Since moving to Austin in January, I feel like I have tried a lot of brunches – but few have really stuck with me. If you live in this city and love food, you know it is hard to find something worth going to numerous times. But, I think I have found that with Joi Asian Bistro.
I mean, I have only gone to a handful of places that weren’t for me, so most of my experiences have been really, really good. But few are worth giving up trying something new on a fun friend date.
My friend Jessica and I tried Joi Asian Bistro originally for some sushi and ended up falling in love with their Bento Box options, so when we were scouring for brunch, and they popped up – we had to try it.
I specifically stopped dead when I saw they offer a Bacon and Kimchi Fried Rice.
We started our brunch date with a couple of drinks. My friend Jessica is a huge Boba Tea fan, so she had to try the Boozy Bubble Tea. I am a coffee drinker, so I gravitated towards the Bourbon Pandan Iced Coffee. We were both very pleased.
And then for the main attraction – brunch. We both picked two menu items to try for the table, and it was so difficult. We ended up deciding on the Scrambled Egg Bao, Nashville Hot Chicken Bao, Bacon and Kimchi Fried Rice, and the Tempura French Toast.
Here is what we predicted would be our order of favorites:
TAYLOR
Bacon and Kimchi Fried Rice
Nashville Hot Chicken Bao
Scrambled Egg Bao
Tempura French Toast
JESSICA
Scrambled Egg Bao
Tempura French Toast
Nashville Hot Chicken Bao
Bacon and Kimchi Fried Rice
After a thorough tasting and two food babies, this was our final order of best to least loved:
Bacon and Kimchi Fried Rice
For me, this was clearly going to be a favorite. I love kimchi. I love bacon. I love fried rice. Jessica was very skeptical and thought that it would be a really bland dish or the star of the table. Indeed, this little guy was the star of the table. It is served with a runny egg, and the salty bacon is a perfect accent to the vinegary kimchi. So much yum!
Tempura French Toast
Jessica was insistent on the french toast, but I wasn’t sure. The tempura sounded weird to me. However, I was completely wrong. It was served with both syrup and tasty cream. The crunch really elevated the dish as a whole. This was probably some of the best french toast I have ever had.
Nashville Hot Chicken Bao
The Nashville Hot Chicken Bao is third on our list not because it wasn’t good, but because it tasted like most hot chicken you find around Austin. I loved the pickled onions and the kick, but it was outshone by the two guys above.
Scrambled Egg Bao
For Jessica, this was a huge disappointment. She was really looking forward to it and felt overpowered by the cucumber. I love cucumber, so I actually enjoyed the strong cucumber flavor. However, the other three dishes were clearly superior, and there are other menu items I would prefer to try over this one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was my first Asian brunch experience, and it did not disappoint. I still think about the fried rice before I go to sleep, and it will definitely be a place that I will bring visitors and highly recommend.
