Joy on York - Restaurant Highland Park Los Angeles

Sophomore restaurants often have a tendency to fall a little flat but thankfully that’s not the case with Joy, the sister restaurant to Vivian Kuo’s immensely popular Pine & Crane. Joy offers many of the popular Taiwanese staples found at Pine & Crane such as the mapo tofu and dan dan noodles but also several noteworthy hits of its own. At this hot spot on York they riff on the incredible scallion pancake found at the original but veer from tradition ever so slightly, offering the thousand-layer pancake with egg, cheese, or a combination of both. We suggest going with the latter and having what can be only describes as the most satisfying quasi-quesadilla of all time. Carbs are undoubtedly a strong suit of the kitchen at Joy and the buns and sandwich mustn’t be slept on. We’re partial to the scallion bread sandwich which comes with peanuts, pickled vegetables, cilantro and your choice of pork belly, five spice beef, or braised bean curd. Regardless of what filling you opt for; you’ll devour the sandwich so fast you’ll contemplate ordering an entire load of scallion bread to take home (just do it). Since it’s just wrong to leave a restaurant without dessert do good unto yourself and order the traditional shave ice with grass jelly, red beans, boba, and taro balls. Heads will turn as this dish approaches your table and you’ll feel like the coolest person in Highland Park before tumbling back out onto the ever-so trendy York Boulevard.