New Island Seafood

We visited this restaurant twice in a row. Ordered lobster everytime, food is great. Lobster is the best at $ 9.99/lb. The pepper squid and Bo Luc Lac are also great.

I’m not one to really celebrate Chinese new year since I stopped receiving red envelopes decades ago. But hey if there is awesome food involved, I’m in! Ordered a 4 pound lobster which they courteously brought live to the table for approval before it was cooked. Also ordered the steamed chicken with ginger scallion, mushroom with bok choy in oyster sauce, and spicy thai seafood soup. Everything was delicious but the lobster was in your face amazing. So much flavor. The Thai soup was packed with spice… not just heat but tons of flavor. It had so many different kinds of seafood including calamari, fish, shrimp, clams, etc. Prices are very reasonable. The staff is super super friendly!

Favorite new Chinese restaurant. Ordered steamed dumplings, house special squid and shrimp and walnut.
All 3 great tasting. Big serving. Good staff.
Free dessert!
Will definitely be back.

*** NOT just another Chinese Seafood restaurant… (Garden Grove) ***
In an area that’s loaded with competition in the Chinese Seafood arena New Island Seafood is another contender. I’ve actually driven by this restaurant often and I didn’t have the desire to go inside to try it. It just so happened that my folks and their church group had a gathering here. Perhaps because I’m a creature of habit I tend to go back to the places that I’m familiar with. It’s that whole idea I have not to fix what ain’t broke. If I’m hungry and looking forward for something specific I’m not inclined to try something new. Well, I’m glad I tried something new today because it was worth it :-)
Here’s what I liked…
* The food is pretty good. We ordered a few plates (listed below) served family style.
* Easy parking.
* Very clean.
* Excellent service. The waiters/​waitresses were very attentive. They were always scanning and looking to see whether anybody needed anything (like refills or used plates). The used plates were taken away very promptly. The food came out very quickly. We didn’t have to wait very long for anything.
I’m a little torn to say what I want to say… oh heck… I’m going to say it anyway… The service was really good for an Asian restaurant. Well, at least the one’s local to the Little Saigon area :-) ha ha ha…
Ordered:
* House special squid — This reminds me of calamari.
* Salted shrimp — tastes good just like other places.
* «bo luc lac» steak — the cubed steak is very flavorful and tender.
* House special mixed veggies with mushrooms
* shark fin soup with crab — It looks like shark find soup with crab in it. pretty good stuff.
* clams — tastes just as good as my other favorite Chinese seafood spots.
Here’s what I didn’t like…
* There’s really nothing that comes to mind. If there’s nothing I fault them for and the food tastes good, I guess that means I’ll come back again to try out some thing different.
I know that many of the other seafood places have lines out the door. So next time I’m not waiting for my number in the sea of hungry grumpy people. I’m heading here to try what else New Island Seafood has to offer :-)
Food = pretty good
Seating area = newly remodeled and very clean.
Service = very good
Restroom clean? = unknown

We went here with a group of about 10 peeps for my homie Becky Monster’s birthday.
First recommendation– come here with a big group of people and order 1 entrée per person (so if you have 10 people in your group then get 10 entrees), and also order a big ass lobster in addition. That will be more than enough food and then they bring it they set it on your little circular thingy so everybody can eat family style and eat some of everything.
I was surprised. Place isn’t exactly in the most glamorous of locations, but the interior was nice and its clean.
Food was good!
Some of my faves:
Fried pork chop
Bao buns with duck.
Salty fried shrimp.
Oysters with the black bean sauce.

I believe New Island Seafood opened up quite recently in good old GG, and my mom heard about the place because one of our family members got a good deal on lobster when it was «cheaper» and so we decided to venture out of our abode to check this place out.
New Island Seafood used to be the old Sizzler and for some reason I could still imagine where everything was located inside this restaurant. The décor could use some improvement, but overall atmosphere was fine. For dinner time it was pretty quiet, but when you walk in you can immediately get a whiff of the seafood/​lobster smell so they’re definitely not holding out on us.
Menu is pretty standard for a Chinese/​Vietnamese restaurant. This place fits pretty much the generic Chinese/​Viet mold that you get all over GG and Westminster where the staff members are mixed and they have influence from both so thats chill. We ordered the Ong Choy, one 4 lb lobster, and the house special salted squid as recommended by Unilocalers along with the minced meat soup.
Soup came out pretty quickly and it tasted standard for most Chinese restaurants. Nothing really great in particular but nothing bad.
The squid came out next and it was a lot better than most places I’ve tried. Unilocalers werent lying about this and maybe I’ll get the house special fish filet next time.
The Ong Choy and lobster came out next. And first off, the Ong Choy tasted really good with the usual garlic sauce. I wolfed most of it down. The lobster, I had mixed feelings about. First off, the great thing was that the meat was very easy to take apart from the shells — usually at places it’s much harder. However, the sauce was very lacking. I felt like the taste was a bit bland.
Overall, good experience to try. I probably won’t come back again or suggest this place unless I’m really craving seafood and need it immediately. However, this is a good catch in Garden Grove and i hope it gets business.
Eat well and prosper,

