Gourmet Island

Great Service! Filet mignon was excellent. Lobster special was yummy too. Will definitely be back.

here was my old post:
I eat here at least 4 times a month and always for the midnight special. I usually get fish and just rice and some hot tea. The food comes fast and the service is straight forward just like how it should be. And sometimes they’ll even give you some yummy free dessert. I know this is gonna sound crazy but the green beans with the mince meat is addicting!
like i said post is old and restaurant has since closed. probably because their management changed and the place went to shit. customer service extremely rude even to me someone who came frequently and i tip well. Also some of their signage for their specials were in chinese only and we got ripped off when we ordered lobster. they deserved to be shut down.

***CLOSED***
I enjoyed the lunch specials here. It will be missed but it was nothing special. There is a new place opening up in this spot soon.

I think this place closed down, because I tried going there yesterday around 6pm and it was pitch black. It looked closed. So that sucks!
It said: Mon-​Thu 11 am — 12 am, Fri-​Sun 10 am — 12:30 am
I went Monday at 6pm… absolutely no one. Doors were locked. I looked online and it said Open. So I have no idea?

Came for dinner with my wife and her family. I was disgusted to find a dead fly on our table. Waiter just came and picked up the dead fly with a napkin and walked away. That was already a bad start. The food was mediocre at best. We had the following:
Salt & pepper frog legs — all I could taste was the batter; there was no flavor in the meat.
Mushroom fish pot — this was rather disgusting. The broth wasn’t too bad but the fishcake tasted very fishy, meaning old fish.
Deep fried tofu with scallop sauce — this was just ok. Tasted pretty much the same as all the other Chinese restaurants in the area. Nothing special.
Honey short rib — Yuck. I felt like I was eating marinated fat. There was barely any meat; it was pretty much all fat.
Pepper spare rib — I did like this one. It’s about the only thing that had any flavor.
Fish filet with vegetables — it was ok, pretty bland though.
Garlic spinach — This is the only dish we all finished but it’s kind of hard to screw up on this dish.
Sauteed scallops — small scallops, I mean really small, but the flavor was acceptable.
There are lots of good Chinese restaurants in the area. Don’t bother coming to this one. Only good thing is their price. For all this, plus the red bean soup at the end, the total came out to just over $ 80. That’s about the only redeeming quality for this place.

Originally, we wanted to check out Savoy down the street cuz we heard such wonderful things about their hainan chicken rice. There was a HUGE line outside so we decided to just go back to our usual, Baccali. However, Baccali also had a long wait so we decided to check out this joint since it was in the same parking lot and it was pratically empty. Now I know why it was empty.
I mean, before coming here the hubby was like «how can anyone screw up hainan chicken rice?» Well, apparently Gourmet Island can. The chicken looked like it was anorexic and the rice tasted bad. We also ordered other items and they were also below par. The only items we liked were the scallops w/​eggplant and the beef fried rice that came with the meal. Even their drinks tasted bad. We definitely will not be back.

Big portions at reasonable price. Pretty good authentic Chinese dishes. Friendly and attentive staff though they have trouble communicating in English.
We came on a slow night so they didn’t mind us dining there for almost 2 hours. No pressuring us with the check like most restaurants, which I thought was nice of them. We got complimentary desserts & when we finished, one of the waiters asked my friend who spoke Chinese, «Pretty girl, would you guys like some more? ;) «Too bad he’s not within the appropriate age range for her taste. haha

