RESTAURANT REVIEW : Divulging Secrets of Far East Found in Downtown Oxnard : Upstairs establishment provides dated atmosphere. A satisfying meal is offered, but stay away from fried stuff.

It seemed, from the outside, that this was one of those old, traditional, chop suey and chow mein joints. The sort of place that used to be what Chinese food was all about--before we knew there was food in China that wasn’t Cantonese.

And for years I had driven down Oxnard Boulevard and looked up at the second story of the old brick building that had a sign on it saying Golden Chicken Inn.

Now, finally, I have climbed the uneven, cracked linoleum stairs next to the run-down bar downstairs, and can divulge the secrets of the Far East that reside upstairs at the Golden Chicken Inn in Oxnard.

The atmosphere is just what I’d hoped it would be. There’s a large display case at the top of the stairs with candy bars. The room is a large one and on the sides are small, private rooms with thin walls, much too thin for any kind of assignation but high enough to be cozy. Myself, I like the tables out in the open, especially the one next to the window, looking down over the action on the boulevard.

On the tables, the bottles of hot sauce are not covered with Chinese characters. Rather, they are labeled Tapatio. Perhaps borrowed from the bar downstairs when Eric Ng, the Golden Chicken proprietor, went down to ask them to please turn the jukebox down. The loud wails of mariachi music are not quite in keeping with Chinese cuisine.

Ng, by the by, is the fourth owner since the place was opened in 1929. There’s some longevity here.

The food, you say? Much better than I’d expected, though there are some problems. Maybe the food is tastier because I enjoy the dated atmosphere so much, or perhaps because I like the idea of pouring Tsing Tao beer into pink plastic glasses.

First rule at the Golden Chicken: stay away from the fried stuff. I think the oil has been around too long. The flavor of the pan fried noodles, for instance, in the chicken chow mein ($3.70)--which was otherwise pretty good--destroyed that dish. And the fresh fried shrimp ($3.50) starts out with firm, tender shrimp. The shrimp ends up just a small part of a very large casing of deep-fried, coagulating oil. And I would ignore the sweet and sour pork ($3.80) for the same reason.

But don’t go away. Things get better.

The hot and spicy shrimp ($6.25), for instance, come with crisp, fresh vegetables, hot peppers, which still are not too hot for comfort, and shrimp that are gently cooked.

The broth in the chicken noodle ($3.55) dish, a chicken base, is beautifully flavored, a nice, rainy day sort of soup, with lots of noodles and chicken. I’d say the same about the wor won ton mein ($4.50), where the meat-filled won ton and the shrimp and noodles get together in a really satisfying one-meal dish.

Also, I confess that I am a lover of one of the simplest of Chinese dishes--fried rice. The version at the Golden Chicken ($3.55) is one I like, with lots of the little bay shrimp, nothing skimpy about it.

If I were going again to the Golden Chicken, here is what I would order: I’d start with the wor won ton mein (assuming there were enough of us to justify all of this). Then, I’d ask for the shrimp fried rice. With that, I would also order the large barbecued spareribs Chinese style ($4.75). They are not the small things we frequently get in these situations, rather, they’re large, meaty, very tender, cooked or marinated just enough without being overwhelming.

At the same time, I would enjoy a plate of the bean cake chow yuk ($4.70). I think this is my favorite dish in downtown upstairs Oxnard. It is a large plate that has pieces of tender pork and a large helping of soybean curd, with accompanying vegetables and spices.

The soup with its noodles, the meaty, tender ribs and the satisfying plate of pork and bean cake produce, for me, a comfortable, satisfying Chinese meal--worth a trip up those stairs.