Restaurant Review: Golden Eagle

Independent thinkers find this hard to acknowledge, but when you see crowds of people standing outside an eatery or waiting in lines inside of a restaurant, more often than not the food they’re hanging around for is worth eating.

Whether it’s worth the wait is a separate question. In most cases, though, the crowds know something. Golden Eagle Restaurant, a Chinese cuisine, is a wonderland, and its lunch special ($5.50 to $5.85 for a platter large enough for a family of 4) is such an amazing bargain that I am afraid that simply mentioning it may spook the owners into charging more than six dollars for each dish.

One big suggestion before entering this restaurant is to go on an empty stomach because the serving sizes are so huge that you’d be full before you can get to the main course, let alone dessert.

A mandatory start to your meal is the classic wonton soup ($1.65). However, the generous serving of this soup is anything but ordinary. It’s infused with garlic bean oil and sweet and sour paste, which gives the soup a rich, funky flavor. Dunk some of the bread and crackers, which comes with the order, for a tasty twist. This means you can fuel up on comfort yet appetizing food with a minimal ding to your wallet.

Other starters that taste just as well include the shrimp egg roll ($1.50), sesame cold noodle ($4.50), and roast pork yaka mein ($4.95).

The best vegetarian options, the vegetarian roll ($1.30) and vegetable soup ($2.50), are a vibrant beet mixture that pairs well with the provided Chinese cookies and sesame sauce.

With that said, let’s move on to the mains.

Throbbing with garlic and sweet soy, lake tong-ting shrimp ($11.25) make lip-smacking finger food. As good as these fatty, meaty shrimps are, their richness makes it nearly impossible to finish a plate alone. Make your tablemates and cardiologist happy. Share.

All the dishes start conceptual here, but a few ought to stay that way. Four Season ($10.95), a seemingly clever repackaging of the classic fried aubergine, slips melted eggplants into fried tofu envelopes. The result is way too much of a good thing. Even the zesty tahini sauce can’t hold back the waves of grease that leech from these pockets.

Another work in progress is the Hawaii Five ($11.25). Using monkfish liver, a textural doppelganger, the dish is a gorgeous illusion that fades at first bite. From a kitchen brimming with unrestrained flavor, this dish was noticeably mute. A terrifically fresh, astringent side slaw of radish and carrot only underscores the dullness of the main course.

And then there was the beef chop suey ($6.85): nicely cooked to be sure, but so strange set on pedestals of oily pickled spaghetti squash. But the dish still tasted great, and it’s definitely worth trying.

The restaurant’s signature dish, the “Seafood Delight” ($11.25), kicks standard seafood to the curb with a hint of red pepper shoots. The heaping rice bowl is topped with delicate slices of lobster meat, jumbo shrimp, crab meat, scallops, and salmon, and is finished with a black bean and hot lobster “crack sauce.”

However, don’t bother with the two dessert offerings—rice jelly and water chestnut cake ($3 each). Although the names sound good, both were subpar, and of course, not included in the menu but available upon request.

Then again, Golden Eagle can be as sweet as a small cafe or as loud as the Bear Flag Revolt, depending upon when you’re there. Personally I prefer eating during 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. when peak hours have passed.

Service was prompt and efficient, and—according to the folks who run the place—business on the weekends has been solid. That’s good news for diners looking for another spot they can enjoy some of their home-cooked favorites, all while keeping their entertainment dollars local.

But for the most part, I love the way Li Zhang, the chef, brings out the whispering harmonies that result when one small wave of flavor laps against another.

He finds those harmonies in the way lightly charred blocks of barbecue tofu come together with buttery roast pork and layers of fresh eggplants ($11.25). And again in the bowl of shrimp rolls layered over chow mein ($6.85), which becomes a steaming meal as you add boiled teriyaki sauce on top. And again in the gently sweet and seductive stew of subgum wonton ($10.95) in Chinese vegetables and sesame chicken.

This kitchen sink of sweetness is, like the lake tong-ting shrimp, a challenge to tackle solo, but sure fun trying.