Golden Palace — Restaurant in Watertown

Unlike most restaurants that experience a shift in quality or service, this place is actually a tale of THREE restaurants. Bear with me here, it'll make sense.

Back in the 80's and through the 90's and much of the early 2000's, this was literally THE place to get Chinese food. There were always other options, but nothing could compare with either the take out or dine in experience. The same owners had been there the whole time and we actually grew quite close as they watched both our kids start to grow up. Then one day in the mid-2000's......sold.......ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh­hhh.....

Okay, so new owners can be dicey but we figured the former trained the latter and things would be okay right? No people, no...NOT alright. The food and service experienced an immediate and significant decline. We loved the place so much though, so we gave them multiple chances in the span of the first year, but nothing. I mean if you can't get it right after a year, you're likely to never get it right. So the ban-hammer was swung...with great prejudice.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and we found ourselves craving the mysterious and decadent flavors from behind the Bamboo Curtain and it was time to choose. Honestly we haven't really connected to another place since this place and we kind of jumped between the Buffet across the street and a place in the CVS plaza in Waterbury. (NOT Happy Garden, they are dead to me.) I made an obligatory scan of some recent Yelp reviews and it was positive enough to convince us to give them another shot.

Honestly, I have no idea if it's the same owners and they just got it together, or if it's a new owner. Whatever it is, it's back to good! I'm not going to say it's as good as back in the day, but we ordered multiple apps, entree's and sides for take-out and it would have been REALLY easy to mess at least something up. Not a hitch, price was good, wait was acceptable, service was on point. I can't speak to the dine in experience at this point, but we've ordered a couple more times since and at this point I'm going to call this the best Chinese option in the area. Change my mind. (Side note: Apparently they offer some basic Thai dishes now, and I have not and most likely will not try them. If I want Thai, I'll drive the 2 miles down the road...

Let’s start with back 15 -20 years ago this place was so crowded and the food was excellent . My husband and I went for lunch yesterday it was honestly shocking . We were the only customers in the entire place . For some ungodly reason I felt like a pina colada because it was 95 degrees outside . What I was brought was very much like a pre made frozen drink in a bag from the liquor store. It was disgusting. Sugary ice yuk !!! I absolutely could not drink it ! The food was gross 🤮 undercooked rice , “Wonton” soup with one mushy wonton . We could not even finish , etc etc . The entire experience was awful . I knew it was going to be awful when I went to use the ladies room and there was a guy in the hallway sleeping in a hammock and 2 sets of legs hanging out of two separate booths when I looked in the empty bar!!! I had my husband go check this out on his way to the mens room and he honest to God had to walk right on by the person now reading a book in that hammock in the hallway .Is this their home too ??? Good to know ! Never Ever , Ever again 50 bucks later ….. oh I was asked what was wrong with the pina colada and I asked how she made it … “ I put a little pineapple juice in and the mix” I then asked after I laughed and said the frozen mix ? Like the frozen drink ? She chuckled and said yes ? I knew it ! PLEASE CLOSE THIS PLACE DOWN . It is a health hazard and a place I would...

Had Valentine's Day dinner here. The food was good. The service was TERRIBLE!! Granted, it was Valentine's day but they should have been better prepared. We had 6:30 reservations. It was moderately busy. We were seated & the woman just took off! We had to get the attention of some young man for water. No one ever asked if we wanted beverages. We asked for a pot of tea 4 times! The food was...ok. My husband LOVES the steamed pork buns. He also had wings, pork rolls & soup. It took about 45 min for him to get anything. I waited about an hour & a half before my dinner came out. My husband was pretty much done with his dinner by the time i received mine. I ordered the "King of the sea", lobster, shrimp & scallops. I HATE crab. On the menu there was no mention of crab in this dish, which is why I chose it. There was a SIGNIFICANT amount of crab. YUCK! And the lobster was half a tail, so overcooked & dry, I couldn't chew it. We were there for 2 hours & watched as dirty tables around us were vacated & no one cleared them. The table right next to us left alot of food on their table & by the time I was eating, their leftovers started to stink! I really hope our poor experience was because of the holiday. Hire some more...