Golden Bowl

UPDATE. I’ve been giving them a try and been eating their ginger chicken, chinese chicken salad and sweet n sour spareribs. BUT, this is unacceptable. I recently ordered Chicken Eggplant and midway of eating the plate, I come across a dead roach. Not just a small roach, but a BIG one. And it looked like it was marinated with the sauce. For sure Department of Health will give them a red flag if they don’t shape up. I’m no longer going to eat there again. I would rather drink soda then eat there food.

Closing along with all the restaurants at the Tardus building to be replaced by a Buddhist temple, Golden Bowl is one of the 3 last restaurants to be open today so I decided to buy their food for one last time. I usually buy the same items, stir fried eggplant and pinakbet, and since I regularly eat there even after reading the review of someone finding bugs in her soup, I always try places even if I read other’s ratings just to see for myself, and I never did see any roaches in my food or crawling around the place, so I never updated my rating… until today.
I ordered the two choice, stir fried eggplant and pinakbet with cake noodle for $ 6.50. The food itself is very tasty, and one of the better places that serves tasty and crunchy cake noodles, but if they could be more careful with not letting roaches into their food, I think they would be a 4 star.
I usually haven’t seen any roaches or bugs around the area or in my food until coincidentally, when I was telling my friends about being on Unilocal and reviewing and rating restaurants on Unilocal,I happened to mention about someone writing about roaches in their food at Golden Bowl, but I have not yet seen any, and sure enough, after I ate halfway through the pinakbet, my friend pointed at the sauce and asked, «what is that?» A fully grown dead roach was floating in my sauce. I was totally grossed out and couldn’t eat after that.
The service is a 4 star because the woman is always really nice when serving, and when I took my plate to show them the roach, they asked if I wanted another plate, or what I wanted, and since I said I don’t think I can eat after that, they reimbursed me the $ 6.50. My friend then mentioned I should have taken a picture of the roach in my food, but it was too late, so no picture to gross you all out.
I am so sad that all the restaurants have to leave the Tardus building because that took away a choice of 10+ restaurants in downtown, but I’m also sadder that I had to find a roach in my pinakbet as a parting gift from Golden Bowl, and couldn’t enjoy my food on their last day.
Now off to stomach the «roach coaches» at eat the street tonight!

With long lines everywhere else that day, I paused at the threshold of Golden Bowl.
The owners, an older man and woman, were welcoming. So, I stopped in for a look at the steam table. The golden hues of the kabocha in the pinatbet dish and the jewel-​tones in the steamed choi sum dish caught my eye. Good thing I didn’t read the review before this because I’m absolutely squeamish about bugs in my food. So, with no bugs in sight, no preview of a review to turn me away, and no wait, I walked in and eagerly ordered with my eyes.
I had two choices with fried rice at $ 6.50 with tax inclusive. The pinatbet was definitely my favorite of the combo. It was fresh, with lean boneless skinless chicken, not oily and not overly seasoned with fish sauce. The green beans were not limp and the kabocha was firm and not mushy. The choi was not the best I ever sampled, it was okay and look freshly made. The fried rice was tasty, rightly seasoned, but a tad mushy.
If they have had bugs in the past, I hope they’ve delt with it since then. I’ll give it another go and let you know if I see anything moving next time.
I’ve had food from Li & Li as well, but think Golden Bowl is a little better. Good thing the owners are very friendly or I would have walked on by to the next food stall.

UGH! I don’t know if this place is closed down, but it needs to be. I usually eat at other (much better tasting and friendly) establishments nearby, but like to try new things so I gave it a go. I ordered the duck noodle soup. They seemed nice enough, so I took my cup and left to eat outside. I’m munching along, not bad, I didn’t like the fact the meat was still on the bone, but it was passable. Until the bugs. Yes, plural. I saw the first one, a red one. When I saw it, I still wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and thought, «perhaps it flew in». Umm, no.
I didn’t eat any more, but I stirred it around to see if I was being too Polyanna-​optimistic. I was. There were other, smaller bugs in the soup. I began to wonder if he just poured mop water in the «soup»! I was too far, too disgusted and too tired to go back and complain, though I should have.
Whatever you do, unless you’re like that freak Andrew Zimmern on «Bizzare Foods» and you like dead insects in your meals, STAY AWAY from the Golden Bowl!