Joy Bistro in Boone

Called to make reservations for my CEO and Board of Directors and before I could get my name out, they hung up on me. Called back thinking it was a mistake and they sent me to VM. Very rude.

Simply amazing...the ambiance is wonderful and the food even better. Our server Jackson was fantastic. I highly recommend Joy Bistro.

Food was amazing! Great atmosphere and service! Will definitely be back!

Every dish exceeded expectations! Delicious, and worth every dollar.

Exceptional meal. Knowledgeable staff and friendly. Calm atmosphere. Great wine! Would definitely go back!

I found this place searching for a place to do brunch while we were visiting Boone. Brunch was amazing! The braised short ribs and potatoes is one of my top 5 dishes ever. We were so pleased with the place that we went back for dinner service the Friday before we left. It was equally amazing and the dessert was off the charts ( We had the Creme Brulee and the Mocha ice cream). I would highly recommend Joy to anyone looking for an outstanding meal. I cant wait until we move to Boone so that we can enjoy this restaurant regularly.

This restaurant has the best food and wait staff that you could ever ask for. I want to start off by saying I was greeted by a wonderful group of waitresses. The food here is the best bang for your buck that you can ask for. My waitress Gina and her co workers Riley, Ally and Lucy did an amazing job at showing team work while running each other’s food and drinks. Because of this, no tables were left unattended and I truly believe this place deserves a pat on the back. However, I did not have the pleasure of meeting a server by the name of Braden apparently also known as Dean. After my meal, I spoke to the kitchen staff about how amazing the food was. The pantry chefs Cameron and Eric did an amazing job at preparing the Brie puffs and prosciutto. After speaking with them I began a conversation with the other two chefs named Tommy and Oliver about how well they cooked the food. I have to say I will definitely be back every Friday from now on.

We had a reservation at 6:30 and we arrived around 6:25. There was a table ready for us as soon as we walked in the door! We got seated and we were greeted by our server, Tyler. We ordered cocktails and an appetizer and they came out promptly. We had an inconvenience with the entrees because the restaurant was out of the filet mignon but had New York strip instead. Needless to say, the New York strip was amazing along with the rest of sides. We had a great experience and our sever, Tyler, was amazing. Highly recommend this restaurant and we will be back!

What a great little place in Boone. The only place that matches overall quality is the Gamekeeper. Joy is very expensive though so we dont go here often. It is however, more convenient than the Gamekeeper.

This is one of the high countrys gems!! Our server Gina was fantastic and very attentive! Food was spectacular and my company is TRULY one of a kind!! Please visit this restaurant!!

Wow! Joy Bistro was AWESOME! Gary & Melissa (Joydid a wonderful job with our large party of 40 people for my sons’s rehearsal dinner last weekend! The food was amazing...& the service was just as good! We were so pleased with everything & I highly recommend Joy Bistro... you could place this restaurant in any major city & it would shine! Thanks for a great event guys... you’re the best!!

This place is awesome. Clean, very polite, exordinary food with locally sourced ingredients. Prices are a bit on the higher side but youll enjoy a much more well mannered enviroment, definitely a place you pay for the experience at.

The food here is phenomenal. The Chef has an excellent flavor profile. Every ingredient compliments one another. A treat for the mouth. I highly recommend the salad. No other salad will ever compete.

Hidden jem! Absolutely fabulous little place. The 1st time we went here we were so happy we came back the next night and brought my dad along. Everything on the menu is out of this world! On our month stay in the area I can honestly say the meals here were the eating highlight of our trip!

For the price, the food wasn’t what I expected it to be. I enjoyed the appetizers of Brie puffs and bread more than I did my meal or dessert. My champagne was served in a weird glass instead of a champagne flute, and the bread pudding was basically just chocolate chip pancakes. Definitely not worth the $150 tab but it was decent.

