Joya

It's rare, but like any other great restaurant I have waited in line, the food, service & prices are always worth it!!! The one time there was an issue with my order, it was quickly replaced and on the house. Both owners are amazingly nice!!! Every time a friend comes to town I take them there and they love it (even those who claim to not like Thai food)!!! So glad we stumbled upon it so many years ago!!! btw, I have been going to Joya for 8 years and have never had a horrible experience, whether crowded or sitting for a long period of time with friends. Pros: Great food, great prices, great service... Cons: sometimes crowded on Fri./Sat. evenings more

We tried a few times to get into this very crowded restaurant. I was sorry we finally managed it. The decor is really harsh and unappealing. Because it is so crowded and noisy, I just wanted to eat and get out as soon as possible -- it's certainly not condusive for a leisurely night out. The food was totally mediocre. But worst of all, I had eaten a few spoonfuls of my Pad Thai before I realized that the bowl it came in was crusted with dried-on food all the way around the outside. Who knows what kind of crud was hidden by the food on the inside! I was disgusted. There are so many restaurants in the area that serve similar food. Try one of the others and steer clear of this one. Cons: Too noisy, univiting atmosphere, dirty dishes more

January 17 2009 I had the worst experienc a Joya! I will continue to boycott this place until it is closed indefinitly. Just because your prices are dirt cheap and your food is okay does not give the owner and his wife I mean his HUSBAND the right to to ego trip and be nasty. One day they will eat humble pie, trust me. I have never been treated with soooo much disrespect b4 in my LIFE. My friends and I ordered $68 worth of food and drinks. We were told to move it to the bar to drink and give up our table or get the f--k out. Those were the owners words, no exaggeration. We just finished our meal and declined for dessert and ordered more drinks. Two minutes later the waiter came back and said we had to leave the table and go to the bar. I refused and the owner came over yelling move it or or pay your bill and get the f--k out. It got pretty ugly and I was indisbelief of the words being exchanged. His wife, I mean husband had the nerve to jump in. I asked who are you and he yelled "" Im his husband and we have two restaraunts and a baby you lesbian!"" I am not a lesbian and neither are my friends. On our way out the owner was in my way and I accidently stepped on his foot and he threatened to sl-p me. I wasnt sure what he said at first so I asked him to repeat what he said and he yelled ""you lucky i didnt sl-p you for that!"" SO DISTASTEFUL! The drama was intense and all Ms Thang needed was an audience because he kept yelling insults. I would rather starve and eat dog food than go back to that place again!! We left and went to BBQs and turned a ugly experience into a joyful one because after a couple of drinks and a recap of what just happened we had a goood laugh at those two characters. All I can say is NEVER again! Pros: food cool, had better , bartender Bobby is great Cons: owners have huge false ego, too crowded for tiny space more

I just ordered from Joya. wasn't that hungry and only orderes two soups. the tom kha ghai was awful! couldn't finish it. I make it myself and it tastes 100 times better!! the tom yum soup was not better, didn't finish it. they forgot my ordered side of jasmine rice. maybe that would have tasted nice. the spring rolles!! hello?! where are the veggies? the veggies where replaced by glas noodles instead.. never had that before..\r will not order from them again. more

We arrived early and had to wait a while for our guests so we hung out at the bar for around 45 mins. The bar service was excellent and the girls very friendly. I had a glass of Pinot for only $6! wow cheap and tasted great. Once our group of 13 arrived they then bent over backwards to find available table and chairs to make sure we were all seated. The service was excellent and always very friendly, the food was so amazing and so cheap! We had a great night. will go back again and again and again. Pros: Great Atmosphere, cheap Food and good service Cons: Not authentic Thai cuisine but still tasty! more

Yeah I know, it was a cheap way to achieve alliteration.\r \r Joya is one of our favorite haunts in Brooklyn. Since visiting there on the recommendation of a friend we have been diehard fans. Like every restaurant everywhere it has a rough edge if you look hard enough but we never look. We're too busy enjoying delectable, affordable Thai cuisine whilest slipping into a cocktail coma from the superbly strong spirits. Eclectic and chill DJ on the weekend, a great patio in the fairer months, and delicious food has been the norm. \r \r Pad See Yue, Masaman Curry, Pak Kratiam, Spring Rolls, Calamari, Pad Thai ? everything we've tried has been delightful. And cheap, good heavens it's cheap. We stumbled in there on the recommendation of a friend after moving to New York and have been going back ever since. Pros: Strong drinks, cheap good food Cons: Waits can be long, music can be loud, the occasional mediocre server more

