Green Island Restaurant

Green Island Restaurant
9556 Las Tunas Drive
Temple City, CA

My mom's godson partnered with a bunch of people and opened up a restaurant in Temple City. If you're up for a drive, I do recommend it! It's large and clean and the food is pretty good. I liked that everything on the menu has photos. Actually, the menu is quite pared down and very manageable - if a bit unfocused. They've done some some interesting selections though. Something newish to the Chinese food scene is a Japanese teppan style Rib Eye Fried Rice. It's a beef fried rice where cooking is finished off at the table by a server. The result is perfectly cooked beef. The fat from the beef perfectly mixes into the rice. mmm...... Not your usual humble bowl of beef fried rice. It certainly elevates the dish to more of starring role than just the starchy base you sop up the sauce with. Do not miss the handmade potstickers! Sooo good. We ordered a whole fish dish that I can't remember the name of. I would pass on this one. And my sister wasn't impressed with one of their cold desserts, again the name escapes me. I think it was a mango one. Seriously, I was too full to really remember much except that the food that was good, was REALLY good.




Black Tea with Milk - Classic HK Cafe drink. They bring two kinds of milk: Regular or Condensed. Which did I opt for? Condensed baby! If you're gonna drink it, drink it right!



Order tea and it comes in this lovely glass mug with lots of tea leaves!



Everything was very yummy with a Hong Kong cafe flair. A bit more upscale, but definitely casual and relaxed. A row of banquette tabels lining one side of the airy dining room each had its own flat panel playing pop Chinese TV shows. The opposing side was lined with large round tables with glass beaded privacy curtains. This is where we sat. It gave us sense of privay while still allowing for plenty of circulation and air flow -- much needed in many Chinese restaurants! They were also very pretty.

One of the best parts of the decor was the glass walled kitchen. You can see the entire kitchen and staff doing their thing. Everthing was gleaming clean and it was fun to see them work. I've read reviews on Yelp! that say the service starts to suck when it gets busy. I advise you go when it's not so you really get to enjoy the atmosphere and the food.