Joia  

Waht happened in Joia? this restaurant used to be so good... so nice.

I used to go there frequently and I always go with friends. Yes from time to time we wait for a table, or we dont get one, but nothing bad about this. I am happy the restaurant is successful.

But I went there last time with my girlfriend and her family, so we were 6 adult and one kid. They sat us inside as we made reservations earlier in the week and did not have to wait. We order food as we usually do, and basically there is a lot of choices enough to satisfy everyone. we took pizza to share, few appetizer, including the tuna tartare, salads etc...

As main course we had the sea bass, and other dishes like the lobster pasta... nothing really knew as i dont think the menu as changed for a long time, which is ok as we taook those dishes before and it is one of the reasons of coming back. we enjoyed them, we enjoyed the environment, we enjoyed the service....

Well not anymore... to the point that for once I was not even the one complaining about it. the whole family of my girlfriend was complaining and saying how they will not come back anymore as it seems that it is not the same anymore.

So not to go into too many details but the tartare was not good, the pasta were too salty and we asked to be changed as it was not even possible to eat it, then it came very dry and we did not dare complaining again about it. few other dishes add issues and we requested to speak to a manager to express how disappointed we were but for some reason the waiter did not seem to think it was important enough to call upon a manager to talk to us. I then requested if the chef "Alessandro" was here tonight in the kitchen, the waiter did not seem to know who I was talking about. he replied that the chef was not there. and it is understood that a chef like everyone else is entitled to days off, vacations, and all but I am assuming that he appointed a sous chef or someone in charge in case it is needed. the bottom line is that no-one came and talk to us, at some point one of the waiter, maybe a supervisor maybe a manager came and told us that he was sorry that we did not enjoy it but did not do anything to assist to make it better. everyone was upset by the lack of understanding from the staff. And you know how many of us in Hong Kong have felt that way before? How many times you go to eat somewhere and hope when you return it would remain as good? and Joia to be fair did this for quite some times but it seems that they do not anymore. I respect my girlfriend family that they were upset and agree with them that something defenitely went wrong, but sadly since when we discuss going out for dinner we do not mentioned Joia anymore.
I do hope that Joia will come back to a good level of service and food, it is a place I would like to go again and I will try it again personally as i believe it can't be like this always, but this is a symptom of the Hong Kong restaurant industry nowadays. Making ends meet for restaurants owner prove to be harder than before, the food price increase, rents increases faster than the market is willing to support it, but as long as the majority of the populations do not protest it will continue that way. the second issues there is the service that let us down, which is also a symptom of the hong kong politic choices made long ago to not consider the restaurant industry a noble choice of career therefore parents do not encourage their children to pursue actively in the domain allowing them to do it while they find either a suitable husband or a "better" job.
It will come a time that Hong Kong like many of the other Asian countries will realize that the local market is evolving with the increase of life style and travels people know better, the world is opening and restaurants can not rely only on their food anymore... nor their locations... Even in Hong Kong, especially in Hong Kong

Me and my fd didn't Bk a table but we walked in..the guy seemed like a manager but not the boss apparently pointed a table to me, the table nearby the entrance which on that night the weather was bad, it's raining n very windy. But I was okay coz I didn't make reservation and the guy said they r fully bkd so I accepted. But then a very bad smell there nearby the Christmas tree so I requested to hv another table, suddenly they hv another available for us!!

We ordered a mushroom risotto, and a blacktruffle pasta , forgot what exactly the name r. Both were okay, not bad. A wide variety of wine on the list but price overall are too high.

Okay, talking abt the service there was terrible. Yes, we did changed another table, may be on that night the restaurant was too busy or we had created too much troubles?! I waved my hand to one of the waiters and he was cleaning up table. He was kinda pissed off of seeing me to call him or annoyed him, he starred at me and slipped the plate on his hand away , and walked to me, he nodded his head to acknowledge me to talk!! What the....?! I was so.upset and angry for this and the whole night I didn't wanna eat coz the service there was extremely bad ,,all the servers there were busy to take Cate their own section and without a smile on their face, they just wanna finished their job quickly , it seemed like every single request for them is to kill them. I can't believe I had chosen this restaurant to hv dinner with my fd. The pasta n risotto were just made in front of me, it smelled so gd but we didn't hv mood to eat at all.

I truly hope this comment can be read by the owner or boss of joia, this is a very nice restaurant in a way and this kind of service should not exist or happen... I will not go again and I.will never recommend my guest to this restaurant because of the experienced tonight...

We came at an awkward time - around 4:30pm. We initially wanted to have low-tea but due to things unforeseen, we ended up at Joia, and things turned out quite well.

