I had the buffet lunch ($14.50) at Golden Bowl with a couple of girlfriends and I can sum up my…read morefeelings in two words, or one emoticon: sad face :(
The buffet was incredibly small, only about 10 items, and the food in my opinion was on par with the likes of Manchu Wok and other such food court Westernized Chinese food vendors. Actually, the best of the food was Manchu Wok caliber, some items did not even meet this low standard, at least not in my opinion. The place has been around for decades and it would appear to me that no renovations have been made for decades.
On the buffet was: wonton soup, egg rolls, chicken balls, salt and pepper fried chicken pieces, garlic spare ribs, vegetarian fried noodles, chicken fried rice, beef and vegetables stir-fry, fried chicken wings, and chow mein. So only 10 "real items" then they had stuff like pineapple sauce, sweet and sour sauce, almond cookies, and some sort of deep-fried dough pieces. No ice cream! :(
Let's start with the good: the chicken balls were filled with lean white breast meat and the meat to batter ratio was pretty good. They weren't all dough. They were crispy, and if one were to like sweet and sour chicken balls in general, I think that one would enjoy these. The egg rolls were also pretty good. They were very crispy and the wrapper was thinner and crunchier than I've had at other places. The filling was ground pork and vegetables and had a strong five-spice fragrance to it. The wonton soup was also not bad. I liked that the soup had some leafy greens in it and wasn't overly oily/greasy. The actual wontons were a bit mushy, but the filling to wrapper ratio was good. The flavour was good.
The unremarkable: chicken fried rice, vegetarian noodles, beef and vegetables stir-fry, and garlic spare ribs.
The bad: the salt and pepper fried chicken pieces I found very weird. The meat was dark meat and had a strange texture. It was too salty and not that peppery to me.
The "I did not try it because it did not look appetizing to me": fried chicken wings (looked really dry and greyish), the chow mein (I hate bean sprouts), the almond cookies (looked store bought) and the crunchy fried dough things.
Service was nice and efficient. We were greeted right away and led to our seats. We were given water shortly after and our waters were refilled often and without having to ask.
When we first arrived a bit before noon, there were only a few patrons, but after 12pm the place got really busy, so it looks like there's definitely a market for this kind of food, it's just not my jam.
There's free parking in their private parking lot beside the restaurant.