**** Fung Fung Yuen is now Golden Island
Fung Fung Yuen opened this past summer (on the ever lucky 08/08) to quite a bit of hype and fanfare. My friends who visited soon after the initial soft opening told me the place really didn't live up to their expectations. So I waited about six weeks. We'd moved offices and was now a bit closer to the place. Three of us, Calvin, "BigD", and myself, made two visits, after which we decided to give it a rest.
The restaurant does remind me of those "Dim Sum Palaces" of my youth, a nice, rather large, space (formerly Hometown Buffet).
The place is set-up for larger "family style" parties.
During our visits, there only seemed to be 2-3 carts rotating at a time. During our first visit, we never saw the steamed dumpling cart, so no siu mai, har gow, etc. On both visits, we never saw any Cheong Fun.
I've decided to start with the best item we had; which coincidentally was actually ordered off the menu; the Roast Pork ($14.95).
The pork was moist, the skin, while a bit too thick was decent. A very nice dish overall.
A remote second was the tripe.
No off flavors, decently cooked, nice "crunch" the gooey sauce was a bit on the "sweet" side for my taste.
I think it's kind of sad that the two main reasons the Shrimp Siu Mai is number 3 was that it was hot and it wasn't overly tough.
The Soy Sauce Noodles was on the colder side, a bit greasy and overcooked.
Sticky Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf was barely past warm.
The rice was nice and tender, though the pork was really tough.
One look at the Har Gow and you can tell this wasn't going to be very good.
Dried out wrappers, hard and overcooked shrimp.
The Eggplant stuffed with shrimp was quite cold and greasy.
That sauce which was cold really didn't help matters.
The Ham Sui Gok, the fried glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with pork was also cold, thus the dumpling had become rather gummy. Check out the (lack of) filling, which was cold and tough.
The Bean Curd roll was at least served at a decent temperature. But the strips of vegetables were cut too thick and was undercooked.
Calvin just wanted the Xiao Long Bao.
Looking at the photo; you can kinda figure things out; cold, no soup, really thick, hard wrappers.
And yet, there was something even worse than the XLB; the Pearl Balls, these made with shrimp.
Cold, tough, some of the rice was just plain hard.
There's obviously some kinks to work out here.....things like keeping your product at a decent temp in the carts.....which, by the way, only made one pass, and then was gone. It was a rather unsatisfying two meals. I'm hoping they get things straightened out. I'm hoping they work things out. Folks were telling me how busy the place was, but on our first visit the place was one-third full, on our second even less.
For balance, please check out Kirbie's and Faye's posts.
Fung Fung Yuen
10660 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126
:(
Posted by: kat | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 12:03 AM
Very sad Kat.
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 06:47 AM
What time did you visit? Place sounds like a buffet between meal times...
Posted by: Soo | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 07:38 AM
1130 am Soo......lunchtime.
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 08:00 AM
We drove by around the first two weeks, saw the line and tried Hong Kong BBQ in the same lot, which was also overcrowded. Sad it isn’t good; always looking for an easy quick meal in that area that isn’t a chain.
Posted by: Cathy | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 09:19 AM
The XLB scene in San Diego is bleak. But that's the first time I've heard of cold XLB being served. Yikes!
Posted by: Junichi | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 09:29 AM
Hopefully they'll improve Cathy.
With no soup Junichi!
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 09:40 AM
Thanks for the review, we also drove by during the hype period but were scared away by the crowds. Never got around to going back, so thanks! This is one of the reasons we go to China Max which is ordered, you never know how long the items have been on the carts.
Posted by: Jason | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 10:27 AM
Oh nooooo (that's what I kept whispering to myself with each look of your food photos). The roast pork looked great but everything else - gosh - yikes. Was Calvin able to see the XLB before the server placed it on the table?
Posted by: Faye | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 10:48 AM
Hi Jason - We were really surprised at how mediocre the food and handling of the food was.
He was Faye.....but he was also determined to get that.
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 12:03 PM
It all looks...deficient.
Do you prefer carts or ordering off menu? I love the idea of carts but I'm always anxious I won't get something I crave. OTOH, ordering off a menu just seems so antiseptic, though I know I'll get what I want.
Posted by: James | Tuesday, 10 October 2017 at 08:43 PM
Hi James - There's something quite nostalgic about cart service, but we're definitely in the menu camp.
Posted by: Kirk | Wednesday, 11 October 2017 at 07:17 AM
yikes, your food looks so much worse than when I visited the first weekend. I've been hesitant to go back since I thought things were just okay and overpriced on my first visit. Hopefully one of these days we'll get a dim sum place to be excited about.
Posted by: Kirbie | Monday, 16 October 2017 at 10:40 AM
Hi Kirbie - Yeah, our two visits were quite disappointing.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 16 October 2017 at 01:32 PM
Looks like things have gotten slightly better? I went this past weekend and while food is only so-so it looks like they do have temperatur under control, at least for dinner service.
Posted by: Jon W. | Tuesday, 24 October 2017 at 07:00 PM
I'm hoping they have Jon. Or perhaps it might be a dinner thing? I'm going to wait a while to revisit. Hopefully they'll have things straightened out by then.
Posted by: Kirk | Wednesday, 25 October 2017 at 06:59 AM