Joyce Jiaozi Restaurant

Authentic Northern Chinese home-cooking.. Randomly found this place; walked out very satisfied. Good, authentic Northern style Chinese food, and cheap. Note: they accept credit cards!

FOOD =
- The pork & chive dumplings were super juicy, so much so that you don't even need sauce/vinegar. Taste was good. I do agree with other reviewers though that it has the potential to lean towards "too salty" if the cook were eyeballing the amount of ingredients. Ours was OK; not too salty.
- Cilantro and wood mushrooms dish was authentic. It was clear that they've poured crushed vinegar-marinated garlic (my mom used to do this) all over the cilantro and mu-er (wood shrooms). It was up-your-nose-and-makes-you-cry spicy, like wasabi. I would order it for my mom next time (but not for myself) because it tasted so authentic.
- Stir-fried eggplants: very good. I don't like oily dishes but this dish has to be oily and it has to be flavoured correctly, and they did it well. Not just that, they were generous enough to have some pork and red/green peppers in the dish even though it's not written on the menu. We were full from the 15pc dumplings but it was so delicious we finished this too (not a small portion).
- I ordered wintermelon tea as a drink. It came in a tall-ish can, cold. Not as sweet as the stuff served in Burnaby bubble tea places, which was good.

PRICES = 5 stars for this attribute. 15pc dumplings for $6? Yes please. Usually the eggplant dish alone would cost $10-13; this place was $7-8.
SERVICE = Good. I have no complaints. Waitress was polite and came whenever we needed something.
AMBIANCE = Hole-in-the-wall. Not much decor (they are trying a little though). Basic tables and chairs, light green wallpaper. I don't mind this though, so this was not a minus to me.
CLEANLINESS = Uncertain. It looked relatively clean as far as what I saw, but I didn't see all of it and I didn't check out the washrooms.

Will return for more.

Decent food for a decent price. I've been to Joyce Jiaozi and ordered takeout from them a few times now, and considering the amount of food you get for the price, it's a good deal. The food is tasty but honestly nothing spectacular. They have a fairly good selection of dumplings and noodles. The restaurant itself is a bit run down, but it seems like a family-run establishment so that's to be expected, really. From my experience, the staff are friendly and helpful. Good place to go if you feel like getting some Chinese on a budget.