They were out of pastas and tea sets when we arrived, but they still had salads and pizzas. So we ordered the Parma Ham with Melon and the Green Salad. Both were delicious. I'm not a big fan of greens, but the green salad was actually tasty with sprinkles of pine nuts and avocado chunks. The Parma Ham salad was wonderful, too. The melon was juicy and the ham practically melts in your mouth. Yummy.

Because we wanted something heavier than just salads, but nothing too heavy because we were due for dinner in a couple of hours, we ordered Margherita Pizza and it was delicious. The crust was perfect - thin and crispy and I had tomato sauce and melted cheese dripping on the sides of my mouth every time I take a bite.

If what I had was just a preview of what they have for dinner, then I'm definitely coming back for more.

We walk in at around 8pm. No need to wait for table. Most people ordered pizza we noticed but we wanted to have steak so we chose between standard American steak or Florentine 300 days grain fed steak. We asked the waiter. He said the later was heavy, around 1kg with a big bone and would be served sliced and it would take around 25 min. Should be for two persons so we ordered to try.The bread came first. Not warm. Cold and chewy. Only the bread crispy sticks tasted ok. The side dish was generous with asparagus and green, yellow peppersThe steak was really medium rare the whole piece as we ordered, meat was good but not hot enough.

Had the 2 course set lunch at Joia in Elements Mall.
It was fairly empty at lunch time, so we were seated immediately.

Appetizer - Salmon with Mozzarella cheese. Average.

Main - Cordon Blue. Again, average. Worst part was they served it with plain ole mayo... I was expecting the chef to give the dish a bit more ... mm... thought, imagination, something, for what they charge ($208+). Just across from Joia is Stormies which has a excellent lunch set at more than half the price.

Coffee - good.

Funny thing is that the best thing about the whole meal was the bread, it came fresh and warm. Sad, but I actually enjoyed it more than the main course.

The overall environment was nice, but with other options around, I'd probably skip it and try one of the other restaurants.

Nice environment, nice service.
We ordered two course lunch as the dessert was not attractive.
The appetizer were salad and prawn, my BF was some citrus fruit with chicken meat served in a nice large cocktail glass. Both were good, the prawn was fresh and matched with the salad dressing well.

My main course was lamb, medium cooked, nice and tender juicy,
He ordered duck breast, his favorite as usual, good, tasty.

We ordered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc again,

Lunch was ended with a cup of espresso, not bad.

LIfe is beautiful with he around.

We ate upstairs in the "fine dining" section. The set lunch had plenty of selections, and many of them looked pretty good. While it was a little warm to sit outdoor, the indoor section had plenty of sunlight for us to enjoy the fine day.

My starter of prawn salad with nectarines and chive yogurt dressing was pretty good. The prawns were pretty fresh and bouncy on the teeth. The nectarines were ripe and sweet, which worked well with the yogurt dressing. I thought the combination was pretty interesting.

I also had a taste of my friend's millfeuille of eggplant and mushroom with ricotta cheese. Predictably, it was pretty rich with all that ricotta cheese...but tasted good.

My main course of lamb stuffed with pork fat with herbs was interesting. The lamb was rolled up with a thin layer of bacon fat inside, which reminds me of the shashlik I had in Uzbekistan last year. There was just the right amount of rosemary rolled up, not overpowering the lamb. The accompanying cherry tomatos, haricots verts and potato cubes were nice, too.

I shared the vanilla crème brûlée, which was pretty good and had lots of vanilla seeds.

original blogpost: http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2009/08/elemental-lunch.html

Me & my bf went to their upper level for dinner.

I ordered tuna fish cube for main and choco dessert
My bf ordered red wine, soup plus a seafood pasta

Everything taste great and was up to standard, except the soup and my fish got a bit cold when served.

Their bread basket was also good, it came with high quality olive oil and vinegar. However, the portion of oil & vinegar served were too little.

Will definately go back to try out more food.

Have always wanted to try out this sister shop of the revered Gaia, Va Bene, and Isola, despite the flurry of negative reviews.

Given that it was a weekday, the cafe was expectantly not crowded, which was a good thing. That allowed for greater appreciation of the decor in the absence of excessive noise too common in Hong Kong.

Amid the evening chills, warm water was presented without a hint of disdain. The order taking was smooth and precise, in contrast to earlier reviews (below). The food was served at the right time and order as well, although to be fair that should not be difficult given the small numbers to serve.

Food quality well justified the far-from-exorbitant price tag. From the heart-warming oven-fresh bread basket, to the delightfully-light antipasti, to the petite-yet-filling mains (primi/secondi), to the rapturous dolce---everything was consistently good and proper.

If there was any criticism, it would be the ambient music. For some reason rock music was chosen over more relaxing and authentic genres. Good thing not everyone would be equally bothered by that.

