Golden Day

118-120 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 5EP - View on a map
Telephone: 020 7494 2381

Details
Overall 1.8
Food 5.0
Service 2.0
Atmosphere 0.0
Value 0.0
Based on 1 reviews

what the critics say

The Independent

John Walsh - 3/15

Saturday, April 24, 2010 - As an exercise in food preparation, display and restaurateurship, the Golden Day is frankly insulting, judging by my experience last week. Whatever may be dished up in the poorer districts of Xiangxi, it's a bloody cheek to chop up what seem like the cheapest cuts of chicken, duck and pig, cook them without subtlety or style, serve them with indifference to your diners and charge a fortune (my duck was 15.80, the cabbage side-dish 7.80) because you're in the middle of Shaftesbury Avenue.

TimeOut

TimeOut - 3/5

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - We ordered Chairman Mao's red-braised pork, this version with meltingly tender cubes of pork bellyin a sweet but spicy caramelised sauce. It was the best dish, a very pleasing mix of soft flesh and the firm bite of spring onion. Hunan is renowned for its pickles, but 'Xiangxi local pickled vegetables' was a disappointing heap of bland white cabbage and carrot - no beans, daikon or chilli...Even though we prepared in advance, we found much of the menu unfathomable and the staff speak very little useful English.

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your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne

The restaurant is not one I would ever go to again.

The interior furnishings are cold, style is simply not available, the lights are too bright and rather give you the impression of being in an operating room that Dr. House would not like for its clinical appearance.

The seats are not comfortable at all and the partition walls between the tables give you the feeling of being in open-plan office than in a restaurant, you can have a good time.

The people there try to be nice but - in fact - if you look at them they are very reserved and you'll probably will not even get a smile for a good tip.

Another thing that sucks: the staff is not able to operate the credit card machine and if you ask them why you'll probably get the answer that they do not show a sign of credit card acceptance in the window so you must not complain...
Comment on this reader review

Lukas
Overall rating 2 stars
Food 5 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, July 09, 2012

Golden Day has really gone down hill. My last meal there had none of the flair and excitement of when it first opened, and the food came over as some sort of strange cantonese hybrid... so maybe they've toned down the Hunan flavours for the tourist market, which is a shame if so, or maybe the chef has moved on (which often happens in china town, and a restaurant can be literally great one week and rubbish the next). Service was slow and unhappy. In short, don't bother. Go to one of the growing band of other regional chinese restaurants.
Comment on this reader review

Tom
Overall rating 0 stars
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, April 01, 2011

We visited Golden Day on Saturday afternoon, July 10th 2010.

Ive just read all 3 'professional' reviews, and have to say I strongly support Jay Rayner's comments, and they completely match our experience. The food was very tasty, not greasy or slimy, and definitely a good example of real regional Chinese cooking (my dining partner was Chinese and confirms all this for me).

The reviewer from the Independent obviously wasn't happy about some incident and has therefore biased his whole report to make it meaningless, which appears very unprofessional indeed. so IGNORE the Independent.

We had the Dry pot Chicken (you MUST order this, its so hot & tasty, and keeps bubbling away whilst you eat it), chilli beef & garlic (very tender meat, and medium spice heat), green kelp starter (don't be scared off, its delicious crunchy and spicy hot!), unusual and delicious 'grand-ma fried tofu' which is much firmer than normal tofu if you're not a fan of the usual texture. And also some ho-fun noodles which were fresh and better to soak up the delcious juices of the chicken dish.

So definitely recommend this restaurant to non-Chinese (it was almost exclusively Chinese customers when we visited), and don't worry about some of the unusual dishes. (And there are large pictures of every dish on the menu)
Comment on this reader review

JParty
Overall rating 8 stars
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Monday, July 12, 2010

Maybe the worst restaurant I've ever been to. The service was horrible. The drinks were overpriced. The food was undercooked and not timed right (I got my meal after everything else was served). The staff was unfriendly and unhelpful. Never go.
View/Add comments (1)

Anonymous
Overall rating 0 stars
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, July 11, 2010

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