But for quickly spinning up a few light service endpoints, Node can't be beat. Especially if you are using JSON-based persistence like MongoDB or CouchDB, using JSON all the way from database to the client is a huge win. I get tired of writing lots of JAXB POJOs to map my JSON objects to and from, especially early on in development when those definitions change rapidly. That's why enjoy using Node, especially for "toy" projects. Less boilerplate and more productive quickly.

Side note: I find myself wishing Node had Annotations and AOP... one of Java's coolest (though oft-misused) features IMHO.