Green Zone

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant because they focus on organic eats and the dishes are not greasy nor are they overdosed in oil.
This is their second location. Their original location is in San Gabriel, but the parking lot is tiny and overcrowded. Over here, there is a free 90 minute parking garage across the street.
My favorite dishes to order are the mini spicy wontons, salmon triangles, and hainan chicken. Occasionally, I like to order a passionfruit iced tea as well (free refills).
Note: They used to be closed on Tuesdays, but now they aren’t! Instead they’re closed on Mondays (even though their chopstick wrappers say otherwise).

Excellent authentic food. Great Veggies and noodles. The slightly higher price (for Chinese food) is well offset due to the high quality ingredients.
Service is excellent. Free ice-​cream with check in.
Place had the best assortment of ice-​teas of anywhere I’ve eaten in Pasadena. Great slection, lots of great drink options.

One of my co-​workers suggested this place for lunch for our traditional Wednesday foodie adventure. It was just a few blocks up the street from out office. We arrived around 11:40am and it was fairly empty except for one other table.
We were seated right away and I immediately opened my Unilocal app to see what deliciousness they had. It was tough, but I ended up getting the vegetarian curry (made with coconut milk, not dairy milk).
–chicken curry $ 12
–wonton & dumpling soup $ 10
–wonton soup no noodles $ 10
–hainan chicken which comes with miso soup $ 12
–appetizer sampler plate $ 8
The appetizer sampler plate was great and came out right away. The prawn wrapped tofu was on point! I would definitely get that next time as a stand alone appetizer. My curry was delicious and HUGE. It came with a variety of vegetables such as squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms along with fried tofu. On the side was a large bowl of white rice which you can sub for brown rice for $ 1.
The meal is definitely big enough for 2 people or lunch and dinner. A lot of veggies and a lot of sauce. I’m very happy with my choice!
At the end, we all used our Unilocal check-​in for a scoop of organic ice cream. They had vanilla bean, chocolate chocolate chip, green tea and strawberry. I tried the vanilla bean and wow – super flavorful. The strawberry was delicious as well. It was a nice large scoop.
By the time we left, the place was packed! Service was consistent the entire time. I’m excited to come back and try something else off their menu. The price was right, service was great, place was clean and food was flavorful!

Green Zone is a uniquely modern Asian restaurant. Unilocal’s category of «Asian fusion» is a bit of a misnomer as «fusion» usually implies a Westernization of Asian food. But what makes Green Zone truly special is that its dishes are modern and trendy yet the flavors and ingredients remain authentically Asian. One of their secrets is using sauces custom made in-​house so their tastes are legit. The Green Zone in San Gabriel constantly has long lines so I’m glad they opened this one in Pasadena where it’s still a hidden treasure in the middle of Old Town.

I think it’s one of my favorite, casual «Go to» restaurants. Here’s what the four of us had:
Grilled organic vegetables– ⁵⁄₅. How can vegetables taste so delicious? Try it.
Goi Ga salad– very light ⁴⁄₅. I’d like to try a different salad next time.
Vegetarian sukiyaki– ⁴⁄₅.
Hainan chicken– ⁴⁄₅. This would be rated a ⁵⁄₅ if I had not had the Heinan chicken from the Portland, Oregon Food Truck. Portland has a massive number of food trucks that span a couple of blocks. The selection of cuisine is endless however seating space is limited, if at all.
The Pasadena location is favored over the San Gabriel location San Gabriel a very limited parking lot that is shared with a number of other eateries.
The Pasadena location has a number of parking garages within the area that offer 90 minutes free parking.
Have a meal at the Green Zone then walk around Old Pasadena.
Service does make or break a business. Tyler, our waitress, was extraordinary, taking care of our every need. Ask for her.

I came here with my family because my sister was raving about this place. We love trying to eat healthy and we’re happy that we found an organic foods restaurant.
I got the beef sukiyaki. It was too sweet for my liking but I did like how hot it came out. My other complaint would be my egg. It was not runny. It was well done :(see my photo
My mom complained about her Hainan chicken being dry and not fresh. We came here right when it opened too. We were able to speak with the head chef and they made a fresh one and was 100% better according to my mom.
Chef John was very nice and friendly and made sure we left as happy guests. He even made us some beignets. Great service here!

Food is great. Lights around the edges of the restaurant are too bright and distracting. It started to give me a headache while I was eating. The chicken and rice with the ginger scallion sauce was still great as usual. I will be back for sure!

