| My first experience with the Golden Inn was at one o’clock in the morning during a frigid February, and I always associate the restaurant with winter.
Maybe it’s the steamy windows, or the motley, snow-covered clientele of all persuasions, or the extra chair at the table piled with dripping coats, or the heaped plates of chow fun emerging from the kitchen, but the Golden Inn (107A - 2 Ave. S.E., phone 269-2211) speaks, and is, warmth – both the clientele and the food.
That said, it’s about the furthest thing from fancy you can get. It’s a long, narrow room with bright fluorescent lights and a tank of lazy crustaceans at the front. The servers are brisk and often wordless, and are dressed in a uniform of black trousers and white shirts. If anything, the Golden Inn reminds me of Schwartz’s Delicatessen on Montreal’s St. Laurent Street – the waiters have seen everything, know everything about the menu and can be impatient with neophytes. But if you arrive and order with confidence, no problemo.
It appears as though the Golden Inn’s brief flirtation with lunch has stopped (it’s open from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. most nights), but this is OK because most of its trade comes at night, especially after the bars are winding down and pints of beer whet the appetite for Chinese food. The place is absolutely crammed late on Friday nights, but if you only go then, you do the Golden Inn a disservice – a recent weeknight visit for dinner left us impressed.
The chow fun noodles with black beans and beef ($7.50) were excellent. The noodles were fresh, tender and not greasy, and the black bean and beef had some added heat at our request, something I’d definitely ask for again in the future, as the peppery hot sauce made what would otherwise have seemed an extremely rich dish lighter.
The salt and pepper squid ($11.95) were hot and crisp without being gummy and rubbery – and the portion was generous.
The piece de résistance for the evening was a crab steamed in the wok with ginger and green onion ($25.75) – we watched the waiter go and grab it from the tank and whisk it to the kitchen, then a few minutes later, there it was on the table. The crab was well done and what we expected, although it was a bit of a hassle to eat and we ultimately gave up – this was probably due to a lack of dexterity on our part, and we could certainly have asked the kitchen to cut it up, which we will do next time.
The only disappointing part of the dinner was the barbecued pork appetizer ($6.95), which wasn’t as fresh and recently roasted as I’d have liked. (The best is at the Shun Fat International Supermarket in Forest Lawn.)
The Golden Inn seems to have been around forever, although I understand it’s only 30 years old or so, and it hasn’t really changed at all since I first went there 15 years ago or so. If you arrive late on a frosty night, a few beers to the good, there’s not much better than some sizzling rice or a bowl of hot and sour soup.
WINNING CHEF
Kudos to Neil McCue, one of the chefs at Catch, who recently won awards at the International Shellfish Festival in Prince Edward Island in the best appetizer and best desserts category. The appetizer is a large mouthful – ceviche scallop with Japanese togarashi spice and lime juice served with an oyster beignet and curried crab and avocado salad. Good Lord, that sounds good. And he won a $10,000 first prize. Guess who’s buying the Catch kitchen drinks for the foreseeable future? |
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