We were craving some good ol' americanized Chinese food and Golden China delivered. S/O and I shared the szechwan shrimp, general tsao's chicken, gourmet vegetables, pan fried pork bun, and two small hot and sour soups. Everything was tasty! I loved the general tsao's chicken (of course) and the shrimp in the szechwan shrimp was plump and juicy. I forgot to get a pic of the shrimp, but it's stir fried (not crispy) with broccoli. I do wish the hot & sour soup was a little punchier. The portion sizes were generous -- enough for dinner for us two and plenty left over. Our server was great, he was attentive and knowledgeable. And we loved their oolong tea!!!!! Comfy booths, chill atmosphere, decent food. Would come again, mostly because I want to try their sweet and pungent shrimp!!! read more

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IDK what the story is but this place is disgusting. I got close to $100 worth of takeout and it was straight gross. The rice was a crime against rice. Every dish was just foul. I watched my wife try each thing and then just stop eating. We just threw it all out, which I have no memory of doing in any other situation. Something is super wrong at this place. I feel fleeced by GrubHub to the point where I cannot stop thinking about it, so I am compelled to comment. The food was so bad, I am not ordering take out for a while after this. I would avoid this place for takeout for sure. read more

I often pass by this restaurant on my way to other business in the strip mall. I might have tried it years ago, but decided to give it another try recently. I picked up a lunch special of Kung Pao Beef. You don't get soup in the to go order, but it came with egg rolls, a salad and rice - which made quite a hearty meal. The dish was fragrant and spiced just right. It was very fresh. Although I walked in and ordered on the spot, they prepared the order quickly while I waited. The outside of the restaurant always has signs and photos of highlights and specials. I will definitely try it again. read more

Golden China Restaurant - Kung Pao Beef lunch special - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

Friendly restaurant celebrating its 40th anniversary! We had a lunch gathering there and everyone picked a dish from the lunch special- it was served with Eggdrop or Hot& Sour soup, 1 spring roll, a small portion of crisp lettuce (can use a dressing..), and 1 scoop of white / fried rice. The main course served on a separate plate and the portion was quite generous! I got my all-time favorite--garlic sauce chicken. We also shared twice-cooked pork, eggplant, classic kaopao chicken, fish fillet in black bean sauce, and scallops with veggies. Everyone enjoyed the food and was surprised by the variety of fresh veggies! I love their creative marketing approach in the Membership drive. Once you join the free membership, you will receive a delicious 8-inch boba milk cake on your birthday! I do plan to visit again and try their dinner options! read more

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Golden China has been in business since 1984 and recently changed ownership last year. I've eaten here before for sit down & take out. It's located in a strip mall and cozy inside. In fact, it's next to my P.O. Box and whenever I pick up my mail I'm tempted to go inside. The other day I noticed a sign advertising a Lunch Special and new menu items, so I went in to get some food to go. The menu is extensive and categorized. They now offer healthy bowls, dumplings, and Chinese Pancakes. The lunch special is served daily and consists of an entrée, choice of Hot & Sour Soup or Egg Flower Soup, Egg Roll, Salad, Fried Rice & a Fortune Cooke for $13.75 or $14.50 depending on the entrée. It's a good deal. I ordered Hot & Crispy Shrimp ($23), Sour & Spicy Soup ($14), & Almond Cookies (6 for $3). Since I live nearby everything was still hot when I got home. They also included a side of steamed rice and fortune cookies. I loved the Hot & Crispy Shrimp. It had a nice flavor and the shrimp was plump and juicy. The Sour & Spicy Soup was also very good with lots of bamboo shoots, sliced tofu, & sliced mushrooms. The Almond Cookies were in a little bag and sealed with a sticker that said, "Hand Made." I used to love almond cookies when I was a kid and noticed the quality has changed over the years. However, these Almond Cookies were exceptionally good. I'm glad I ordered them. If you are craving good, quality Chinese food give Golden China a try. *Parking lot read more

