During my revisit to Chicago Fire Grill, I noticed a fairly large turnover of eateries at Renaissance Towne Center. I had Boker Kitchen on my “list”, but never made it before they closed. It’s now going to be a location of Mr Moto’s Pizza. The place that did catch my eye was the business that replaced the Rubio’s in the strip mall. A location of Joyee….which I would not be too interested in; but instead of being Joyee Dumpling House, this is a Joyee Noodle House. I’d actually been to the former location in 99 Ranch Market, which I visited once and had some really bad Jiaozi and Baozi…it was a one-and-done, so I never did a post on the place….though you can read about Cathy’s visit here. Eventually that location closed, with most locations located further North. I was actually going to do a visit to the Poway location, but was stopped dead in my tracks…..you can see why looking at the first photo of this post.
What I did notice is that this location had some outdoor seating and also that they opened at 9am from Friday thru Sunday. This parking lot can get kinda nuts, so that gave me the chance of easily finding parking.
So, I returned on a Sunday morning at around 10am with JJ and easily found parking. I walked over to the doorway and a nice young man greeted me. I pointed to JJ and a table and he smiled and gave me the thumbs up! And soon brought me the menu and some treats for JJ! Talk about getting started on the “right foot”, huh?
There’s an interesting Breakfast Menu which skews toward Taiwanese style, with Dan Bing and the like on the menu. But, this is Joyee “Noodle House”……
So, I ordered the “Signature” Beef Noodle Soup ($15.99). This is a clear broth version.
Which is known for having slices of daikon in it!
Awesome amount of cilantro, which helped since the broth didn’t have much anise – five spice tones. It was also not very beefy. Decent fat content, but super high on the sodium scale…..overly salty for my taste.
It looked like beef shank was used; the proper cut for this type of beef noodle soup, but unlike other versions I’ve had, the slices of beef was tough and dry.
The noodles were run-of-the-mill…seemed like something out of a package; lacking in “body” and texture.
I didn’t care for this much……
But, it was a good thing I ordered another dish; which I’d seen on the menu of other Joyee, but never ordered; the Salt and Smoked Duck ($19.99). I’m thinking that because of the name; this is more of a typical Taiwanese style smoked duck which is salted and rubbed with Shaoxing and other seasonings and held overnight.
While the skin wasn’t crisp and this was a bit on the saltier side; I enjoyed the winey-anise-slightly sweet tones along with the light smokey flavor. You can even see a sort of smoke ring on the meat.
Even though it looked dry; I enjoyed the toothsome texture. And when crisped up a bit in the air fryer…with the fat rendering slightly…well, the Missus really enjoyed the leftovers.
They also were so nice to JJ!
So, a week later, the Missus sent me a text asking me to pick up some duck on the way home. I went and got a couple of other dishes.
I’m glad we did takeout; you’ll find out below.
The Duck this time was even better. Deeper flavor; not as salty, more moist as well.
I saw that Popcorn Chicken was just $11.99. So I ordered it. The portion was quite large for the price.
I opened and took a look and a taste in the car…..while there flavor was fairly spot on; white pepper, a hint of spice, anise tones, perfect amount of salt….the texture was gummy and the coating lacked crispness. I was happy we were doing takeout, because I could fix the texture….you know how, right?
Yep, I removed all the fried basil and it went into the air fryer. Looks much better, huh? Much more crisp-crunchy and for some reason it seemed more moist as well. While not as good as the version at Soup du Jour, it’s cheaper and there’s that duck too.
I had also gotten the Bamboo with Pork ($16.99), which was another generous portion.
But was nothing special. While the julienned slices of pork were decently velveted, there were some pieces of the bamboo that were really hard and fibrous. The seasoning was a basic soy sauce based stir fry, it could have used more overall flavor.
Still, the Missus enjoyed that duck and I’ve figured out how to heat that popcorn chicken, The prices are quite reasonable as well. Though, I’m still not sure if I should retry the jiaozi? What do you think?
Joyee Noodle House(UTC)
8935 Towne Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am-9pm
Fri – Sun 9am-9pm