Golden Port Dim Sum

Does anyone know what is going on with the Golden Port? This place used to be our single favorite restaurant in Rochester. Last couple times the food has been average (vegetable stir fry) to terrible (fresh spring rolls). Is anyone else experiencing this? The other odd thing is it used to be packed almost every night. Now the place is a ghost town.

I’ve been eating here for years and I enjoy the food; or at least I did until I got sick after eating there. One problem may have been that the bathroom was not clean, and I saw an employee dash out of it without washing her hands.

It’s been a few months since I went here for the first (and last) time over the summer. I’ve always been a bit skeeved out by it. Why? I don’t know perhaps it was the dingy looking awning and dust-​coated windows looking in from the outside. But I’ve heard a number of people I (used to) trust say really great things about their main menu and the «House of Sushi» side of things. Let’s just say I ordered the most basic of sushi rolls, took one bite and counted down the minutes until I could leave. No no no no no.

My husband refers to Golden Port as «the place where the waiters throw the food at you.»
Convenient to Eastman and downtown, and quick if you’ve only got an hour to eat. But you have to fill out your own menu (place has pretensions to being a dim-​sum restaurant) even though there are no descriptions of the food there. The service makes you feel like you’re being booked into Ellis Island. Frantic servers scuttle in and out of the kitchen, shouting orders, shoving your dishes onto the table, and the general atmosphere is noisy and chaotic. The food is Rochester American Chinese indifferent — scallion pancakes, General’s chicken, sweet and sour everything, the drill. Do not order Thai food. As for the dim sum, two standards, egg roll and pot stickers, are both mediocre.
I only go here when I’m starving and need to be downtown, and I always leave wondering what I was thinking.

My parents and I had an hour before the mega bus so we decided to grab some food, and this dim sum place was the closest Chinese option around.
We were the only customers in the store and the waiter was very nice.
We ordered the egg custard tart, fried veggie spring roll, beef chow fun, and thousand year old egg porridge with pork. Personally, I would not order the egg custard tart again because it was a bit too sweet for my taste. Otherwise, it’s good. The spring rolls were fresh, light, and crispy. The beef chow fun was fresh from the wok and the noodles were al dente, in addition the meat was surprisingly buttery and not tough. The porridge has a peculiar taste, and not everyone would enjoy it. But personally it was yummy and helped cleansed my stomach.
In conclusion, Compared to all the dim sum I’ve eaten so far, this place was on par.

I have had 2 Thai food dishes here and they have been mediocre I am a huge Thai food fan! And have eaten it in Canada and NYC! So coming to Rochester I was on the hunt for good Thai food. I was happy because this place was local and affordable but it wasn’t that great or flavorful. I have had chicken pad Thai noodles and chicken pannang dish. It’s just ok…

When in need for a quick Asian meal before a concert at the Eastman this is usually where we will stop. The menu has well over 150 items on it though nowhere do they describe what is in any of the dishes which can make it a struggle determining the differences between some items if you are not in the know.
The General Tso’s Chicken is always flavorful if you like your food deep fried and I do. Other dishes can vary. The Thai preparation of Ginger Chicken was fairly bland, the fresh spring rolls were good and relatively fresh, and I hear from those who like Dim Sum that it is pretty good (too bland for my taste buds)
The service is all business and can feel rushed, no chit-​chat… And the prices are some of the most reasonable in town.

I’m not sure what’s going on with Golden Port Dim Sum lately. Within the last month, 2 of my orders have been mixed up, I’ve been served sushi with old rice and I pulled two pieces of white cartilage out of my mouth, after biting into a spicy tuna roll last night. I keep going back because I know restaurants have their bad days but I’m just not sure if I ever will again. Disappointing.