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I'm not sure why their ratings aren't better, but this spot was great. My mom recommended it to me after taking her out for errands recently. I had never been, but she mentioned she use to frequent this restaurant years ago. It was pretty dead when we came in with near 2 hours left before closing. The food was excellent and the ambiance was clean. Staff was super attentive. They were also cheaper than other sit down Chinese restaurants in the area. I overall had a lovely experience and highly recommend coming in! I ordered my favorite sautéed garlic green beans and my mom ordered the combination house special noodles. Outstanding! It was served with a small cup of rice. Gold China Restaurant is located in a plaza where the new Trader Joe's is located on Fair Oaks. Ample lot parking. read more

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After 11 years of boycotting Golden China due to my last experience after years of poor service but delicious food, I am ***UPDATING my review from 2013*** While doing errands in this strip mall, I noticed nice printed signs up in the windows. New menu items with pictures, lunch specials and even a frequent customer club where you earn points for dollars spent 1:1. We shrugged and decided to give it a shot. I am SO glad we did! Turns out they changed ownership last year. Seems they also replaced the service staff and trained them to be friendly and helpful, to refill the water glasses, to say please and thank you with a smile, and not to deliver dishes by throwing them down on the table. The new menu offers a wide variety from dumplings, soups, appetizers, noodle & rice dishes, and Healthy Bowl Special. The menu is well organized by proteins chicken, pork, seafood, beef, duck (!) and vegetables. Lunch specials are served *every day*. We've been twice this week. So far we've had: *Kung Pao Chicken - they were kind enough to hold the bell pepper for us. Chicken was tender, juicy and well seasoned. We would have like more peanuts on top. *Salt and Pepper Pork Chop - very thinly coated and crispy, not oily, tender and covered with fried garlic and green onion. *Eggplant with Tofu - cooked perfectly but needed spicing up, IMO. *Salt and Pepper Fish Fillets - SO good! Prepared just like the pork chops and the fish was fresh and tender. The dine-in lunch special includes an egg roll, a bit of salad with a sweet dressing, fried or steamed rice and Hot & Sour or Egg Drop soup. We got the hot and sour both times. It's good, but definitely not spicy. The only hot sauce they offer is red chili sambal. It's pretty good but on our second visit we brought our own sriracha. We joined their frequent customer club (it's free). Our experiences this week were good enough that we know we'll definitely be back and earn points for future meals that will give us freebies. read more

We love Chinese very much because they use fresh ingredients to make the dishes unique with flavors and spices making Chinese cuisine popular with everybody who enjoy it. I took my wife for lunch to the Golden China restaurant in South Pasadena this restaurant have been in the same location for many years. They have lunch special that everybody comes for their lunch deal. We have been here before but it's been a long time I haven't been there. We step in we were surprise it pack but the host found a table. Then the host hand us the menu then we look at their lunch deal. My wife order the cashew chicken and I order the chicken chop suey it comes with rice with salad and a egg roll and soup. We try the soup it was really good and rice with salad and egg roll. The salad was good but more vegetables or color to the salad and also need more dressing. The waiter brought our meal my chicken chop suey look good I took a bite it was good but I notice every Chinese restaurants have their own version of Chop suey. My wife enjoy her cashew chicken great flavors she say. The staff are very friendly. read more

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Had an amazing meal here! The grilled shrimp were perfectly cooked -- juicy, flavorful, and beautifully seasoned. The beef was tender and rich in taste, with just the right balance of sauce and heat. Simple dishes done really well. Definitely coming back for these two again! read more

Golden China Restaurant - 2 Shrimp Toast (3-4Person) 2 3-4 - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

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Tried house special beef and it was battered and fried, which is not how it is described and the sauce was cloyingly sweet and inedible. They offered to replace it and suggested Kung pow chicken which we accepted. I took one bite and the chicken had that unmistakable raw chicken taste. I cut a few pieces open and pulled them apart could clearly see it was pink and undercooked. I showed the owner/manager lady and she said no it's cooked because everything is pre-cooked there. Yuk! We just left everything and paid and left. No compensation offered. Oh, and the bowl of rice they brought out was hard and cold too. Look around a little and you can see how dirty the walls are, under table, the tea kettle and everything, even behind the cashier. Would hate to see what the kitchen looks like. EAT HERE AT YOUR OWN RISK! read more

