Golden Horse Restaurant

This place is a joke. The only thing I can say they have going for them is that it’s consistently decent Chinese food at a good price. Their sesame chicken used to be fantastic. But now it’s filled with pieces that are very tough and end up being discarded. I politely asked them last time if they could give me a fresh batch because the chicken has been «very tough and not very tender.» The fellow behind the counter was very accommodating as far as his demeanor and response, but I still received «tough» pieces of chicken. I did not realize this until I brought it home as it was a to go order, so I didn’t have an opportunity to send it back.
I recently called for a to go order at 8:49PM. The woman on the phone said «We’re closed.» I said, «I thought you closed at nine.» She said, «Our last call is ten minutes before closing.» I said, it’s 8:49. May I please place an order?” She said «Sorry.»
The only reason I go here is because of the aforementioned decent pricing and that it’s close to home. But these are the laziest Chinese restaurant employees I’ve seen in my life. So I’m caught between going here or to a Chinese restaurant where the service is more efficient and the food costs a couple more dollars per dish. I’m afraid it might be time to move on. Golden Horse, you were good for a while, but now you’ve lost the quality you once possessed. Maybe I’ll return when things improve.

This my neighborhood Chinese restaurant. I live exactly 1 block west. I have eaten here for years… up to exactly 1 year ago. I tried it again.. The restaurant was empty at 6:17pm. I ordered my usual items. A small bowl of clear stock. The usual sprinkling of green onion was missing. The stock was lukewarm and smelled of pig’s trotters and tasted strongly of MSG.. I worked in many good Chinese restaurants. The lukewarm broth’s lack of garnish and taste, was the lazy young cook. He put in frozen pork bones and too much MSG in the stock pot. He didn’t reboil the broth. This can sicken you… or worse. Every Chinese restaurant uses MSG in the stock. Why else is a bowl of MSG near the stock pot?. The appetizer dish was salt and pepper chicken wings. No color from being cooked in cooling oil. Most bones were reddish and the meat rubbery. The garnish was burnt granulated re-​hydrated garlic and mushy green onion… no hot green pepper.. The last dish was beef with broccoli. The sauce was watery with undissolved starch/​soy sauce globules stuck to the otherwise OK boiled broccoli. The beef was barely cooked and cold.. Everything came at once. The total kitchen staff alternated hanging out in the dining room 1 table away from me. Lookouts for the owner, no doubt. My waitresses, who remembered me, never asked how my meal was. The only other waitstaff was the bored waiter that brought my food.. I know why I didn’t eat here for a year. I hoped that the experience would’ve gotten better after 1 year. It got worse.

My mom like to eat near her home so we regularly come to Golden Horse. We are always able to find a table here and food is prepared pretty fast. Portions are good when ordering A la cart. Rice plates have more rice than entrée. Food is ok and you will walk away full. Service is ok.

Mom wanted a Chinese soup based meal and we lucked out finding a parking space only a block away. The place had numerous large tables filled with Chinese families celebrating the lunar new year. I think the banquets must be a good value.
Mom ordered the shrimp dumplings in soup. It was a large order and the dumplings were filled with shrimp and looked lovely. Mom said the taste was not very good.
I had the beef stew wonton soup. Again, a generous serving that wasn’t great. The wonton were small and flavorless. Not sure what the filling was – usually a diced mix of shrimp, pork, mushrooms and vegetables. The filling seemed mealy – like imitation meat without flavor. The beef stew was ok – Chinese five spice meat with fat and tendon.
Not sure if we ordered the wrong things or we are pickier than their customers.
The place was full and does a steady take-​out business so obviously they have satisfied customers.

came here the other day it was good as usual. consistent. tried the Peking duck not bad .we ordered Peking spare ribs. must have been good I didn’t get even one, my husband ate it all !

Good ol’ Chinese family-​style on a budget, Golden Horse has fantastic prices that can give your group a well-​varied meal that won’t bleed your wallet. Entrees are priced half as much as they are in Chinatown, but with the same portions and same hearty flavors. Being Cantonese-​style, there’s a greater selection of traditional seafood options, but the menu is also equipped with classic take-​out options, such as General Tso’s or Broccoli & Beef. If you really want the best bang for your buck, order a Family Dinner, which are incredibly discounted bundles of entrees.

Corking fee of $ 4 only and variety of seafood options — I had a great pre-​new years eve dinner — standard Chinese fare but extremely flavorful

Luckily the smelly octopus was refundable. .I put a star to award them. hey, chef, u don’t need to come out and give me that look if u did well with your dish… u smell before u put on my table please

Tired of the run around. The food isn’t good, but it’s a decent local spot. Half the time you try to order a basic Wanton Soup, but mysteriously get up-​charged on their combo soup which combines ROTTEN meat + veggies. Seriously, it smells foul. Who eats this?
Avoid at all costs. It’ll go out of business soon enough. Regular wanton soup without rotten extras is edible when drunk.