Came for dinner — ½ filled with locals — decently lit — dirty cup #1, dirty cup #2, oh … a semi-​clean cup (wipe wipe wipe). Does this mean the food will taste awesome? Not so much.
I thought we ordered 4 dishes but apparently my Chinese friends ordered SIX dishes for the 5 of us (3 of us weren’t that hungry) and it came out $ 70.19! Geez louise — this restaurant is expensive compared to Sam Woo or Tasty Garden or Garden Café or Baccali or or or…
(4 stars) — $ 16.00
Had a BBQ platter that had cha siu (bbq pork) slices, crispy pork w/​skin & roasted duck. All pieces were flavorful & the pork skin was crunchy goodness. None of it needed the 2 dipping sauces they gave us (plum sauce & some orange yellow looking thing for the duck).
(4 stars) — $ 9.99
Baked Oyster in XO sauce — the oyster was pretty darn fresh w/​chopped green/​red bell peppers & onions. However the sauce was a very light clear color — not the standard reddish brown color for an XO sauce. Either way this dish was one of our faves
(3 stars) — $ 9.99
Deep fried tofu w/​bamboo pith. My friends tried it as their first dish and said it was flavorful. I tried it after I took a bite of the baked oyster so the brown sauce covering it had no flavor to me whatsoever. The tofu was the silken kind & fried so I tasted… tofu.
(3 stars) — $ 11.99
Chinese Green Pea Sprouts — sauteed w/​garlic. This is not hard to make but easy to overcook. They cooked it just enough so that the stems still had a light crunch to it and didn’t use too much oil to sauté the dish.
(2 stars) — $ 5.99
Spare ribs in black bean sauce on top of rice — this was mainly bones & some fatty meat. I’d rather get this at Tasty Garden which is known for those hot pot rice bowls with yummy toppings
(2 stars) — $ 9.99
Sizzling prime rib fried rice — looked awesome as a pix in the menu — was completely not worth my ten bucks. Came out w/​raw slivers of beef on top of rice on a hot plate & mixed by the server at the table. It had a weird spice taste to it that I didn’t like — took a few bites & passed.
At $ 16 per person (after tip), I could get better food elsewhere for cheaper (look to the restaurants I named at the beginning of my review).

We came in on a day where their kitchen or stove or something wasn’t functioning correctly. The place overall isn’t terrible. Surrounded by Asian Fusion cafes, Gourmet Island couldn’t help but borrow some of their neighbors’ culture. It’s part café, part family style restaurant, and part of its parking lot is across the street. Aesthetically, it’s a clean place, neat, no bells and whistles, really. My first thought is that usually, when restaurants try too hard to do too many things at once, there’s bound to be some low points.
And there were, but there was some good food involved, too. The set-​up is very café-​style, with some larger tables in the middle of the room for the traditional meal and booths against the walls for the fusion food. Additionally, they have menus for both kinds of restaurants. The lunch specials are great for the traditional family style meals. Customers get soup free, and they were doing a promotion that offered free fried rice, too. I didn’t get to look into the café menu.
We got good portions of food, but like I mentioned, their kitchen wasn’t fully functioning, so they noticed we were angry with the restaurant. Given that, we probably were given more food to make us happier.
The calamari was disappointingly mostly this fried puff and not really any calamari. Their clams were agonizingly tiny portions. We got maybe ten clams total. The tofu dishes were good as well as the chow mein we ordered. The fillet mignon looked to be stir-​fried beef or baked. But it didn’t have the texture and bite I was looking for. If I were to come back, I would probably say stick to ordering Chinese food, as the Western stuff is wasn’t done correctly (and their seafood, kuz they seem to be trying to cheap out on their customers).
The lemon tea is quite sharp-​tasting. It’s really sugary, but it’s tart. And the milk tea is watered down milk with sugar. Go with the lemon tea if you must, but stay away from the milk tea. Or be smart and just drink the hot tea they give.
Their service was off-​putting. I know the face of the waiter I dislike the most.
Final word? Come here to eat a lot. Despite a few of the dishes not being good, all of it was edible and none of it induced any food poisoning.

Came in for dinner this time. The deals aren’t as fabulous as during lunch but pretty darn good by Chinese place standards. We ended up trying the beef stew hot pot, Peking duck and like a tofu seafood dish. The hot pot came with its own cooker and flame so it was kept piping hot the whole time. The beef had good flavor but the portion was a bit on the small side — lots more of the radish and beef tendons/​fat than chunks of beef. The Peking duck was a steal at, I think, 15 bucks. It came with the crispy skin, meat/​bones, the white steamed bread, fried shrimp chips, different sauces, and onions. Really good flavor but a bit on the oily side. I loved the tofu dish the most. The tofu was crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. And the sauce that covered the tofu and veggies and seafood, I could eat just that over rice.
Oh and every time I come in for lunch, I find something new to try. There are a lot of lunch specials on their menu. The most recent time I had their three flavor chicken (needs more chicken but plenty of spice, bell peppers and onions) and the salty fish with tofu and chicken (small pieces of the salty fish give it a kick and I loved the soft tofu chunks). Mmm. I will totally continue to eat here if they continue to make yummy tasting food at great prices.