we are boycotting this restaraunt after an incident where the host Glen actually refused to seat my pregnant wife. her friend nicely asked him if she could have one of the extra chairs in which to sit and wait fortyfive minutes for a table. he rudely shrugged his shoulders and said no. he told her she could just wait by the bar. then when i tried to ask Glen again for a seat for my wife he refused and said there is nothing he can do and that the two extra chairs he had right by him were used to put TO GO orders on. and so he found it fit to use chairs to put orders on rather than seat a pregnant woman. these two chairs were not including the additional extra seats scattered around the restaurant that he could have offered her. so we took our business elsewhere...to cafe chili just one block down and got similiar food,prices and great service. Cons: rude host GLEN more

I go to this place at least once a week. I have not found another place like it!! Cash only, no reservations taken, food is fresh, cheap. great date place, great for a group- food is sometimes not consistant but for as many times as I go, I can give them a pass. This place is worth the wait and I would highly recomend checking it out. Pros: Everything Cons: sometimes a long wait more

This is the worse service I've ever had and the second time around this happened and i will not stop until it is fixed. We usually order delivery from Joya but now they are beyond disrespectful. We were missing something from our order and b/c you guys didn't take it down you won't send one order to us b/c you are too busy and on top of that you gave us the wrong order and said we ordered the wrong thing saying we ordered gaipadkhing but we wanted GaiPark Khing orders do sound very similar when you were pronouncing it and for you to tell me next time to order it by the small caption that describes the food is very foolish ( it does not state in the menu there was a certain way to order the food to get what you ordered) that's what the name of the food is for to order it..... AND when i ask for the manager I would like to speak to the ACTUAL MANAGER. i was told the manager wasn't going to be in until 7 pm and when I asked for the manager's name you gave me ""DAEND"" so when I asked for your name you said ""DAEND and that you will be in charge there the whole day. So what happened to the manager that was suppose to be in at &pm? I will be calling you guys more often to complain until you decide you want to finish delivering my order that I paid for correctly. \r \r \r I DON'T FEEL THIS EATERY DESERVES 1 STAR BUT B/C I WOULD LIKE TO POST THIS REVIEW I WILL GIVE THE MINIMUM SO THE PUBLIC CAN REVIEW HOW HORRIBLE THEIR SERVICE ACTUALLY IS. Cons: The service made my co-workers and I to never order from there again. It was the worse attitude I have ever experience from a resturant more

Joya is a great place to grab cheap drinks afterwork. The food is not very good but by the time it comes you're usually a bit tipsy so you won't mind it at all, especially at those prices. If you are looking for great Thai food you're better off going across the street to Cafe Chili. But if you are in the mood for quick food and cheap drinks, you can't lose with Joya. Pros: Drinks Cons: Food is incredibly oily. more

Joya is a great place to go for a quick meal that is yummy and inexpensive. Our meal of apps, main and beers was just under $40 for a group of four. P.S. I hate people to have tons of time to rant, go somewhere else you self important chodes! more

So we sat down- a party of 4... Ate great food, drank some beers, and all this was done so quickly and it was so inexpensive... Great service and great food...what more to ask for? more

Part Two\r \r I was unfortunately not expecting a ""waiter"" with the emotional sturdiness of a thirteen-year-old who just lost her favorite Hannah Montana DVD. The word ""waiter"" is appropriately placed in quotations, as this fellow, dressed to impress in his cut-off sleeveless shirt, now made a pointed effort to wow us with the assertion that he was in fact the owner of Joya- and thus, we'd better be on our guards. I honestly couldn't tell whether he was going to cry, or make us stand in the corner for time-out. Foolish it was that we would expect a degree of professionalism from a supposed owner rather than the ""my dad can beat up your dad"" shenanigans put on. Granted, this threatening display landed somewhere between Dustin Diamond and a baby Maltese on the intimidation scale, but I digress. After a dedicated attempt to convince him that we were being nothing but polite and that his reactions were unsettling, he marched away once again only for a new waiter to kindly give us our check approximately fifteen minutes later. Interacting with this man had been like watching an episode of the Twilight Zone, only in color. And without the creepy music.\r Just so as to not overly discredit Joya, I'll say that the food there is quite good, and very well priced. This place could easily attain at least four stars- just stick with the polite Asian waitresses and you should have nothing to fret about. more

