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| - Golden Harbor may still be considered somewhat of an undiscovered gem and my only hesitation in writing this review is that they may continue to increase in popularity so much that it becomes yet more crowded (which is currently manageable, but barely) or that they decide to raise the prices, which would be bad news but still not much disincentive to go.
It's a fantastic place and very UNLIKE most Chinese places I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot including numerous in various big-city Chinatowns-- NY, SF, Chicago etc. The main menu on the giant wall is completely in Chinese, I guess. (Don't know, I can't read it.) There are HUNDREDS (if not thousands?) of items. Seriously. And the only sense you are going to make of it, unless you can read Chinese, is the little pictures above each section of a pig or a chicken or whatever. For us poor people who only speak English or other languages that are similarly not quite as useful in such a wonderful restaurant, they've done us the good favor of providing English menus in a basket at the front. Thank you Golden Harbor!
This is the kind of place where if you walked in, you might be a little weirded out by the "system" so to get that out of the way and make it more accessible: the first thing you see when you walk in is the giant menu board in Chinese. Great. At the right, is a table with menus, golf pencils and little waiter-type order pads. All you need to do is write down on the order pad the NUMBER of all the menu items you want. Some of them will come with white or fried rice or something, so you could just write down like "1234 FRIED RICE" for example. Then you tear the sheet off your order pad, throw everything else back in the baskets on the table, and go to the (always very friendly and happy) cashier.
She rings you up, gives you a number which you place on your table, and off you go. Collect your silverware on the side, along with complimentary tea if you like. Once you put your number on the little stand on top of your table, food will start to come out to you. Be forewarned, it may not come all at once. Things may even come in weird orders that you don't expect, like maybe even an appetizer after a main dish? Do not fret. It is all good and if you are anything like us, you can not help but order WAY more food than you need. Which is awesome because they keep the styrofoam "to-go boxes" out so you can just grab a couple, and a plastic bag to carry them out in, and take 2 days worth of leftovers home with you.
The food, I mean... it's pretty much magical. I often think of ordering extra dishes just to take home for later meals. If I lived closer I would be there two or three times a week. To me this is about as much of a "destination Chinese" restaurant as it gets. I can think of only 1 other place in the country that I'd really go out of my way for as much as Golden Harbor. And I was raised on Hot & Sour Soup, okay.
Cut yourself a break and hit the free money machine (ATM) in advance b/c Golden Harbor will give you a little discount for cash. ;) Be careful the hours, they close for like an hour between lunch and dinner so if you show up at an odd time you might have to sit half an hour for them to open back up again. Also, last thing, if you notice a "table service" charge on the order, don't flip, it's actually a good thing. You pay a buck per person for the table service, then you don't have to worry about tipping or anything. Their guys are taken care of. I have never seen that system before but I can't think of any problems with it, it's simple, and I like having one less thing to worry about.
An enthusiastic 5 stars for Golden Harbor -- a place I go out of my way to convince friends to try -- anytime we're nearby.
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