Golden Willow Chinese Restaurant

So sad to hear they have closed to retire. I ate there for 23 years back when they were in a closet next to the bank. So much good food. I can’t thank Dicky and Vance enough for always remembering what I ordered and cooking it perfectly. This place will be missed. A true loss to the community. I hope that their retirement is as amazing as that Hunan chicken. God I miss it already. At least I can still dream about it and freshly made pork buns. I still haven’t had rice that perfect at any other restaurant ever. And how does she remember everyone’s name? That’s a superhero skill I wish I had! Thank you again for 26 years of awesome!

Loved this place. Can’t believe they closed the doors for good. Going to miss the Hunan chicken and pot stickers. Hope they have a good retirement.

Good Chinese Food, Good Price. Try Their Mongolian Beef, it’s really different than others and taste good, not too spicy either.

This place has been around since 1989. The food is very good and the woman who own the joint is pretty friendly. The food was yummy and made quickly. Prices are reasonable. Where I was sitting in the sun I could see a thick cloud of dust from God knows what. I am actually surprised I couldn’t feel it while I was breathing. I think it’s just because the furniture it older and it had carpet. Idk. Won’t keep me from going back. Give it a try.

Always the best on service and food! It has been almost a year since we have been here and they remembered what we eat and how we like it!!!

We’ve frequented this restaurant for years but will no longer. Service is poor. The owner is over-​solicitous and talks too much! Food is horrible (the last meal we had there gave us gastronomic-​enteritis — which means that the food was old and full of bacteria!) it’s amazing that this restaurant hadn’t been closed by the health department!
The owners need to clean up their act or sell the restaurant.
If I could give NO stars I would.
Prices are excessively high.
There seem to be a small cluster of «regulars» who frequent this place which is odd. Much like regulars in a bar I suppose (restaurant flies?) regardless, this place is terrible. I’d rather go to Panda Express! At least I wouldn’t be poisoned.

I been going to golden willow for over 20 years and I also traveled the world while in the military and ate Chinese food every where I went and bye far golden willow is the best food in contra costa and in my opinion the states. I recommend there pot stickers and there flaming banana. The owners are the nicest people that u could meet which makes your dinning worth while

Let me just say this is some of the best tasting, freshly made Chinese food I’ve had in a long time. I will be back for the mu shu pork alone… fabulous! The service was on point! I’ve never been given so much attention.
We also had hot & sour soup and Szechwan chicken with added veggies. Delicious. Can’t wait to try more items on the menu.

Best food I’ve had, fresh, hot, much flavor. Friendly, clean, cute atmosphere and the best flavored crab meat cream puffs I’ve ever had omg yummyyy!!!

I only go to this place for the house family basket. But my last visit just disappoint me so much that I will never go back to this place again! The fish and sea food taste so old. It’s no use in explaining it to them, customer service there isn’t professional at all. So this is going to be my last time I will waste on this place. Very very disappointed! I’m also disappointed that I can’t give it a zero star!

Friendly staff, but the food was just ok. The staff was super friendly when I picked up my to-​go order, which was pleasant. It came to $ 19 for an order of veggie potstickers and an order of schezuan bean curd (rice is extra), which is quite expensive for Chinese food IMO. The potstickers were tasty (could use a touch more filling and they were very oily), but the bean curd was just that … bean curd with no veggies. When you have a quart-​sized container of tofu, it is just too much without broccoli or other veggies to break it up. And the bean curd lacked flavor outside of straight-​up spice. There’s a difference between flavorful spicy and bland spicy, and this was the latter. I ended up stir-​frying some of my own broccoli at home and adding the tofu to it with some extra soy sauce. It helped, but when I’m paying that much, I shouldn’t have to do half the work myself. I wonder if maybe their meat dishes are better and I may give them another try on a pure veggie dish (no tofu) … but I’m not exactly in a rush.

Been here several times and the owner is always very kind (and will most definitely tell you how good the food is). They have some really great lunch specials I’ve ordered the sesame chicken with rice and would say it’s great! It’s a little heavy with the sauce, but I like eating it over the rice. They also have some great egg rolls and would definitely recommend trying out their pot stickers! There always seems to be some kind of construction going on in front of the place, but parkings never been an issue! Definitely, give this spot a try if you have a craving for some good Chinese food!

