Green Village Shanghai

Pretty good shanghai food.

I came here for dinner last weekend and it was such a disappointment. I used to come here with my family a lot but this time the food was borderline BAD. We ordered their salty chicken appetizer and the meat was grayish black. Definitely not appetizing. Their pork bone soup was well flavored, but the pork itself wasn’t great. Their seaweed fried fish was really good though. All the other dishes were mediocre (sauteed shrimp, tofu and bok choy, fava beans, sweet and sour spare ribs)…nothing special. And for Rowland Heights, I would have expected MUCH better for Chinese food.
Fail!

Another one of my fav restaurants. Try their chow me fun and the rice patty cakes. Also, hot and sour soup is good.

The food could be better by tasting less oily, but, overall, I would go back again.
I love their fried bread («Aun See Guun»)
Their famous Ning Bo Fried Fish (Seaweed flavored fried fish) is pretty good too (Best if eaten at the restaurant and NOT take out since it needs to stay crispy)
I have tried some of their other dishes which are mediocre, but I gave this restaurant 4 stars instead of 3 stars because of the above mentioned dishes.

Went here with 11 of my friends, family style.
–The waitress was friendly, the waiter taking our order was also very friendly and tried to help us with our selection
–Surprisingly, about 30% of the items on the dinner menu ceased to exist and can no longer be ordered. How disappointing! They didn’t even have roast duck! They had this rice stuffed duck that was recommended but was SO DRY and the rice was SO MUSHY and SO BLAND. Ughhh I will forever get nightmares about it.
–The steamed dumplings (xiao long bao) weren’t very impressive. Not juicy as they should be. Nothing to else note about these.
–The rice wine chicken came straight out of the fridge and was a very tiny portion. It also looked like it’d been sitting in the fridge for a while. The taste was bland, I’ve had much better.
–The fried yellow fish looked so sloppy! I don’t eat fish but no one said anything good about it.
–The lion head meatball pot was disappointing, there weren’t enough meatballs to go around. The sauce was bland, messy, and too gooey for my taste
–The rice they served was overcooked and old and the tea came in cheapy pots that were hard to pour out of. I really think they don’t change out the tea leaves in there. They just keep pouring hot water into the tea… thus the bland tea.
–The dessert was interesting. It was a sweet soup that had flower petals in it and chewy rice balls.
–They would not let us charge 16 dollars on 2 individual credit cards. Their credit card limit was $ 30!!! lame!!! We tried to talked to them nicely about it and they still wouldn’t let us pay with 3 cards and cash for the rest.
Overall, I think the quality of the food here has gone wayyyy down and I would really prefer not to eat here again (as I change my original rating of 2 stars to 1).

I used to come to this place when I was still living in LA. I miss their «west lake beef soup», «lion head» pot and I love the free dessert in the end– the chewy rice balls in wine.
I miss this place, prices are decent, good portions.

I did not know half of what I was putting in my mouth… SCARY.
The atmosphere is not supper friendly– Maybe if we came in a GIANT party of Elevendy-​Billion we would have been seated right away… BAH.
Waiter was. questionable. :P
We had OG picked Country Bistro (Herbal Soup) but they were packed tighter than a fat bitch in a pair of 00 jeans. :P…
Then no one wanted «The Boat” — Never been, do not think I will either.
Then– at last. Ta-​Da.
Food: (Menu was waaaaaaay too many choices– looked like a novel)
#265 — Pork Chittlings with basil — Not bad, a little oily but not bad when HOT.
111, 113. something else.
Pork rib things –They came out as chopped up meat on a plate) Not bad, a little dry, but otherwise pretty good.
Steamed Tilapia — EWWWWWWWWWWW with a capital GROWDY!!! That was the NASTIEST TASTING MOST FOUL THING EVER– WHO SERVES BAD FISH– shiet tasted like it DIED THREE DAYS AGO. :(
Thin Sliced rice cake thingy — I liked this the best.
Walnut/​Mayo Shrimp with nuts. I think I gained 10LBS when it was ordered. Not bad, I just do not care too much for mayo.
Tofu/​Spinach looking but not spinach soup– Meh.
TEA was WEAK– it came in those cheap plastic pots. I want me the cracked dirty white ones… :)
TOOOOOOOK forever for them to place our order– service was. I think you could call it service. Décor is… Not bad, not great.
If you are ever in the area. I would not stop you from eating there. (Food, not service)

I was concerned that things have changed since the fire. They’ve rebuilt it to be the same. Went here yesterday with my gf’s family. I saw the same people and the food tastes the same. All good.
Famous for: Ning Bo Fried Fish, Shanghai Fried Pork, Wine Chicken, Chicken with chestnut, and other traditional shanghai food.

