Joojak Restaurant specializes in Northern Chinese Cuisine, specifically Xian. I love this type of food known for their use of chili oil in their dishes. A lot of fragrant spices and its drool worthy.
I’ve been trying to go to a lot of restaurants specializing in Xian cuisine and this has been recommended a lot, so I had to come here and take my parents for lunch. Then I went an additional time with some friends to order more.
Interior
The space is quite small, so only 4 tables. 3 of the tables seat 4 and 1 table seats 6. As we came around 12:30pm on a weekday, it wasn’t hard to get a table for 3 people. On weekends, it will be much harder, so best to show up at 12 when they open.
Menu
Steamed Chicken with Chili Sauce (Saliva Chicken)
Don’t worry, there is no saliva in this chicken dish, it’s just a direct translation. This is one of their most popular dishes that you have to get. It has cold steamed chicken covered in their delicious chili sauce and under it are some pickled veggies. Highly recommended. It has a kick of heat but its so fragrant. The sauce is amazing!!
Spicy Fried Chicken Wings Griddle Cooked in Pot
This is essentially fried chicken wings and fries in a delicious chili and black bean mixture. Another item the staff highly recommended. It was good! Definitely not healthy at all but we couldn’t stop eating it.
Dumplings in Spicy Sour Soup
We got this with pork and chives dumpling and there were 12 pieces in total. It has a good hint of spice and not too overpowering and is balanced by the sourness.
Lamb and Green pepper Burger
This is a Xian specialty item. One of the better burgers I’ve had as the meat wasn’t too moist that is soaked the bun. The bun was crisp and everything held together very nicely. The cumin, garlic and Jalapenos went well with the lamb.
Spinach Biang Biang Noodles with Chili Oil and Pork
This dish was ok. The noodles were a bit overcooked so it wasn’t as firm. All the other dishes were excellent but this one was a let down. It could have use more chili oil too.
Biang Biang Noodle with Pork Meat and Hot Chili Oil
Similar to the dish above but with the regular biang biang noodles. It was a tad overdone as well, so the noodles didn’t hold together as well.
Xian Cold Noodle with Gluten and Sesame Paste
Mix this dish very well. It wasn’t too spicy and needed more sauce, so what we ended up doing was taking the extra Saliva Chicken chili oil and added it to these noodles and it really elevated this dish.
Fried Green Beans
We needed some veggies to go with our carb filled meal. It was a good balance of a mild spice and went well with the meal.
Final Thoughts
The best part of the meal was really the saliva chicken and most people order this at their table. The burger and dumplings are also very good too. It’s just too bad the biang biang noodles were a bit subpar. Nonetheless, still very good Xian cuisine in Vancouver.
Address:
3337 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC
