Sri ni

We were here to celebrate our anniversary and had a great time. The service was very helpful in guiding us and answering our questions. We enjoyed the food we ordered—everything tasted fantastic.

+1

Amber Lee

JOI Asian Bistro was an absolute delight to dine at. At first glance it’s a beautiful restaurant with many different seating options catered to how outdoors you would like to be. The checkin process with our reservation was smooth and so was the ordering process. The food was absolutely amazing. We ordered the wagyu beef sliders, braised short ribs, xiao long bao, and pork sabaro ramen. The sliders were great and so were the fries that came alongside it. They could’ve used less vegetables on it so help focus on the beef flavor but it was still good. The xiao long bao was pretty good as well, not as good as it would be at a dedicated dumpling spot but still above what we expected. The best part of the meal was the braised short rib. It was cooked to perfection and was extremely tender and juicy, just phenomenal. Unfortunately the biggest letdown was the ramen. The toppings were fine but the broth itself had zero flavor, almost like it was regular packaged ramen broth. Outside of the food the staff were great. They got us our orders quick and were incredibly receptive. We ordered a few drinks as well while we were there: the Japanese old fashioned, pineapple inferno, and lychee harmony. All of us liked the flavor of our drinks, although they were stronger than expected. Cumulatively, JOI is a fun and very good restaurant in The Domain. We were pleasantly surprised by the food although if you are searching for Asian food specifically then this would not be your best bet.

+7

Maddie M

Ate here tonight, the place was dead except for maybe 5 tables. This is the worst customer service I have had at a restaurant that wasn’t even busy. I saw the waitress a total of 3 times- one to order apps, one to order main, and one time for the check. After our appetizers were delivered, we realized we had no silverware or plates to eat off of. I tried to get multiple staff members attention but none of them besides the server seemed to speak English. I ended up grabbing plates off of another empty table and had to share my silverware (only chopsticks) with my 2 year old daughter. There was no apology or even realization that’s we were struggling to eat with our toddler. Our waters weren’t refilled so we sat waiting for a check for 30 minutes so we could leave and grab refreshments elsewhere. Disappointing experience. This is our second time eating here and the first experience was similar. Probably won’t eat here again.

Gaurav Hegde

Came to JOI Asian Bistro hoping for a great meal, but the experience fell short. Service was terrible—food and drinks took forever to arrive, even though the restaurant wasn’t busy. The food itself was decent. The spicy chicken and lobster tacos were the highlights, while the tuna sushi was just okay. The decor is nice, but the place lacked energy and atmosphere. Overall, it didn’t live up to expectations, and with so many great spots in Austin, I may not visit again.

+12

Honestly service was good, atmosphere was attractive enough for us to considered dinner here just by looking inside while we walked by. The appetizers were okay (3.5 stars for quality and taste) mid to good based on my experience for the price. Dinner however ( beef lo mien, bun sandwiches and a viva roll), was so bad we literally stopped eating paid and went next door. The lo mien was Panda Express quality and appears to be sitting under a lamp for hours. I knew as I was eating that I was going to have problems later if I kept going. We cut it short and left. For the price, I really didn’t feel the value. I will say we did come in near closing time so that may have been the reason for the experience.i want to reiterate Service was great I just didn’t enjoy the food.

Annie P

First and last visit to Joi. Really disappointed the food and quality did not match the ambiance or service. The place looks great, and the staff were friendly, but the food was overpriced and not fresh. We ordered the shishito peppers, which came out soggy, and the Taiwanese popcorn chicken, which was bland and lacked flavor. I also tried the lobster taco for $18, only to find it was made with imitation lobster meat. The executive sushi combo lunch was the biggest letdown the fish wasn’t fresh, had a fishy smell, and the sashimi slices were paper thin. The rolls were barely filled with anything. We also ordered the beef bento, and the steak was overcooked, dry, and flavorless. The only positives were the service and the restaurant’s interior. Sadly, the food was such a disappointment definitely not worth the $160 we spent for lunch.

Geronimo Skywolf Guerrero

Incompetent staff in the front of house. While the food is generally good, the staff tends to be slow. Mangers sit and talk together while patrons wait unattended. Even the simplest asks take extraordinary long during non-busy hours.