Overall, I was glad to not have been deterred by some of the reviews. Otherwise, it would have been too easy to write off a hidden gem that is worth frequenting.

Last Sunday I went to Joia for dinner with 3 friends to celebrate my friend's birthday. It was 70% empty when we got there and initially the service was a bit overwhelming (6-7 waitors to serve the 4 of us) but nonetheless OK.

Trouble started when we was ordering wine. My fd asked for a bottle of white "A" and the waitor was keen for us to have "B". The waitor then offered to show us "B" so that we can have a look and see if we like it.

After he bought us "B", my fd was still unsure and it was then the waitor said,"Why don't I pour you some so that you can try for yourself?". My fd took the offer, tried a sip or two, then told the waitor that we would not take "B" as it was too blend and that we would take "A" instead. It was then the waitor said,"Oh, but you cannot change the wine now that we have opened this bottle for you." We were very very shocked as he never positioned it that way before he let us try the wine. I have been to restaurant where they would offer you to try the wine if they have already had a bottle opened (e.g. wine that they serve by the glass) and none of us were expecting that. The waitor further argued that we could only change the bottle if the wine has turned bad or sth.

Cut the long story short, we asked to talk to the manager and after we insisted that we will not accept "B", he agreed for us to change back to "A" and said,"I apologise if he (the waitor) indeed said what you say he said". We were literally fuming but as we didnt want to spoil my fd's birthday, we just let it go.

As for the food, most of it was OK. Nothing impressive and the pasta was kinna hard (NOT "al dente" hard but "hard"). The salad was actually quite nice but the portion is relatively small.

I seriously think a restaurant with this kinna price point (similar to COVA) should at least provide some decent service. Unfortunately it was a bad experience and I am not going back again.

I have been expecting to try Joia after reading some commentary on this restaurant in the local medium. Eventually I tried this restaurant (the one on the roof) last week. Since it was a Thursday, the restaurant was not that crowded as expected; however, the environment was surprisingly noisy. We were arranged with a table leaning against the wall in the middle of the restaurant hall. That table did not fit into the dining atmosphere as the setting was like an extension for meeting unexpected demand.

We settled down anyway even we had doubts on what were presented in the restaurant.

The service providers came by turns liked the merry-go-round. Nevertheless, no one noticed that the table candle was never light-up. Food menu was served first with the drink menu provided later only upon request. We chose a bottle of Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc which we were subsequently told that the wine was not chilled enough for serving. I found it not quite understandable as the general expectation would be all wines on the list to be readily served.

We settled anyway and chose another bottle of wine that was chilled enough.

We had a pizza; an order of pasta, a bottle of chilled enough but low-end Sauvignon Blanc from the list and 2 serving of grappa. The bill for that night was around HK$1,150 which is HK$650/person.

In a nutshell, food is just average. Price is in the upper middle range that means many comparable choices in the town e.g. ISOLA in IFC, Zeffirino Ristorante at Regal Hong Kong etc. Service seemingly sucks…whoops! I am sorry to offer such a frank comment.

Anyway it was a disappointing dining experience and Joia is not a highly recommendable restaurant.

It was my bday dinner, and my goods friends were kind enough spending time to pick out a new restaurant. They had warned me none of them try it. And i thought what the heck!

Talk about the bread. It is like a rock. I never feel a bread as hard as that one. I tossed it to the waitress w/o saying a word and even she started apologizing. The whole basket was like that.

I tried the lobster salad. It was a disaster. I don't know what's it called but it looked like jelly. It was bitter as if it were taken out of a rotten jar. Crazy.

I had the goose liver ravioli. The inside was cold. It was just disgusting.

I think of all the dishes my friends order, only one would considered OKAY, and it was the mushroom & asparagas risotto. Pizza sucks too. Even pizza hut has better pizza and i hate pizza hut.

The service...hmm...i'm sure they are nice people but just lack of experience. They told me it's their soft opening....whatever that means....does that explain the rotten foods and cold bread....?

The worst part was that the restaurant has two levels. Both of the levels serve foods. And we were on the upper level. We came up from below. So, when we left we would have to go back down the long stair case. But before we did, the Smart Manager was standing there proudly to thank us and shook our hands. When we got to downstairs, there were nobody downstairs and the front door was locked. Nobody was there to open it. We had to climb back upstairs and exit from there. THe manager could of told us but obviously he knows jack shit about it. We wanted to make sure other customers wouldn't make the same mistake and told the manager. He apologized and asked us if we were in a rush he'll buy us drinks. I was like even if he pay me to have a drink i would NEVER set my foot there AGAIN!!!!

lastly, it is over priced. HKD500/head. NO alcohol

Beware....!

(can't believe there is another post commenting it's ok....)