Came by for a late dinner and was pleasantly surprised!
Ordered a fresh squeezed OJ for $ 3.50 and it was tasty! :D
Ordered the special Lobster over E-​Fu Noodles for $ 9.99! The lobster was a perfect size and the lobster was delicious! …did I mention it was merely $ 9.99 too?
The beef chow fun w/​gravy was also top-​notch!
Service was friendly and they accept credit cards! :D

If you want autherical chinese food without much of annoying msg and some good old Chinese bbq, this one is highly recommend.
If you want eat BBQ, best time is lunch time when most food are pretty fresh, they had rice stream bowl which take 20 minutes to cook is worth ti if you can wait and is cheap. The portion are pretty big. The dessert is among best for this type of restaurant.

First thing my friend asked was can I get my own order? Apparently he wasn’t aware that we are at a seafood restaurant and not a café.
Each of us ordered a dish and shared family style.
drinks– ice tea all around, and one hk milk tea (which was good)
1)Prime rib fried rice — I like this one a lot. It’s plain and simple and they prepare this for you at the table in a little skillet hot pot. It’s like a soy sauce fried rice that you could probably make it at home but it’s so simple and tasty still.
2) honey walnut shrimp — not bad but wish the shrimp would have a crispy texture.
3) filet mignon cube — different from other places the flavor and sauce is pretty much their own creation.
4) clams — tasty, no sand which means it was cleaned well, and sauce is pretty good too.
5) deep fried lobster with garlic — special promo only 6.99 for a dish. Wow that is a spectacular price and it was good another enjoyed dish.
6) Gai lan — boiled vegetable with a side of oyster sauce.
Great service, kept the refils coming, changed our plates. Will come back for sure.

Good Lunch special deals at $ 4.99, $ 5.99, $ 6.99. Portions are about the same size as the Tasty Garden nearby. I would label Gourmet Island as a mix between «Special Lunch» and «Café» type restaurants. They have the legendary red rice buckets and huge bowl of Chinese soup to go along with the entrees (Special Lunch style), as well as the «add $ 1 for drink» option (Café style).
We ordered the Sauteed Shrimp w/​Asparagus, Pork Rib w/​Bitter Melon in Black Bean Sauce, and Bean Curd w/​Diced Chicken & Salty Fish. All three dishes were great, check out the photos. This place does not serve greasy food — I believe they cook it primarily with a broth rather than oil which is more healthy.
The décor of the restaurant was somewhat modern and relatively clean. They have a 50″ TV playing TVB or sports.
BAD: I think Gourmet Island is understaffed. There’s usually no one assigned to make the drinks, so they come out very slow.

I was surprised at the décor inside the place. It’s fairly clean and has a really decent lunch special. The dinner menu is really just like any other asian café, but the lunch special reminds me of typical chinese restaurants. Most things are $ 5, and they have different hot pot/​hot plate dishes for around $ 6, 7.
The $ 1 lemon iced tea/​milk tea/​drink specials come with free refills :) and the service is pretty nice. Overall, the plates are clean, the food is good (and not greasy!) but the overall quantity of food is average to small.

