[REVIEW] Golden Palace, Flushing, NY

Be Careful What You Wish For

Our Quest to find THE Best Chinese restaurant on all of Long Island (and New York City), was a Quest to find THE most authentic Chinese food we could find.  Well, we found the MOST authentic AUTHENTIC Chinese restaurant so far on our Quest!  And one must be careful what one wishes, or Quests, for.  We were strangers in a very strange land.  Virtually no one in the restaurant spoke English.  In fact, the only person that we could find that spoke English well was a very nice gentleman from China who had been in New York all of TWO days!!  Lawrence even helped us pick out one of the dishes that we tried.  There was a lot of pointing at pictures, and trust that the waiter could understand what it was that we asked for.

Our Quest this evening took us back to Flushing, NY, to a Chinese restaurant called “Golden Palace Restaurant” at 140-09 Cherry Avenue.  From the outside it looked like a disco.  On the inside it looked like a Chinese restaurant.  No, not the American style Chinese restaurant.  No.  You felt like you were in China.   Though I must say, we weren’t the only non-Asians in the restaurant.  And THAT was a surprise to Mee.  The restaurant was referred by a swimming buddy of Mee Tsu Yan… he’s a young man from China… so he obviously knew what he was talking about.  He recommended a few dishes for us to try.  But, they were either lost in translation, or they were out of it (no Tofu for you!)

I’m totally writing this review before I look at our numerical analytical analysis, so as not to bias my opinion.  Everything obviously is upside down and backwards (and no pun was intended either accidentally or intentionally).

We ordered (we think) the following dishes:

• Whole Prawns with Salt and Pepper – The prawns were completely in their shell… with head and eyes too.  Get past that… un-shell… and the prawn was so-so.
• Baby Chicken with Mushroom (pictured on the right) – kind of like a soup.  We’ve never had anything like this before.  A fire was lit under the dish and it finished cooking while we waited.  Definitely a phot0-worthy dish.  The “soup” was very beefy, and the chicken I felt, a little dry.  Though the other Mee’s did like the mushroom, I chose not to try.
• Dry Sauteed French Beans with Minced Pork – There was a lot of salt in a lot of our dishes.  Rather than mention it with the other dishes, I will just make that blanket statement here.  Though, this was one of my favorite dishes.  I really like the beans.  Great taste!  Yet, crispy.  AND salty!
• Braised Ribs – Didn’t quite look like the picture in the menu… and definitely not a dish that I would have had again.  I do believe they were beef ribs.  But again, salty and kind of a bland.
• Crispy Flounder with Chili Peppers (pictured) – More coriander seeds than Chili Peppers… not over the top spicy.  The fish looked desiccated… But, it wasn’t dry.  It was very crispy on the outside… and the seeds added some wonderful flavor.  The fish itself was quite moist.  Not a lot of meat, per se, on a fish this size.  But, it was good, none the less.
• Shredded Pork with Hot Garlic Sauce – This was cleared out your sinuses nicely.  The pork was very tender.  This was a winner too.
• Noodles with Pork and Pickle – An odd sounding combination… yet, oddly delicious.  I liked this refreshing dish very much.
• Eight Treasury Sticky Rice – I passed on this one.  Mee Yong Joo had some choice words for it, which can’t be repeated here… But, he did eat quite a few portions.  Take that for whatever it might imply.
• White Rice – Nice
• Edamame with Roasted Peanuts in the Shell – Served cold.  The edamame(?) was alright.  The peanuts were quite soggy.

Overall this was an experience.  Not one that we would put high on our list.  But, now we can say we’ve eaten Dongbei style Chinese cuisine.

The tab was quite diner-friendly too.  But, not enough, I would say to score enough Jew Appeal points to give it a higher ranking.  Let’s see below.

There was no desert offered (unless that Edamame and peanut dish was considered dessert — they said it was “on the house”.  And of course, no  fortune cookies.  We didn’t expect one.  We were only surprised that we didn’t have to show our Passports when we left the restaurant.

Here is our rating:

Humbly submitted for your consumption,

—Mee Magnum  (“Chop!  Chop!”)