18 years going here and the service has fallen. Had a reservation for 10. Came early. They still gave away the table.
Food: decent. Peking duck is not bad. Walnut shrimp is good. Soups are tasty. Steamed fish is tasty. Lobster tastes great because it’s cooked with ginger and other yummy Chinese flavors you can only get in a Chinese restaurant.
Service: lacking. They definitely just want you to eat and leave. Some restaurants I understand but this is a restaurant that has banquet-​style menus so attentive service is very necessary.
Cleanliness: don’t come here if you want to eat at a fancy Chinese restaurant. Some glasses and diningware may be a little dirty so just ask for a replacement!
Overall just don’t expect too much. Not a place to impress others.

Too bland for me! The Combination Seafood with Tofu in Clay Pot had so much tofu and tasted like nothing. The Chicken Chow Fun was also bland and very very oily. The only thing that was good was the Schezuan prawns, but they would have been better battered!

One of the few places I can get general tso’s (yes, I’m a midwesterner, get over it) that isn’t soggy or doused in sauce. I enjoyed everything we ordered, and they were super fast.

For over a decade this resturant use to be my family’s favorite to go chinese restaurant. Not only because it’s hella close to where we live, but the food was good and the price is unbeatable.
NOW… They changed owners… It has gone down hill =/​We don’t even THINK about coming here anymore. Maybe for to-​go when we’re in a hurry or someone’s sick. But whenever we did come here to eat, it is a let down =/​The food just isn’t the same. I miss the old Golden Horse… the place use to be PACKED all the time, now it’s barely half full inside =[

I’ve been to this restaurant several times and have found the food surprisingly good and the prices reasonable. I get the typical stuff like combo fried rice, house special chow mein and ordinary chicken, beef and seafood entrees (a la carte). Portions are large. The kitchen staff is very efficient — you get you food quickly and the wait staff are also efficient.
The place is very spartan and the store front is in need of a long overdue facelift as well.
Oh, the boss-​man should install a second phone line for the credit card machine so that the staff can take orders over the single line telephone. Cheap owner (s)! And this single phone line could pose a security risk for credit and debit card users at this restaurant. I figure someone could hack the card reader through this single line.
A decent place to get a decent meal for a reasonable price in a very gentrified Snob Hill!

I kind of want to give these guys a two after dinner here, but if they don’t revoke your canto card as they apparently did mine, it could very well be a four. Judging from all the Cantonese families I saw around, one or two of which were celebrating a NY dinner, and all the chatter from customers and staff alike, the spot should be legit, so I’m giving them a 3. However, be warned, as I ordered some snow pea shoots (dau miu/​dou miao) with garlic, and they served us a mound full of somewhat sickly-​looking veggies, with patches of yellowing. No restaurant should serve their customers vegetables like this, grr. I suspect they may have advised others to not buy their expiring pea shoots, as we didn’t see anyone else with it, even though the waitress said they were good today. :P
The pork and taro clay pot was interesting but not what I expected. It uses fatty cuts of belly, like in mei cai kou rou /​mui choy kau yuk, but layered with taro, all on some lettuce in the clay pot. Not bad, but I was hoping the taro would be nice large chunks, not something that was closer to mashed potatoes when you dug into it. Definitely a heavy fatty dish; probably wouldn’t get it again.
The pork and snow cabbage soup was a pleasant surprise. The toppings were nice (pork, seaweed, cabbage, and a surprising amount of bean sprouts), and the soup not starched up the wazoo like Americanized Asian soups are. Although instead of starch to thicken it, it had a ton of rice noodles underneath the toppings. Wish it had a bit less noodles and more broth; we had tons of noodles left, which also soaked up quite a bit of soup. An order of that could easily fill someone up and then some.

My mom likes to take the family here. This was our second trip here, ironically we came here for Chinese new year before and not American new year like this time,
The place is clean and well lit but it is cramped and my chair was so wobbly as it was old. A heavy person probably would have broken it.
My mother pre-​ordered a stuffed sticky rice chicken which was not as good as I’ve tasted elsewhere. The rest of the meal was fine. Chow fun with black bean, westlake beef soup, tomato beef cried chow mein, green beans, and pork ribs.
At the end they gave us a tapioca pudding soup to clean our palate. I always prefer the tapioca over the red bean.
The prices here are great. We fed a group of 10 for less than $ 100. Parking can be tough, but if closed you can park at the Trader Joe’s across the street.

Local fav.
If you are looking for a good cheap hole in the wall restaurant this is it.
They serve large portions. I order the hot and sour soup every time, they put virtually everything in it.
Don’t go and expect anything fancy. Go when you want to pig out on a lot of good Chinese food and take home leftovers at a great price.
Service has always been great for me. Never disappointed.
One of my go-​to restaurants.

