*** As of July, 2006 Golden City is under new Ownership – posts on the "New" Golden City, can be found here and here.
Waaay back in September of last year Golden City Chinese Restaurant reopened in a new location. At first I was over-joyed at having one of my favorite inexpensive Chinese Restaurants open their doors again. I was somewhat embarrassed at being the first customer at the new locale. And as is somewhat normal for any new restaurant, the food was a bit of a let down. About a month later the Missus and I had sampled the late supper specials in Part II. Though the prices were still very reasonable, the food really was just a "shadow of it’s former self."
So, a few months back the Missus and I decided to drop by Golden City and sample a few dishes from the "regular" Dinner menu. We started with the Fish, Preserved Egg, and Cilantro Soup($8.95):
We’ve had this soup before, and when it’s made well, the clear broth is well flavored and comforting, with the cilantro adding a very clean taste. On this occasion, the soup was on the weak side, though the fish was very moist and tender. There wasn’t very much preserved egg in the soup. We were slightly disappointed at this dish.
The Peking Duck($18.00 – 2 courses):
The Peking Duck at Golden City is priced right. And though the duck was not as high in quality and flavor as the $18 Peking Duck Special at Pearl, an everyday price of eighteen bucks isn’t bad. The buns and duck were a bit on the dry side. What the missus really wants is the minced duck meat with lettuce. She enjoys that much more then the duck skin. Duck meat is stir fried with water chestnut and other items, and provides a nice rich dish when wrapped with lettuce. Whatever we take home usually ends up in a fried rice the next day.
I had intended to end the post here. But I thought it would be fun to try the exact same dish as my first visit again to see if the kitchen had now hit stride. On entering, I noticed that some of the furniture had been moved around.
I again ordered the Pork Chop with Spicy Salt($6.25 – prices had gone up 30 cents), that started with the Hot and Sour soup:
I’ve always enjoyed the Hot and Sour soup at Golden City, but today it tasted a bit off. I also noticed frozen carrots, and some corn(egad!) in the soup as filler.
The Pork Chop arrived a few minutes later, along with the same lousy egg roll.
This time the Pork Chop was fried to a nice crisp state with a moist interior. The garlic wasn’t burnt and overall this was a pleasant dish, a definite improvement over my first visit.
Though we still think that Golden City is a mere shadow of it’s previous "self", the prices(especially the late supper menu) are fairly reasonable, and the service has always been good. Golden City is also one of the few restaurants open until midnight in the area.
Part I of this post can be found here.
Part II can be found here.
Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Open Daily 11am – Midnight