My wife and I went to Joy Bistro for our anniversary dinner and the experience was phenomenal. We started with a firecracker shrimp appetizer which was exceptional. We also ordered bread service. To my knowledge this used to be free but you have to pay for it now, possibly a consequence of covids impact on the restaurant industry. For our main course we each had the filet which was perfectly cooked and delicious. We saved room for dessert, I had the bread pudding and my wife had ice cream. Both desserts were well prepared, asthetic and best of all delicious. The atmosphere is cozy and quiet and the service was great. I would highly reccommend this restaurant to friends and family and may have a new favorite restaurant in Boone.

Excellent upscale French food in Boone, NC. Better than bistro would suggest (compared to the Parisian bistros Ive been to), the food was well prepared, had excellent classical sauces, and was delicious. They only have a small wine list, but it was well currated. The by-the-glass pour was generous.

Our party had the scallops, Damon, and filet. All of them were awesome. The mixed veggies for the sides were perfectly prepared.

Joy Bistro was a wonderful atmosphere for our anniversary dinner. The service and food were top notch. They have great Covid protocols in place that made me feel comfortable and safe. Would definitely visit again if we are back in the area. We had the fire cracker shrimp for an appetizer and the salmon as an entree.

Food was wonderful. Service was timely and knowledgeable.Peach Jalapeno margarita and the stuffed puff pastry are must have items.

Wow! I am so glad I found this place. Lovely space and a fantastic meal. The mussels were delicious! The warm mushroom salad was one of the best salads I have ever had. Scallops, pork chop, burger at our table. Everything was perfect. The fried smashed fingerling potatoes that came with the burger - soooooo good. I cannot wait to go back.

We went for dinner with another couple and did have to wait a while for our table, but it was well worth it. It is a small place in a strip mall so the pleasant atmosphere and bar was unexpected and so was our AMAZING meal. We saw the steaks being served before we ordered and we all 4 knew we had to try it. We started with the delicious pear salad and the filet was the tastiest we have had in a long time and best meal we have had in Boone. And, it was cooked to perfection, ours med-med rare and our friends med-well. The mashed potatoes, sauce and vegetables were the perfect pairing. Our server was another outstanding highlight. Allysa (Allywas so pleasant, fun, knowledgeable and accommodating and such a delight. Oh yes, and the dessert, YUMMY. We had the velvet cake and ice cream. You have to try their bourbon ice cream. It was sooo good! To wrap it up, we cant wait to go back and are dreaming about that steak today.

I have called today at 7.30 pm full of hope to get a reservation on 8pm. And it was successful! We arrived with my wife at 7.50pm. Right away we got a table. I have asked about a hot tea for my wife right now cause she freeze a little bit. And she got a hot tea in 10 seconds! My Filet mignon was absolutely unbelievable delicious! My wifes creme brulee was served like its should be! With fire on a top on the way to the table! Great service,delicious food! Unforgettable restaurant!

I have found Joy’s to set the standard of culinary perfection. From steak to seafood, desserts and even a salad, this is true food that others strive to prepare.

This was one of the best meals of my life. We got the mussels, warm mushroom salad, chicken (me), veal meatloaf (husband), affogato and bread pudding. The only thing we regret is the mussels, they lacked flavor and could use more salt and wine. The salad was the best Ive ever had to the point I begged for the recipe. Both meals were incredible, my husband raved about the meatloaf. I could not have been more satisfied by the experience and cant wait until were back in the area to experience it again!

Cozy atmosphere for the space given. Food was delicious and came out on time in sequence. We ordered the salmon entrée and the scallops entrée. Good crowd at 6:30, we made a reservation and our table was ready. Cocktails were good and the shrimp appetizer was tasty. The bread pudding dessert was heavenly. The wait staff was nice friendly from making the reservation to our waitress.The only reason I gave 4 star was due to time to get our cocktails from time we sat down.

Excellent food, great staff, it is a little pricey depending what you get, but well worth it. would definitely recommend this to anyone

Inedible risotto on the menu because of excessive salt. Our son was left without a main course after one taste of it. They offered to serve him something else but we declined. When the bill came, they did not charge us for the risotto. In most restaurants you get an apology from the manager and some sort of courtesy from the kitchen. We had to ask to speak to the manager and she was very proud that they took the item from the menu and they didnt charge us for it. Not sure why they think,they can be above restaurant standards?

