Go Chi — Restaurant in Malden

First time going there. It was almost closing time, the food was great, freshly prepared, and we had a really nice waiter. He offered some great suggestions and was attentive to us, making sure we liked what we ordered, etc. Four stars? Because when we were settling the bill, we were splitting the bill three ways and two of us paid cash, the other was using a card. When the waiter took the cash and card to the counter and the lady ringing it out looked at it, she started pointing at it us and gesturing so the waiter, still being friendly and nice, comes over and asks if we were going to leave a tip because it wasn't there. Made sense to me. So we assured him that we intended to leave the tip on the credit card as soon as we had the receipt back. He was fine with this and went back and explained it to the woman, who still kept shooting us dirty looks despite what we said. A tip of a little over 20% was added for the waiter (why should he get a bad tip - he was wonderful), we got up to leave and thanked our waiter again for a great meal and his good service. Still, no smiles from this lady, just glowering...okay, she hadn't seen the tip yet but have some faith! We said we were going to leave a tip! I look back and she rushes, I mean rushes, to the table and snatches up the receipt looking for the tip. Jeez, lady! Her behavior soured an otherwise...

Presumably the manager at the front tried his hardest to put us off from eating there. I guess he’s tired of westerners complaining about the dishes. Some of the meat (bullfrog, kidney, duck heads) are maybe a bit wild for American tastes. However, stand your ground and you’ll have a feast of very authentic (I assume having never been to China) Chinese food. The highlight was the Gochi dry tofu pot which was very addictive. Firm tofu stir fried in a spicy paste. The double cooked pork was great too: super crispy, almost tempura light battered pieces of pork in a tangy not overly sweet sauce. The foil packet fish hot pot was fine (I think the tofu crushed it though) some fish cakes, blood cakes and prawns in a spicy broth. We tried a couple of the dumplings, both excellent, looked like they were made on the premises. The cabbage and mushrooms while tasty had maybe a single mushroom but it was fine. Despite the surly man at the door our waitress was very sweet and professional. Can’t wait to go back and I’ll make the owner...

Food Ok, but HORRIBLE Takeout Service. One of the worst if not the worst. Every time when I order a takeout, I’m always told it’d be ready in 30-40mins but it’s never true. I have never ever got my food in less than 50 mins(that’s considered fast for them btw). What pissed me off so much this time is when I called to order a takeout at 5:40pm and was told it’d be ready in 50mins or so. I understand that they get crowded and busy during dinner time and take longer time to prepare but pleaseee enlighten me why it took you guys more than an hour to even start cooking? I got to the restaurant at around 6:30pm and asked if my orders being prepared, no answer. Asked again in 10 mins, no answer. Finally when I got pissed off and said I want to cancel my order if it’s not being made, the server quickly looked it up and looked in my eyes n said they didn’t start to prepare yet… bruh that’s just unacceptable. Waited 1hr 10mins just for you to tell me that you didn’t start making yet? What’s the point of calling in advance...