Golden Gate Restaurant

Haven’t been here for long time due to work. Always loved it. Still great tasting food and the best egg rolls around. We come for the lunch buffet. Small but I find plenty that I like. Has real sinus clearing, eye watering mustard.

My regular stop. Many Chinese places give me stomach issues, not here.
Never had a bad meal. Great staff, Paul is friendly and attentive.
Great for carry out.

Had diner at Golden Gate tonight. Service and atmosphere was great. Food was bland and tasteless. Probably will not be returning because of the lack of flavor.

I’m trying to understand how this place got more then two stars, it’s really not that great. The crab Rangoon was flat and not good at all. The vegetables in the lo mein where very fresh which is great but the lo mein over all was just ok. Maybe there are other dishes that I need to try, but I don’t think I’ll be going back.

Terrible food! The sesame chicken was freezer burned, the beef was like rubber bands and broccoli was not fresh. Both served swimming in sauce. Egg rolls are inedible (must have been several days old).

In the lunch buffet, the egg drop soup had minimal egg in it. I had two bowls and neither one was hot, both at best, warm. The broth was very thin, like a water consistency. The sauces were brought out to my table with hot mustard dripping down the outside from the last person who must have used it (not very appetizing). The beef was not tender, I could not chew through many of the pieces. The best part was the egg foo young, hot tea and sugary donuts.

It’s hard to find good Chinese these days with more chains opening and the small places run by families closing. This place is a wonderful exception. The food is rich in flavor and not over cooked (leaving it chewy or dry). I was SO excited to find egg foo young that was actually edible, not only edible but the best I have had! One gripe that I do have is that the dishes are all served in a lot of sauce. Next time I will see if they will let me have it on the side instead. I definitely will be going here from now on.

I called in a carry out order for 2 egg rolls, veggie fried rice, curry beef, and chicken almond ding. The Mrs and I then proceeded to eat until it hurt. The food here is awesome! The curry was full of tender beef and onions and the sauce was fantastic. I ordered it hot and it came a bit mild with some full dried peppers hanging out in the sauce. Not quite what I was hoping for but still very delicious. The Chicken Almond Ding was great! The veggies were cooked to perfection and the almonds were toasted and still crunchy. The fried rice was exactly what I was looking for, soft rice, crunchy veggies, sauced well. The egg rolls were not my favorite but had good flavor. I tasted some sort of nut butter in them but couldn’t put my finger on it. That, by the way, was a good thing. I doused it in hot mustard and enjoyed filling my face.
Would I sit down and eat there? Sure. Would I order carryout again? You betcha.

Nothing about this was overly good. Orange chicken was kind of soggy and chewy. Crab ran goons over fried. Small portion of overlooked rice. I won’t recommend this place.

My family has been coming here since it opened. Having eaten from Chinese restaurants all around the US (including lots in the Bay Area that is quite authentic), I have to say this restaurant is the BEST. I love the chicken almond ding and cashew chicken. The curry is great too. Egg rolls are great with spicy mustard. And you MUST get pan fried noodles. The same family who opened it still works there. They also have a huge bar in the room adjoining the dining room, lovely décor, and everything is affordable. YUM I want some nowwwwwwwwwww! I insist on going here every time I visit my family back in the Midwest.

This was our first time trying this place, based off of a recommendation from a friend. We ordered the wonton soup, crab rangoon, and sweet and sour chicken. Everything was delicious and a much higher quality from anything else we’ve tried in the Waukesha area. The staff was friendly, the service was speedy, and the price was definitley fair considering the portion size and quality. Excellent.

Their food is delicious, filling, and very reasonably priced. The gravy is also very good, and can be hard to find. I woudl also recommend this place.

I waited far too long to write a review for Golden Gate Restaurant. I have been coming here on-​and-​off for over 20 years and it is personally my most-​visited restaurant ever. It is also one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Wisconsin.
If you just show up one time and order General Tso’s Chicken it may be hard to swallow the «Top 10 Chinese restaurants in America» award. Yep — the menu is largely American-​Chinese and not particularly exotic or gourmet. If you return to Golden Gate regularly you will observe amazingly consistent food that is fresh, plentiful, and delicious. You will find your favorites and make them your own. They are very accommodating to special requests (hold the celery) but what really has me coming back week after week is the way they run the business. I don’t care what anyone says — I like to see them sitting together and pulling strings out of snow peas. I love to come in and see the staff eating together with the owners at the end of the evening. I like the elderly regulars sitting at the bar week after week. This may not be the very best of Chinese food in America or even the best Chinese food in the Milwaukee area, but they care about their staff and their customers and it shows. Golden Gate is definitely the overall best Chinese restaurant I have ever been to and always feels like «home».
So what to eat? The price is right so you might as well try a few things. You can never go wrong with egg-​rolls and they have a tasty version here. Crab Rangoons? Ridiculous — best I ever had and I usually scarf them down while taking home carry-​out (so I dont have to share them). The aforementioned General Tso’s chicken does not have broccoli so it is a little unexpected –so– why not try the Singapore noodles? Yum! Oh, if your dining in, try a Mai Tai. Note: I said try a Mai Tai (singular) and don’t have it while your waiting for carry-​out (holy strongness). Beer always seems colder than ice. I don’t know how they do it.
Thanks Golden Gate — love you guys (see you next week).

