Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: November 2nd, 2006
Golden Pagoda Resaurant, Chinatown, Los Angeles, 1975
This is, in no uncertain terms, my favorite pagoda in all of Los Angeles. Golden yellow paired with Chinese red and Buddha blue trim have never looked so good together! Even the Kirin sponsored Chinese lanterns match!
The Golden Pagoda Restaurant isn’t the centerpiece of Chinatown, but it certainly is the crowning touch. Except for the name, which has been changed to Hop Louie, it looks virtually the same today as it did when it opened in 1941. It’s one of the many kitsch-cultural stops on my “Disneyland” tour of downtown tour this weekend and next. Standing in front of it is like being in a dream. (No, not the kind you get after eating too much Chinese food!)
When you walk in the door off to the left is the lounge should you desire an exotic cocktail before you saunter up the staircase to the second floor where you will find the most spectacular mid-century Chinese modern dining room on earth! If Lucy and Ethyl ever went for Chinese food this is where they would go.
No updated Chinese restaurant menu here. Oh no! They still serve 1950s style Chinese food. Entrees are served drowning in red, white, or brown goop. It reminds me of the authentically unauthentic Chinese food that I grew up eating at the Yangtze in Ontario, CA. When in doubt you can’t go wrong with the egg drop soup.
The best table in the house is the only table actually in the Pagoda. Recently, I asked the hostess “How may does the booth in the pagoda seat.” She looked me up and down and said “eight heavy-set people!” Well, I thought “no second helpings of sweet and sour pork for me!”
Here’s to the Golden Pagoda, Chinatown and YOU!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
November 2006
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Los Angeles
8 Comments on “Golden Pagoda Resaurant, Chinatown, Los Angeles, 1975”
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November 3rd, 2006 at 5:04 pm
hop louie’s has the best mai tais in town!!
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Oh Charles; your discriptions of the places in
these slides make them so inticing. After read-
ing about the Golden Pagoda I feel a need to
go eat there one of these days. And then after reading the fortune cookie words add ‘between
the sheets.’
November 6th, 2006 at 5:34 am
That sounds like a neat place to visit. I hope to go there someday and try the food.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:43 am
I can smell the tea and hear the crinkle of the fried noodle take out bags now.
RIP Jerry
November 27th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
When I was a kid, and before Thai food & 99cent Chinese food was on every mini-mall corner, my family would dress up and we would wind down the 110 frwy from Pasadena for a monthly Chinatown visit and for dinner at the Golden Pagoda. There was a beautiful chinese woman, in silk dress, who would play the synth piano in the downstairs bar while we waited for a giant round table complete with lazy susan to be free upstairs. My fav part was her wind-up mechanical monkey that would clack symbols together (oh and the Shirely Temple drinks!). The food was greasy and we felt very international. Then we would walk around the ailing Chinatown (ailing even in the mid-70’s) and I could buy a treat. Sweet memories of the big-gone era. I hope that area has a resergence (aside from hipster artists).
December 30th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Maybe I always catch this place at a bad time, but normally I’m like one of 3 people in the entire restaurant, and “spectacular” is not the word I’d pick for the dining room.
September 9th, 2007 at 11:01 am
is this the same restaurant that was in the a-team episode called the maltese cow?
May 18th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Joel, yes, this is the same restaurant in the named A-Team episode.