Golden Gate Restaurant — Restaurant in Tulsa

After reading several great reviews, I decided to give Golden Gate Chinese in Tulsa, OK, a try. This review is a tough one to write because Mary and her staff were incredibly friendly, and they’ve been running this restaurant for 45 years—an impressive feat. However, I have to be honest: this was some of the most disappointing Chinese food I’ve had in a long time.

The experience started off on the wrong foot when they opened 15 minutes late, with staff casually strolling in from the parking lot to get things going. Inside, the restaurant felt unprepared for the afternoon rush and was noticeably cold. Mary greeted me warmly and took my drink order promptly, but the menu she provided was well-worn, with prices crossed out and rewritten by hand—an unprofessional touch that didn’t inspire confidence.

While waiting outside, a customer enthusiastically recommended their famous large egg rolls, calling them “the best he’s ever had,” so I ordered them along with their well-known oversized crab cheese wontons. Based on reviews, I also went with the General Tso’s Chicken and fried rice, as it had been highly praised.

The appetizers arrived quickly—within 10 minutes—and looked promising. Mary even warned me they were extremely hot. Unfortunately, both the egg rolls and wontons were lukewarm in the center, which was disappointing. The egg rolls lacked seasoning and fell flat in terms of flavor, while the crab cheese wontons were decent but would have been much better if properly heated.

Then came the General Tso’s Chicken and fried rice. Visually, neither dish looked very appetizing, and the first bite confirmed my concerns. The sauce on the chicken had an odd, thin consistency, almost like fish sauce, and tasted off. The fried rice was just plain rice—no peas, carrots, onions, or even egg, which is standard in most places.

I left quite disappointed and genuinely puzzled by the glowing reviews and the customer outside who swore by the egg rolls. Maybe it’s a matter of expectations—having experienced fantastic Chinese food in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, and Honolulu, I couldn’t help but feel that Golden Gate fell far short. Perhaps locals who love it haven’t had the chance to experience truly great Chinese cuisine.

Unfortunately, this is one place I won’t be returning to.

Rob...

Our experience was pretty great. It's definitely something you don't forget. I'll explain. We walked in, and the place is smaller than expected. That's not bad. We seated ourselves and were promptly checked on by an extremely sweet lady. We ordered sesame chicken and teriyaki chicken both with fried rice, water, and a coke. When the food came out, we were beside ourselves because it didn't look like the "normal" americanized version of sesame chicken and teriyaki we are used to; as in sesame small soggy chunks of chicken with dark syrupy sauce and sesame seeds on top, and teriyaki with dark sauce and itty bitty strips of chicken mixed in. My boyfriend even said when he saw it he wanted to cry. BUT we tasted it, and to us, the food was absolutely 👏 FABULOUS! 👏 The sesame chicken took the cake and was perfectly cooked and was just deliciously sweet even though it doesnt look like what we expected. The teriyaki was too large of chunks for my personal taste (I have a thickness and texture issue), but it was very delectably flavored!! My ONLY complaint is that the fried rice was a tad plain, but it was still good! I do love the peas, carrots, and eggs in fried rice, but they did not have those ingredients in theirsin the bowls we received. When leaving we got to speak to the owner and give our compliments, he was an awesome person. Overall, the food was amazing, the service was amazing, and we will definitely be back for more sesame (now my favorite sesame in Tulsa) and to try the general tsaos chicken next! I'm very happy we came even though we were met with unexpected plates, that we stayed and gave it a fair shot instead of being stuck in our ways with what we are used to seeing being served at other Asian fusion restaurants and fast food places. 5 stars for flavor...

My wife and I moved to Tulsa about 2 and a half years ago and since then we've been on the search for our go to restaurants. While there are many options for Chinese take out in Tulsa, we were having a hard time finding one that we both enjoyed and was priced decently. That is until we went here. Whenever we try out a new restaurant we tend to buy a lot of items from their menu just to get a good overall taste of their offerings, and this was no exception. We had a teriyaki beef skewer, an egg drop soup, pork fried rice, pork spare ribs, sweet and sour pork, general tso's chicken, and sesame chicken. While I could go on about everything I will talk about the standouts from this meal. First the beef teriyaki skewer. This thing is a giant cut of extremely tender and tasty meat. My wife was the first to try it and her eyes glowed with happiness from it. For me, I always try the general tso's chicken at new Chinese restaurants so I'm pretty well versed in what to expect. This is not what I was expecting at all, but in an incredible way. It's a face lift to a dish I didn't know needed one. So the chicken is cooked like sweet and sour chicken and the sauce was given to me on the side. While the chicken is pretty standard fair Chinese style fried chicken, the sauce blew me away. It's not the similar style of general tso's sauce that I'm used to, it actually feels home made. It had a wonderful sweetness to it and a bit of a mouth numbing spice from authentic Chinese dishes. I kept the sauce so I could just use it as a dip for chicken wings later. Also I have to say something about the owner who was running the cashier when I was there. He was funny, polite, and made the experience exceptional on its own. We have finally found our go to Chinese...