It has a «C» sign hung up on the front of the restaurant. Let’s hope the «C» stands for Chinese! Personally, I’d prefer to eat at Chinese restaurants with a B grade of lower. It makes it more «authentic» in my opinions. We ordered 3 dishes amongst 3 Chinese people. It was our Chinese culture experience eating Chinese food! First dish was the Shanghai Special Noodles, it was good, nothing exactly too special to it. For vegetables, we ordered the eggplant and string green beans. The eggplant was cooked well, but the string beans were a bit over cooked. It tasted pretty average as well. The Xiao Long Baos were pretty good. There was still liquid in the inside steamed over vegetable leaves. I enjoyed it, but I’ve had better at Kuan’s in Montebello, so my standards for Xiao Long Baos are pretty high. It is good enough to come again if you’re craving them.
Overall the prices were very cheap for the food, $ 15 split between the 3 of us, they sat us at a huge round table so it wasn’t «intimate» at all. Portions were good for 3 people. Food is pretty average. Service was standard Chinese restaurant service.

I have secrets. Who doesn’t? I’ll let one out of the bag again just for this time.
So you ready?
BAM! Xiao Long Baos! Yup, this is one of the few places I’ll go for that. I mean they are better ones out there, but this is good enough for what they price you. Less than 5 bucks, and you get an above than average Xiao Long Baos. Plus, they’re the real deal. The peeps making them are as close as you can get to its origin. It’s home made, and it’s delicious which leads me go to Borat mode, with 2 thumbs up, «I like».
Oh, do get the sticky rice dish and roasted duck on top of it. That’s all you need, it fills you good for the rest of the day. It worked on me.
You’re welcome, btw. Rejoice, my friends!

We ventured to Rowland Heights again today in search of some good food. We’d never been to Diamond Plaza before and thought we should give this strip mall a go. We took a walk up and down the plaza before settling upon Green Village. I was craving some down home cooking and since we’d never been successful with any Shanghainese restaurants anywhere in the area, I didn’t have really high hopes for this place either.
Upon entry I was surprised by how different the interior was to the exterior. You couldn’t see much from just looking outside, but inside was the type of gaudy coloring one would find in an upper end restaurant in Hong Kong or China. We were promptly seated and handed menus. I browsed through it and boy, it was impressive. I found many items which other Shanghainese restaurants never have — things only my mom would make.
I ordered a few things lil guy likes and then a dish which I haven’t had in a long time — something mom used to make. The server even asked if we wanted water, something other Chinese restaurants wouldn’t bother if you didn’t ask first. I’m not sure whether or not it was because hubby was with me… he was the ONLY non Asian in the restaurant.
Zhen Jiang Marinated Jelly Pork ($ 4.79) is a cold appetizer dish which is served with dark vinegar and julienned ginger (the same sauce as for XLBs). I love this dish, but some might find it weird tasting. It’s an acquired taste and the texture is similar to any cold loaf in western dining. Hubby said the texture reminded him of head cheese (I don’t know that that is). This dish was done very well.
We got XLBs ($ 3.50) as well and they were pretty good. Not DTF style of XLB, but these were more homemade in style and flavor and lil guy ate 4 of them, leaving hubby and I with 2 each. They were good enough for me and I don’t say that lightly.
I’m not sure if they do this during the weekdays, but today (Sunday), they gave us complimentary soup… which was very very flavorful. Lil guy wanted extra. One of my favorite Shanghainese dishes, Wu-​Xi braised minced pork with gluten puffs ($ 5.95), arrived and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it looked very much like the ones mom used to make. Upon tasting, they were so close to mom’s that I felt this wonderful feeling sweep across me, bringing me nostalgia bite after bite.
The only dish which was kinda disappointing was Shanghai style fried flat noodles ($ 3.95). It lacked the ooompf we were used to although it did have the necessary napa cabbage and shredded pork in it.
The prices I quoted are for lunch. Dinner is slightly more depending on dish. Usually, a hike of anywhere from 50 cents to $ 2 is expected. Service was pretty good and for me, I’m so happy that I’ve found a Shanghainese restaurant which truly represents the wonderful dishes my mom makes. Right now this has got to be my favorite Shanghainese restaurant. We will definitely be back to try out other dishes.
4.5 stars