Terrible service!!! Terrible food!!!
The host is rude!!!
I would not recommend anyone to go there.
There is a lot better places that treat a customer better

Years ago I used to work near Golden Willow and my co-​workers and I would often order take out for lunch. Everyone loved ordering the Hunan Chicken lunch special which is a bit like orange chicken but with a more savory and spicy sauce. Since then, I moved office locations and also became vegan so I haven’t been back in years. It wasn’t until recently that I was doing a search of «vegan» on Unilocal and I stumbled upon Golden Willow. There was one review from 2012 that mentioned Golden Willow had vegan meat dishes. I thought, «What?! No, way! How did I not know about this sooner!» I viewed the restaurant’s online menu and sure enough there was a section named «Vegetarian Plant» with items made by gluten, dried bean curd tofu and mixed vegetables.
I was invited out to dinner by my cousin last night and she gave me the liberty of choosing the restaurant. So I thought Golden Willow would be the perfect spot with meat dishes for my cousin and vegan dishes for myself. I ordered the veggie Hunan «Chicken» so I could once again try it after many years. It came with a variety of stir fried vegetables which was great because I don’t remember its meat counterpart having it. If you like orange chicken or General Tso’s chicken, you will like this dish. Sweet, savory, crispy chunks of veggie chicken with stir-​fried vegetables cooked perfectly and with no MSG. We also enjoyed the Szechuan String Beans which were cooked perfectly, not too soft with a bit of a kick. I was happy that they had brown rice available. You definitely need rice to balance out the richness of both dishes.
The owner/​waitress was very nice and friendly and she enjoyed talking to the regulars that came in. There was one incident where she forgot to bring out our rice but no worries from us because once we reminded her she quickly brought it out to us.
It’s nice to know we have Golden Willow as a vegan friendly option in Concord!

I have heard of this place for awhile and people have mentioned how good it was-​but this was mainly my Caucasian friends rather than Asian, who may have a different taste. I liked their eggrolls which not many places have this but at least it had a little meat in the mixture which makes it tastier imho. Their potstickers were good too-​better than many places around that area.
The main thing we ordered was the steamed whole fish and it was good. I tried their Hunan chicken which many seemed to rave about on Unilocal-​now I can see how the American taste would like this as it is kind of a tangy sweet like a General Tsou’s chicken or almost like an an orange chicken-​the nice waitress said that is their best dish and they are known for it. It was too sickly sweet for me-​but I am not into having my meats too sweet so those who like sweet food will like it sticky sweet. The parking lot was full and I see a lot of people coming for lunch around there. They have decent prices and decent food-​not the best, but decent for the area.

I have been working near this place for 7 years and I just went there today… my loss. I could have been eating here long ago.
The owners (hostess/​waitress and the chef) were extremely charming and hospitable. I ate a good amount of food and I do not feel weighed down. She explained that they use fresh, light oil for all cooking. Plus they use fresh ingredients and no preservatives or MSG. I can definitely feel the difference.
I will be going back because now I have to try the Hunan Chicken that everyone raves about.
I noticed a lot of people call in orders for pick-​up. I saw a good handful of people come in just while I was eating.

If there was a way to give no stars, I would happily do so. I wish I had a chance to review the food, but the hostess was so rude when she was asked a basic question, I had to leave before I started breaking things… Prior to my experience, I overheard her snapping at a customer who was ordering over the phone. I don’t care how good the food is, you might want to consider how you talk to your patrons. I did happen to see the prices on the menu before I tossed it back onto the counter, and that didn’t impress me either.
All of that said, if you are looking for really good Chinese food, very personable service, and more reasonable prices, check out Lulu’s, which is right across the street from this place. You won’t be sorry!

I used to come here very often years ago. In a relative of mine had his wedding rehearsal dinner here years ago because the food has always been very good.
I decided to come here for lunch today and the owner (Vance) remembered me from when I used to come here. The last time I was here was back in 1998 and I was very impressed and surprised that she remembered me. She was very friendly and visits and chats with all of her customers.
I ordrered the Hunan Chicken which was spicey but very good. My friend good the Black Bean Chicken dish which was also good. We also ordered eggs rolls which were fresh and tasty.
All in all, a very pleasant visit. Loved the customer service and how nice and genuine the owner is. We’ll be back!

I am Chinese and I went to many Chinese restaurants. But so far. This is the best Chinese Restaurant I have been. Not only have good really food. They have very good service too. Very friendly and professional.
Wife and husband own for many many years. She is the waitress and he is the chef. Whatever you order, He cooks it. Love it.

As most locals know, the surrounding cities (Concord, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, etc.) roll up their sidewalks at 9, so I had to hurry to find a place open after I got off work. Urgent Care closes at 9, so I was cutting it close. I found Golden Willow and had a very delightful and intuitive order convo. The man was very pleased to tell me of their famed food, it was excellent, theres no lying from this man.
I ordered at 9 and ended up missing my BART, I was 30 minutes late and they were waiting patiently to accommodate my order. I apologized and explained my situation, the womans main concern was that my order was still hot.
When I got home, it was very hot and taste wonderful, the Salt and Pepper Porkchops were delicious, Won Ton was on point and the fried rice was very tasteful. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone, anytime.