Its tough being able to hang with my best friend since she got 4 kids and is always busy, so when she has some free time and wants to hang I make a point to drop everything. We came through here for Christmas Eve lunch because we both were really craving some lobster.
First off the restaurant is really small in comparison to other types of restaurant of its kind. You definitely cannot host a big wedding here, but with that in mind the place is really clean and cozy. The service was very nice and warm. The people were all focused on catering to us. We ordered some chicken fried rice as a little side dish but of course our main dish was the stir fried lobster. The lobster was a little over 4 bucks a pound.
The chicken fried rice was good though a bit hot but still very delicious. I wouldn’t order it again though but it got the job done as a little teaser. The main dish, the lobster was top quality. It was one of the best quality lobster I ever had. There was so much lobster egg (which is my favorite). Since my friend doesn’t like lobster egg, nor had she seen it before, I was left to overindulge in them. By the end I was getting pretty sick of it ahaha. The lobster meat was so juicy and tasty but the seasoning was a bit of a downfall. We had requested for it to be limited spicy level yet it was still pretty hot and filled with pepper when it was prepared. That was the only bummer about it.
Overall, its a nice place and I had a really good time eating here. The food was good, the service was excellent and the company was amazing as always.

We have been coming back for several times already but tonight might be our last. The quality has been going down hill and today was worse with me sitting here while my face burning hot due too much msg in their food. I understand that restaurant uses msg but don’t put too much where one can’t enjoy their food throughly. The restaurant is getting crowded but not enough servers. My water has been empty and no one came by for refill. Once your food being ordered and delivered that all you going to hear from the server. They seem not to be able to handle the crowd. They need to hire more workers, cut back on msg then maybe we will think about coming back.

Came here for a typical Viet family lunch on Christmas. I was stressed out at the thought of having to cater to my elders’ many demands for an suitable dining facility: they wanted no waits, good Asian seafood and food all around, and service (who expects good service at an authentic Asian restaurant though?!). I was fearful that most seafood places had waits and wouldn’t take reservations, but behold, New Island does!!! On Christmas Day, to boot!
We came and our table was ready, the staff was friendly, attentive, and helpful (they speak English which is nice for anyone who isn’t fluent in Chinese or Viet). The food was amazing as well. Every dish was great and flavorful and we all stuffed our stomachs this Christmas lunch. Thank God for New Island ! I will keep them on the books next time I need to take a large picky Asian family party somewhere to eat

So yummy been here for the second time and oh so good. Honey walnut shrimp and Mongolian beef ate my fav and they make it so yummy here.

The place is a hidden gem. We normally go to seafood cove but decided to venture out. The parking is shared with other shops in a shopping center but was pretty empty at 7pm. It’s a Saturday night and they only have 3 other tables.
The food is good. We order the lobster house style (which was my favorite), crab Hong Kong style, salt and pepper shrimp, basil clams and dumplings. All were good and very flavorful. The service was great. Food arrived quickly, waters refilled continuously and bones plates swapped constantly. We had two kids with us and were seated next to a tv that turned to cartoons without our request to keep them entertained. It was also my husbands birthday and they offered to place our cakes in the fridge until we were ready for them.
It’s also clean. From the floors to the restrooms.
All in all, it was a great experience. I w old highly recommend this place.

Came here for family dinner. Their new and have been open for about 4 months. The location is the old Sizzler (if you’re familiar with the area).
Spacious seating, staff were very nice and accommodating.
The goods:
— clams in black bean sauce
— sweet & sour crispy pork
— fried calamari (highly recommended)
— honey walnut shrimp (a favorite pick)
Mediocre:
— the fried fish (could use more flavor)
— the veggie and beef platter (same, missing something)
They had hot pot egg plant, but didn’t try it.
Overall, the place was good and I would come back. A good alternative from King Harbor.
Recommended!

