Golden Island Restaurant — Restaurant in Salt Spring Island Electoral Area

I haven’t had Chinese food this good since the 70’s especially from delivery. I run a resort on Saltspring, so I hear from all the guests what’s good and what’s NOT. Delivery is the WORST option ever, pay double for yesterdays food. DISGUSTING 🤮 100% of the time especially on Islands, you don’t have to be good you just have to be there. I ordered Jipway chow mein, chicken balls and deep fried shrimp. The chicken was FRESH moist and tender, the prawns/shrimp were the same cooked perfectly NOT oozing too much OLD oil, the vegetables, meat (for the most part) and the sauce in the chow mein were great not mushy and tasteless. The portion size were AWESOME, it arrived HOT and still crispy! Pretty much a miracle. I don’t give out positive reviews as a rule, if I’m going to spend time it’s to warn people. If I had any criticism it would be the sweet n sour sauce, not great, mostly sweet no sour basically an easy fix. I was told I should have ordered the crispy noodles with the chow mein definitely...

Having grown up in Richmond and comparing most of the Chinese food I have had in my life to what I ate in Vancouver's Chinatown and in the plethora of restaurants in Richmond I was blown away by the quality and flavor of Golden Island. Though perhaps leaning more towards the North American style Chinese food of small towns across Canada and this US this gem was exceptional in the flavour and the overall quality of their food. The sweet and sour had a tang to it without being icky sweet, with more of a natural/traditional colour to it rather the day glow orange you would normally expect, the ginger beef was crispy yet tender, the fried rice was light in in texture but full of flavor... but most of all nothing even the deep fried menu items were greasy.

The next time we are on Salt Spring we will be making a return trip... actually we may make the return trip just to come back to...

I think white spots serves better Chinese food than this restaurant. I am shocked by how unauthentic the Chinese food tastes at Golden Island Restaurant. The fried rice must be pretossed god knows how long ago because the egg and rice tastes way over cooked (like the way food that has been refried too many times would taste). It’s not a great idea to not freshly mix in your eggs for real Chinese food. Other dishes were either too oily, too salty, or too sweet for Chinese food. If you have ever had real Chinese food in your life don’t come to this place. You will be disappointed.

I would suggest for the owner to go to metro Vancouver to try different authentic Chinese restaurants to improve the cooking at his or her restaurant. Just because there’s no competition around doesn’t mean one should be complacent with serving...