So, while I was between trip Golden Chopsticks finally opened in Mira Mesa….well, I'm thinking they took long enough. Upon returning from our last trip, I read Soo's post on GC's soft opening. I know by buddy Calvin was waiting for his shot at Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings and not having to drive down to National City for his fix. We quickly arranged for an all important, ahem, "lunch meeting".
We both arrived just before 11 and they actually waved us in early! The place filled up quickly. The service was the typical "all business" menu down, what's your order kinda thing.
The dining room is of pretty good size and still filled up quickly.
Of course man does not live by salt and pepper chicken wings alone…..well maybe you could, but in this case we needed to order a couple of other items for lunch as well.
The menu is full of "ABCDE" (ab-cee-dee, American Born Chinese Dining Establishment something I coined back in 2005) classics. Which, when done well can be quite enjoyable.
So, it ended up that I selected what I recalled was a decent dish from my visits way back when, along with what our dining companion in absentia "LeahA" recommended to go with our wings.
I recalled that the Sizzling Shrimp/Beef/Chicken combo was pretty good on former visits.
Now this had enough flavor; the beef was surprisingly tender, as was the chicken. Nice soy sauce tones, not overly sweet or gooey, crisp veggies…perhaps the broccoli was a tad undercooked; but not bad at all. This was the best dish of the meal and I'll gladly order it again.
And then came the dish we were waiting for.
Now, the batter on the wings from GC back in the day was on the lighter side and was also quite thin and the wings got soggy quickly. In this case it was the opposite; the batter was almost hard; not crunchy…hard. Also, I'm not sure if I'm rubbing off on Calvin (good lord, I hope not), but after our first bite we both said "where's the salt and pepper"? Barely any garlic, pepper was MIA, a few slices of scallions. I mean, this was bland, and while the wings were moist, there was just too much batter. The wings were large…but heck, I could have used some "salt" on my Salt-and-Pepper Wings……..
If you're wondering what the wings used to look like – here's a photo from "the vault".
Our starch came out last "LeahA" told Calvin to order the Shrimp "Chow Mein", which I remember being pretty decent.
The noodles were nicely cooked and coated. But we both noticed something right away when biting into the shrimp. You can tell by the color. It seems the shrimp were blanched and just dumped into the dish. It had absolutely no flavor.
Perhaps it's the soft opening blues……maybe we'll try again in the future; though Calvin did say that the wings at QT Pot were better than these. He is Cantonese, but his Missus is not, there was no way the Missus would eat the leftovers, so I told him to take it home.
One might say that at least the less salty wings means less MSG….well, I don't know about that….I ended up drinking like five glasses of H2O immediately after lunch. On the bright side, Calvin's Missus enjoyed the noodles and sizzling plate (the wings she said tasted like cardboard). I guess it measured up with her favorite "Chinese food"……she loves Panda Express.
Golden Chopsticks
8155 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm
Sandy, I know you were looking forward to Golden Chopsticks opening, I hope your visit was more like Soo's than mine.
Our visits on this day revolved around tastings, though we were given an short walking tour of the distillery.
Basically a smoked haddock cream soup….think of it as a less thick smoky chowder if you will. Actually, I enjoyed the rustic bread the most! This was nice and filling.
There's something about the pace of life here that really made one relax.
The fish was perfectly marinated, with just the right amount of toothsomeness. The marinade was nicely balanced; with a good balance of sour to salt. Enjoyed the ripe avocado which added a slightly creamy texture and a mild buttery-nuttiness to the dish.
Except for the packets of Kikkoman Shoyu, definitely a Covid thing, this pretty much looked the same as what I recalled. I enjoyed the miso soup, nice beany-nutty flavor….I really liked it. Perhaps I've been having too many watered down versions recently. The Japanese potato salad and the pickles were decent. But the agedashi tofu's battery was strangely rubbery.
Things looked pretty much the same with no large notices or signs. Until I took a look at the note on the door.
Since we had already visited 
According to this 
As before the tortillas were up to the task though not outstanding. The pulpo was on the tougher end of things and we thought more citrus/sour tones were needed as well. We enjoyed the lemony-peppery-slightly anise tones of the epazote.