I have been here for the lunch buffet and dinner. The food was hot, not too oily, and very tasty. I had the combination dinner and it was a lot of food. The service was great.

We ordered carry out. Usually, the inability to order online is enough to send me packing, but I’d heard good things. Due to the notorious precedent set by the majority of Chinese restaurants, I was decidedly anxious to call and suffer through the awkward dance that results from cultural and language barriers. No such dance was danced. Ordering was efficient and easy. An accurate estimate on prep time was given.
The prices were reasonable, relative to the other exemplary Chinese establishments I’ve sampled, but upon pickup, the amount of food, and thus the value, exceeded that of comparable restaurants.
The General Tso’s chicken was average, with acceptable seasoning and a distinct lack of crispness to the meat I’d expected. According to my wife, the beef and broccoli was «fantastic». The egg roll was good, but I don’t think I’ll repeat that act. The crab rangoons really shined, easily making the list of «Top 10 Things I’d Pack for the Apocalypse».
Yes, I’ll eat here again.

The 5 stars I am giving is not for the entire menu/​restaurant but for one specific dish — Curry chicken (ask for it medium — not hot, because hot is not as good). Golden gate’s version of curried chicken is superb. The sauce and the chicken are excellent — as good as it gets. Trust me — try it! But skip the rest of the menu. lol.
Rest is basic american chinese food.
I am not a fan of their fried rice nor am I a fan of some of their other dishes I have tried, over the years.
I have been eating on and off at Golden gate, for about 32 years. Interstingly, the curried chicken taste has remained exactly the same. The price was about $ 4 at that time. I think it is around $ 10 now — very reasonably priced. We don’t need financial analysts to calculate inflation. Golden gate gives more accurately, the rate of inflation. :)
If you are seeking a «nice» chinese dinner experience — try the Curry chicken with pan fried noodles. The pan fried noodles are less oily than at other places.
PS: They claim they got an award for being one of the top 10 chinese in america. While their statment might be factual, (you can google it), Golden gate is not exactly a gourmet chinese restaurant to be considered top 10.

I thought I had written a review for Golden Gate after taking Mr. Snarky there when he was visiting the ‘sha. That visit would have gotten Golden Gate four stars. Their lo mein, potstickers, and chicken with broccoli were very good! I like the Lemon Chicken, but don’t really understand why they put green bell pepper in it. Lemon Chicken is a tough one to get right, but this one is pretty good. Not my favourite, but if I get a craving for it, Golden Gate will be my go to place. Service is friendly and efficient and take out is a breeze!
The reason that this visit would get three stars instead of four… I think I struck out on trying new dishes. The egg roll was ok… it is huge and could be a meal in itself. It was a bit mushy inside, as a result I couldn’t really tell what was inside. The Sweet and Sour Combination (pork, chicken, and shrimp) was ok, but was mostly sauce, tomatoes and green peppers. There wasn’t much for meat and what was there was very tough. The sauce has a bit of a funny flavor as well. I guess I should have known better than to get Sweet and Sour anything, it is very atypical of me. And unfortunately there were a couple of small pieces of egg shell in the Vegetable Fried Rice. They still have some other good dishes, but tonight and my choices were just not the best tonight.

Good american type Chinese food. You get huge portions and the meat they use is better quality then most Chinese places use. They have a kids menu which is always nice if the kids are feeling fussy that day! Cocktails were amazing and service was friendly and prompt. We will be putting this place in the old family dining rotation.

It falls somewhere between meh and ok. The food isn’t bad but it isn’t great either. There are a few gems tucked away on the menu. My biggest complaint is with the service. These girls are ANNOYING, with a a tone that ranges from saccharin to whiny. A great example was that one brought out the tea and asked do you need anything else? cream? sugar? We said no and then she repeated are you sure five times, finally I said yes I’ll have cream, which she then forgot to bring. Most of my meals there have been interrupted by overly annoying staff. Check in, but don’t overly inject yourself at un-​key times, only to disappear at length at key times, like waiting to pay the bill. Also what the heck is up with staff shelling peas in the dinning room? That is out of control tacky and gross.

I am calling out right now that my rating of Golden Gate is based on a Wisconsin curve. It is one of the better Chinese food places that I have had in the area, but that’s not saying a whole lot. They tout that they have won an award for one of the top 10 Chinese restaurants in America, but I seriously question who the other entrants were (maybe only 10) and who judged the competition. I can already think of 50 places right off the top of my head in LA and San Fran that are far better. But I cannot argue that their food is not an incredible value. You get a ton of food for what you pay for. The egg rolls are gigantic in size and you could probably fill up eating just a couple.
But the really amusing part about Golden Gate is that they serve grilled cheese, burgers, steaks, and spaghetti. WTF! I was seriously tempted to order the grilled cheese, just so I can be one of the few people in the world who has had grilled cheese in a Chinese restaurant. What business do they have even having cheese in the kitchen! Well, it is Wisconsin after all…
Staff was very friendly and I loved the décor that is a cheesy stereotype of all that is Chinese. I have never seen any Chinese restaurant in China ever decorated like that. All those red lanterns made me feel like I was in a brothel or opium den. But hey, that is what made the experience complete. Ironically, American restaurants in China are all decorated with wagon wheels, saddles, and cowboy gear. And they are always playing banjo music.
The only thing that would have made my experience here better is if we had ordered the Peking duck and the wait staff came out singing Fa-​Ra-​Ra-​Ra-​Ra.