Golden City Restaurant

I used to enjoy the dishes in this restaurant a lot more. They have very good Cantonese dishes. Their prices, however, have risen much to be a lot more expensive than its competitors while the food quality does not show similar dramatic improvement. When I went there on a Friday night there weren’t too many customers, so that could be a sign. Maybe lunchtime will be different. Service staff is very responsive though.

I have been to this location twice and both time have been very great. Both times i have come during lunch time and of course i take advantage of their lunch special which includes: Appetizer (2 egg rolls) Cup of soup and a choice of entrée for under $ 9.
In my last visit i ordered orange chicken and i got the choice of Fried Rice. For the first time in a Chinese restaurant i got a huge plate of chicken and a small portion of fried rice. I could not believe it. The taste of the the chicken was great and the sauce was not too sweet since it was spicy orange chicken. It was so much chicken that i had to share it with my coworker.
The customer service was great from the moment you walk in until the moment you leave the restaurant. Our server was really nice and she took our order without writing it down. Our Food did not take long to come. We first got our egg rolls followed by the soup and the main entrée came just as we finished our soups and appetizers. When ever i’m craving Chinese food this is first choice.

One of my favorite Cantonese restaurants. I’ve been going here ever since I was a child. I always come here with my big family, and I would definitely recommend to go with a big group so that you can try a variety of dishes. My top favorites are the basil clams, fish filet dishes, and the hot clay pot rice (I’m not sure how to say it in English). Great lunch/​late hour specials!
Let me start off by saying that the clams here are by far the best and if you’re lucky, biggest clams I’ve ever had. However, the size of the clams can be inconsistent since it’s hard to get big clams every time, but regardless the sauce is great and it’s worth. I love the basil it comes with and garlic in it makes it tasty. The fish filet noodles (sup chao style) is delicious. The quality of fish is always good, I mix the noodles with the satay sauce to make it spicier and tastier. I also like the Fish filet with lemongrass. The salty fish clay pot rice is great as well. It takes a long time to make so order that first, if you leave the rice in the pot til later, the rice at the bottom gets crunchy and it’s great.

Don’t order Delivery. They make you call someone else. Once you call you have to talk to a automated server. Then you leave a message and they call you back??? Wtf is up with this shit. I just wanna order some food to my house. How hard is that!!!

First time there today — Christmas. We sat and sat waiting for service. Finally left. Was only about 4 parties there with plenty of staff.

I would say this place is 2.5… debating to either rate a 2 or 3, it sadly came out to be more of a 2. The place might have been good once, but now it’s just okay. They open late and are located right off the 163 freeway. The servers are attentive and fast.
Tea is free. The food comes out fairly quick for the late night special but very slow for dinner. Very slow, waited for more than 30 minutes for dinner, considering that there was only one other table being served other than my families. Their Chinese food that would cost less somewhere else is nothing special. The food is only mediocre. The prices are very steep. The portions aren’t bad for dinner, but they absolutely skimp on the meat when it comes to the lunch or late night specials. The best thing for dinner was the Peking duck which is cut right in front of you and very crispy. Every other dish after though was not worth it. The Peking duck was good but not the best. Some of the plates were bland or too salty.
They have lunch (11am-​3pm) and late night (9pm-​12pm) specials too. Lunch comes with soup and rice, but late night does not (rice is $ 1 a bowl). When we had the late night special, we ordered the bbq pork (too tough and chewy), roasted duck (crispy but too fatty and mostly bones) and the fish with bean sauce (full of onions, only 1 or 2 actual fish filets).
I probably would not come back again. This place is definitely not a place I would recommend or take a friend to. There are plenty of other better tasting Chinese restaurants, sorry.

Usually decent food at decent prices, and the best thing it’s open late hours.
But going today… the place has been shut down by the government, due to a «varmint issue» … so it is closed for the foreseeable future.

Yummy… very good place for Cantonese food in San Diego. Strongly recommend to go for lunch! You get better service and price.