Golden China Restaurant - Pink raw chicken - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

Ordered lunch takeout. Fried pork chop was not too fatty and excellent, Mongolian beef very tender and flavorful. House special chow fun was also very good - not salty or greasy like a lot of places. These are 3 of my bellwether Cantonese restaurant dishes and they were all excellent. For $5 more I would get the full dinner portion. Also, they don't jack up menu prices for delivery apps like UberEats. That's another a plus. read more

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My food was fine, nothing was bad but nothing was amazing either. However, their customer service was very unwelcoming. I refuse to support a business that doesn't value my money. I will not be returning. read more

We had family visiting town from Hawaii and our goal was to take them to try a different cuisine each day. They absolutely loved Golden China as much as we do! We typically order takeout from Golden China, so this was our first time dining in the restaurant for dinner. Service was great and each item we ordered was delicious. Thank you, can't wait to dine in again! read more

This plaza is sorta having a renaissance as many shops have closed/left/been replaced...gone are Round Table Pizza (now Urban Pet) Penguins Frozen Yogurt (now Silverlake Ramen), Vons (now Trader Joes), Baja Fresh (now Ono Hawaiian BBQ), Grassroots Natural Market (now a a catering place). Golden China has remained for some reason and it has taken us over 10 years to finally try it out. Decided to do one of their "Gourmet Dinner B" for take-out. It was very easy placing and scheduling the order on their website, I must say. The amount of food left a little to be desired unfortunately...it may be better to get their regular a la carte items? However, it was tasty, nicely packaged and ready at the appointed time which was perfect. I can see how this spot is a local favorite and perhaps that's why it was one of the few businesses to stay. Service was nice and I was acknowledged as soon as I stepped in. Plenty of parking in their shared lot but could get busy during peak times as there is a Trader Joes and other stores. Hope to be back soon to try other items! read more

Went as a family and the food was disappointing. We got 6 different dishes to share. Fried breaded shrimp tasted like undercooked dough. Food was oily & in general not appetizing. Wanted to like it but not possible. read more

Wendy was so friendly, helpful and kind. This is a nice Chinese restaurant with fresh vegetables and delicious food . We got the hot and sour soup , get the large size .. it worth it read more

This was my 2nd and last time at Golden China. My first visit was about a year ago. Food was decent, service was good. Returned today with a couple of friends. I didn't love the food I ordered but that wasn't the biggest issue. After we 3 agreed to have one of our group pay the tab (and the other 2 would Zelle her). When we were gathering our belongings an older man approached our table and loudly asked if our server did something wrong since "you only left $2 for tip!" Then our server walked up behind him yelling "WHAT DID I DO WRONG? Why $2??!!" There were other patrons in the restaurant and we were mortified / embarrassed. The restaurant became awkwardly silent (there were 3 other tables with patrons). It was an honest mistake. Not one of us would ever intentionally leave such a microscopic tip. Again, it was a genuine and honest mistake. We were more than happy to fix the amount and when the older gentleman (presumably the owner) returned to our table I told him that we didn't take issue with his asking about the service but it was unacceptable for him to shame us with his loud approach. His response was "well he's new and I need to make sure he is doing right or I'll get rid of him". Needless to say, I won't return to patronize a business with such displayed classlessness towards paying customers and his own staff. I'm so sad this happened. read more

Food is always good and within standard. Service was great, the restaurant is clean and roomy.