To say the least our meal was amazing!! Our waiter Alex was excellent, didn’t make us feel rushed and also was there when we needed him. He was very attentive to all of his tables and had great attitude.

In a word - amazing. One of the top 3 restaurants in Boone/Blowing rock. Quaint intimate space inside. Decent size patio outside. The food the star of the show. Amazing entrees, apps, salads and desserts.

Fabulous meal and service by Sydney. What a wonderful experience from the customer service and atmosphere. Even though the restaurant is located in a strip mall the food is excellent! The atmosphere is upscale and the service is fabulous. We had the Brie puffs which were yummy served with prosciutto, blanched almonds and cranberries which was a nice compliment. The pear salad was excellent and my favorite part of the total meal. The scallops were so flavorful and cooked to perfection, paired with fingerling potatoes and tender vegetables. The service by Sydney was awesome too; thank you!

My wife and I enjoyed an evening here for our 25th anniversary. It was excellent.Reservations are a must. I called in the morning before they opened to make reservations and left my number. I received a call later that morning to confirm and to offer that the only slots left open were 5:30 or 7:30 on the patio. I took the 7:30pm slot.We arrived on time and were promptly seated on the patio (and offered a table indoors as an option). Our waiter was attentive and personable. Offering good explanations for what we ordered. We ordered the cheese board as an appetizer and he gave us a good overview of each cheese. The cheeses were a nice well rounded selection, along with marcona almonds and port soak dried cherries. It was a very nice way to start the meal. I was afraid it might fill me up too much before the entree, but it was just the right quantity.The wine list is ample. Most of the selections are California wines, but there are some non-domestic wines listed on the back under "Red Varietals." We ordered a bottle of 2010 Zinfandel from the Russian River Valley. It was a pleasant diversion from what we usually drink.I ordered the rack of lamb. It was nicely done, perhaps slightly less pink than I would have asked for, but tender and delicious, with a delicious crust. The fingerling potatoes together with the aioli were delicious as well. My wife ordered the Filet Mignon with mashed potatoes. We were both extremely pleased with our entrees.I ordered the bread pudding for dessert and was very happy with it. It wasnt as "mushy" as many bread puddings Ive had in the past. It had nice flavors (I believe there were currants).The entire experience lasted about 2 hours. We never felt rushed, though we were there past closing time. Overall a very good experience. We will definitely return.

We have enjoyed brunch at dinner at Joy Bistro. The food is outstanding and the service fantastic! Steak was perfectly cooked, halibut special fantastic and the warm mushroom salad should not be missed!

This is a great place to take your significant other out for dinner. The food was EXCELLENT! We had a starter, entree, and dessert...everything was 5/5! Highly recommend this place!!!

Lovely atmosphere and great food!

We went for the New Year’s Eve 5 course special. The food was great but for the price I would’ve expected better service. The courses felt rushed. Another course arrived while we were still finishing the previous course. The waiters/waitresses never explained the wines or food that they dropped off. All in all good food experience.

The staff is always attentive without disrupting the sophisticated, yet cozy atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed the pasta special with shrimp, mushrooms, spinach and fire roasted tomatoes. It was on the rich side but they boxed it for me to enjoy for lunch the next day. We got there early on a Friday evening and were able to get a table for two. I would recommend reservations though as they are usually booked up. You will pay a premium price for this quality of food and service. Its worth the splurge!

Joy Bistro is consistently good. Food is well prepared, presented and delicious. If you like cocktails, you should try my favorite, the Basil Gimlet. AND their bread is to die for!

We were skeptical in the beginning since we went with our kids (11 & 15). But the food was truly amazing, and they were also able to accommodate my vegan+gluten-free diet. Everyone was pleased and stuffed when we left. Nice atmosphere and service as well. 👍🏽

At the top of the list in Boone, Joy Bistro does everything right. The menu changes periodically with the seasons and is always a good representation of the season. Wine list is fairly large and well priced. Bar drinks are good and heres where youll find the best old fashioned in Boone. The wait staff is knowledgeable, efficient, and pleasant. Theyre a good source of details of the dishes and recommendations if needed. Weve been going to Joy Bistro for 7 years now and have never had a bad experience or been disappointed. You wont either.