Golden Port Dim Sum Restaurant is the Winner in Rochester City Paper for best Dim Sum restaurant in multiple years. Does it live up to that expectation?, No. I can see it being number 1 for the value, quality, and quantity. For what you get, and what you pay for is a well balanced meal. I live right next to this restaurant, and I see it packed almost every-​night. The main reason guests’ say why they would come back is, «The food is great, location is awesome, and the value is suburb.» The interior reminds you of being inside a golden gong, everything looks GOLD. The service portion is that of a traditional Asian restaurant, «point and go.» What makes Golden Port unique is when you get the menu, you circle the choices you want to tell the server. This circle your choice menu is a great communication guide for the servers, since most do not speak English. This is what makes your service go by fast. Speaking of FAST, the service here is way too fast. They need to slow there Kung Fu role down because my appetizers, and entrees’ all collided with each other. They need to have a backwards arrow on the circle choice menu for «slow down». The taste, and the portions of the food all had good flavor but were far from perfect.
BAR DRINKS: I always get their traditional Warm Ozeki Sake, which always does the trick to getting any Asian meal started. You can taste the fresh rice grains in good sake like Golden Port’s. The Infused Cold Sake w/​Asian Pear is a ripe cold sake to drink when it is on special.
SUSHI: You do not get many rolls for your buck. I ordered the Eel Roll, which look like little miniature pieces of eel on my plate. The sushi pieces are so small I could barley fit the roll on my chopstick. It was hard to judge the cutting skills, because there was not a whole lot of roll to cut.
DIM SUMS: Contrary to what people say, there Dim Sums are my least favorite food items’ here. The Shu-​mai (port dumpling) were a little doughy, which took away from the flavor of the pork inside. The Spring Rolls lacked vegetables inside to make it more of a spring roll instead of looking like a fish-​stick. The Gyoza tasted great for the fact that every dumpling was seared nicely on top. The beef inside was filled nicely to the ratio of dough.
CHINESE ENTREE’S: The Szechwan Chicken was sizzling with the garlic, chili peppers, and ginger. The use of the Sichuan Pepper on top of the chicken was perfectly executed. Sichuan in Chinese means a tingly numbing sensation in the mouth, and thats exactly what this meal did to me. Portions for this meal are HUGE, like the Great Wall of China.
THAI ENTREE’S: I like the create your own Thai Dish. I go for the Beef Thai Noodle with the Orange Roughy Thai Sauce. The Beef was seared nicely, never chewy in texture. I was hesitant about the noddles, but they tasted buttery with a hint of ginger. The Orange Roughy sauce completes this dish because it was thick in texture absorbing all the ingredients on the plate. Combined with coconut flavor and a dash of orange zest, being Roughy is the way to go. The Masamaum is another great yellow curry sauce with coconut, veggies and peanuts. The Panang sauce will also take you to the dark side. It includes red curry, creamy coconut and basil. I hope we get by now the sauces make the meal here, outstanding. Again you get so much food, you have another box to walk home with.
Overall: Ozeki Saki, Mini-​Sushi Rolls, Average Tasting Dim Sums, Flavorful Chinese and Thai Entrees. Amazing Thai Sauces, The Circle Menu, High Quantity of Food, and the Golden Gong… I will be back.

Showed up at 10:15, was told they close at 10. Window and all online hours said 11.
Woman showed me their menu, she’d drawn a zero over the one.
Person agreed to make something to go — add a star. I ordered a spring roll, got a raw, cold summer roll.
Disappointed.

Today I went to Golden Port with a crazy large group and we managed to get food in only an hour! Everything was good, but not great. On the other hand, the servers were great at getting new plates on the table and removing empty ones quickly!

Meh.
Golden Port Dim Sum’s menu spans not only every typical American Chinese restaurant, but also several other Asian countries. This is usually a bad sign.
After being a bit dubious of the menu choices, and coming here mostly to socialize after a movie, I opted for the bowl of hot/​sour soup and egg roll. Both options are typical of what you’d expect at every other Chinese restaurant. My choice did the job of giving me something to eat, but was nothing memorable. Given that there are many dim sum items on the menu, this is, I gather, the best way to order at Golden Port. You can order a traditional entrée – but I didn’t see anything on the table that I was interested in eating. Soup and egg roll are good choices when you don’t feel like eating but are being polite.
Service was prompt and totally un-​phased by our very large group. This is largely the reason that I round up to two stars. They seem to have a very active business – which I suspect is, in large part, due to the movie theatre down the street. Either that or the expectations for Chinese is very low in Rochester. Possibly both reasons. :)
In all, I would never go out of my way to go to Golden Port again. I might join others who want to eat here – but I’d order only soup, tea, etc.

I have come to the understanding that there are other better options in the City. A couple of days ago, I had a chicken dish (not fried) that was simply undercooked. I can’t believe I had to pay for it! I know it has been good in the past, but I don’t think I will be coming here again.

Golden Port is a great place to try out if you’re in the mood for Asian cuisine that will fill your belly and not put a whole in your wallet. The restaurant offers dim sum, sushi (House of Sushi connected), Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai dishes. The service has always been friendly. They have you circle what you want on the menu to prevent any miscommunication.
I really enjoyed the Thai dish I ordered last night, which was chicken and vegetables with a sweet peanut sauce. They used the perfect amount of sauce and I applaud them for that since many places tend to drown their dishes in it! I also had the chance to try the moo-​shu pork which was decent. The portions are huge and I always leave here with enough leftovers for another meal.
If I could, I would give Golden Port 3.5 stars. It’s definitely no Han Dynasty or Mission Chinese (NYC), but it’s still A-​OK in my book.