Friendly service and great tasting food. What more can you ask for! Been coming here for years and food quality has always been great. And service has always been A1 read more

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Still the best for dimsum in china town. Since my wife and I are retired we hardly cook from scratch and buy to go at least once a week alternating with Jade Wok. read more

Served raw chicken to my pregnant wife. Not worth the price paid to worry about getting sick. read more

Golden China Restaurant - Raw Chicken - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

The food was just yucky. The chicken broccoli had so much corn starch slurry that it was just... slimy. We got fried rice and it smelled so foul that we left it completely untouched. read more

why is the fish filet so spicy! nowhere on the uber eat menu stated that this dish is spicy beyond edible. it is a complete waste of money and i hate throwing away perfectly good food because you assume that everyone can tolerate spicy food. do better, please update your menu to give warning for anything spicy or remove these items because there is no reason a perfectly good dish need to be so unbearbly spicy. read more

So I actually came here because I needed to drop off a package at UPS next-door and I saw their lunch special sign and was intrigued. We were seated right away and ended up getting the tofu and eggplant and the Kung pao beef lunch specials. Both were quite delicious. Both lunch specials came with soup (your choice of hot and sour or egg drop soup), egg roll, rice (steam or fried) and salad. Honestly, the egg roll was surprisingly good. I'm usually not a huge fan of Chinese egg rolls because to me they're quite flavorless, but theirs was good even without sauce! I'll be coming back when I crave something from their lunch special. Huge parking lot shared with the new Trader Joe's. read more

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Food is great but service is horrible. I came to pick up my order and no one approached me. Only 1 table of customers in restaurant. There were 2 waiters, both made no eye contact with me til maybe 3-4 minutes later. Finally I told them I'm here to pick up and he said you just wait. And he continued to talk to his colleague about KC football score in Chinese. I guess he thought I wouldn't understand. Where I work customer service is very important and to acknowledge people who come in instead of ignoring them. Like I said food is great but service needs to be improved. I give the food 4 stars read more

Customer service here is horrible . The Asian lady at the door was so rude , I asked questions about the menu and she just started yelling , no can't do instead of letting me finish my sentence . This job is so easy all you have to do is put a smile on your face and have some manners . Your job is to welcome people and make the experience pleasant . My wife and I walked out instead . Please do not come to this place . I do not recommend this place . Specially when they make you feel like they are doing you a favor ". Close and leave Pasadena and don't ever come back " read more

Standard Cantonese style food. Friendly fast service. Ordered Three Flavor Chow Mein and Shrimp Chow Fun without vegetables. Slightly on the oily side, good sized portion. Nice ambience with lots of plaza parking spots. Lunch specials 11:00 am - 3:00 pm that we just missed. I just wanted to try it out as a noodle place next time we pass by. read more

Over the years, very welcoming customers service, while the menu dishes the same (good) change in the prices goes up, Still a go to Chinese restaurant. My preference cashew Chicken. Do the Lunch Menu(better deal). Also, sign up for the discount rewards, save some money. read more

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Ordered kung pao chicken and mongolian beef lunch specials. They were extremely tender but tasted like ammonia. Maybe too much baking soda and not rinsing off properly or it's spoiled meat. Barely ate the food and paid the whole bill. Chef seemed upset and tried to approach us but the host stopped him. Wife is pregnant so I wasn't going to risk it. read more

Been coming here for 30 years. Was here for dinner on Sunday. The orange chicken was not the same. It was actually red and very gooey. Normally it's orange and with a slight crunch. We also had the kung pao chicken, a common order for us and the chicken was in very tiny pieces and was rubbery. We have never have experienced such disappointment before. I've told my family who have also been coming here for 30 years. We've always ordered those 2 dishes. It's very sad that the recipes have changed. It's not the same anymore. read more

DISGUSTING ! do not eat here! awful ! and waitress is so rude! stay away from this place! pictured is their so called " salad" the food was S H I T ! read more

Golden China Restaurant - this was their so called salad! complete BS - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

Their food is authentic and offering great value! The owner and workers are very friendly. read more

Golden China Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

Today since I was in the area, I decided to eat lunch at this restaurant. I had not been here for many years. To my surprise, the customer service is outstanding, very attentive and that's a plus for me. They are very generous with the amount of food. The dishes that I chose are the ones posted. Their gourmet wonton is delicious you must try! They have a large lunch special on their menu and I tell you, enough for 2. Definitely returning soon! Thank you! read more

