**** Golden City has closed
Remember that post where I noticed the “new” sign for Golden City back in March of last year? Well, I did confirm that the place was under new ownership. I tried to get the Missus to check them out, but after our last visit, albeit under the previous owners, well it was not to be. Then, back at the end of last year, I met my good friend Candice for lunch and we decided on Golden City.
The restaurant was pretty much empty during our entire visit.
It was great seeing Candice again and between catching up on things we managed to order a couple of dishes.
Starting with the Shrimp with XO Sauce….or perhaps I should call it Shrimp with the breath of XO Sauce as it hardly had any of the rich “seafood umami” that XO sauce brings to a dish.
The onions and bell peppers were a bit overcooked as was the shrimp, which was starting to get rubbery. Because of the lack of flavor, the dish had a slight “greasiness” to it.
Of course we got the half Roast Duck.
While the fat had been decently rendered, the skin was strangely chewy, but at least the skin had flavor. Can’t say much for the dry and chewy meat, which was quite bland.
Knowing we’d have leftovers, I ordered one of the Missus’s favorites; the Salted Fish and Chicken with Eggplant.
Much like other recent versions we’ve had, it seemed like the amount of salted fish was lacking. Perhaps I need to create an “endangered species” bulletin on salted fish? The eggplant was undercooked and fibrous as well.
The one dish that the both of us were looking forward to was the Dry Scallop, Shrimp, and Chinese Broccoli Fried Rice. A dish that Candice had recommended to us before that really delivered. Well, this time, I think the dried scallop was “lost in the mail” somewhere….maybe it was swimming around with the MIA salted fish?
At least the shrimp was decently cooked; but the rice was not, as there were some hard grains. The Gailan was also a rarity in this dish that seemed so haphazardly cooked. I really felt bad for Candice as this used to be one of her favorite dishes here.
This disappointing visit had me wondering what one of favorite dishes of yesteryear, the Kwai Fei Ji was like these days. So, I put off doing a post until I could try the Kwai Fei chicken again. Which ended up taking over two months!
But here I was, looking over the lunch specials and finding that Kwai Fei Chicken isn’t on any of the lunch specials these days.
Which meant I had to order half a chicken ($17.95) and a side of rice ($1.50).
And while the rice was on the dry side and the sauce for the chicken was a bit heavy in the oil department, this was pretty good overall. The skin while a bit on the chewy side had nice flavor and as a while the chicken had been nicely poached as the flesh was quite tender and there were hints of winey-gingery-“fowlness”. One positive for having a rather oil heavy sauce was that it clung nicely to the chicken.
Well, at least the Kwai Fei Chicken was pretty good. And the woman working on this day; I don’t recall seeing her before, was so nice and friendly.
Our “history” with Golden City goes all the way back to the pre-blogging days, back when the restaurant was located on Convoy. My first post on Golden City was when they reopened in this location back in 2005! Back then, we considered the place a good value, with decent food. Not sure about the bang for the buck these days, but I’m hoping the place isn’t just a “one trick pony” kwai fei ji place.
Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Mon – Tues, Thurs – Sat 11am – 9pm
Sunday 11am – 830pm
Closed on Wednesday
Well, in her comments Ayaka describes it as "perfect flaky crust outside, right amount of butter to have moist and chewy texture with light and airy layers." Almost sounds like our 
These seemed a bit over-stuffed, but heck, that shrimp was so good, I ain't complaining about proportion this time around.
Well, this was decent sized portion. The chicken was haphazardly chopped with pieces not completely sliced thru. Unlike the rather 
Sadly, this was just as bad as the version I'd had here 
If you're keeping score, that's the sisig with the rice and the dinakdakan in the container. Both were somewhat similar. The dinakdakan was mushier, lacking in sour tones, with quite a bit of liquid on the bottom of the container. It didn't have the creaminess I enjoy and the lechon had become rubbery. It seemed to be on the blander side of the scale.
Well, in terms of the chicken and sauce this was a pleasant surprise! The chicken had been nicely sliced, only two pieces with bones were on the plate; one wing and one part of a leg. The chicken was so moist and tender. But the highlight was definitely the sauce. It's usually too watered down; but this one had a good amount of ginger, but was both aromatic and not over-powering. It had a good amount of seasoning, but the star was the ginger. The chili sauce was way too sweet for me.
As for the other parts. Well, just by looking at that boiled egg you can see the greyish tone to the yolks which means it had been boiled too long. So yes, there was a bitter-sulfuric tinge to the dry and crumbly yolk. If you look closely, you'll see a piece of white-grey matter in the yolk. I took that out and didn't eat it.
Though I really couldn't make out truffle. This was bit too much for me in terms of cheese….yes, I know, it's a grilled cheese, but this really needed more than rich-milkiness. The tomatoes weren't ripe enough to add the sweet acidity to help cut the richness and there wasn't enough onion to add pungency. If you just want gooey cheese-land, this might work for you.
This was a pretty good sandwich; nothing fancy mind you, the turkey was totally Sysco stuff; but the bread was nicely toasted and held out well. The herbaceous-savory-nutty pesto, the sweetness of the roasted red peppers, the bitterness of the greens, the creamy, slightly sweet avocado all worked well together. And this was enough for both the Missus and I for a light brunch. I think we'll go ahead and add the bacon for an upcharge next time.
