The Golden Monkey Cafe

On the south side of Goshen there is an Asian restaurant that has something different to offer than all of the others around town; The Golden Monkey on Lincolnway is serving up Vietnamese food and proving that not all Asian food is the same. I started out with ordering a water ( I try not to drink my carbs or calories!), but The Golden Monkey has a large variety of bubble teas and bubble tea smoothies to offer. We had an appetizer of egg rolls, we still aren't sure how these tasty morsels ended up at our table, because we didn't order them, or at least not intentionally, but I like to chalk it up to divine intervention. These egg rolls were Delicious, they were smaller than a traditional egg roll, but packed a lot of flavor, the wrapper was thinner than I have ever had which made them incredibly crispy, and the filling was not overstuffed with cabbage, but had a nice balance of carrots, pork, and rice noodles as well. These egg rolls immediately shot to the top of my list and are my new favorites!

As I looked over the menu, the sweet and sour chicken was yelling my name, but I decided that since this was my first time in a Vietnamese restaurant and eating Vietnamese cuisine, I should go with something I hadn't tried before. I chose the Vietnamese sub, that had a wonderful picture of marinated pork with pickled carrots, cucumbers, and mangoes, all topped with cilantro, but was sadly informed that they were out of pickles, a shame, but I wanted to try the sub just the same. My sandwich came out with two different kinds of meat, one of which I knew was pork, the other I wasn't sure about, and mayo, which I have NEVER in my life eaten before and was hesitant about; but I ate it anyway. The sandwich was good, but the sauce on the pork was very sweet and could have used the pickles to cut through it. While I was in the bathroom my husband asked our waitress what the second kind of meat was on my sandwich, and it was bologna, fried bologna, something else I have NEVER eaten in my life, so this sandwich was a new experience for me in many, many ways, and it was a good one! I will warn, though, that this sandwich has an unreal amount of garlic, as in I am still tasting it and my mom could smell it on me when we picked up our little man three hours later. And yes, those are more egg rolls on my plate, I got them instead of fries!

I was a little disappointed that my husband ordered a burger, the Unique Burger to be exact, but it had cheese and jalapenos and that is all he needed to know. He said the burger was good, but a little spicy, which means something coming from him. He got french fries on the side of his sandwich which he was delighted to find were hand cut and seasoned with something more than regular salt (I'm thinking Lawry's). With hot tea, egg rolls, two sandwich combos (one with fries and one with egg rolls), and a tip our bill was still under $25, so definitely affordable. If you have some family members who are hesitant to try Vietnamese food, or anything new, you will be delighted to find that The Golden Monkey has many American options and also serves breakfast. My hubby also found out from our waitress that they are working towards changing into more of an Asian fusion restaurant, so there are definitely exciting things to come from this already delicious restaurant.