I order from Golden City a lot because its one of the more acceptable Cantonese places in the SD/​La Jolla area. The taste has actually improved over the course of the year and a half I’ve been here. What Golden City does best imo is their BBQ options, in terms of Cantonese 燒味 its the best in the area. But jesus, the prices are high.
Dec 2015 edit: amending this review as they have messed up the instructions on my orders three times in a row.

Eaten here twice now and both times were fabulous. First time was take out and this time we ate in restaurant. I liked eating in the restaurant! Everyone was so nice. We had bbq pork fried rice, duck lettuce wraps and General Tsao’s chicken. DELICIOUS! All of it. We will definitely be back! Oh I also had a pot of green tea and we got a free sample of the Mango pudding. I would definitely order that as a dessert. It was light and creamy and so yummy!

I debated on 2 or 3 stars but the more I thought about it and the price we paid, I could only give 2.
First, service was very slow. Took a long time to receive apps and dinner. Once dinner did come we waited forever for the most expensive fried rice, which had barely any meat and lacked flavor.
I ordered the egg foo young, which was bland & it came with a weird gravy that looked like pieces of intestines were in it. We also ordered the walnut shrimp, that was decent.
Way over priced food that lacked flavor. Wish we went to Panda Express! Will never eat there again.

Open late, decent prices, good food. I have no complaints about this place. I come here pretty often with my boyfriend when we get a second dinner craving for Chinese food.
Our favorite dishes are the general Tso’s chicken and the beef chow fun dry. Their beef chow fun dry is actually really good and maybe this place is my favorite place to get beef chow fun. Maybe.
Anyway, if you want solid Chinese food come here.

The service can be not-​so-​great, but there are two reasons I always keep going back here:
1 — PEKING DUCK. It’s so delicious, the perfect amount of crunchy exterior that they serve with a warm bun, hoisin sauce, and shallots. THEN they can serve you the rest of the duck in one of two ways — I always get it in the lettuce wrap. The duck is chopped into pieces with some chestnut, a bit of chips, and put into a large lettuce cup that just chops away at the oily-​ness of the duck and tastes just oh-​so-​delicious.
2 — Salted Fish & Chicken Fried Rice. It’s everything I wanted in my fried rice — salt, fish, chicken, and a heap of seasoned rice. I could eat an entire plate of this myself.
There are other dishes I’ve tried, but none have stood out to me as much as these two dishes. They do always serve you a complimentary traditional dessert (So far, I’ve had red bean soup or sweet potato w/​white fungi soup), but the quality of the dessert is questionable (if you’re a picky eater, which I’m not).
BONUS: They have a late night happy hour! So eat your heart out without breaking the bank.

Pecking duck! They cut it in front of you and serve it with warm buns and condiments.
This is one of the better Chinese restaurants in San Diego. They serve traditional dishes. It is pricy though. It is definitely for family-​style dinners. I recommend going with a big group for variety. I used to go here with my family all the time. Some dishes can be very oily though.
Service can be a lot better. They don’t really pay attention to you once you get your food. There is a private parking lot so it is very easy to find parking. It is right off the freeway as well so it is easy to get to.

Traditional is the right description. Sunday full of chinese families but not as busy as the most popular dim sum places. Have only tried congee so far. Need to bring a crew with me to try the Peking Duck they carve it table side.
With more experience i am open to giving more stars!

This place has a bunch of lunch specials for around $ 8 which is pretty good – soup, rice, and your hot stir fry. (It’s becoming hard to find «lunch special» compared to just hot dishes). It’s good Chinese food, i.e., I’d bring my parents here. We had mongolian beef and beef broccoli. The atmosphere is not that fancy but who cares? There was a small lunch crowd but not too busy so service was quick.

Solid option in the bleak Cantonese dining landscape of San Diego. Ate here with my parents and noticed the place had been remodeled since the last time. We arrived very early and was able to beat the dinner rush. The servers were very attentive and patient with my notoriously indecisive parents. I was surprised food came out as quickly as it did.
We had the gui fei chicken, cha siu, BBQ pork, sizzling lamb chops, and gai lan with beef. The sizzling lamb chops were tasty. Perfectly seasoned with pepper. The vegetables soaked up all the delicious sauce. The meat on the bone didn’t fall off. That was disappointing. The chicken and BBQ pork were nicely cooked. The cha siu was also delicious but just a little bit too salty. The gai lan was tough and bitter. The meal was a lot more expensive than I anticipated.
Seemed like all the dishes came up a little bit short. But the service and comfortable interior were nice.