Creative but not overly fussy cuisine and friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient service. Try the mushroom salad -- even if youre not necessarily a mushroom fan -- just delicious. We went back for dinner after two days of a long weekend despite the plentiful number of other fine restaurants in the area. And, yes, hats off to Diane, whose superb service made for an unforgettable dining experience.

We discovered Joy Bistro while visiting Boone for our daughters concert at Appalachian State! It quickly will become are go to restaurant on our annual visits now. We tried lunch first to see if we liked it and it exceeded our expectations. Dinner was superb and they made one of the best martinis Ive ever had. This has to be one of Boones best kept secrets!!

Great experience here! Traveling with my wife for her birthday, I chose this restaurant for her birthday dinner and her entree was fantastic. She ordered the pesto pistachio pasta. It was really more of a seafood pasta than pesto pistachio flavored but we both agreed it was delicious! Yes, its in a strip mall but the interior is quite nice. Service was very good.

Consistently the best Sunday brunch in Boone. Great service, great food, and the breakfast martini(with gin of coursecompletes the experience every time. Take it from a long time customer. Do yourself a favor and eat here for dinner, lunch, or brunch. It will not disappoint.

Tuesday Jazz Night! San Francisco sent one of its best chefs to Boone. Appetizers of Firecracker Shrimp with Parmesan Sauce is out of this world. Thick Pork Chop with Vegetables that are uniquely and delicately seasoned. Then follow it all with the worlds best Bread Pudding. Fabulous place where local fine restaurant owners eat on their night off.

Seated immediately without reservation.Waitress went away so bartender brought water while we waited several minutes.(She tried to fill our water glasses a couple times even though 2 of us didnt want water)Waitress finally came (after drinksto take order. She asked a couple times how I wanted my burger.Waitress had to come back after 10 minutes to ask how I wanted my burger again.My burger came out without bacon or arugula even though it was on the menu as having such.When I mentioned it, waitress said she could bring out the bacon.You dont serve the bacon AFTER you serve the burger.Never asked to refill drinks or check up on us.Food tasted good, but wait staff need a bit of training or hearing aids.Not worth the money spent. Hardees gets my order correct a lot more.

This is our go-to restaurant everytime we visit Boone. We have never been disappointed with the drinks, food and service. The patio is great at night and we had the nice surprise of a Jazz band playing on our most recent visit. Highly recommended.

