Joy Nest

I want to bring you into a one a kind restaurant… a Thai restaurant… where the atmosphere and the food are definitely road-trip worthy: The Joy Nest in Newburyport.

Walking into this place is like walking into another world. It’s located at The Tannery in Newburyport, Massachusetts, which is a cool, little historic marketplace.  And this place is the Tannery’s crown jewel.  The Joy Nest was definitely designed to elicit joy.  It opened up during the pandemic, so they designed the place to make it feel special, and to bring people together in a beautiful environment.

There are wooden floors and lots of windows. Plush seating. Cool lighting. High ceilings. A cozy bar.  And going along with the Joy Nest theme, there are birds. I mean Lots of birds. Birds everywhere. Not real birds, except for some chicken dishes on the menu. But overall, this place has a cool, speakeasy kind of vibe. So it feels nothing like your typical Thai restaurant.

Now let’s get to what I really come here for… the food.  Again the main focus here is on Thai food, but there are some other Asian dishes and flavors available as well.

To start, you gotta get some dumplings. Or in this case, they’re Japanese style gyoza. You get 6 to an order, they’re lightly pan-seared.  I love the presentation over the newspaper style wrapping paper. You can get it stuffed with a combination of pork and chicken. And of course it comes with some garlic ginger sauce for dipping.

Now here’s an appetizer that’s part Thai, part Chinese, and part Vietnamese.  It’s the Bao Bun!  So there are essentially little sandwiches that are wrapped in a very soft, squishy white bun. You can get it stuffed with chicken, pork, tofu, whatever you’re into. And it comes with all kinds of tasty veggies, cilantro, and a drizzle of hoisin sauce, mayo, and mustard… along with some house-made taro chips on the side.

And now get ready for some Thai / Mexican fusion!  You definitely need to try the Thai Tacos!  Yup, Thai style tacos.  These use super crispy won-ton type wrappers for the taco shells. And they’re stuffed with your choice of ground beef or pork or chicken… along with some garlic, ginger, and believe it or not, a little bit of whiskey!. These are so tasty, and I think it’s worth ordering just because of that cool little taco holder they’re served in!

You can also get some Thai style nachos here! So this time, the fried wontons are used like a tortilla chip. And you use that to scoop up some of this Asian style spicy ground chicken.

All you fellow ramen lovers out there, I have some good news for you.  If you enjoy a nice steaming bowl of noodle soup, Joy Nest has got you covered. This is a big bowl of traditional Japanese ramen, it’s packed with charshu pork, soy sauce marinated eggs, there’s some corn and mushrooms in there as well, along with oodles of noodles. And this broth is one hundred percent slurp-worthy.  Hopefully, slurp-worthy is actually a word.

Some other standout dishes at Joy Nest. This is my personal favorite: The Krapow Chicken Rice Bowl. So Krapow is the authentic Thai version of “chicken and basil”, so it’s definitely on the spicy side. They throw some extra peppers in there as well, plus some mushrooms, you get a nice portion of white rice, and it comes with a fried egg as well. It’s a full meal, and it’s the kind of dish you’ll want to keep all to yourself.

They also do Noodle Bowls as well.  Here’s a special one: the Sun Noodle Bowl, which has the Chef’s special broth, along with chicken, eggs, kimchi, bok choy, noodles of course… and believe it or not, there’s a handful of dumplings dunked in there too!

If you’re in the mood for seafood, check out the “Koh Sumui Salmon”. Ko Sumui is a tropical island of the Coast of Thailand (I only know this from watching the movie “Meet the Parents”).. So it’s basically pan-seared salmon with a Thai-style glaze, along with some steamed veggies and rice. And it’s definitely giving island type vibes.

Another favorite entree is the Beef and Vegetables, which is kind of a boring name for an otherwise pretty exciting dish. It’s made with stir-fried beef, along with broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, peppers, and onions. So you’ll get your veggies in for the day, and you’ll love every bite.

For dessert, there are some intriguing options. But I think the one you gotta get is the Chocolate Roti.  Now, roti is usually a round flatbread, it’s popular from Asia to Africa. But in this case, it’s really used more as a fried dough kind of dessert. So it’s crispy and flaky, along with some chocolate, and hazelnut, and vanilla ice cream.

So whether you’re into Thai food… Asian food… Beautiful design… And especially bird-watching… You should definitely flock into the Joy Nest in Newburyport.