Come enjoy a savory meal at Golden Bell Thai Restaurant. They are open after-hours from Monday to Saturday and are conveniently reachable by car. Payments by Visa, MasterCard and American Express are recognized.
I loved the food at Golden Bell. Newmarket has a lot of Thai restaurants and while most of them are good, I feel this one greatly stands out as the best. They have a very inexpensive lunch menu and a quaint dining room if you don't opt for take-out. The service is nothing spectacular as far as dining in goes but it is passable. I will make this my first choice for Thai food.
My boyfriend and I decided to check this place out after reading nothing but 5-star reviews obtained from performing a Google Map search to see what restaurants were in the Newmarket area.
(Let's just say I should have came to Restaurantica first!)
Summary:
The Good: fresh ingredients
The Mediocre: taste, dishes served lukewarm
The Bad: service - no dishes were cleared from our table
The place was packed when we arrived. Luckily we got the last table out of about no more than 10 tables. We were seated at a table suitable for 4, so we had more than enough dining space - or so we thought.
Our dining experience started off with complimentary shrimp chips that came with a warm peanutty dip. We ordered 3 appetizers (2 soups, 1 spring rolls dish) and 2 entrees, which was way too much food for the both of us - oops! We quickly ran out of table space as the dishes accumulated. Unfortunately, the waitress did not clear any of the finished dishes from our table throughout the evening. We had to pile our dishes to make more space. She only came back to our table to give us the bill.
The soups (Tom Yam Hed and Hot & Sour) were 'okay'. We've definitely had better. The temperature was lukewarm, not steaming, but the portion size was generous for the "Small" size. My Hed (mushroom) soup was very watery in texture, while my boyfriend's Hot & Sour soup was a little too gooey. I liked the sweet chilies of my Hed soup, but wished the mushroomed were sliced and not left whole. I wouldn't order these again.
The "veggie" spring rolls were served hot and fresh. However, the only vegetable I could see was shredded carrot - just a sea of orange. I couldn't taste anything else; maybe some invisible cabbage somewhere. The sweet n' sour dipping sauce was definitely more on the sweet side... a bit too sweet - almost like maple syrup. I'm more accustomed to plum dipping sauces with a bit of heat from other thai restaurants.
The Pad Thai was nothing special; it was actually substandard to other pad thai noodles I've had elsewhere. Our dish came with 2 shrimps and 2 or 3 pieces of chicken, which is quite skimpy. The raw shredded red cabbage on the side was generous though, but not something I typically see on pad thai dishes.
The Green Curry Chicken with steamed rice was decent. It was on the sweet-side; we were forewarned about this by the waitress. My boyfriend wasn't a fan, but I absolutely love basil and coconut so I preferred this over the Pad Thai. It was interesting to see cabbage used in this dish, but I appreciated it.
Overall, I was expecting a lot more from this restaurant... especially from all the 5-star reviews it received. I really tried to give it a chance and like it, but the dishes and service fell short. I "might" return again to try other dishes, but I would not go out of my way to eat here.
I love Thai food! And I thoroughly enjoy the food here. The place is a little scary from the outside, but it's really cute once you get inside! My new favourite local Thai restaurant. I always recommend it to friends.
Food was average. Mango salad was great compared to the rest of my food. Like any other thai place I have been to, nothing special and not in a hurry to return.
My wife and I went for dinner at the Oakland Hall Restaurant on Sat.17 Dec. It was are Wedding Anniversary. Well I must say we had a wonderful dinning experience.We have lived close to this place but felt it was'nt for us ,boy were we wrong.
The food was amazing. My wife's favarite is Lobster,so we bough had Surf and Turf.We had caesar salads and a bottle of wine which was recommended by the Waiter.
The staff were courteous and made us feel at home.There was a piano Bar in the next room, so we checked it out and will go back just for that. I would recommend this restaurant to anybody looking for a great place to eat and be enterained
Peter C
