You know what, Golden Grill? I owe you an apology. I prejudged you, and my prejudgment had me avoiding an order with you for a long time.
Why did I prejudge you? Well, your menu on Bitesquad looked suspiciously like so many others where they will be out of something and substitute without asking, forget things, or send food of the cheapest quality, poorly-cooked, poorly-packaged, and poorly-presented. Your standard hood menu of pizza puffs and chicken wings and rice plates and burgers where the chances of satisfaction are hit-or-miss. There are usually so many and disparate things on the menu that you think to yourself, they can't possibly do all of them well.
I obviously didn't try everything on the menu, so I don't know whether or not you are another jack of all trades, master of none, and maybe I just got lucky this time, but Golden Grill, EVERYTHING I ordered was delicious.
I ordered the following:
1.) The half-pound cheeseburger. Anticipating they'd be chintzy with the cheese, I ordered an extra slice from the "extras" menu for .75 cents. Truth be told, it didn't look like there was extra cheese on my burger when I lifted the bun to inspect, but I was in such good humor about the order that I wasn't too disappointed.
I actually ate the burger hours after the initial order, and ice cold. I thought about heating it up, but I was curious, took a bite. And you know what? It was still freaking great. They put a few onions, a little lettuce, a pickle slice or two, and a touch of some kind of mystery sauce on it, and hey, did I ask for any of that, or was it mentioned in the description so that you could have the option of forgoing it? Nope. But it just so happens that it was yummy.
Big ol' soft bun which, if my taste buds are accurate, they grilled, which gets bonus points with me. A great big patty which didn't leave you saying, as so many do, "Is that *really* half a pound?" Not overcooked, not under-cooked. Maybe a *tad* pricey at $5.99 with no sides (you have the option of adding fries and a drink for $1.99 but I don't trust the delivery of fries from even the most tony of establishments, especially in this arctic weather), but I'm not frowning over it.
2.) A small order of mac and cheese bites that seemed quite generous for a small order. Not greasy, perfectly golden brown, and perfect gooey, cheesy interior with not too much noodle but enough to differentiate from just fried cheese. I know they probably just buy them bulk and drop them in a deep fryer, but they deep fried those bad boys well, and from the taste of it, they keep their fryer grease clean!
3.) A small pizza puff that was cooked well, tasty, salty, and savory.
4.) A slice each of the lemon cake and the chocolate cake (don't judge me), which were quite nice! Not overly large slices, and not cheap ($3.50 each), but nice just the same.
I left one star off because they didn't include ketchup or mustard packets or sides, and there was a little piece of bone in my burger (or SOMEthing hard anyway), and there is the matter of the possibly missing cheese, but for comfort food on a cold day, I am overall very happy.
I will order again on one of those days when I don't give a damn about nutritional value. I hope the honeymoon won't be over!
**EDIT** OMG! I just realized, via the address, that this is the same spot that Cozy Kitchen used to be in. I wonder if it's the same ownership who decided to simplify their menu and re-open with a different name. That would at least partially explain why it was so good, because CK was good at what they did, and I was sad to see them close. read more