Aidehn G

We went here on a Thursday evening at around 7:30pm. Let’s start with the bad parts of our experience. The service here was pretty bad. There was hardly anyone here and it took FOREVER for someone to come to our table. It also felt like we didn’t have a single server dedicated to our table. At one point even the hostess, which was absolutely lovely, came to refill our water. The actual servers came by our table only 3-4 times the whole time we were here, and it was always a different guy, and just to drop off the appetizers and food we ordered. We even had to get up and ask the hostess how to pay our tab because no one was coming by our table. Both me and my cousin ordered the pork ramen, and although the broth was really good, the pork itself was way overcooked and insanely chewy. It was chewy to the point where we had to take it out of the bowl and just set it aside. The good: The appetizers we ordered were really good. I believe we got the chicken dumplings and the truffle dumplings? They were delicious. The ramen broth was also pretty good. The hostess was really nice. We had to pay our tab with her since our servers were M.I.A. As we were walking out a server came and apologized, and it was, of course, some dude we hadn’t even seen up until we were leaving. This place needs to get it together when it comes to their service. It was pretty annoying and it felt like we were here forever.

Alexandria Lyautey

For spending $200 on dinner we were tremendously disappointed. Our server was the bartender and he was simply not present. We waited so long for water the host had to come and refill our glasses and next to nobody was at the bar let alone in their section? Not to mention none of the staff except the food runners prebussing anything. We sat until we cashed out and left with dirty dishes on our table. Total mess. They had no bluefin? So we got stuck with regular tuna (super fishy by the way) and the nigiri fell apart with way too thick of cuts and poorly molded rice pearls. We also ordered a medium rare steak and it was medium well, oh and our server barely checked in on us, so they had no idea! NICE! And the rolls had so much sauce on them it made my stomach hurt. Only good thing was the crab wontons. Otherwise complete waste of money.

Got the korean fried chicken, I was very soggy, almost seemed they boiled it instead of frying it. We got a lot of smaller plates. None of them were really good. The worse one was the beef and broccoli. I think the oil or beef was very old. The place was the only empty restaurant in the area, I see why. The server was ok, seemed like she was new.

Place was good but customer service was super slow. Served food but no silverware and not even a chopstick. We had to go get it ourselves which was okay. We weren’t informed as well that we had to wait about 30 minutes for the food to be served. I’m Asian but food wasn’t Asian enough. It was okay though. First and last time at this place.

Showed up at 10:30 as the website says it opens at 10 am. Hostess was very nice and began to seat us when the chef or someone in the back started screaming at her that they weren’t open and that “nothing is ready” and berating her within earshot of us and another group of people that had walked in. Extremely uncomfortable and instead of verbally abusing your staff in front of customers try updating your website so that you are prepared for customers. Needless to say us and everyone else who had walked in promptly left.

Joel Klumpp

We made a reservation for a special Christmas Eve meal (though the restaurant was only about a third full so we would have been fine without the reservation). We had called in advance to ensure the menu included options for the members of our party with food allergies/sensitivities and were assured modifications could be made. Upon arrival our server seemed very confused when we asked questions about ingredients in certain dishes and ended up recommending we have steamed rice if we wanted to avoid allergens. Our server was polite and very apologetic about the delay in getting food out. It took two hours for us to get our food. It was an overall bad experience. Maybe the restaurant was short staffed, because there were other signs of neglect, like a filthy bathroom that clearly hadn’t been cleaned in hours. I will never go back to this place.

Amit Kaul

We were pretty hungry but left the restaurant hungry. Ordered some edamame - which was good. We ordered Thai curry - which was just boiled vegetables with no taste of a curry. We also ordered 2 Ramens with chicken - Don’t even do that. It was stinking. We left it untouched on the table and paid off our bill. The waitress was also cold. She asked if we wanted to take home - which she didn’t understand why we aren’t taking it back home. Very unfortunate. !! We went in hungry, came out hungry. I wouldn’t go there again

Walker K

This Restaurant has major potential. That being said, It’s some of the worst sushi I’ve ever had and I eat sushi OFTEN. It’s so bad that I would rather go to HEB. The quality of the fish is my main concern, I’m not sure if they’re leaving it out too long or if it’s low grade fish but it doesn’t taste right. The employees are very polite and welcoming, everything is great, besides the food. I hate leaving these reviews but I’ve given this establishment 6 visits and it’s always the same outcome.