Golden Bay Restaurant
“My parents are big fans of dim sum; thus, once in a blue moon, we head here for some delicious dishes.”
“Also had these really cute piggy buns.”
“Ordering for non Asians might not be that challenging since they bring the cart of food around and show you what they have.”
Golden Bay Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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I almost broke protocol on not giving any NYC dim sum place 4 stars. Almost. However, my good senses returned after considering the sheer amount of waiting done here. To date, I have waited an average of 45 minutes for a table. I am usually here around 12-1pm, a terrible time slot, but one cannot do much with an always tardy family member.
The restaurant is not a large one, certainly smaller with the amount of tables crammed into it. Because it is one of the only sit-down dim sum places on 86th street, it is clear they want to capitalize on this. The only other competition would be Joy Luck Seafood Restaurant, a larger space which has some additional room on the 2nd floor.
The dim sum here is standard and rather typical and traditional. However, I am a big fan of their har gow(shrimp dumplings). They have always come out springy and with a nice bite. They use 2 large shrimp or 4 small ones in each dumpling. The bamboo shoot is minimal, which I am ever thankful for, because I despise them. The other standout is their lo hon jai(Buddha's Delight/vegetarian) wrapped in Youtiao(Chinese cruller/deep fried dough) wrapped in cilantro rice noodle. It is their best item, and certainly a novelty.
Rather happy Golden Bay is a short car ride over, the only hang-up is their wait-time. Otherwise, I am impressed.
I like this place a lot. My parents are big fans of dim sum; thus, once in a blue moon, we head here for some delicious dishes.
What is dim sum you might ask. It's actually Chinese version of tapas. These are small dishes that you share family style. It's a great way to try something new.
My favorite dish is the spring rolls. I know "say what!" I have a shellfish allergy hence I am glad this place has spring rolls without shrimps. Also, I love that this place has crunchy spring rolls. If they sit too long, they are soggy. The waitress, who pushes the cart, would ask you if you want them cut. Also, I recommend asking for Worcestershire sauce on the side. It's a game changer.
Want to really blow away the hostess? Ask them for Bo Lay Cha. It's Chinese for tea with black tea leaves.
Enjoy!!!
I walked by this place one night after dinner and decided to Yelp them and saw that they have those piggy buns for dim sum, sold. I brought my parents here for dim sum on a weekday and the place was packed and there were people waiting for seats, but we didn't have to wait for seats because there was a table open. I know that there aren't many dim sum options in the area and taking that into consideration, this place is ok. The service is alright as in it's not the fastest, but you won't be ignored. The quality of the food isn't the best, but it's edible and there aren't any questionable textures and flavors.
We ordered the piggy buns, shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings (siu mai), chicken feet, beef balls, bean curd wrap and fried cruller wrapped in rice noodle. Everything was ok, but the piggy buns and the fried cruller wrapped in rice noodle were the best and what I would come back for if I do come back. The piggy buns were cute, but they were also very fresh and the custard wasn't overly sweet and the consistency of it was just right. The fried cruller was nice and crispy and there was a good amount of cilantro. It's good to see that there is a dim sum place with decent food in this area, but I would probably eat around dim sum central (65th st.) if given the choice.
There are not too many dim sum restaurants that serve dim sum near 86 street unless you are planning to drive to 8th ave. The wait for the Golden Bay is long so be prepared to wait for a table. They serve dim sum here in cart style. Golden Bay want to serve the highest volume of customers. So they pack the restaurant with tables. Since it so packed some table are unable to get to the lady pushing the cart and have to reach over other tables. I have to say that this is definitely not the best way to serve dim sum.
We place an order on some of the rice noodle dim sum but it took 30 minutes to arrive. Our table was finish with most of the dishes before the two rice noodle dim sum arrived. The other dim sum is super tasty and they have a decent selection minus the fried food dim sum. At the moment, I will be back to try Golden Bay.
they've changed names of the restaurant so many times, but it's easy folks, it's the one next to capital one bank. over the years not much has changed even the food. pricey mediocre dim sum. only cause it's so convenient do I ever go. ( once a year) nothing tastes spectacular so it's not worth mentioning any dish.
There's only so much patient one person can have. We came in about 1pm on a Sunday afternoon, waited for 10 minutes for a table. Was seated near the windows shared with three other elderly. The carts wasn't able to be pushed to our table let along be acknowledge by anyone. I asked nicely to a guy waiter about moving to another table and he say to speak to the woman manager on the floor. I went to her and she say to wait. We waited for about 20 minutes and was given a table. By this time, there were no dimsum left. The kitchen stopped making dimsum at 1:30pm ON A SUNDAY??? They take about 15 minutes to noticed that your teapot is empty. The tea leaves wasn't even enough in your teapot to savor the taste. They didn't have pork bun, chasao sou or any dry dimsum. Everything is steamed here, more catered to elderly. They tried to give us the leftover dimsum- it already became cold and for the same price too!
Hey, I gave them a chance, they ruined it!
Maybe I was spoiled from the 8av dimsum places.
Most Dimsum (yumcha) places deserve really only three stars max. This one is one of those, it was okay but not like great, just almost reaching standard. The Dimsum restaurant is a decent size, and has a good space for people to sit and wait to be called by the fish tanks. We were a group of four adults and a baby, so we ended up having to share a table with another group. We waited like 5-7 minutes to get seated, pretty fast, I have to say.
We got the egg custard buns that looked like little piggies. They were very cute and the egg custard inside tasted alright, not too sweet. We also got the usual dimsums – siew mai, ha kao, taro dumplings, salted egg yolk custard buns (a must at yumcha), chicken feet, beef tendon and a ha churng (shrimp rice noodle). The first bamboo steamer of ha Kao was not too good, tasted like it has been put out for awhile, but the second one we got was so much better. The siew mai was decent, the chicken feet was not cooked enough so that the skin falls off the bones quickly. The salted egg yolk custard buns were a disappointment because I usually get this at dimsum places to enjoy opening it in half and seeing the yolk custard spill out but the ones here except for one were all dried up and was not acceptable. Even the one that didn't have dried up yolk custard did not spill the way it should. The beef tendons were tasty because we ordered a second one, but the second didn't taste as soft and wasn't cooked as long as the first round. I don't really like ha churng so I didn't try it.
We also ordered from the inside kitchen a chow mai fun with different seafood.
Something I didn't really like was if you don't know the restaurant that well (like me, my first time here), you might just fall off their stairs going to the bathroom. I walk to the door and turn left and didn't expect the stairs to be right there, not even a step or two past the door. If I didn't act fast enough I would've fell off the stairs. Just bad design. The men's restroom floor was all wet, don't know if it's water or not. My first step into the bathroom, I almost slipped, I caught myself quickly. There was a big puddle near the one urinal. That can't be water! I swear this restaurant is trying to kill me!
My three stars is for the food only because if I took into account of all other things (the stairs and bathroom) it would be a two stars and maybe even a one star.
I came for dim sum with my family on Saturday around 12 and we had to wait for over 30 minutes since it was super crowded and it's not a big restaurant. Based on the wait and the average-tasting food, I would go elsewhere where there's less of a wait. THe piggy buns are definitely super cute but I've also had better egg custard buns.