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| - Since moving to Arizona, I've yet to find a Chinese restaurant as good as my favorites back home (Toledo, OH) and after experiencing the cuisine of Golden Star on Bell Rd, sadly, the search continues...
I had my fingers crossed for Golden Star. The restaurant is fewer than two miles away AND THEY DELIVER! The menu is typical fare, and like the menus at every Chinese restaurant, doesn't bother to list the individual ingredients (vegetables) of each dish. Fortunately the person who answered the phone spoke wonderful English and spared me from getting the Hunan beef (cabbage, he said--YUCK!).
I ordered Kung Pao Beef, extra spicy, General Tso's Chicken, extra spicy, and Chicken Egg Foo Young. The Kung Pao and the Egg Foo Young were combination dinners, which were 75 cents more but came with fried rice, crab puff and egg roll. The General Tso's included half a pint (I think) of white rice. Total bill including delivery charge and tip was $36, which averages out to $12/dish--too much. (Note: The menu said the combination dinners came with Egg Flower Soup--but I was informed that's a misprint.)
I was told 30-35 minutes for delivery, but it was closer to 20. In the bag: three fortune cookies, a few packets of soy sauce, wontons, and two tiny containers of sweet & sour for the egg rolls--not even enough for one egg roll, never mind two. The nail in the coffin: No hot Chinese mustard! Unforgivable! The crab puffs and egg rolls were in the same containers as the entrees, and the moisture made them soggy. They could have easily been wrapped separately. Lastly, the entrees came in environmental unfriendly Styrofoam instead of the traditional cardboard.
The Kung Pao Beef was... decent. The sauce was gloopy and the diced vegetables (zucchini, water chestnuts, carrots, peas, celery) a replica of the meals served at Good China on Union Hills (another restaurant I don't much like). However, there was some spice to the beef as I requested. Not a lot of spice. And not a lot of beef. The ratio of meat to veg was heavily in favor of veg.
The Egg Foo Young was like Egg Foo Young, Deconstructed. This dish typically has a patty topped with gravy, but this was two patties underneath an avalanche of vegetables (same as above) and chicken. These ingredients are supposed to be within the patty, like an omelet. Presentation aside, how did it taste? Well, frankly, it tasted BURNT.
Lastly, the General Tso's. I requested "extra spicy" but like a lot of the Chinese restaurants I've been to in the West Valley, Golden Star doesn't bring the heat. Mild, mild barely-there flavor. There were no vegetables in the dish, which means the saving grace was there was actually a lot of chicken. (Unlike the beef in my Kung Pao Beef.)
Overall, a crushing disappointment. I can get better food for less money from Panda Express. If you're going to try Golden Star, my advice is to eat at the restaurant so you can send back the dishes that are displeasing and go for the slightly-more-reasonable lunch prices.
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