Review of Golden House Chinese Food Carryout Restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland

Golden House has been our standard Chinese takeout food place since moving to Silver Spring, Maryland seven years ago. It is a tiny white house with a rather grimy-looking exterior, torn up paved parking area, and one cheap table with chairs inside in front of the register. The whole place looks rather grungy. No matter, we never go there in person, because Golden House Chinese Food Carryout delivers for free.

Since we moved here, downtown Silver Spring, Maryland has undergone a sea change. Long term development projects that had been tossed about for years suddenly found their focus. Next thing you know we have a new downtown. Silver Sprung, the advertising touts. Downtown Silver Spring has a lot of new restaurants in the developer-planned "restaurant row." Most of them are chain restaurants. New retailers have also popped up everywhere, in many cases driving small, independents out of business. The rents on the streets close to the development area in downtown Silver Spring have soared, so those without long term leases have often found themselves facing impossible rent increases. Somehow, through all this development, Golden House Chinese Food Carryout has survived.

When we first moved here, Golden House Chinese Food Carryout had the most fantastic vegetarian egg rolls in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. They had big pieces of tree ear mushroom in them, whole bean sprouts, and carrot slices, and were rather crunchy. After a few years, management changed and that wonderful recipe disappeared with the old owners. The new Chinese egg rolls are decent, but plain. Inside they are all whitish colored, nondescript, thin sliced vegetable matter. They taste okay but lack excitement. They definitely would improve with some color and one uniquely flavorful ingredient.

One thing that is wonderful about Golden House Chinese Food Carryout Restaurant is their staff. They accommodate every weird request we make- and we do make them. One of my daughters is on a kick where she wants the packaged chow mein noodles they use as soup toppings-without the soup. When my son was younger, he wanted baby corn added to every recipe. For him, if it didn't have baby corn, it wasn't Chinese food. Take the spice out, put in extra; whatever we ask for, they gladly do their best to accommodate us. Golden House Chinese Food Carryout Restaurant has delivered to us in power blackouts (we have had more than our share), blizzards, and our one hurricane. When the roads are impassible to cars, their delivery man arrives on his bicycle from downtown Silver Spring, six blocks away. Now that's dedication!

Another of our favorite family Golden House menu items is their lo mein noodles. These have a sort of grilled flavor that is hard to explain, but they are tasty. They can be ordered with vegetables or meat. We always order vegetable lo mein; mixed in with the noodles are broccoli florets, baby corn, carrots, and mushrooms.

Egg foo yung is another Chinese food item we order often. Again, it comes in veggie and meat varieties. The veggie variety has layered vegetable inside the egg. The crunchy water chestnuts add interesting texture. The gravy is light brown, super thick, and tasty, full of megafats, no doubt.

Because four of the five of us are vegetarians, we usually order a tofu dish. (They call it bean curd, but if I call it that, my kids will say, "Yuck.") A dish called bean curd and vegetables is our favorite, despite its boring name. It consists of rectangular pieces of tofu with a brown crispy coating we have been unable to reproduce at home, with broccoli, carrots and peapods in a delectable dark brown thin sauce. Like all of the vegetable dishes offered at Golden House Chinese Food Carryout Restaurant, this one has fresh whole vegetables or long slices of vegetables, nothing cubed or from a can.

The Resident Meat Eater tends to go for dishes like crispy orange beef which is very spicy, to his liking. He also likes the sesame beef. These meat dishes that are almost exclusively meat, unlike in some restaurants where the meat dishes are a plate of cabbage and carrots with a handful of slices of meat tossed on top.

The fried rice at Golden House Chinese Food Carryout Restaurant is dry and plain. It comes with meat, shrimp or vegetables but those items must get added after the fact because the rice never comes mushy.

The major menu disappointments at Golden House Chinese Food Carryout Restaurant in Silver Spring are its lack of texturized vegetable protein (TVP) dishes and its lack of chow fun. TVP dishes have become increasingly popular in the last few years and greatly expand the offerings of the vegetarian diner. Chow fun, with its large flat noodles, became a favorite of ours recently after a birthday meal at a sit-in Chinese restaurant.

Overall, the food at this restaurant rates as very good but not excellent. It does not compete with the best eat-in Chinese restaurants. But, it's downtown Silver Spring location is convenient, and the food is tasty and reasonably priced. And the staff does all that it can to ensure that the customers are happy.

Golden House
Chinese Food Carryout
900 Wayne Ave.
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
(301) 495-8888