Golden Flower Restaurant

Well, this was an adventure.

I ventured into Chinatown, in search of interesting dessert-drinks.  I didn't want more bubble tea, but decided I wanted to go for Vietnamese style desserts, masquerading as drinks.  I settled on Golden Flower Restaurant, based on the variety of drinks on the menu, and ease of ordering online.

I can't say it was a success.  And it was certainly a bit troubling re: food safety and prep ...

Curb Appeal.

Golden Flower is located in Chinatown, on Jackson Street.  From across the street, it looks like most other places nearby, with a not-too tacky awning highlighting the "Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine".

Signage.

Once I got closer, it got more interesting.

In addition to menus, with pictures, the storefront was covered in signs with different ladies on them.  Why?  I have no idea.  No idea at all.

I went inside to find a small restaurant, with only one table occupied.  I had placed my order in advance through the Ritual app, but it wasn't ready yet.  I was not really comfortable waiting inside, as they were all staring at me.

Flowers mask *everything*.

I ventured to the bathroom while I waited for my order, which took me through the kitchen, where I watched someone dump bean sprouts from a plastic bag into a bowl ... on the dirty wet floor.  The kitchen was stocked with all frozen/packaged/canned components.  The cleanliness was a bit concerning, as was the fact that you certainly aren't getting fresh food here.  I looked up the health score later to see they had a 79, with ... "foods not protected from contamination", "inadequate ventilation", and "improper cooling methods", among others, none of which surprise me in any way.

The bathroom too was an adventure.  The floor was soaking wet.  It smelt bad (yup, ventilation), and not in the sewer sense.  The door was covered in graffiti, but at least there were some fake flowers there to help offset?

Cleaning Wash?!

Hanging on the wall in the bathroom was a shower caddy, with a container of cleaning wash (?) and a bag of dried things.

Everything about this place concerned me.

Packaging.

My order was handed over once I got back upstairs, by some not exactly friendly ladies.  I quickly exited.

I laughed a little inside when I was handed a standard Coke paper cup, with a boba straw, with a spoon sticking out the top.  Quite practical, actually, I'd want the boba straw to suck things up, and I'd want to spoon to fish things out, but I can't say I was expecting this packaging.

Chè ba màu. $3.75.

"3 colors bean."

I opened the lid to find a bunch of ice chunks (not cubes, but certainly not crushed), floating on top of some separated coconut cream.  The cream really was super chunky and odd.  I can't say it looked appealing.

I tried a sip.

Yup, it was ... just chunky separated coconut cream, with ice that I was slightly worried about being foodsafe, given their kitchen ...

Red Beans.

I dug in with the spoon.

And found mostly red beans.  Lots of adzuki beans.  They were likely from a can, and just dumped in, there was lots of red bean syrup in there as well.

It took some searching to find any of the other mix-ins, and for a while, I actually thought that they gave me the wrong order, and just gave me the Dau Bo Nuoc Dua (red bean with coconut milk).

Finally, a found a few small yellow mung beans.  There were very few.

All the beans were soft and fine, but like I said, I'm pretty sure they were just dumped in from a can, and they were majority red beans.

But that is just "2 colors bean" ... where is the third?  What was the third?

Green Jelly.

After much, much searching, I finally found some green jellies.  Not beans, but, che often has pandan noodles or jellies, to add the third *color* rather than third *bean*, so, this looked promising.

They tasted like ... nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  No hint of pandan.  Not even sweet.  They were, uh, jellies?  And like I said, not many.

This really just wasn't a quality creation.  Canned products, dumped together, in bad ratios.  And why was that coconut cream so chunky?  The result was just a overly sweet, yet bitter from all the red beans, mess.  I ended up thinning it out, mixing it up well, adding taro powder, and topping with whipped cream to find some enjoyment, but I certainly wouldn't order this again.