Great place to get a quick lunch! We ordered the sukiyaki bowl and the hainan chicken and the white yam fries.
Sukiyak bowl– yummy and what an absolutely delicious broth. The meat, veggies, tofu were just so delicious because of the sukiyaki broth! This portion is huge.
Hainan chicken– not one of my favorites. The meat was dark meat and the meat quality wasn’t good. I couldn’t eat the chicken because it was a little fatty. The broken rice with the onion garlic sauce was good.
White yam fries– the extra crunch here was BOMB! Who would have thought white yam fries could be that delicious.

There are good restaurants, and then there are restaurants that feel like home. Places you can keep coming back to — as opposed to a hip, new, gimmicky place where people line up just to go once, and never come back.
I can’t think of anywhere else I love coming back to as much as Green Zone, especially this location. Easy and free 90 min parking in the Schoolhouse Parking Structure, beautiful and modern interior, and wonderful servers (thank you Joey, for impeccable, enthusiastic service every time).
Get the steamed gyoza (pork and shrimp) that tastes like my mom’s cooking back in Taiwan, the sizzling, flavorful Satay enoki beef, and crispy shrimp rolls to start. You’ll go home with leftovers (one entrée is more than enough for one hungry person!)… and you’ll be back for more the next week. And soon enough, Green Zone will easily become a permanent fixture in your life — weeks and weeks of comfortable, delicious food. It doesn’t get any better than this.

If you’re a novice when it comes to Taiwanese food this might be a good place to start. This Pasadena location is new and very clean and modern and you don’t need to speak any Mandarin to order either! Lol. Seriously though the original Green Zone in SGV is known for its Hainin Chicken and the food here is no joke. It’s close enough to the original but in a much more relaxed environment. And for somebody who likes to stick with healthier eating it’s always a great option!
Came here on a Sunday evening and got a table for four without any problems! But they were sold out of Hainin chicken today unfortunately…
The Food:
Prawn tofu wrap: awesome! The prawn tofu tastes legitimately like real shrimp. And the crispy outside layer has multiple thin layers that are crunchy but still soft.
Spicy wonton: really spicy! Good kick, good hot flavor but not too spicy. Nice light appetizer!
Noodle /​dumpling combination soup: broth is mild, but the mushroom stuffed dumplings are amazing, delicious meaty mushrooms, super savory flavor. Get the green noodles, they’re thin but have a nice light delicious!!!
Grilled pork chop rice: nice thin slices of pork chop, very tender and you don’t even need the knife! The salad complements the flavor perfectly. I will be honest, I prefer Korean BBQ kalbi pork more. But not bad. Still I would get the Hainin chicken instead. And definitely, definitely get the wild rice it is so healthy and delicious.
Grilled salmon salad: the salad is awesome, covered in craisins and sunflower seeds, grilled salmon is on the smaller portion size but adequate.
Check in with Unilocal to get a free scoop of ice cream!
Share with your friends family style, they will happily provide you extra bowls and plates. I give it five stars: awesome healthy cuisine but definitely a unique Taiwanese twist, and I don’t think you can find anywhere else quite like this!

I love Green Zone! I usually go to the one in San Gabriel, but I like this Pasadena location so much more because there’s never a wait here. The space is clean, the service is good, and the food never disappoints. Because they specialize in using organic ingredients, I feel like I’m eating healthy while still getting my Asian food fix. Great change from the other greasy Asian food I crave.
I almost always order the Hainan chicken with lemongrass rice. It is hands down the best Hainan chicken I’ve ever had. The meat itself is tender and flavorful, but the 3 sauces on the side are great complements. The lemongrass rice is awesome. Worth adding that extra $ 1 to dishes that don’t already come with it.
I also sometimes order the spicy wontons to share. Other good dishes are the grilled chicken and grilled pork chop. Most recently, I tried the beef sukiyaki, which had a surprisingly amount of veggies and the portion was huge.
Check-​in on Unilocal for free organic ice cream!

Our server seemed like she was new, but that’s now the reason for the three stars. The space is also very beautiful and the dishes were appropriately priced.
They have a great selection of dishes, but I did not order their Hainan chicken since I’m not particularly fond of it anywhere. We got their steamed potstickers (which were great) and my friend got some beef noodle soup dish, which was also great; the soup wasn’t super strong and the meat was soft.
My curry though. The flavor wasn’t super strong as it is in Thai or Indian curries, which was fine. It looked like a great portion, but only because it had an ok amount of meat and veggies. The rest was 40% soup and 60% OIL WOW YIKES.
I thought this place was supposed to be healthy. I mean, it may be organic and all but good lord you do not douse the dish with insane amounts of oil.
So I guess it’s a hit or miss then with their dishes and maybe that was just a random mistake by their cook that day. But if that was truly how it was meant to be, then yikes.

