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!
Ha! My mother and grandmother took me to the Golden Pagoda when I finished elementary school. Gee…that was over 40 years ago. I think I will take my niece and her boyfriend tonight before we go to the Orpheum Theatre to see the silent movie Safety Last. They love old things.
Was there just last night! The start of Chinese New Year! 2011! Definitely a walk into the past! Like time stood still here! So Fun! And yes, the food hasn’t changed much! So many years past, my Dad work as a bartender just across the way at Grandview Gardens, the building now gone! But the sign is still there in amazingly good condition! (unaware of the absent building!) Love strolling down Gin Ling Way, so nostalgic!
there is a photo on the stairs going up to hop louie restaurant of Marilyn Monroe.
it is an ‘original’ (taken by the owner as she was descending the stairs after dinner in 1950′s).
check it out next time.
Growing up in Long Beach the 1960s, a trek up to the Golden Pagoda in Chinatown was truly a special occasion. Whenever we had relatives or friends visiting from out-of-town, dinner at the Golden Pagoda was on the agenda. I had my ‘going away to college’ party there in 1983. My mother’s favorite was the “fried chicken” – served with a finger bowl in those days! – It was delicious (and greasy) I’ve never been in another ‘Chinese’ restaurant that served anything like it.
I still take my family there for Sunday lunch once in a while, if we are downtown – its now called Hop Luie’s. The decor is a bit worn down now, but it is still a fun place to eat – especially with all those memories.
Joel, yes, this is the same restaurant in the named A-Team episode.
is this the same restaurant that was in the a-team episode called the maltese cow?
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.
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).
I can smell the tea and hear the crinkle of the fried noodle take out bags now.
RIP Jerry
That sounds like a neat place to visit. I hope to go there someday and try the food.
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.’
hop louie’s has the best mai tais in town!!