Golden Star Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

As of May 2021, there was no indoor dining but there was outdoor (on the sidewalk). But space is limited, and there's lots of flies around everywhere. Our party of 6 came by on a Saturday at 1:30 and luckily, we were able to nab the last table. We ordered a bunch of things (probably too much food). To share, we had:

Cha Gio (spring rolls) - these might be the best cha goi I have ever eaten. It was crispier than any other spring roll I've had, yet it was still light. I wish I knew what kind of rice paper they used. I also liked that they served it with a little side of vermicelli

Grilled Beef Summer Roll - this was the worst thing I ate here. It had a weird taste to it - like gasoline or something. It was strange

Grilled Pork with Vermicelli - we all wanted pho but also wanted to try the bun, which is usually my go-to dish. So we ordered one to share amongst the table. I only wish that I hadn't filled up on the pho already so I could have eaten more of this

House Special Beef Noodle Soup (#1) - another one of my go-tos whenever I need pho. This has all the works - raw sliced beef, beef balls, tendon, etc. It's a pretty solid pho (although I did find a nose hair on one of the tendons, which I don't think was mine)

Vietnamese Iced Coffee - this was the perfect amount of sweetness/bitterness. I haven't had a really great Vietnamese coffee because they're usually too sweet, or too bitter, or both. This one had the right balance between the two

Overall, a great option for Vietnamese and probably better than any NYC spot. But I'd recommend takeout since the seating situation...

Chinatown has three Golden restaurants all within a five-minute walking distance from each other. I mean there is the Golden Flower Vietnamese Restaurant, Golden King Vietnamese Restaurant and the Golden Star Vietnamese Restaurant all close to each other. After trying both Golden Flower & Golden King, I decided to finally give Golden Star a try. It is located on Clay & Walter U so it's in the heart of Chinatown and almost opposite to Golden King.

At the peak lunch hour on a Saturday the place was almost full, so it seems to the most popular among the three Golden restaurants. I decided to keep things simple and got the Five spice chicken noodle soup ($10.45) to-go. As expected I had to pay in cash as it was cash only. After ordering it was a short 10-minute wait and I was on my way.

I got a bunch of boxes all neatly packed. There was a container for the broth, a small Chinese takeout container for the noodles and another small plastic box for the five-spice chicken. The noodles as expected were a little clumped but they opened up when dunked into the broth which had a nice clean taste. The five-spice chicken also had a very mild clean taste. The dipping sauce was also pretty good. My only complaint is that there should have been a greater quantity of noodles to go with the soup. Overall this was pretty good.

Price-wise it was in-line with what you would pay at other Golden restaurants in the area. I'm going to have to come back and try some stuff of their menu as I liked what I got. A weak 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 is how I'd...

Updated review 11/22/2023: Golden Star is the best Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown! I used to come on a weekly basis back in the early 2000's through 2013 from Embarcadero Center 3, where I used to work. It was an awesome place to meet up with co-workers. The kitchen and service were always fast, you know for the 1 hour limit lunch break customers. Today we had two bowls of #1 house special pho $14, #25 imperial rolls (cha gio) full order $10, #32 Vietnames beef carpaccio (bo tai chanh) full order $15 and a seafood crispy noodles $17. One bit of sad news. The tall waiter no longer works here. The other waiter said he left for a hotel job. Service was excellent as always.

Outdoor dining 5/3/2021. Indoor dining was not available. I'm so happy to see the same staff working here. We've been coming here since the early 2000's. The quality of the food and service remains the same. This was one of my favorite restaurants to eat at when I'm was working down by the Embarcaderos. It was such a treat to come here on Fridays. Food by the Embarcadero area is filled with boring hipster salads and sandwiches....