Golden Diner
123 Madison St.
New York, N.Y.
I am not immune to brunch propaganda. As I come up on almost a year in NYC, all my algorithms seem to have caught on to the fact that the best way to get engagement from me is to show me all the places I could go for my favorite meal of the week. So when my friend Bradley asked if I wanted to go to brunch somewhere neither of us had ever been before, I had multiple suggestions, including Chinatown’s Golden Diner, known for their light-handed, Asian-inspired twists on diner classics.
Brunchers beware: I’m far from the only person to fall prey to Golden Diner’s mouthwatering social media presence.
Bradley and I arrived at 11 a.m. on a Sunday, an hour after opening, and were met with a 90-minute wait to get seated.
The delay kicked off an impromptu exploration of the surrounding area, during which I tried an intriguing corn latte from nearby Cafe Round K by Sol. We were getting tempted to try their food too, but thankfully the text summoning us back to the diner came in before we lost our resolve.
The interior looked more or less like a traditional diner with an inviting white counter, tables, and metal chairs. We were seated in the heated outdoor patio section, which bustled with other 20-somethings while we were there.
The menu comes in at a manageable four pages with ample white space between dishes and sections, and a variety of vegan options. The service was impressively fast and well worth the wait.
First up was the Yuzu Palmer ($14), a hard version of their Yuzuade which adds darjeeling-flavored soju, bitters, and a slice of Yuzu peel for garnish. Between sips, Bradley and I could not help but excitedly inform each other of how perfect a beverage it was. A standard Arnold Palmer is already an elite combination (AriZona’s $1 tall boy cans of it basically got me through high school and college), but Golden Diner’s take was a unique and refreshing elevation of the beverage I know and love.
Up next were the Golden Cheeseburger ($18) and Korean Fried Chicken Wings ($17). The Golden Cheeseburger is mostly a standard diner cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle, with a creamy mushroom gochujang sauce that was the star of every bite. A healthy amount of the sauce was spread right between the underside of the bun, making the burger a little bit slip-n-slide‑y to eat. A toothpick could’ve helped this otherwise fantastic burger stay together while it was being devoured.
The wings were huge and juicy, and made a deeply satisfying crunch with each bite. They were generously sauced up with garlic gochujang glaze that was full of flavor and packed quite a punch. Compared to other gochujang sauces I’ve had, this one leaned more savory and spicy than sweet, making the wings an ideal pair for the main event: Golden Diner’s Honey Butter Pancakes.
Reels of Golden Diner’s Honey Butter Pancakes ($15) are what put the restaurant on my radar, and also what persuaded Bradley to choose it over my other suggestions, since (and I quote:) “That reel makes me somehow feel like my soul is also covered in honey maple butter.”
Between their distinctive shape (thicker in the middle and tapering off toward the edges, like a frisbee), distinctive thickness (approaching a full inch), and distinctive glow (from the honey maple butter), these irresistible pancakes seemed to make their way onto every table in the patio, including ours.
The pancakes did not disappoint. Each bite felt like I was sinking my teeth into a sweet, fluffy cloud, with the pancakes themselves providing the same blissful mouthfeel both around the edges and at the center. They were moist, airy, and put just about every other pancake I’ve had to shame. Their pancakes even made me think critically about the role of the pancake’s centuries-old companion, maple syrup.
Traditional maple syrup is heavy, rich, and easily absorbed, which can cause even the fluffiest pancake to become soggy over time, and often necessitates frequent re-syruping of the lower pancakes in a stack. Pancakes that have already absorbed syrup become slimy, gross, and don’t make for very good leftovers, which is a shame given that diners often serve more pancake than a person can handle in one sitting.
Golden Diner’s honey maple butter, notably not a syrup, ingeniously circumvents all of these pancake problems. Their two-stacks are doused in the stuff, but instead of sitting and getting absorbed by the top pancake, it lightly glazes the upper pancake, slides down the sides and pools around the bottom of the stack, partially submerging the lower pancake. The absorption rate is much lower than syrup, so we were able to cut pieces from the upper pancake and dip them in the honey maple butter pooling around the lower pancake without ever running out. Then, by the time we got to the lower pancake, it had only lightly absorbed the butter, which did not significantly impact its fluffiness. Even on a reheat a few hours later, the pancake was still impressively cloudlike.
I believe Golden Diner has cracked the code to optimal pancake-syrup distribution, with the surprising secret to success being not to use syrup at all. This was one of multiple light touches that transformed an ordinary diner brunch into an extraordinary culinary experience. Perhaps Sam Yoo, the chef and owner, has the Midas touch.
Golden Diner is open 7 days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Up Next For Me: I’m planning to see Public Obscenities at Theater For A New Audience.