–New Chinese restaurant
–Very clean
–well appointed environment: casual to formal
Food
— honey & walnut shrimp
Fantastic. Normally I don’t like the Chinese iteration of this food because of the others make em slimy and use too much mayo but this restaurant makes their honey walnut shrimp w a breading that has a delicious crunch! Must try this dish very tasty.
— sautéed pea sprout w/​garlic
Another great dish. Normally other Chinese restaurants serve this w over steamed and ultra soggy pea sprouts but this restaurant knows what their doing for this dish. Veggies were very leafy green with a fresh crunch to it! Sautéed to perfection. Perfect to go along w seafood/​meat dishes
–Hong Kong style crab fried rice
Secret specialty not on the menu item. Very tasty. Pic attached for this one
–lobster
Can’t go wrong w this here. Very good as well
–bo luc loc (cubed beef)
Very tasty
Overall
Normally I never go to Chinese restaurants by choice because their food/​style is not within my palate but this place has changed that up for me. I left this spot w a good impression and will be back to try their lunch specials.

Great service! Food was very tasty. Prices are moderate.
I’d recommend the Peking pork and shaken beef.
Walnut shrimp was fresh and crunchy but needs more mayo. House special was good as it was crisp. House tofu was just ok. Seafood chowmein was just ok. It’s cool that they give refills on iced tea. Will be back again to try out the other items on the menu sometime later.

I took my parents here for dinner a while ago, it’s a new restaurant that had just opened by them. It’s a bit like the traditional Chinese restaurant except this place can not be converted into a wedding venue.
I love Chinese style lobster (with all the seasoning and ooey goey goodness!)
My parents also got the clams with basil (an Asian staple dish for those who are not familiar) and I was craving string beans!
The lobster and string beans were very good! And clams were a bit too fishy (my mom gave the owner some pointers about how to make the clams less fishy) we will see if the advice was taken the next time we/​they come back. The staff were very accommodating and friendly (unusual for an Asian restaurant lol).
There was plenty of food for the three of us. Cheers!

A Unilocal buddy and I decided to give this place a try for the first time last week. It’s fairly brand new and opened three months ago.
Though I’m not big on Chinese food and he loves it, I allowed him to order for us. We ordered three items from the lunch special menu. Anything on the lunch menu is priced under $ 8.00. Plenty of options to choose from. We also had the option to choose from the dinner menu, which we declined.
We ordered a seafood dish and two steak dishes. I had never tried any of the dishes before but I did enjoy. One of the steak dishes is popular in the Viet cuisine and I highly enjoyed this dish and would order again. The squid was just okay for me. I didnt try the shrimp therefore I cannot comment.
Service went well. The server who I also believed was the owner was extremely gracious and checked in on our table on a constant basis. When it came time for the to go boxes and the check, the server was already one step ahead.
I left satisfied and would make a return visit to try other items. Lunch is cheap and dinner prices are affordable as well.

We came here 8:30pm on a Tuesday night and it was almost empty except for a table of two. We ordered many items of which I tried the Salt and Pepper Squid and House Special Lobster. They brought out the lobster for us to inspect. Our server even asked if we wanted pictures of the lobster and was very patient as we took 2 dozen photos. It was about 5lbs and enough for the 6 of us. I was impressed by both dishes I tried. The squid was lightly battered and fried to a wafer-​light crispness. It was also lightly seasoned – excellent! The lobster was also lightly coated in flour and there were bits of roe with the garlicky, buttery goodness. The lobster could have gone a little heavier on the garlic and butter but the meat quality was excellent as it was freshly killed and the meat was still moist and flakey after cooking. Having eatten a meal of only rice and fried seafood, I felt pretty good afterwards. I wasn’t even more thirsty than usual which happens 95% of the time I eat at an Asian restaurant since they add too much salt or MSG.
I love this place and would definitely bring my family or friends if we’re in the area again.
Really love the service. Both servers were very attentive. It might help that we had people in our party that speak Vietnamese.
A cute touch is the Chinese and Vietnamese music in the background. Most of the songs they played I usually hear at family wedding receptions. Oh, the nostalgia. :)

