Golden Chopstix Vietnamese & Thai Restaurant

Destination restaurant. I have teen to many of these types of restaurants over time and the best of the best with in 100 miles is Lang Van in Charlotte. Now to this place. Lunch was $35 bucks for two. 2 waters and one hot tea. The back bone to this food is PHO. The soup broth. Failed big time. Plenty of ingredients. ...but no cigar. This place is located next to hell. So it has to be worth the ride. Not. Service was good but it was the owners wife. Double dipping. Like owner and bar tender. .....sux. and should be never. Rice paper spring roll was a piece of art. But the pork smelled old. I cook alot of this food myself. It is an art. It takes time, class and love to make the PHO. Sorry to say....some one here is divorce art school drop out.

The spring rolls are to die for ! The best I have ever eaten! The fried rice dishes are awesome but my favorite is the Vietnamese beef buns ! Fresh food done right !

Kind of like going over a friends house to eat. Five of us had lunch on a Saturday and we were one of three tables there. Two staff were working the restaurant and I wouldn't be surprised if the put aprons on and cooked the food, too.

About five minutes after pacing our orders I asked if we could have our tea now and the man said he'd bring it out when it had brewed sufficiently. I had a paradigm switch at that moment. This was a place where everything was made to order, even the tea.

Three of us had green curry, one had red curry, and another had fried rice. We asked for medium but I'd get the hot next time. All in all the food was good and I don't know the value as someone else picked up the tab.

Great thai food. Simply put, they have great Thai food. If you like authentic food at reasonable prices, give them a shot. I can't vouche for the rest of their menu but their pad thai was excellent. I drove by there everyday on my way to class and gave them a shot. Not your typical Asian grease stop. If their vietnamese is as good as Pho Viet on Decker, I will let you guys know. The one in 5-points' menu is lacking...

Rice, Spice, and Everything Nice. Today, the Lunchmen took a crowd of seven across the river to that strip mall at the end of Knox Abbott that looks like a colonial plantation fallen on hard times. Once there, we were in for some of the best Thai cuisine Columbia has to offer.

I'm surprised about how many people in Columbia have not heard of Golden Chopstix. Big Spur came with us to lunch today, and even though he has been around Columbia longer than in-door plumbing, the name was unknown to him. Check out the picture of the goodness that has just been waiting on him to show up. He liked it so much that he claimed that he would come back for dinner, by himself if necessary. I was impressed by Big Spur, considering last time that I convinced him to go for a lunch featuring curry, albeit Indian curry, he swore off all food from the sub-continent.

Golden Chopstix serves up traditional Thai and Vietnamese dishes that will tickle your palate with rice, spice, and everything nice. Their spring rolls are fresh and delicious. The soup selection is amazing - I highly recommend a bowl of the Tom Kha Kai Chicken for a comforting fall dish. Whether you order Vietnamese noodles, one of the many Thai curry dishes, or an standard such as fried rice, you really can't miss with this menu.

We were accompanied by the Dude at lunch today, who was not too shy to order an appetizer of spring rolls before tackling a mean order of Shrimp Pad Thai. That is a bold and respectable move. The Dude was pleased, which is significant because he is the resident expert on Asian food in our midst. Tex had Pad Thai as well, placing his order for "medium" heat. For a man that likes heat, "medium" doesn't quite cut it at Golden Chopstix. He and I both had to add a little red pepper to our dishes to give that extra kick that makes Thai food such a wake up call at lunch. I was glad that the Queen of Frozen Cuisine also came out today to see how good an Asian dish can be when it has not been frozen for months inside a wee plastic box. She had some Pad Kee-Mao that rocked her frozen, plastic world.

If Thai and Vietnamese sound too exotic for you, you can be a sissy and order some fried rice or a teriyaki dish. I only ask that if you do go this route, man up and order a Laotian beer for lunch. They've got Beerlao at Golden Chopstix; according to Beerlao, their brew "is made with only the choicest ingredients, like hand-picked indigenous rice varieties, spring water originating from the foothills of the Himalayas, Hallertau hops, German yeast and French malted barley." I can neither confirm nor deny these allegations, because I simply had a pot of green tea at lunch.

Before you pass judgment on me, know that I rectified this mistake on the way back Uptown by swinging into Vella's with Tex, Rabbit, and the Publican and grabbing a cold Sam Adams Octoberfest at the bar. Friday lunch is a great institution, and that's the way to do it, my friends.