Gourmet Carousel

Gourmet is right across the street from my job so as you can imagine my co workers and I are frequent customers.
The fast service and good food is what keeps us coming back. Take out is usually ready in 10 minutes which is great for a restaurant that is consistently busy.
I’ve had a couple food orders come out not that great and Gourmet had no problem offering a discount on my next order, which is something a lot of restaurants do not do.
Side note… after posting this review I scrolled down their Unilocal page and noticed a posting about a bad health safety score. Unfortunately, until this improves I have to give this place a break. Is this something businesses are suppose to post in their location to keep customers informed? If so, I for sure haven’t seen the notice posted in their restaurant. Sucks because I really did like Gourmet, BUT my health is way more important.

I have been here so many times, is it fancy? No. Is it expensive? No. it’s good Chinese YES. It’s walking distance the school that gave me my PHD in Human Sexuality. regard the health notice, it doesn’t scare me, I own restaurant & know what health Dept can do if you don’t kiss their asses. I am going there tomorrow with 20 Ladies from China one a billionaire, they love this place, THATS A BETTER RATING THAN 100 of us. TRUST ME

Terrible food. Not even the rice tasted good. Wish I had gone to Whole Foods across the street instead.

The egg rolls were crisp and delicious, but the sauce they come with is very sweet and looks like jam. The prawn and noodles tasted ok but there were only 3 – 4 prawns! The broccoli and oyster sauce had no flavor at all, was there supposed to be a flavor in the sauce? The Singapore noodles tasted fine, but had a strange crumbly texture. On top of that the bottle of Orangina I ordered was nearly impossible to open.

«Consumer Alert: Poor Food Safety Score!»
But that’s how you know the food is good and authentic…
I’ve been eating at Gourmet Carousel with my family for years now, and it is still one of the best places for some good old authentic chinese food. Of course they do have most of the generic Americanized food you will find at Panda Express (though don’t you dare compare these two places ever) but they also have tons of other dishes you’ve never heard Tobey Macguire pronounce in a Spider Man movie.
Many of the older clientele seems like they would frequent the Chinatown neighborhood of the city quite often (a good sign for those ‘authenticity’ points) and I’m often greeted at the door in Chinese which I don’t understand (another good sign — the language, I understand why they greet people). After awkwardly conducting my half of the ordering in English the food always comes out fast and with a smile. And it’s good food too, with pretty good portion sizes. I won’t pretend to know the names of my family’s favorites, and I’m definitely not going to attempt to spell them here, but if you have a friend who can order something other than chow mein or fried rice then definitely try it here! I’ve found a new-​found liking for their pickled mustard greens and squid over rice, something I never thought I would try before. I also love anything covered in black bean sauce and the salted fish fried rice.
If i’m ordering take out and budgeting my money, I can get 1 – 2 different dishes that will feed me for at least 2 – 3 days. Or, if you come with a lot of people, utilize that Lazy Susan and try lots of their dishes! The soups that I’ve tried are always good at warming you up, and the prices, though they have gone up with the rest of the city, still afford you some cheaper options that to me are well worth the price.
So be adventurous! Try something new! And always check your place setting to make sure it is clean!

Okay… I have yet to have any good takeout place around here in SF. :(half of the food we ate had either a weird after taste or just tasted funny itself… And long behold, I go on their Unilocal to look and they have a warning of being rated in the lowest 5% in health inspection in it’s area… Let’s just say, we didn’t finish half the food. Don’t wanna risk food poisoning, it just tasted really really off…
SWEET SOUR PORK: this is one of my favorite dishes. Some pieces tasted like it expired. It wasn’t crunchy. I thought maybe I had one bad piece. But ⁴⁄₅ pieces tasted really bad. Like not just «this restaurant must do it differently». No. It tasted BAD.
BITTER MELON: it was still really soggy. Flavor wise I think it tasted okay. But it wasn’t crunchy. Overall was too scared to finish the rest of it.
GARLIC EGGPLANT: my roommate said this tasted kind of old. But it seemed like the sauce could sort of mask it. I thought it wasn’t enough flavor even though it had a lot of sauce.
ROASTED DUCK: this was the only only dish that we kind of enjoyed. Still greasy like normal takeout. Pretty big portions…
Overall. This review is about how my roommate and I were too scared to eat the food here. I think if the food tasted fine, we wouldn’t have needed to go and read reviews and then freak out over the health notification. But the fact is that. The food tasted like it was expired. And then we read the health notification. Which lets us assume that the food is most likely and probably truly not good…

Consistently great Chinese food. Friendly service and great place for small groups too. Beef with fungus, Egg Foo Young (the best in the city), Crab, salt and pepper prawns, Hong Kong style pan fried noodles. Been going here for 20+ years. Parking may be a challenge, but if you time it right at 6pm, the no stopping lane on Franklin opens up!

cheap and fast! Love this place. I usually order the prawns & scrambled eggs over rice.

I really wanted to like this place. When we sat down the food looked good. We started with the potstickers, which were delicious. Then came the main course: The green beans were dry and salty, the chicken fried rice was made with little baby shrimp rather than chicken and also dry and tasteless. The orange chicken was way over cooked and the sauce tasted like it came from a can. The honey shrimp with walnuts was OK, and the tea was good.
The good: The people were friendly and the food was served in a timely manner. Don’t forget the potstickers, those were very good.

