Golden Time: Chinese barbeque in Richmond
Golden Time is a Chinese restaurant in Richmond that offers Chinese barbeque and meat skewers. The restaurant does not have a website, but they do have Instagram (@goldentimebbq).
I came here with my fiancé and 2 friends back in April (I know… still going through my backlog of places to review).
The vibe
For a table of 4, we were given a pretty large table (we were originally supposed to be 5 people). One side was booth seating but the booth is made of wood so it’s quite hard with little back support because the seat is deep as well. They have some cushions to sit on but they lowkey stick to the wooden bench.
They set our table with these cafeteria-looking lunch trays that have 3 separate compartments. You are supposed to try different seasonings and mixes in these 3 squares.
The table has a grill in the middle where it rotates your skewers and cooks them for you – this is pretty neat (but we also realize it takes awhile to cook 😅). The ventilation is not the best so be careful not to stick your face too close to the grill and also be careful of touching hot spots on the skewer when you remove the skewer from the rotating grill.
Food and drinks review
Here is a rough estimate of everything we ordered for 4 people. We ordered multiple rounds of skewers.
Sake ($6/shot)
Honestly I am not sure if it’s $6 a shot of sake because I forgot to take a photo of the drinks menu, but looking at blurry photos of their menu online (because they don’t have a website with an online menu 😒), the Gekkeikan sake for 150ml is $6. We thought it was a pretty good price so we ordered the sake twice.
I don’t drink sake for the taste, although every now and then I will find myself liking fruity or ice/cold sake. This one is hot and tastes like what I imagine horse urine on fire would taste like.
We also order a makkgeoli (Korean rice wine) for around $14.
Skewers ($2-7 each)
We order a variety of skewers. Here are some with the prices for each individual skewer:
- Lamb ($2.25)
- Black pepper beef ($1.95)
- Wagyu ($6.95)
- Pork belly ($1.95)
- Pork intestine ($1.95)
- Taiwan sausage – original or spicy ($3.75)
- Honey chicken wings ($3.95)
- Chicken gizzard ($1.95)
- Chicken knuckles ($1.95)
- Chicken and pineapple ($1.95)
- Mantou bread ($1.75)
The skewers were ok to me in general. They come basically raw so it does take awhile to cook and you may have to strategically place them as some skewers are bigger than others (ex. chicken wings). These skewers are often not seasoned because here you are supposed to dip it in your choice of seasonings from your tray.
The wagyu was decent but at almost $7 a skewer I don’t think it was really worth it. It just didn’t feel like a good use of wagyu, as we were also worried we would overcook our own wagyu skewer.
My favourites were probably the pork belly, honey chicken wings, and mantou bread (why is the bread always good 😂). I was pretty disappointed they didn’t have chicken skin because that is usually my favourite.
Cucumber ($10)
The cold cucumber dish is a must at Chinese bbq because you want something cold and refreshing to balance the hotness and spiciness of your skewers. The photo above only shows half a portion because they split it into 2 smaller plates for us so we don’t need to reach across the table (a pretty good portion!).
Grilled squid tentacles ($10)
Here we have a nice little plate of grilled bbq squid. It had a nice smoky bbq flavour to it that I liked, and it reminded me of the bbq squid a lot of people get at the Richmond Night Market.
Cheese corn ($12)
Kelvin is a sucker for cheese corn so we got it even though my mind is upset that it costs $12. They gave it to us in this little oven bake tray. The portion is actually good enough to share with 4 people and it was very hot – the cheese and corn went well together.
Grilled eggplant with garlic ($9)
The grilled eggplant came with a very impressive appearance because they slice it and open it up so it looks like a large fish filet. They score it and also season it very well with lots of garlic. Sharing it between 4 people, you will each get a pretty large cut of the eggplant, but I found it to be a little bit hard to eat because the piece is so big and I was trying to put it on my mantou bread skewer to eat it together.
Grilled oyster with garlic ($7)
Here we have 1 garlic grilled oyster (lots of garlic, as you can see). It was pretty good and the oyster itself is one of the larger ones. But at $7, I think I prefer eating raw oysters for $2.50.
Grilled garlic scallop ($7)
These grilled scallops are the same price as the grilled oyster, but I think they taste better and are more worth it. The thin vermicelli noodles soak up all that garlic flavour and then you have a big scallop to top it all of. I love that it is easy to eat as well.
Grilled beef bone marrow ($5)
We were intrigued by the bone marrow so we also ordered it and decided to share one between 2 people. The bone marrow is not spicy even though there is a chili pepper next to the menu item.
I think it’s kind of a hit or miss with the bone marrow, because depending on which part of the bone you get, you may get more or less bone marrow than another person. Mine had pretty little so when I spread it onto my mantou bread skewer, it was a dallop the size of a pea 😢.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️
I don’t think I can give Golden Time 3 stars because I think all the food is really average. Because of the way the entire place is set up (i.e. grill at your table, seasoning mix you choose yourself), I think the food just didn’t taste as good or was more bland. It was also more work and we were sweating trying to cook our skewers on their rotating grill 😅 (which in the beginning was cool to look at).
Prices are ok for a Chinese bbq place (they are never that cheap since everything adds up), but I just didn’t really feel like I got my value worth here compared to when I end up spending the same amounts at other Chinese bbq places like Happy Tree.
Recommended: Read my review of Happy Tree House, a Chinese barbeque restaurant in Burnaby.
Overall, I don’t think I would come back for Chinese barbeque or to drink here.
Sincerely, Loewe