Goldenbox Express Full of Surprises or Disappointments? - CLOSED

Goldenbox Express

21212 Bake Parkway Unit C and D

Lake Forest, CA 92630

If there's one thing I've learned in the past 12 months, it's that some foods are conducive to takeout and many others are not. We've gotten meals from high-end steakhouses that we have enjoyed and were left underwhelmed when we brought them home. French fries don't travel too well either, and they are never quite the same when reheated. Seafood is also a little dicey to bring home, but the worst traveling food by far is naturally ice cream. 

However, many foods travel like champs. Pizza, Mexican food, and hamburgers come to mind right away. You could also add Chinese food to that list. The Chinese takeout container is so iconic that it could not be left off this list of the best takeout foods. I had been feeling like some Chinese food after a long-overdue haircut. A quick Yelp search led me to GoldenBox Express, which had some promising reviews. 

Strike one with my visit to Goldenbox was that they did not answer their phone when I tried to call in my order at half past 11 on a Thursday morning. This is one of my biggest pet peeves about getting takeout. I shy away from using third-party delivery services, as they cut into restaurant profits way more than they should. If restaurants don't answer the phone, it tells me they don't really want my business or would rather I order through a delivery service. 

Undeterred, I soldiered on my quest to have Chinese food for lunch and drove the fifteen minutes to Goldenbox, situated on the corner of Bake Parkway and Trabucco Road. This cramped parking lot was teeming with many people getting an early jump on their lunch from one of the other food offerings at this location; Subway, El Pollo Loco, and Kanji Japanese. I ordered and then waited 25 minutes for my to-go order. Strike two. 

The menu at Goldenbox is dominated by a wide array of bento combination meals. They list 15 on their menu. There are also plenty of single items to choose from, many that you've come to expect at your local Chinese takeout spot, to a little more exotic stuff like duck legs, sea bass, yellow croaker, and pigs feet. Nothing on their menu will set you back any more than $20, and they also have a wide selection of teas, smoothies, and other beverages available. Let's see if they can make up for not answering their phone or the long wait for the food. 

Before we get to my bento meal, I needed to try their Orange Chicken ($12.99). Everyone loves the orange chicken from Panda Express, but I need to tell you that there are better versions out there, and this was one of them. This good-sized portion relied on something other than an overly sweet and syrupy sauce. It was more subtle, with a big orange flavor contrasting nicely with the tender chicken. Each piece of chicken had a nice crunch, which was a feat in itself since the breading here was lighter than most versions of orange chicken I've ever had. This had temperature issues (something that will become a trend as you read deeper into this review). 

Bento boxes are the way to go at Goldenbox Express; as you can see, you get an entire meal for the same price as most of their single-item entrees. This Combo H2 ($16.99) is the one that piqued my interest. It came with a sweet-skinned duck leg, spicy Szechuan chicken, a whole bunch of egg-fried rice, honey balsamic salad, and a drink. Let's start out with the proteins. There were five duck legs in here, and the meat was pretty solid, but there wasn't much of it. The chicken was ice cold when I got it home, but it was much better after half a minute in the microwave. There was some spice with this, but I could go up a spice level on future visits. The abundance of peanuts added an earthiness that detracted from the tender chicken. The egg fried rice is one of the lightest you will find anywhere. It lacked the greasiness that others possess. The salad was a spring mix topped with quinoa and a vinaigrette. I used some of it but switched to the blue cheese in my fridge midway through. Last but not least, this meal was rounded out with a strawberry green tea, which I found a bit too sweet, as I'm more of a black tea with no sugar kind of guy. 

Goldenbox Express showed some promise on this visit, but there were too many miscues for me to rate them too high based on this one visit. Would I go back? Yes, they may have been having a bad day with not picking up their phone, how long I waited for my order, and the almost unforgivable temperature issues with the food. Even with all of this, this was elevated Chinese takeout, lighter than most, and not relying on overly sweet sauces to distract you from the inferior meat that they use. I'll try their online ordering process the next time I am up this way. This is another example of one of the biggest lessons I've learned during these last twelve months, all takeout is not created equal.   

Out of five helmets (because Lake Forest is home to the largest public skatepark in all of California, but you need a helmet to use it), five being best to zero being worst, Goldenbox Express gets 2.5 helmets. 

For more information about Goldenbox Express, head to their website here: https://goldenbox.us/