Golden Island — Restaurant in San Diego

Food: 5/5 Setting & Service: 1/5 Value: 3/5

Golden Island is the next behemoth restaurant to replace Mira Mesa’s oldest “fine dining” establishment, HomeTown Buffet. Changing names from Fung Fung Yuen, Golden Island has not changed much from the prior name/ownership. Going in, waited about 5 minutes before flagging down a waiter who seemed not to care less if I ate there or not. I was seated in a dated table with a vinyl tablecloth that literally rubbed me the wrong way. My waiter hurriedly took away the rest of the dining utensils and brought me a water with a huge dried food stain on the glass. My napkin too had food stains on it before I even ordered. To say that I was not expecting much and regretting my choices would not be an understatement. As a side note, prices in store are slightly cheaper (around $1 per dish) than what is listed online.

Overall, the food was excellent and honestly some of the best dim sum I have ever had. I remember ordering happy hour from Fung Fung Yuen and was very not impressed, but today was great.

Ha Gao | The worst thing to ever eat is a ha gao with a mushy skin. The thickness of the wrapping was perfect in thickness and chew. The chunks of shrimp were fresh, delicious, and piping hot! Highly recommended .

Shrimp Siu Mai | Again, no mushy skins here! The shrimp filling was wonderfully chunky with proud bits of shrimp. The filling was distinct from the ha gao and deeply savory and rich. Perhaps on the salty side, but great nonetheless. A must get.

Bean Curd Roll | This is actually one of my favorite dim sum of all time. This one came out piping hot and the everything was delicious. Don’t let “abalone” sauce scare you. It is a very light and savory sauce with very faint notes of seafood. This was actually slightly more “bland”, but it may be because the rest of the dishes were very heavily seasoned.

Seaweed Shrimp Roll | If you are going to order any of the fried dim sum, this one is definitely the best. The batter is light, crisp, and inviting. Something about freshly fired food is simply addicting and superbly delicious. This is a must get for sure.

Breadstick Rice Roll | This was probably the most meh item, but it was still really good. The rice roll itself is cold but very fresh and not mushy. The flavor of the noodle is clean and well executed; I’m pretty sure they make these in house (most of the ones cold are often purchased somewhere else). The “breadstick” or youtiao was maybe a tad over-fried and sucked in more oil than I expected. Make sure to ask for the special soy sauce that comes with the other rice rolls since they serve oyster sauce normally with this item.

Creamy Egg Yolk Bun | Best dessert for sure, but maybe a little undercooked. Some parts of the bun definitely had that raw dough taste and texture. If there was a little more filling and maybe a couple minutes more of cooking time, this would be great. The filling is molten, savory, sweet, and just extremely delicious. A great way to end a meal with another round of tea.

Overall, get to-go haha. This place is dirty in a not so charming way. The service is very lack luster even on “authentic” Asian restaurant standards, but the food really stands out and I worth your time. My only fear is that when things get busy, the quality and freshness of the food will suffer seeing how poor management seems to be, but I will report back if I go during...

Opening day review

As with all grand openings I always take the experience with a grain of salt. The staff are probably under-prepared for the slew of eager customers that slowly become more irritant the longer they have to wait. The cutlery and other items are not where they should be. Everyone is trying their best to give the optimal first impression.

With that said I mainly review food based on taste and quality.

Fung Fung Yuen is the new kid on the block encroaching on San Diego dim sum staples in Convoy. To attain new customers and those loyal to other dim sum restaurants they've priced their dishes competitively (a bit cheaper) and drew on traditional styling of older Chinese banquet styled restaurants for their decor.

The service was understandably slower with a few kinks to work out :credit card machine breaking down, carts running low or coming up empty with keystone dishes, and mismanaging of tables. All things that can be sorted out easily throughout the next few weeks. But what I find hard to forgive are some of the quintessential dim sum staples. The Har Gaw's shrimp did not smell or taste fresh even though the quality of the skin was good, albeit a bit mushy. The Siu Mai was passable but not up to snuff if this place wants to compete with the big boys in Kearny Mesa. The egg custard's consistency was wet without the flaky crust I love. The xiao long bao was egregiously unappetizing. The quality of the wrapping was thick and there was little soup to be had! A caveat here: I already don't like xialong bao when it is served within a tin mold. That just screams unloved and pridelessly made little dragon buns. Disheartened and disappointed I continued on. Thankfully the cheung fan was good, not great, but became the saving dish for me.

I don't know if it is because I came after the lunch rush at 2:30PM but I did not find the quality of dim sum to be up to par. Fortunately I'm a big believer in 2nd and 3rd chances, especially to restaurants that recently opened. Here's to hoping that things change for the better as I'd love more competition for dim sum...

I was here on August 8, 2017 around 19:45 for their soft opening, but I did not get to try their food. So the review is going to be based on my impression and the staff in charge of the entrance. I was inside with a group of friends who wanted to try it after knowing that it was first day opened. My friend went in and see how long the wait list is going to be. It was pages of wait list and pages of reservations. And the person who ran it had no clue as to what was going on. The possibility of me not eating here was highly likely because there just were so many people waiting. There were many people who walked out. Of course parking here was hard to find. Okay, it was really not that hard, but you do have to park farther. The lot was always full. Based on my impression, I believe the place will have potential. I know it is first day and they have great food according to fellow yelpers and google reviews. I also heard people paying in cash when the card reader broke down. Staff here are mostly confused and not trained to handle the demands of the people who were waiting to try. I feel if you give them time that they will be better. TL;DR: The 3 star review is for the experience here. I feel it was okay and understandable that it was busy. I do wish it was more organized and I will return in a few weeks if I can get pass through the pages of reservation and another page of wait list. PS: PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN FRONT OR NEXT TO O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE. You guys are blocking their business and there are people who are actually swapping car parts out to change and buy. Think of the poor guy who has to carry a 60-70lb battery to return to the store. You are making it harder on people who shop at O'Reilly by having them park far. In other words, you are being selfish if you are parking there just to eat here. Do not be that person My friends who are working there are telling me that they had less business and foot traffic because people have parked in front of their store. There is plenty of parking next to Target/85C area, so...