A great start with a kick-in-the-pants ending...As we paid our bill, we were discussing what an enjoyable evening we had and our hopes to return soon for another amazing meal. Ten minutes later, we were outside the restaurant in disbelief and astonishment with no intention of returning. The quality of the food is the only reason I added the second star to this review, but I don’t believe we will be revisiting this establishment after the experience we had. To elaborate:My husband and I had never been to Joy Bistro before but others in our party had recommended it highly as one of their favorite restaurants. Our table of five had reservations for 5:30 (opening time); my husband and I arrived a few minutes early but two of our party did arrive about ten minutes late. We ordered various mixed drinks, appetizers, salads, entrees, desserts, and coffee - as a table, we spared no expense as we had every intention of enjoying everything Joy Bistro had to offer. The food was outstanding and the Affogato dessert - sticky toffee ice cream with fresh whipped cream, served with a shot of steaming espresso for pouring over at the table - was arguably the best dessert Ive ever had and was lauded by everyone at the table.As we handled the inevitable business of payment and the figuring of tips, we discussed what an enjoyable evening we’d had and our plans to return in the near future. We sat for another few minutes (five to tenfinishing our coffee and drinks, and unexpectedly one of the staff came over to our table and informed us unceremoniously that there were people waiting on our table and we needed to free it up. There are ways of gently encouraging customers to wrap things up and move on – a quick check to see if anyone at the table needs anything, perhaps a warm-up on coffee, etc – but this was neither tactful nor subtle. We very much felt as though we had “ponied up the dough” (to use a rather crude expression appropriate to the treatment we receivedand were now of no consequence and in danger of being escorted out the door by the wait staff if we didnt gather our things and exit immediately.I understand that restaurants – especially establishments with limited seating capacity – need to turn tables to make a profit; however, a party of five ordering a full meal with drinks, appetizers, salads, entrees, and desserts will take a certain amount of time. There were brief delays between courses (we ordered appetizers, salads, and entrees at the same time, so the delay was not due to any lack of decisiveness on our part), so I assume the kitchen was not eyeballing us and rushing our food out to make sure we finished “on time.” Had we known there was a time limit to our table occupancy, I’m sure we could have ordered appetizers and drinks and gone elsewhere for dinner and/or dessert, but we assumed that the staff would schedule reservations based on guests taking full advantage of the menu items, and in fact would be encouraged by management to make recommendations to promote the ordering of additional items by patrons.It was the way the entire situation was handled that left us stunned and, quite frankly, embarrassed. Even a murmured, “I’m so sorry, our hostess has spaced the reservations for this table rather close together and we’re in a bind – I’m terribly embarrassed to say anything, but we do have people waiting. So sorry to cut your evening short – we would love for you to visit us again…,” etc., would have softened the blow and brought us around to sympathizing with the plight of the staff, but this was just handled very poorly. Despite the excellent meal, it was a very dissatisfactory experience and everyone to whom I have recounted it – with the caveat that the food was delicious and well worth a visit – has expressed the same disapprobation and dismay that we feel when remembering the evening.

Just because the table beside us are regulars does NOT give our waitress the right to completely ignore us the entire meal! We eventually counted the number of times she went to just chat with them compared to us because...well it was clear our drinks werent going to get refilled or our next courses brought so what else were we going to do?....and it worked out to be about 7-1! I get that it was late on a special New Years night but to have spent almost 200 on a nice meal you expect the items listed in the dish to be on your plate(which most of the time they werentand to see your waitress more than three times in a meal that took almost 2 1/2 hours to finish!! I wont be going back!!

Overall: 9/10Food: 9.5/10Service: 7/10Atmosphere: 8/10Price: $$ (about $110 for 1 app, 2 mixed drinks, 2 entrees, 2 espresso, and a dessert)Audience: Couples/Fine dining - great for date nightFirst off, call and get a reservation. Its not necessary, but on busier nights, it will help you out, we got lucky on our walk-in visit. The restaurant itself maintains a minimalist, yet classy decor with a relatively small indoor sitting area; outdoor dining is also available. Now on to the good stuff...We started with bacon-wrapped rabbit as our appetizer. This dish was very good. The flavors complimented each other well and it was well-prepared. I did, however, feel that the bacon over-powered the rabbit, which was somewhat disappointing (still a delicious choice though). The entrees were Fantastic! I had the duck, and my wife had the lamb shanks, and I cant say anything negative about either one. The duck was perfectly prepared, and every part of the dish complimented each other. The lambs shank offered a larger portion, and was melt-in-your-mouth. Literally, the meat crumbled off the bone. Again, perfectly cooked and well-complimented. The dessert we enjoyed was a cream cheese ice cream with chocolate croutons (fudge brownie bitestoffee chips and an incredible mocha chantily. Absolutely wonderful!The service wasnt bad, but left something to be desired. Our water often ran out, and after our first glass, the server couldnt remember if she ever even gave us water. The bartender made some very good drinks that were pretty stout and exceeded expectations. The pace of the meal was perfect for us, although, I do feel that without the mixed drinks before the food and the espresso between the entree and dessert, we wouldve had a less pleasant experience. However, for our meal, the timings were perfect, never rushed, never waited for more than a minute or two, and staff was very friendly. All recommendations made by our server were amazing!All-in-all, Joys Bistro is a fantastic choice! If youre looking for a wonderful romantic dinner, THIS IS THE PLACE!