Okay they’re only getting four stars because they scorched my doggone curry beef turnovers… lol. These things are addictive, I usually take them home wrap them in red leaf lettuce leaves and devour them! OMG! If anyone finds a place that makes curry beef patties without the pastry… I will be eternally grateful. I have been trying to deconstruct this recipe since the first day that I had it. Trust me. with the pastry it’s absolutely sinful, I am just looking for healthier ways to indulge.
They have changed their hours and most days I go in get an order and I’m the only one there… hey not complaining just saying would hate for this place to go under because everyone is at the «trendy» spot. The staff here are always nice and my food is always piping hot and fresh… a lil too hot this time chef you scorched my pastry… lol. Probably just the diet fairy telling me to ditch the bread huh? Scorched it was still outstanding, the lettuce leaves are just what it needs. I have taken to calling these apps my Chinese Sliders… lol.
Enjoy.

General Rochester finding/​disclaimer: The Asian food I have had out here is quite sub-​par, so while I was not impressed, this place is supposed to have some of the best in the area.
Anyways, I just got takeout for lunch here and it was pretty meh. I ordered 2 items off the dim sum menu (veggie buns and pickled napa cabbage) and the hot and sour soup, which ran me about 9.50, which was fair.
The veggie buns: The best part of what I ordered, definitely could have used some sauce because they were a bit dense by themselves.
The hot and sour soup: Really meh. It was globby and like jelly, it was really strange. They did have some nice veggies (mushrooms, carrots, fresh scallions) so that was welcome, but still, not worth it.
The pickled napa cabbage: Odd. Just odd. The flavor on it took a bit of time to get used to, but after the first few bites, it was alright. The consistency was bit strange. I don’t know if I would order it again.
Overall, it was ok. The place is kinda dark inside and ordering over the phone was a hassle since the employee didn’t speak very good English. I just don’t think it will be worth the return visit.

Only for the spring rolls. They were 2/​$ 2 during best busker night. Moist chewy rice wrapper surrounding fresh basil, rice, veggies, served with a dark peanut dipping sauce with a swirl of sriracha on top, boom, delicious! A few shrimp would have put it over the top.

I live minutes away from Golden Port but don’t typically go there often. However, with Baked and Carved unexpectedly closed the night we were there, we decided to head to Golden Port right next door.
The restaurant was a little dim and full of (Eastman School?) students. The menu featured Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese (from the connecting House of Sushi) and build-​your-​own-​stir fry-​or-​soup options.
We had 2 people attending to our table — a very cheery server who didn’t speak English very well and a more reserved but still friendly manager who answered all our questions.
I asked our server if I could add lo mein to the Beef Ginger soup (Slices of beef simmered in a beef broth with Chinese greens (yu choy) and sliced ginger). She checked with the manager who said it wasn’t a problem (it cost $ 1 extra. totally worth it). My friend got the seafood phở. The server also convinced us to try the curry beef turnovers.
The food came out blazing fast. Oddly, the soups came out 15m before the turnovers. The seafood phở was okay. It wasn’t bad but my friend said he would rather go to SEA for his phở fix. My beef ginger soup was a lot better than I expected but the beef had an odd aftertaste (maybe it was boiled for too long). I fixed it by dipping every bite in Sriracha (a fix I apply to many weird tasting things.). The lo mein noodles were abundant and delicious.
The curry beef turnovers… well, they were so good, they deserve their own paragraph. They were palm sized circular pastries stuffed to the brim with well seasoned ground beef. With the right level of curry and a slight note of sweetness (and a tonne of onions), this was easily the star of the night. If all I had were the beef turnovers, I would give Golden Port 5 stars. It cost $ 3.95 for 2 pieces which is a little pricey but I would pay it again.
Golden Port and I will be crossing paths more often but I think it will be mostly for the curry beef turnovers. Next time, I think I will try the ‘build-​your-​own’ stir fried noodles.

Golden Port and House of Sushi have a monopoly on pan-​Asian food for the Eastman students and faculty, I imagine. The food is, for the most part, average. As is the ambiance: a little nicer than a take-​out joint, but not nice enough to sit down at before the RPO. The dim sum selection is impressive (made-​to-​order), although most of it is too greasy and lacks the weightlessness of real Dim Sum which needs to be airy, light and mildly flavored. The dumplings are pan fried to a crisp but the skin has a decidedly chewy texture, revealing its undercooked (cooked for too little time at a too-​high temperature) nature. They’d fare better by narrowing down the menu and choosing one theme and doing it well.

Golden Port falls into the common pitfall of trying to be some type of Pan Asian restaurant offering dishes from China, Japan and Thailand, which seldom works out. Why do I feel like I have written this review before? Probably because I have for a number of other Asian restaurants in Rochester which can’t seem to pick a single region or concept and stick with it.
The food is served a la carte rather than from the cart like in a traditional dim sum house. The shumai, haw go and egg rolls are all tasty but a bit greasy. I like the pork bun, the fried pork dumplings and the scallion pancake