Wong's Golden Palace — Restaurant in La Mesa

The oldest single owned Chinese restaurant in San Diego. Sorry Peking, that’s the oldest Family owned and they closed for a few years since 1931 anyhow, a star for that alone. I’m a bit of a sucker for history and nostalgia, but Stanley the only and original owner still works here. He’s in his 90’s people, star for that too.

It’s not much to see with fading and old décor both inside and out and a parking lot that can not handle near max occupancy for either the bar or the restaurant, but they probably got grandfathered into some kind of exemption on that. I’m sure it once had charm, but it must be buried under dust, I mean come on they didn’t even have music playing, it was dead silent and we could hear every conversation from every other patron, with ease. There is a strong sense of community as many people have been coming here for decades, along with the local school kids art projects for the Year of the Rooster hung on the ceiling. Tall leather booths, a display case of trinkets and ceramics for purchase separate the bar and the restaurants (along with some stairs).

The menu is pretty big, separated into proteins and combination meals, but with lack of descriptions you’ll be asking for clarification on many things. They go heavy on the garlic, but warn which items are by default spicy. Communicating less/more can be difficult. I was surprised they had an American menu of jalapeno poppers, hamburgers, non salt&pepper wings, none of which looked particularly appetizing. My chicken was for sure overcooked, tasted more like overdone pork chop pieces, quite square and tough, breaded, fried. I liked how the sauce was placed on the bottom and you could sauce to your liking, but frankly when I reheated it later it for sure did not taste like chicken. Fried rice was bland and dry, the egg drop soup was very good, light, but balanced. Egg roll was hefty, but all cabbage and oil, not sure how hot mustard and ketchup go with things, but we liked the cream cheese wontons. The mini flame pot for charring the skewers was a nice touch, great flavor and tender, that char for sure helped bring it over the top. Love the wonton chips. Wanting to try and few items the dinner special seemed like a great idea, but when the times showed up 10 minutes apart we quickly realized why the other table had so many left overs. I’m sure there are items worth getting a la cart, but I don’t really think that the dinner special is worth it.

I’m intrigued to come and check out the bar side as this supposed special makes me think of the Nutcrackers I’ve had back in NYC. They are heavy on the tiki drinks made popular in the 80’s like the scorpions, shared bowls slings that have made a resurgence. I’m curious since the bar gets more traffic, but San Diego has stepped it’s cocktail game up and most places got left behind, so could a place with this much history have kept up?

On a closing note my favorite Chinese food is still in TJ, but there was a bit of a revolution in the 80’s with the creation of XO sauce and anyone that hasn’t picked up on that can’t be on the same level as the top places. A place...

TERRIBLE FOOD. These other people leaving positive reviews must not have the slightest clue what decent Chinese food is or someone bribed them to leave 5 stars. I eat Chinese/Lao/Thai/Cambodian/Vietnamese food pretty much even day and can cook many dishes myself. So for me, this place was a hugh disappointment. This was actually the second time I've been here. First time was pretty bad also, but I figured I would give it another shot. Trick me twice, shame on me, right? Not completely my fault as it was my gfs choice. So this time I had the coupon and tried a bunch of things. From watery egg drop soup to the brown but bland fried rice, to the dirty/stained silverware and dishes. Legitimately the rice or soup had no flavor what so ever. Other than being slightly brown color, there was no indication that it was actually a "fried" rice dish. Everything was pretty bad. The Sze Chuan Beef was actually squishy. I'm guessing they marinated it baking soda WAY too long. This is common practice at cheap Chinese places. The Kung Pao chicken had big chunks of dry chicken breast (1"+chunks) that tasted like it was cooked separately from the rest of the dish. Weird when the sauce and vegetables are hot but the chicken in the dish itself is barely warm. I think the two dishes actually had the same sauce, if not it was very close. Egg rolls were decent. Typical vegetable filled Chinese ones except much larger. Fried shrimp looked huge but were more that 80% (or more. Think cheap orange chicken) batter. Skewered meat was OK (I think it was pork) but did taste kind of old and way too sweet (everything we ordered was quite sweet). Not sure why they bring out the little grill thing for you to cook them on when they are already fully cooked. Looked kind of cool at least. All and all this place sucks. Food quality is the same as $0.99 take out. I should have known when it's 5pm and there is only one other table with people at it. The service was actually pretty good though. I guess when the place is empty it should be hahah. Do yourself a favor and go...

Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. Walking in on a Sunday afternoon finding the place nearly empty should have given us a clue. We decided to give it a chance. The bar attached must keep their attention divided.

The food is not fresh and the sauce obviously comes from a can - very thick and gooey no matter the dish. I decided Kung Pao chicken is pretty universal and one cannot mess it up too badly. I was wrong. I took one bite expecting the spice I'm all too familiar with to explode in my mouth. I waited...and then waited. Nope. Nothing there. It was as mildly bland as you could get. I'm not certain I could even rate it a one on the scale of blandness. I asked the waitress to please take it back and go ahead and give me the full spice - don't be gentle with me. When the second dish came back, I tasted it expecting something...anything more than before. Nope. Not a chance. It tasted like the first. I was suspect they were just giving me my plate back. Thinking I might redeem the plate by eating the egg roll, I picked it up but realized the grease was oozing onto my fingers. I stopped there. Nope. No way was I going to even put that in my mouth. I didn't take another bite of anything on the plate.

My son, bless his heart, decided to give the waitress some advice about their food. He was gentle and kind letting her know it wasn't her fault but if they just used any kind of fresh ingredients they probably would have more people in and would make some money.

The waitress was kind enough not at all rude and tried to be as helpful as her boss would probably allow. However, we were given the entire bill with no discount even though I left them the full plate. No one finished their plates. How do you mess up rice?

Don't go there. Unless they make drastic changes...just don't go. Of course I guess if you drink at their bar next door to the point of being inebriated, you may not care what the food tastes like.

This is the very first time in my 56 years I've ever posted a review. Take that for...