Joyful Seafood Restaurant: Chinese New Year dinner in Burnaby
As a foodie, I try to share my enthusiasm for restaurants and different cuisines with my friends and family, but after several years I have come to terms that my parents will always prefer Chinese food and Chinese restaurants even though that is already what they eat at home every day 🤨.
What is the criteria for a good Chinese restaurants to my parents? First, it cannot be fine dining. If you serve them a course where your plate has 1 dumpling in some broth, they will literally laugh their asses off and then scoff at the price point 💀. Prices have to be reasonable and portions have to be big. Second, it most likely has to offer dim-sum service in the daytime and dinner set menus at night. And third, the atmosphere has to be loud with chandeliers and the servers have to speak to you in Chinese as a default (very intimidating I know for non-Chinese speaking customers 😢).
Joyful Seafood Restaurant is a Chinese restaurant that fits all of this criteria and it is located in the South Burnaby area near Metrotown. I actually order takeout from here sometimes and find their food to be quite good, so I came to check them out for dim-sum and dinner with my parents. After passing both of these tests, I can now list Joyful Seafood Restaurant as a restaurant I can take my parents to in Burnaby.
This blog post will review our most recent experience – we ate here as a family for Chinese New Year in February.
The vibe
It was honestly hard to take photos for this post because:
- I don’t like to bother people too much when I capture content for my blog or social media, and since I was with my family I just didn’t have time to snap too many pics
- It was so busy the night we went because it was Chinese New Year and the restaurant was filled with people eating. I don’t find it nice to take photos of the restaurant when people are eating.
The vibe inside Joyful is really similar to other Chinese restaurants – spacious and huge dining room with chandeliers everywhere, big circular tables with white tablecloths, a plush chair. They have tanks of live seafood when you enter and a small waiting area inside.
Unfortunately, my dad said the washrooms were really dirty (on the night of Chinese New Year) 😱.
Food review
For Chinese New Year, we ordered one of their set dinner menus – $298 for 4 people and it comes with 6 courses. They usually have set menus regularly so I’m not sure if this is from their regular menu, or if it is special for Chinese New Year.
Course 1: Lotus root soup with dried oysters and sea moss
The first course in a Chinese set menu is often soup. They bring it out in this big pot and serve it to you in smaller bowls.
This soup has lotus roots (I’m not the biggest fan but it was pretty good!), dried oysters and sea moss (?? 😵💫). I didn’t taste many dried oysters (the soup was mostly clear and they leave all the stuff at the bottom of the pot).
The soup was pretty tasty in my opinion! Lots of flavour despite its murky appearance.
Course 2: Braised lobster in supreme broth with noodle
The second course is the star of the show (in my opinion) – the lobster 🤩!
I was pretty happy that it came with 2 lobsters actually. There are certain pieces that are easier to eat than others, but the lobster was cooked well in a really delicious sauce! The sauce also coated the noodles at the bottom so eating them together was super delicious.
Course 3: Chef specialty soy chicken
The next dish to arrive is the soy chicken – another flagship dish in Chinese set menus. I’ve eaten a lot of soy sauce chicken in my life, and sometimes it’s too salty but this one was fine. The chicken meat was juicy and tender.
Course 4: Pea tips with dried scallop
The next dish is a vegetable dish and actually one of my mom’s favourite dishes. We always order it and usually there’s a surcharge for ordering pea tips (maybe an extra $10) so we were pretty happy when we saw the one vegetable dish in this set menu was already pea tips.
The dried scallop was not really noticeable for me, but I liked the thin enoki mushrooms! The pea tips were cooked really well and not bitter, served in a delicious garlic sauce.
Course 5: Sauteed diced beef, sea cucumber, mushroom and black pepper
The last main dish is this diced beef dish (one of my favourites actually). The beef had great flavour with some spice/saltiness from the black pepper, and it was also super tender! The mushroom was also super juicy with meaty flavour.
The sea cucumber is kind of a unique addition – this dish usually doesn’t use sea cucumbers. Kelvin actually isn’t a big fan of sea cucumbers but I will honestly try anything. The sea cucumber looked kind of like a dark/black tongue chopped up and the texture was jelly-like.
Course 6: Dessert – red bean porridge
Don’t have a photo because I really didn’t think it was worth taking, but the last course was a simple bowl of red bean porridge dessert, served with a cookie. I’m not a big fan of these kind of red bean/warm soup desserts.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My family and I had a good time and enjoyed the set dinner at Joyful Seafood Restaurant. We actually added an extra noodle dish just in case the set menu wasn’t enough food (because it says it’s for 4 people and we actually had 5 people), but we still had leftovers so I actually think the set menu alone would have been enough for us 5.
For $298, I think it is a good price for the quantity and quality of food. I’ve been to Joyful for dim-sum service as 2 people and the bill ended up being $100 🥹.
Service is good but I think I can only say that because I can speak Chinese, and also it was Chinese New Year so the servers were in a good mood from all the additional red pockets people were giving to them.
Since Joyful has my parents’ approval, we will be sure to return!
Recommended: Read my reviews of New Mandarin Restaurant, another Chinese restaurant that has earned my parents’ approval. Sucking pig + king crab dinner or Chinese New Year menu.
Sincerely, Loewe