Sometimes, being Chinese doesn’t mean that you know where all the good spots are. That also goes for those that lives on the ‘East Side’ or ‘SGV Hood’. There are just way too many restaurants, yet people usually stick with what they’ve had and what they’re comfortable with and not trying out the competition.
Luckily, I picked up an issue of LA Weekly. In the food section, Jonathon Gold suggested Gourmet Island, which I have yet to try. He is a reasonable food critic of LA. After all, it can’t be that bad.
What’s good here?
Suckling pig skin combination plate with crispy pig skin (not chicharron), jelly fish, sliced pork leg. Yeah, 12 bucks a pop for Chinese food sounds steep, but this combo plate is pretty damn good even though the actual dish doesn’t look as amazing as the picture on the restaurant’s menu.
Chinese oyster omelet. It was suggested by Mr. Gold. Succulent baby oysters in egg with green onions. Simple, yet well made with the right flavor.
Along with a garlic sprout for veggie, we have enough to earned us a free duck dish with crispy tofu. The crispy tofu was amazing. The tofu was soft and creamy but not silky. The outside was crispy /​crunchy. Well fried.
With 2 people, we couldn’t quite finish so we had another friend to join and he ordered orange zest fried spare ribs additionally. The orange zest used can be found in many dishes in Chinese cuisine. These are sun dried with a very distinct flavor.
All in all, the meal was on a more expensive side for Chinese food. But if you’re in for some good crispy suckling pig skin and great baby oyster omelet, at least go there and give them a try.

I didn’t even know this place existed until tonight. I guess I’m out of the loop. Anyway, my family and I thought this place was was really decent and that the service was good. Our servers were all really personable and really attended to our needs, even though they were quite busy. The food is not overly salted, which is good since my parents have to watch what they eat now. We will definitely be returning in the future, but just know that their dishes are moderately sized and not the gigantic sized ones you’d find in other restaurants. However, I’d rather have higher quality over large quantity any day.
Some of the things we ordered were the beef wine soup, veggies and fish,& jelly fish and asparagus. If you order over $ 25, you get a free soy sauce chicken!

Ok, this place is better when you come as a crowd…
I came to lunch today with 7 others and we each ordered something off the lunch menu…
asparagus with shrimp;
asparagus with scallops;
string beans with black bean sauce;
curry beef stew;
fish fillet w/​chinese broccoli;
house special fried rice;
some kind of whole fried fish;
something like kung pao chicken;
sorry about the terse descriptions — someone else ordered. Everything was much better the second time around, especially for lunch.
I also found out that there is a take out deli side to the restaurant like Sam Woo’s where the food is really cheap… I’ll have to check it out sometime.

This is strictly one of those old school café type places. They don’t do those fancy boba drinks or red bean ice. It’s lemonade, hot tea, coffee and a few other drinks but nothing special. It’s decent enough to order some things but everyone has their go to orders and that’s how they gauge a place by how their favorite dishes are made. Mine varies but this time I ordered pork chops with spicy salt and smooth egg with beef. This order comes with rice when you ask and refills on your hot tea of course. There are certainly pictures up above the kitchen window if you don’t know what to order.
They made the kitchen view see through with plexi-​glass so you can see what’s going on back there. Most restaurants you always wonder if the cook washed their hands or even spit in your food because they hate every customer. At least here you can call them on that sort of thing but would be stupid of them to do that right? It’s new décor since it’s been changed over many times over the past few years. I hope this one stays as it seems to be very good service with descent food that seems healthy as well.
With the pork chops I ordered, it was slightly different but it didn’t stop me from finishing the big dish myself. I was there with a friend but didn’t really eat that much so it was all me. The smooth egg was really a few scrambled eggs with slices of thick beef in this so the egg was very good and the beef was lean. You would not believe some places I’ve been to messed up cooking the rice but this place does well with the white rice. Attentive service as my tea pot gets refilled and complimentary dessert which is the green bean soup like thing that is sweet. I like it because it’s been part of my child hood growing up at these types of restaurants. Want to come here with me sometime?

Visited last night (grand opening).
Had spicy clams that were spot on, pepper salt fried pork chops flaked with MSG! ZOMG! unabashed MSG as adornment, see pix. Final dish was just bombastic, braised herbed duck over taro. Just so overwhelmingly salty, tender, a bit fatty, spiced (anise? the exact spice escaped me).
On grand opening night, the Hong Kong /​Cantonese restaurant was packed, with people celebrating birthdays, bringing in trays of mini cupcakes. Operation is beyond smooth, but they charge for rice AND tea pots. Ick. Prices are higher than JJ/​KT/​Sunday/​ABC/​Garden but on par with Bacali, Tasty, etc.
And that’s the final FTR of the year. Maybe.