First thought came to mind when i walked into this place was, «thank god they don’t have those ugly chairs that every other seafood places have!» I really value costumer services wherever and I go and this place gets an A+ in my book. The staffs were really attentive and nice. I particular love how they would give us suggestions for what food they personally think we would like, they have that we-​value-​our-​customers kind of attitude that I rarely see anymore in Asian restaurants in the the garden grove area. Their food are just as great as their services. Prices wise, it is about the same as other seafood restaurant.
Here are some of the things that we tried:
— House special lobster with the noodles — I would like to the note that the noodles is a separate order it does not come with the lobster order. Overall, I like it. Also, they are having a deal right now for the lobster (I believe it is 11.99 a pound?)
— House special squid — ⁹⁄₁₀. I like that its not too chewy or soggy and the seasoning is just right.
— House special fish filet — ⁹⁄₁₀. so buttery and delicious! I LOVE IT! This is my boyfriend’s favorite dish.
— We also ordered some stir fried veggie but I do not know the names for them — they tastes pretty decent nothing special about that.
Overall, I would recommend this place. Another note, they are a new place and so when I came they did not have their liquor licence yet.

From what I see all the bad reviews are based on the slow service. If you have time and patience I would definitely recommend trying the food here. I’ve been here 3 times and can see the service steadily improving.
It’s a family run business and I love it. You have multiple generations working the front of the house while Grandmas cooking in the back. You can’t get more authentic food than that.
Even though the lobster took 45 minutes I didn’t mind. The restaurants was packed with everyone ordering $ 7/​lb lobster. Overall the house special lobster was delicious and might just be the best I’ve ever had. I should note it’s on the sweet side which is why I enjoyed it.
I also tried other things like crab soup, Kung pao beef, stir fry vegetables, and stir fried seafood noodles. They were all very good and tasted fresh!
Overall I would most definitely come back to support this family business. Having been a part of one myself I feel for them and admire their hard work. I came in as one of the last customer one time and saw them preparing a their own dinner at 11pm. As the younger kids and elders were eating the parents continued to help serve the rest of the customers. I truly hope this place becomes very successful!

I’ve been here twice this week. Once for four tables (for about 40 people) for my cousin’s graduation and the second for my brother’s graduation. Overall, the food was amazing. I literally have absolutely no complaints. The following dishes aren’t all the food we got, just the ones I remember.
FRENCH STYLE SHAKEN BEEF:
SO TENDER. It’s one of my top three favorite dishes here. I literally will come here for just this dish alone. The beef is SO tender and super flavorful and absolutely amazing. I can’t recommend this dish enough. You must order it!
LOBSTER WITH EGG NOODLE:
Literally the best Asian style lobster I’ve ever had. It’s seasoned and cooked just right! I especially love this lobster because it is not over salted (I do not want to inhale the ocean while eating my lobster). I definitely recommend this! You also get plenty of egg noodles to share.
COLD LOBSTER SALAD:
Delicious! I loved that the taste of the lobster was predominant over the sauce, unlike other Asian restaurants that serve this dish. Also, they don’t add potatoes disguised as apples (YAAAAAAS!)
PEKING DUCK WITH BUNS:
Full disclosure: I do not ever take more than a bite of the bun from this dish at other restaurants… but I had to make an exception here! This restaurant’s buns were fresh and soft. Even after all the duck was gone, my cousins were eating them plain and dipping them into the Hoisin sauce. My anaconda definitely liked these buns (lulz). The duck was super flavorful and not super greasy.
HONEY WALNUT SHRIMP:
Light and crispy. They didn’t overdo it on the mayo which is always a plus.
HOT AND SOUR SOUP:
My brother LOVES this dish here. The soup has a kick and goes amazing with rice. The fish in this was really, really good! Definitely recommend this one!
Overall my experience was positive. The food was on point. None of it was too greasy or overly salted like SO many other Asian restaurants. I really look forward to coming back and grabbing food here with my non-​Chinese/​Vietnamese friends (which is saying something because I only ever go to traditional Asian restaurants when my family makes me).
I see that a lot of people on Unilocal are complaining about the wait time to be seated, but when a restaurant is selling their lobster for about half of what other restaurants are selling it for… OBVIOUSLY there’s going to be a wait. I’ve waited longer to be seated on a regular basis at restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings, Yard House, Sake 2 Me, etc.
Also, the service was pretty decent. The managers/​owners came around to check up on us too. I don’t know if people left bad reviews cause they were hangry, but I’m glad that their reviews didn’t deter me from eating here because I didn’t have any issues on either visits.