Wow, that was...all right!

Saturday Mr. Pie and I needed a Chinese fix before heading to Muvico. Entertainment Book in hand, I looked for a coupon for a place nearby. There are virtually no Chinese restaurants in this book, but there are two in Harwood Heights, Sun Eng's and Golden River. Tainted by reports in the 80s from my grandmother that the place stank and/or had lousy food, we decided on Golden River.

The lighting is the same as the unflattering, slightly greenish kind they have in ladies' dressing rooms, the ambience is nil, they have photos of the food lining the windows, and there was a TV with a terrible picture to entertain us. The quietest, most unfriendly host/waiter/busser at the front counter rather snottily announced that they no longer accepted the Entertainment Book coupons. This youth liked to catch a bit of the Bulls anniversary thing before serving us, all the while stomping around like a clydesdale, tossing packets of soy sauce and mustard in our direction. I did not have high hopes.

The food, if you're in the mood for Chinese-American standards in shiny sauces, is pretty tasty. The egg rolls (still no Lin's) were crunchy and loaded with pork and wee shrimp. Though the Beef with Vegetables was blanketed in too much sauce, the beef was full of flavor and tender and the veggies were perfectly cooked and still a bit crisp. After shaking my leftovers free from the excess sauce, I packed them up and ate them for lunch on Monday - still good, even after microwaving.

Golden River
4622 N Harlem Ave
Harwood Heights, IL 60706

I never got why people prejudge the quality of food by the quality of the ambiance or service.

If "ambiance" didn't have an effect
on the overall enjoyment of a place,
why would any restaurant ever bother
with decor or even servers? In my
experience, care put into service and
at least a modicum of style, often indicates
that care will also be put into preparing
the food.

I agree with your first point, but the quality or the food and the quality of the overall experience are different. Which restaurant would give you a better experience: a restaurant with no ambiance or service but great food, or a restaurant with loads of ambiance and service but terrible food?

From the OP's own admission, his experience was positive even though the place lacked any type of decor and had terrible service. I guess my point is basically don't judge a book by its cover.

I do know plenty of dives that have great food, and upon walking in, I didn't automatically think the food would be terrible. The late lamented Lin's had some funky 70s decor and and even funkier carpet, but I can still taste those egg rolls and miss them greatly. Gene & Jude's is nothing to look at but the dogs are very good. However, more often than not, when I get crappy service in a dive, the food is either terrible or bad enough not to return. And come on, packets of sauce in a Chinese restaurant? Would it kill them to put out a bottle of soy sauce?

chuckywang wrote:a restaurant with no ambiance or service but great food, or a restaurant with loads of ambiance and service but terrible food?

Nice try at a strawman, but I think the real test
is between decent food with good service/decor
versus decent food with crappy service/decor.
Why settle for crappy? And BTW totally ignoring
the cover of a book when it's giving you useful
information is also wrong-headed when trying
to make a sound judgement.

SCUBAchef wrote:

chuckywang wrote:a restaurant with no ambiance or service but great food, or a restaurant with loads of ambiance and service but terrible food?

Nice try at a strawman, but I think the real test
is between decent food with good service/decor
versus decent food with crappy service/decor.
Why settle for crappy? And BTW totally ignoring
the cover of a book when it's giving you useful
information is also wrong-headed when trying
to make a sound judgement.

My comparison was just trying to ascertain which aspect of a restaurant is most important: the decor, service, or food. Often times, the hole in the wall type places don't have the resources and money to "dress up" their restaurant or hire the best help. Service, especially, depends on the personality of the person and is highly YMMV. These restaurants need to make tough financial decisions on what to invest in: should they add decor, hire better service, or source better ingredients? I, for one, hope they all choose the latter. I simply ask people to keep this in mind before judging a dive.

As for your question "why settle for crappy?" Because they have good food, dammit!

i don't think people mind adjusting standards for "hole in the wall" as a category. For me, those standards equate to:

good decor = clean looking and smelling (although allowing for smelling of funk if cuisine so requires )
good service = not rude and allowing for differences in custom such as not bringing checks, occasional gaffes due to language barriers, etc.)

having said that, if the food is great, much may be forgiven. If the food is good or less, decor and service issues will likely influence the experience up or down.

That sounds about right.

Golden River is a take-out/delivery place that happens to have a few tables. They really are not a restaurant.

I think that qualifies as a restaurant. Chong's in Norridge had no tables; that's not really a restaurant. Is that place still there? It was in an L-shaped strip mall on Lawrence, tucked away in the corner, near an auto parts place.

Pie Lady wrote:I think that qualifies as a restaurant. Chong's in Norridge had no tables; that's not really a restaurant. Is that place still there? It was in an L-shaped strip mall on Lawrence, tucked away in the corner, near an auto parts place.

Sorry, that's one I never tried. Golden River was my go to place until the new owners took over. It was then I discovered Happy Garden through a post by the owner on this board. Really haven't tried anything else in the area in at least 5 years. But I would rate Happy Garden the same way. They have some tables, but I'd never consider actually trying to eat there.

Happy Garden
(773) 625-1852
7710 W Belmont Ave
Chicago, IL 60634

midas wrote:Golden River is a take-out/delivery place that happens to have a few tables. They really are not a restaurant.

Pie Lady wrote:I think that qualifies as a restaurant. Chong's in Norridge had no tables; that's not really a restaurant.

How many is "a few"?

Many take-out places have a handful of tables meant to give customers a place to sit and maybe drink some tea while they're waiting for carryout. You can eat there in a pinch, but you shouldn't really expect anything at all in the way of service. The fact that this spot only had soy sauce in packets seems like a hint.

I think they have 4 tables that seat 4 and 2 or 3 2 toppers along the wall. But they only have 1 front person working there. There is no wait staff. Just a person that works the register and answers the phones. I ate there once and it was just a very uncomfortable feeling.

I think that's about right - I'd say about 20 seats.