Golden City Restaurant in San Diego

Golden City Restaurant is located in a strip mall and shares the parking lot with other businesses. No problems finding parking here. Interior deco is outdated. People come here for the authentic casual Chinese dining experiences and definitely not for upscale ambiance. We got to the restaurant around 8:40pm after got rejected by two Vietnamese restaurants because they were closing at 9pm. Half of the restaurant was occupied by a large group celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival. We managed to wave down a waitress with our fingers crossed that they would serve us. We got lucky and we were seated but she warned us that we needed to order immediately as kitchen is about to close. Three minutes after we sat down, waitress came back with hot tea and asked us to order. We hadn’t even look at the menu thoroughly at the point. So, under some pressure, we ordered some typical Cantonese dishes we had at other Chinese restaurants and then we also asked the waitress to suggest couple dishes. Dishes came out fast and we ate fast because we were extremely hungry and also we knew that the restaurant was closing soon. We were grateful that they served us a delicious meal. All of us really liked the crab meat with fish maw soup (even the picky eater). We also ordered honey walnut shrimp, garlic stir fried veggie, cubed beef with green peppers and jalapeño, beef chow fun dry style and salted fish with chicken fried rice. All dishes were very good and authentic. We didn’t get a chance to take pictures of some of the dishes we really liked because we had to eat fast: tasty soup and fried rice but they were very good and fried rice portion was big and we had a boxful of leftover fried rice to take home. Because it was closing time, they didn’t give us the free sweetened bean soup dessert which was usually given to customers after dinner. Free hot tea was served with meal. As we were leaving, we thanked the waitress for letting us in. She was gracious and said we were welcome and invited us back. Nice staff!10/2023 update. We went back to the restaurant as most places were busy on Friday nights. Once again, we were able to get seated for a large group within 5 minutes. We order Peking duck, roasted duck, beef chow fun noodle, egg drop soup, string beans, fried rice and spicy fried chicken wings. All dishes were delicious especially the roasted duck which was juicy, super tender and served warm. Waitstaff gave us free red bean soup for dessert. We will be back to try other dishes for sure.

I wouldnt say it is a hidden gem since it is well known among the oldies but it is a sweet surprise for me for sure.I attended my first group dining since Pandemic and this restaurant didnt disappoint me, lucky me! The local favorite is Fried Cruller Porridge as I was told. We didnt order any of the porridge dishes. Fried pork chop with spicy salt was a big hit. If you opt for seafood and are a big fan of shrimp, try out shrimp with honey glazed walnut, it is flavorful and melts in your mouth. Cube Beef with Black Pepper is pretty good too.The reason I only gave four stars instead of five star is that the service is a bit slow.Highly recommend this restaurant, especially if you are in the mood of some really authentic Chinese food ( HK style ).

I’m not hard to please, but unfortunately the meal was incredibly underwhelming. I’ve tasted water that has more flavor than the shrimp fried rice. And it was way too expensive for the quality to be like this. I spent 39 dollars and only bought two things. I wouldn’t go back :(

Food is truly authentic and awesome! Great price for the amount you get and super friendly staff.

Ordered the egg flower soup, chicken chow mein, fried oysters, and a cup of egg fried rice. The egg flower soup was wonderful! The chicken chow mein was quite a bit and was really good too! The oysters were huge! I could only eat one being full. The service was very good. This was my first time going here and I would go again!

Hidden Chinese gem in San Diego. The only complaint I have is the orange sauce breaded fried fish that tasted like lollipop... Otherwise, I highly recommend the cold meat appetizer and any fried rice dish. Worth a try! Compare to many other Chinese restaurant, the portion size is generous!

One of the best chinese I ever had! Absolutely great... Everything... The pecking duck is exceptional, won ton soup a must and fried rice rocks. Pretty much everything is good and the owner is checking it all. The mostly asian crowd attests to the authenticness and taste. If in San Diego, this is a place to go

Its alright. We liked the beef tenderloin with black bean sauce, but the chow fun noodles were not cooked together properly. They were broken, stuck together, etc. It was not a proper chow fun.

So the food is actually very good but there were problems. Hope we dont get sick the fish was not cooked fully and raw on the inside. Also they lied and said it as $30 but charged us $38 for it. The peking duck was excellent and the rest of the food is decent. However, service was pretty bad.

My good friends took me out for a birthday lunch today at Golden City. We had hot and sour soup, spicy clam soup and a fresh lobster. Everything was amazing... but the lobster... fried with garlic and ginger was absolutely exceptional! Messy? YES! Delicious? OMG! The hot and sour soup is really good. Very flavorful. 10 times better than what youre expecting. The spicy clam soup was outstanding. It had lots of little neck clams in a very light broth seasoned with Thai basil and other herbs. The lobster was fresh out of the tank. They let us choose it before cooking it. It was savory, slightly sweet, gingery with hints of garlic. Finger licking good. Ruins you for eating lobster with drawn butter. Waitress was very friendly and attentive. I give this meal a 10!