After a frustrating *we don’t take credit card* visit to Sam Woo I settled here. When I saw the prices on the menu I flipped out! And get this, I had a $ 50 budget out of my company’s pocket for dinner. This place is very expensive for what it is. I was halfway out the door until I realized I was running short on time so I order.
Food:
Beef Chow Fun — Did not have the breathe of the wok. Chinese food connoisseurs will know what I mean.
Fish with black bean sauce — For one this is not what I expected. Typically comes in a darker more intense black bean flavor. Their version has a dash of hoisin sauce. Not properly executed. Blah…
Greens w/​Chicken — Chicken actually tasted pretty good. Sauce is good. The greens has a very weird stench. I think… that stench is from a particular pesticide because I recognize that stench whenever I buy the same type of greens from a cheap supermarket.
Service:
I ordered to-​go so I can’t really judge the service too much. They were nice overall but I was rushed to order even though I told them I was looking over the menu on several occasion.
Environment:
This is not a fancy high end looking Chinese restaurant. It looks like an old school (1980s — 1990s) style Chinese restaurant. It can use a face lift.
Price:
I was shocked by the prices because I’ve been to high end Chinese restaurants charging the same prices. $ 15 for chicken and vegetables!!! Better be damn good or double the portion of other restaurants! It was neither. I spent $ 50 on three dishes ordered to-​go.
I try not to give any 1 star to restaurants, but this place was one of the worst I’ve been to in a few years.
Food: 1
Service: 3
Environment: 2
Price: 1

Decided to my coworker out to eat. Since she is half Chinese, she recommended we come here for authentic Chinese food. She was really craving duck. Not just any duck but Peking duck. So I figured, why not?
When we got there, I was thinking of allowing her to get the Peking duck and I’d get a lunch special. She insisted on a whole Peking duck so when I saw that the price was $ 32, my jaw dropped. I wasn’t expecting duck to be that expensive. I decided I’d share that duck w/​her. We had also ordered the chicken and corn soup.
The Peking duck arrived rather quick. It came out as a whole duck and the nice lady put on her gloves and began to skin the duck. She put the skin nicely on a plate and gave us steamed buns and something shredded (cabbage?) and some hoisen sauce. My coworker showed me how to make a mini taco out of it but I wanted to wait for the rest of the duck that was being chopped up for us.
The experience was cool and the flavors blended well together. The crispiness of flavor of the duck meshed well with the shredded cabbage and hoisen sauce. The soup was a bit bland but a touch of soy sauce helped with that. Lunch was $ 42 for 2 excluding tax. I thought that was a bit pricey. I ended up taking the duck home and forced myself to eat it because I wasn’t going to waste $. I decided I don’t like duck. It’s just too much work to eat the meat and so many bones! It is tasty but I wouldn’t buy it again.

Good, but quite taxing on the pocket book.
My date and I arrived 5:30 pm and this large restaurant was pretty empty. We ordered the duck lettuce wraps ($ 14.95) and they were good, but a tad on the salty side.
Not sure what took sooo long, but the black pepper beef finally made an appearance about 20 minutes later. The beef was very tender and wasn’t overly peppery. At $ 21.95 I didn’t think the dish justified the cost. This isn’t some 5 star restaurant!
Also, at these kinds of prices rice isn’t included in the meal. Honestly, we ordered a $ 21.95 dish and you can’t throw in a free bowl of rice?
The food would be 3 stars, but I’m docking a star for the lack of service. My date and I sat there gazing into each other’s eyes while waiting forever to get the bill.
All in all, with tax and tip the bill came to almost $ 50 for 2 people. A pricey meal, and my date required a Sonic’s shake afterwards.