Golden Oscar Cafe

With an early game on Friday, I had visions of finer eats afterwards.  Normally, our games end so late, our culinary options are as good as a properly parked car in a Richmond parking lot.  But my grand ideas came to a screeching halt as Mr. Blueberry had sold a rice cooker off Craigslist.  You see, the purchaser needed to pick it up that night (did he want to make rice that instance?).  Therefore we had to eat nearby so Lionel Hutz could go with him to ensure his safety.  No, I'm not making this up...  

So we ended up at Golden Oscar for a reluctant revisit of sorts. Yah, my great culinary plan fizzled down to a late-night HK-style cafe.  Whatever the case, we made the best of it.  Emilicious decided to have the Bitter Melon & Beef on Rice.  As much as I'm not a huge fan of bitter melon, this was alright as it wasn't overwhelming.  Furthermore, the beef both plentiful and tender.  I found the sauce on the saltier side, but then again, it was on plain rice.  Sweet Tooth had the Beef Fried Rice which featured individual grains of rice that where surprisingly a bit soft.  Not sure how they accomplished that.  Anyways, the wok heat was okay, but the dish lacked enough seasoning.

For myself, I had a meal that started with a choice of soup.  Since they were out of Borscht, I went for the Cream Soup.  One spoonful and my face went sideways.  What the heck was that in my soup???  Tuna?  Who the heck puts canned tuna in a cream of corn?  Suffice to say, I didn't like it.  The flavours and textures just didn't work.  As for my main, I had the Chicken Steak and Scallops with black pepper sauce.  I enjoyed the big ample pieces of chicken as they were super juicy, well-seasoned and crispy on the outside.  What I didn't like was the imitation scallops.  These were assaulted with an obscene amount of starch where the exterior resembled uncooked dough.  The gummy, unappetizing discs of goo should of been best left for wall-filler.

Lionel Hutz decided on the Curry Beef served with toasted bread. I found the curry to be slightly watery, but it was decently flavourful.  Much like other Chinese versions of yellow curry, this was mostly one note with only a touch of spice.  And similiar to Emilicious' dish, the beef was tender.  Milhouse went for the Black Bean Chicken Fried Noodle.  This was a fairly large portion (partly due to being the full-sized main menu version) with lots of juicy chicken and crisp veggies.  I found the sauce to on the weaker side, but it wasn't too bad.  The fried noodles were only slightly crispy and a touch greasy.

Mr. Blueberry (who arrived in one piece) and Gadget Girl shared the Chicken Chow Mein and Fried Rice Noodle with Beef.  Other than the difference in sauce and veggies, the chow mein resembled the previous dish.  However, with less ingredients and sauce, it wasn't as wet and more mild.  As for the rice noodles, they were glistening like usual.  The dish exhibited good wok heat and featured the same tender beef.  Overall, this revisit was alright for most people but the soup and scallops really turned me off.  I guess one's experience would greatly depend on the dish(es) ordered.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Open late
- Okay for late night

The Bad:
- Some things just didn't work