Because a claim of ""poor service"" generally leaves the reader yearning for more, I'll try to go into quality detail for this review. Here goes.\r My girlfriend and I met two of our friends at Joya, who were already placed at a two-person table outdoors. Seeing an empty, larger table next to us, we kindly asked the server if it was possible for the four of us to move. He responded that there was a 45 minute wait for the table, and approximately a 20 minute wait for an indoor one. However, we were given the generous option of pulling two spare chairs up to the current table until something else opened up. Fair enough. Reiterating the request just to be sure that there were no other tables available, given that many seemed to be empty, our friendly server had a sudden change of heart and decided that we can no longer pull up seats at the current table. Discouraged, my already-seated friends asked for the check so we can move to a more accommodating location. Unfortunately, the server proceeded to disappear, without anyone else taking his place. Upon his eventual return we asked once again for the check, after which the evening's entertainment officially kicked off. Apparently something in our repeat request dented our server's fragile emotional armor, as he went from substantially inattentive to definitively sophomoric. First, he claimed someone would have come sooner had we not been standing at the table. Apparently, directly asking for the check is too vague a request. Following this, our new companion informs us that he is old enough to be our father, and as such, we cannot laugh at him. This would have been only moderately amusing had any of us actually been laughing, but we weren't. Horribly confused, I admit to putting on a potentially cynical face at this point. Huge mistake. \r \r Continue to Part Two! more

I'll be perfectly honest. I loved my meal. I went with my husband and friends and we had the Gai Kraprow, green papaya salad, spring rolls, and chicken with red curry (a little too liquidy), all very good. And you can't beat the price. However, if you're looking for authentic thai food, this isn't the place. We talked with our waiter who happened to be from Thailand, and asked if the chefs were thai and he said they're all from Mexico and that the food is actually shipped frozen from Michigan (or some other mid-western state). That was a bummer to hear. But if you want good cheap food with a pretty cool atmosphere, this is a great place. more

no no no no!!! i could not be more clear on this. NEVER! This was one of the worst dining experiences that i can recently recall. We ordered off the specials list for the most part. The Fresh Spring Roll with Salmon showed up first, setting the tone for the rest of the meal with tasteless bottled sauces and OVER cooked salmon. Think corrugated cardboard. Thai style mussels came next with all their gritty bearded fanfare. I must say that the mussel broth was tasty, but i would bet that msg was a main component.\r The soft-shell crab, breaded and pan fried was actually pretty good but was offset by the absolute HORROR that was the ""spicy"" squid salad. I would not wish that dish on the villain who slaughtered my father. They went ahead and placed two, TWO filthy plates on the table as well. \r Wine list is not bad and is cheap to boot. Helps the slop go down i guess. I was fooled once. NEVER AGAIN! Pros: Cheap and quick, almost too quick Cons: like yourself??? this place is not for you more

I love Joya. It's an excellent neighborhood Thai restaurant, with dirt cheap prices and great food. It's typically packed in the evenings, so expect a bit of a wait, but the staff is great and the service is quick. We eat there 1-2 times a week, and the bill is usually under $20 for both of us! Pros: Great food, DIRT cheap, cool atmosphere, nice outdoor garden Cons: Usually packed, but worth the wait more

I Love this place. Especially for the price. I had the opportunity to test out several of the appetizers, all of which were good (especially the curry puff special - fantastic). For main course i had the basil beef - easily the best i have ever had. They include cabbage in almost all of their dishes, which is a bit strange, i imagine you could ask them to hold the cabbage (which i plan to do when i go back). But overall the food was excellent - definitely worth a trip out to Brooklyn. My girlfriend felt that the steak was a bit tough, which i would tend to agree with but it didn't really affect my experience. Service isn't the best but still a ""must go"" Thai place. Pros: Great thai food, great value. Cons: wines list is limited and yucky (except the reisling), service could be better more

I recently ate at Joya with friends and had a great time. The music is loud but the fun ""scene"" makes up for it. Most of the food we ordered was delicious. I very highly recommend the Pad See Ew. It was the best I have ever had by far. I ordered garlic beef for my main course and it was a little bit tough for my taste, but I guess you can't really expect filet mignon when you're paying $7 per entree. I would order chicken instead and most definitely noodles. Given the prices, Joya is very good. Pros: pad see ew, atmostphere, riesling Cons: tough beef more

I went there on a Friday at 6pm with a group of 11 people and everything was great! We made reservations ahead of time and were seated as soon as we got there. We ordered tons of appetizers and entrees along with several bottles of wine and beer and ended up paying $40 each! The food was delicious, especially the Pad Thai. I would definitely recommend this restaurant, especially to large groups who have a tendency of being loud because the whole restaurant is loud, so no one will complain, lol! Pros: Great prices Cons: The lighting is really dark. more