUM IS THE BEST. Even my bf whose from hk and has had the best dim sum says this place’s dim sum is on point! Let’s start with some of my MUST ORDERS here:
–RICE ROLL W/​FRIED DONUT: OMG THIS IS MY FAV FAV FAV THING EVER HERE. You have to order this from the waitress because they dont’ come around with it but it’s basically a soft rice roll with a crunchy crisp fried «chinese donut» inside. The textures are just heavenly because of that soft sticky outside and that really great crunch you get from the inside. Paired with the sauce they give you, ahhhh it’s amazing. Just writing about it is getting me salivating haha.
–Rice roll with cha siu pork: The cha siu here is amazing. It doesn’t have that distinct pork smelly taste and it’s still very juicy and tender. They also have some sauce or flavoring they add to it which makes it just that much more delicious.
–Pork filled fried balls of heaven: No clue what the english name for it is but in chinese it’s 鹹水餃. essentialy it’s a fried, football-​shaped glutinous rice ball with pork filling inside. You get that crisp from the fried outside, the chew and stickiness from the glutinous rice ball and then you bite into this amazingly aromatic pork filling. What I like about this especially is that the glutinous skin isn’t too thick so you get a good amount of it and the pork filling is super aromatic and smells so good. Not sure what they cook with it but w/​e they’re doing, they’re doing super well.
–Siu Mai: You get a really good amount of meat in it and there’s a shrimp inside as well. The meat is really flavorful and the skin on the siu mai is very thin and well steamed, not soggy at all.
–Pork Spare Ribs: Great flavor to it. You can really taste the black bean. And it comes with taro on the bottom so you get the spare rib meaty taste paired with the black bean tasted all infused into the soft taro. If you’ve never had taro, it tastes very similar to potatoes so it just soaks up all that flavor.
–Chinese broccoli: Yes, it’s expensive, yes it’s just chinese broccoli but they do it so well every time. The broccoli is always fresh and crisp but not under or over cooked. You can a mix of the stem and the leaves which allows for variety and gives people the chance to eat what they want! The oyster sauce they give you to pair with it is always great as well. It’s salty enough to really flavor that broccoli but it’s not overly salty where you go straight for the tea to wash it down.
–FRIED BLACK SESAME BALLS: OMG when they are fresh out of the kitchen, the sesame is still liquidy and hot and ah! it’s soooo good. The outside skin of the ball is crunchy from being fried and chewy in the center because of the glutinous texture and the inside you get that pop of gooey warm sesame paste. If you love sesame, you gotta get these! Beware of the black sesame paste and seeds sticking t your teeth though. You might want to hide your smile when you’re eating/​have just eaten these babies haha.
–STEAMED CUSTARD BUNS: OMG soooo good! The custard is just the right amount of gooey-​ness to me and it comes out piping hot! The custard is also a good level of sweetness and then bun is always soft and warm. AMAZING
While youre here, try pairing your dim sum with their hot chili sauce on the table. It’s one of my favorite hot sauces ever haha. You can also ask for some chinese mustard 芥末 to go with your meal! I love doing that too :)
SERVICE
Yes…the service isn’t great as the other reviewers have mentioned. The staff isn’t friendly but nevertheless, they get the job done. They notice when your tea is empty and needs water, they get you what you need, but the attitudes are pretty poor. Also if you order something from the waitress, it takes a while to come. Whenever I order the rice rolls with the chinese donut, it takes at least a good 20 – 30 min so usually I order it right when I come in so I’m distracted eating other dim sum while waiting and by the time I think of it, it’s here. That’s the strategy haha.
PRICE
Price point is high for dim sum and unreasonably high for certain items like the chinese broccoli ($ 7 i believe) but I think it’s so worth it. Their dim sum is very authentic and the quality is good so I’m willing to spend that extra $.
OVERALL
MUST MUST MUST ORDER the RICE ROLL W/​CHINESE DONUT, BLACK SESAME BALLS, STEAMED CUSTARD BUNS. Those are my favs and hope they will be yours too :) Ignore the service and just focus on the food! You’ll love it!
If service is key to you then… either don’t come (even though I highly advise against not coming because you’ll be missing out on the best dim sum in the area) OR just come with really low expectations for service and you should be okay haha.

Joy Luck Palace is not bad but it is definitely overpriced. Came here for lunch with my coworkers because Tong Dumpling was too crowded. We were seated right away in the back kinda room. The carts came by slowly so we also ordered some things from the menu. The most memorable dish for me was the pork belly with the yummy crunchy skin, but it was 11 bucks for a TINY PLATE. Wtf I could have gone to 99 and bought much more for that same amount. We ended up paying $ 19 a head. Kinda ridic for just dim sum.
Never came here on my own time and gonna keep it that way. Many more dim sum joints in the bay that wont break your wallet and fill your tummy.

A rare 2-​star review for the following reasons:
SUBPAR SERVICE
— Tables seated after us were offered tea first.
— Cart ladies were inaudible across a small table and only approached our table when waved over.
— 1 suited fellow + 1 tray lady both insisted that the carts were the ONLY way to get food on the table. Later on, an older suited fellow took our order for items that we wanted.
+ My teapot was refilled the moment I flipped the lid.
MEDIOCRE FOOD (at best)
— While our «ordered items» came out within 5 minutes, cracked pan-​fried shrimp/​chive dumplings and super dry turnip cakes are incredibly unappetizing.
— Weekend special pumpkin dumpling? More like shrimp with a dab of orange.
— Translucent dumpling wrappers all tore apart with the slightest nudge.
+ Banana leaf sticky rice was pretty good, despite pieces of leaf falling apart into my rice.
This place needs to get its shit together. The ladies serving up food couldn’t care less if you ordered anything, and most of the guys in suits are only around to pick up your empty dishes. I hear they have a great lobster noodle special on M/​F, but I wouldn’t go back based on what I saw today.