Golden China Restaurant - Cream cheese rangoons, gourmet wonton soup and Mongolian beef - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

This is my 4th time here. Never disappointed with the food. Definitely our new Chinese food spot. read more

Golden China Restaurant - Curry beef, yummy - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

Very mediocre Chinese food. It seems like the cook did not try very hard at all. Rice was horrible, vegetables didn't taste that good and the sesame beef and orange chicken that we ordered were very chewy and substandard. Paid $92+ to feed five people. Not coming here again. I gave one star more than one because the man who took our order was very nice, so I feel a little bit bad giving this negative review, but the food really was that unsatisfying. Please hire at a decent cook who cares about their craft enough not to feed customers what seemed like sloppy leftovers. read more

Witnessed a manager or owner yell at a group at a group of 3 because the tip was too "low". Incredibly humiliating for those guest who were calm and kind as they were being ridiculed. The fact that they even tipped should be enough gratitude. Absolutely disgusting and will never come back again Edit: to the owner who responded with no integrity or class, You're better off spending time fixing the poor ethics in your restaurant than deflecting and calling every review that calls you guys out a "fake review". It's absolutely disgusting to see no accountability on your end. Never eat at this nasty place read more

Came here with big group of co-workers, This place has great choice of fresh tasting Chinese food and service is super fast and polite. And the ambiance was clean read more

Golden China Restaurant - All fresh - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

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I recently ordered some takeout and I was so disappointed. The quality wasn't the same at all, I've been coming here for years upon years since I was a child with my family and throughout the years there has been a few inconsistencies for sure but this last time made it so I don't know if I would return. First off starting with the egg rolls ! I used to love the egg rolls soooo much and I was surprised to bite into it and it have those noodles inside that you can get from the frozen area they were never like that before. The fried rice was bland little flavor. The sweet and sour chicken was weird skinny thin fried pieces and the pepper steak was chewy and the sauce was thick like jelly. I'm not sure if there's new owners or if something has changed in the kitchen but this isn't the same quality or taste we used to once love! read more

CUSTOMER NOTICE: EXPECT LONG WAIT TIMES (2+ Hours) NEW YEAR'S DAY. This is not a review to bash the restaurant. This review is simply to warn customers that the wait time WILL BE LONG on the holiday. I ordered on Christmas Day at 6:02pm, I was told it would be a one hour wait (and I was cool with that), and my order was still not ready at 8:41pm. The reason for the one star is because I texted the manager asking to warn customers of the long wait for New Years but I was called a liar and they took NO responsibility for the extended wait times on Christmas. I only got excuses, denial of my experience, and I was told I should be happy they were open. I literally had to send a screenshot with the proof of my wait time with the timestamps. And the manager STILL did not care. The manager that I was communicating with did a horrible job of receiving my feedback and try to improve their service. I DO NOT like wasting my time writing bad reviews, but this experience was bad enough to warrant my time. This horrible interaction with the manager is the ONLY reason for this message. I created this post so you and your family don't have the same experience we did. I would have accepted the 2+ hour wait times IF I WAS TOLD THIS UPFRONT (hence this post). But when you are told 1 hour wait and it goes over 2, you expect something to be done. Not to be called a liar and go back and forth having to justify your bad experience. Looking at the recent posts, I completely expect an attack back from the contact at this restaurant so, if needed, I will be happy to screenshot and post the ENTIRE conversation we had so EVERYONE can see what type of service you get here. If you would like good recommendations for alternative Chinese restaurants, I would try Bamboo Garden on Valley (4 stars) and Yang Chow in downtown and Pasadena (4 stars). I don't know if they are open on the holiday but they are great alternatives. read more

Golden China Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - South Pasadena, California

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The food was amazing. The service was great . my mom is 101 and she enjoyed the shrimp vegetables . my sister is a vegan and they had food for her too. She was so happy and that was amazing too. read more