3.5 STARS
Just had an early Father’s Day dinner here yesterday night. We got one of their set menus. I believe it was $ 168 for all dishes below.
Bbq combo platter — Good variety. It had duck, ribs, bbq pork and my favorite, jellyfish!
Shredded abalone and chicken soup — In need of a little more flavor. The soup had a nice consistency, but I needed to add some salt and lots or white pepper since it was a little bland.
Honey glazed walnut prawns — Prawns were perfectly cooked! A little crispy with a nice blend of creaminess from the mayo and a hint of sweetness from the honey.
Beef steak and scallops in honey black pepper — Beef and scallops were nicely stir fried. Peas still retained a nice crunch.
Squabs meat stir fried with vegetables — A little gamey but I loved the vegetables! Especially the celery!
Golden fried crispy chicken (whole) — This dish can be on the drier side in general. I ate a piece of dark meat which retained it’s juiciness, but the white meat looked a little dry. My little cousins loved the chips!
Ginger scallion lobster and crab — The set menu we got said Lobsters in supreme sauce. Knowing my parents and how they prefer crab over lobster, they probably swapped out one of the lobsters for crab and asked to make it with ginger and scallions. This is one of my favorite dishes! We got a whole lobster and a whole crab. Sooo good!
Braised sea cucumber with black mushroom — I don’t like sea cucumber but I love lettuce and mushrooms! I kept picking at this dish after I was full!
Steamed live whole fish — Another one of my favorite dishes! I love fish when it’s steamed with soy sauce, ginger, etc. It’s normally so moist! But this one was a little overcooked so it was a little disappointing. Plus the fish was on the smaller side. At least it came at the end when I was pretty much full.
Braised yee foo noodle — I didn’t really eat this dish so I can’t comment on it. One of my cousins took the sauce from our fish dish and mixed it with the noodles. Said it was delicious that way!
Red bean dessert — I didn’t have this either since I’m not a huge fan of these soupy Chinese desserts. Everyone who ate it like it.
Service was nice and friendly for a Chinese restaurant. We were brought waters, napkins, etc when asked and they would come around and fill waters. Hence the rounding up to 4 stars!

Updated review on their dinner banquet (13 course meal), only this time with pictures. We had two tables to celebrate a couple birthdays and the food IMHO is still five stars after a year since our visit. They may have changed chefs since some of the usual dishes tasted slightly different.
Dish 1: Jellyfish, roasted duck, fried chicken wings, and roasted pork ribs. Gone are the thinly sliced, marinated beef shanks and char siu (thinly sliced roast pork). Instead, each item was thickly sliced and full of meat! A bit heavy for an appetizer, but hey folks were hungry since all the guests didn’t arrive until 8pm!
Dish 2: Typical fish maw soup (no picture here). Good dish.
Dish 3: Fried crab puffs with a mayo and red vinegar dipping sauces — I tried both and the flavors worked. Think fish and chips, only with thin fried crispy layer and real crab meat!
Dish 4: Seafood stir fry with shrimp, scallops, baby corn, and green beans. Also had what looked like macadamia nuts. Plenty of seafood and all veggies had good crunchiness.
Dish 5: Stir fried pigeon meat (bock gop) with celery and more beans. The meat was incredibly tender and could have fooled most folks into thinking it was a beef dish.
Dish 6: Chinese broccoli (Gai Lon) with sliced fish fillets. Amazing softness on the veggies and the fish was firm and well seasoned.
Dish 7: Steamed chicken with garlic-​ginger sauce. The dish here was juicy and the sauce has a higher ginger to garlic ratio this time. Looks bland but it’s not!
Dish 8: Lobster — good flavor and textures, but I normally don’t eat much lobster since there’s too much she’ll and hard to split it with ten people or so.
Dish 9: Mushroom, sea cucumber, and abalone. I can’t tell if it’s faux abalone, or maybe even canned real abalone. I liked the savory flavors of the mushroom. The abalone had some stringy textures and wasn’t super smooth — which made me think it wasn’t likely a soy product. I pass on the sea cucumber, being a typical ABC :)
Dish 10: Sautéed pea sprouts — generous portions and good texture. Helps balance all the meaty and seafood dishes.
Dish 11: Long life noodles (Yee Mein) with mushrooms– traditional dish to honor birthdays. I like the chewy noodles.
Dish 12: Peking pork chops — they saved the best for last, but I was so full I had just two of these perfectly fried, sweet and tangy ribs. Some lucky guest was going to have an awesome leftover for tomorrow’s lunch!
Dish 13: Tapioca soup (Sigh Maw Low) — thick but smooth, with good amounts of sweet tapioca pearls.
Note that in order to sample all these wonderful dishes, we avoided eating any white rice, which has no place in banquet. During our dinner service tons of folks dropped by for dinner takeout, so it looks like this place is still getting good business.

This is a solid Chinese restaurant that’s very welcome in the Nob HIll neighborhood. Pretty decent prices for Nob Hill /​SF. Most dishes were less then $ 10, and the vegetable dishes were only $ 7. Only downside is that they don’t have rock cod. Even though it’s on the menu, apparently people don’t order it enough, so they stopped serving it. The rest of the fish on the menu (flounder and catfish) are pretty weak.
Tip: The soup of the day /​house soup is on the house too if you ask for it.
They also opened a branch down in Cupertino in the Vallco Mall that took the place of Dynasty Restaurant. They may carry a larger variety of dishes in that location.