OK. I know. I’m trying to judge this place on 30 year old memories.
So I step back and try to look at it compared to «regular» Chinese restaurants.
Here’s what we had for dinner in a Saturday night.
Beef stew, tendon, taro in clay pot. Missing that star anise flavor, but meats were very tender.
On choy hom ha. Vegetable w/​shrimp paste.
Crispy and tender. Too many stems. Not nearly enough shrimp paste.
General Tso chicken. Light on flavor. Not crispy. Not sweet. Not spicey. Looked good. Good quantity.
House complementary soup. Good broth and nice melons. Pretty standard in many restaurants.
All in all, 3 stars.
Pretty crowded and a good mix of Chinese and Caucasian diners. Chinese contractor types too (usually a good indicator). About ⁵⁰⁄₅₀.
Would I come again?
I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way.
Prompt service and checked in often.
Maybe for a lunch special.

GC is your typical greasy spoon Chinese restaurant, so don’t come here for the ambiance or expect to be blown away by the food. This place is sort of hidden from all the commotion on Van Ness, tucked away in Lower Pac Heights, so it’s a place that services the locals that know of the establishment. I would say the food is decent and gets the job done.
The menu is pretty basic and has all your typical American Chinese food. Of course with all Chinese places there are items not on the menu that you can ask for, most Chinese people know this.
I would recommend this place to anyone that lives in the area and is looking for some quick and easy Chinese food.

Cheap and sometimes delicious.
Order delivery several times already. My favorite is their roasted duck with buns, super good! I can eat that all day lol
Fast service, good Chinese food for days that you don’t feel like cooking. I will most likely eat here again.

Had a gigantic feast here with my friends and I have to say it was pretty amazing. We had shrimp, clams, duck, fish, pork belly, and a few other dishes, and all of them were fantastic. I left way more stuffed than I had been in a really long time.
Thanks to Gourmet Carousel for a great dinner!

New favorite Chinese restaurant in SF! I came here to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and everything was fantastic – friendly and generous service, and every dish was delicious!
We got:
— Crab Meat and Corn Soup
— Peking Duck + Buns
— Pig Skin, Pork Belly, & Rice Noodles Clay Pot
— Pea Sprouts in Garlic Sauce
— Shrimp
— Fried Rice
— Clams
— Pork Pot Stickers
— Rock Cod
This is authentic Cantonese food; you can’t go wrong with the Chef Specials menu. The restaurant was very accommodating with our large party :) The menus are well-​designed and easy to read, and the restaurant owners were so nice. I’d highly recommend it!

I’ve been coming to this place for over 10 years and never been disappointed. Simply put… great value.

It’s alright i guess. it’s cheap, it’s suuuuper duper close by, has decent portions, and has a homemade (albeit mediocre) taste. Great if I don’t wanna cook. Not so great if I want a yummy nice authentic Cantonese meal.
I’ll give it a few more tries and see if anything sticks out to me.

Gourmet Carousel’s fried won ton soups are awesome!
Hung tao yee foo won ton soup (egg drop soup with imitation crab with fried won tons) — ⁴⁄₅ — This a slightly thicker soup, like most egg drop soups are. It comes with big chunks of imitation crab and a large back of fried won tons on the side (about a dozen). While you are supposed to dunk the won tons into the soup to soften and eat it, I like eating the fried won tons alone too!
Shredded duck meat yee won ton soup (shredded duck meat soup with fried won tons) — ⁵⁄₅ — I prefer this of the two, as the broth is very flavorful (and dark in color) and has little bits of duck. Do not expect big duck pieces like in Roast Duck won ton, it is all shredded. This also comes with large bag of fried won tons and used to dunk into the soup or eaten separately. I like that there is no bones in it and easy to eat.
Make sure you request yee won ton if you want them fried!

I swear this is one of my family’s go-​to restaurants for Chinese New Year celebrations, birthday or get togethers. My uncle really likes this place but for the most part, it’s pretty standard Chinese food.
I ordered the hot and sour soup here to compare to other restaurants and this one was more sour than anything. Barely spicy but definitely cleared whatever sinus issues I had!
Overall, we had a seafood claypot which was alright, the sweet and sour rock cod was interesting. I’d probably go with a salt and pepper rock cod next time. My favorite would probably be the birthday noodles which were yummy. The noodles were almost like hand-​pulled noodle consistency. Very chewy! Overall, I know my family enjoys this place but it’s just «okay» to me. Not somewhere I’d drive out of my way for.

Tried this place, as my mom recently tried it. She said it was ok and I would agree.
It has some pretty good weird selections, being away from from any of the Chinese communities. And it was pretty reasonably priced.
The one thing I liked was the peking duck. The buns were good and soft. And the flavor of the duck was pretty tasty.
It did seem like the majority of the food is a little on the salty side.

My husband and I have been enjoying the food here since about 1983. It’s not fusion or trendy, but it is excellent value, made to order and very good quality.
The menu is quite extensive. Black bean clams, ginger and green onion crab, lobster lo mein, fried chicken, minced squab in lettuce leaf, fried chicken, ma poh tofu, Peking duck, fried rice, soups, salt and pepper shrimp (with heads), chicken won ton, whole steamed fish, four season green beans are just a sample of our favorites.
Parking can be challenging, but the Van Ness end of the California Street cable car is only two blocks away. It is also walking distance to the opera house or symphony hall for a quick bargain pre-​performance meal. They also deliver.
I think eating here is one of the things my twins will miss most about going away for college.