Really great service and the hainese chicken is amazing.
the noodles are also really good
Haven’t tried something on the menu I didn’t like
Authentic, organic and yummy!
Good atmosphere
Good pricing
Cool décor
Good for dates or parties.
They also have tons of really good brew teas

I usually go to the Green Zone in San Gabriel, but since this place opened up my friends and I decided to check it out. I ordered the VEGETARIAN SOBA, which was perfect since it was pouring rain outside. A great broth that definitely warmed me up from the cold. ENJOY!
PS: For you meat lovers, you must get the HAINAN CHICKEN

After shopping at Blick Art Supply next door, I decided to give Green Zone a visit recently. Never been to the one in San Gabriel/​Valley, but heard good things about them.
Love the atmosphere. Nice eclectic décor, the black and green color scheme and long stripped lighting feature compliments the space well. Green zone, definitely caters to younger arena. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too busy and I was seated immediately.
The place combines fusion of different Asian inspired dishes, Chinese-​Japanese-​Vietnamese. As for menu offerings, it’s fairly limited and portions are suited more on individual portions and modestly priced.
Ordered the satay beef enoki pot which is stewed beef, enoki mushrooms and napa cabbage served in miniature hot pot. It’s served sizzling hot so be careful and let it cool a bit before consuming. I had the misfortune of finding out the hard way and burned my tongue… ouch! The beef enoki pot itself is very flavorful and beef tender. It reminded me of Japanese sukiyaki, salty, and sweet with thicker liquid base. The mushrooms and cabbage are nice compliment. It’s served with steam rice and portions are just right.
All in all the experience was pleasant. Nice place to chill and have a light bite. Definitely wouldn’t recommend it for huge family crowd. Decent selection of sparkling & fruity type wines, sake and variety of herbal teas.
Turnoffs — no desserts serve — Boooo!
Parking — street meter and parking garages all around old town Pasadena.

Healthy deliciousness!!!
This is a solid place for great tasting food that won’t make you feel gross after eating!
The service is really friendly and helpful, granted we came an hour before closing so the restaurant wasn’t really super busy.
We ordered:
HAINAM CHICKEN WITH RICE
— ermaghad this might be one of the best hainam chicken dishes I’ve had
— AND IT’S HEALTHY?! I’m sold.
— the dipping sauces give it that extra flavor (definitely try all 3!)
WONTON NOODLE SOUP WITH EGG NOODLES
— love the huge pieces of bok choy
— wontons were filled with meat and shrimp! (the shrimp definitely made it 20x better!)
— broth was a little bland but not bad
Overall, I’m really glad there’s a healthy food place near me now!

I finally made it to Green Zone and enjoyed my dinner with my friend! The atmosphere is nice, casual and lively.
I got Hainan Chicken and Apple Ginseng Tea. Hainan Chicken was really moist! I loved Apple Ginseng Tea too! So good! It is a hot tea with ginseng, so it is perfect for a chilly day. My friend got Mushroom Salad, which was also good and filling!
The workers were all nice, and my server packed my leftover chicken nicely with sauce for me. I think it does get busy sometimes, so this is not a place for a «quick» bite. Come here to enjoy food and time!
I will definitely come back here!

Yay for Green Zone’s newest location in Pasadena! Prices are slightly higher than the original location in SG (unless they raised prices in SG as well) but this is understandable, I’m sure overhead is more expensive in Pasadena.
I do like that the space is much larger here and doesn’t smell weird because there’s no produce section (in the original SG one — the entrance is lined with fruit & veggies. But, I did see a sign that the market is coming soon…)
I had:
*Appetizer Sampler (Includes 1 Prawn Tofu Wrap, 1 Salmon Triangle & 2 Mini Shrimp Rolls): Glad I ordered this because I’m in love with with the Prawn Tofu wrap! I love this at Vietnamese restaurants but Green Zone’s is even BETTER. It’s round & fish-​ball like and perfectly cooked. I didn’t really care for the egg rolls (I like these thin egg rolls with nem nuong/​vietnamese spring rolls) & salmon triangles (weirdly pale haha).
* Chicken Curry (Our own unique blend of spices and condiments augmented by fresh garden vegetables and served with rice): Augmented is a weird verb to use in a dish but that’s besides the point here haha. The veggies were delicious but interesting, not the typical curry vegetables… there was definitely Zucchini & squash — I’m not complaining though!
I’ll definitely be back to this location! The chinese food is on the up & up in Pasadena!

New restaurant in Old Town Pasadena. Nice to see some asian/​fusion food come out to Colorado Blvd. Location is great but parking is tough as usual. Service is great, prices are reasonable, but portion sizes could be a bit bigger.
FOOD:
Shrimp Tofu (bean curd) wraps — sooooo delicious. It tastes super fresh and the outside is perfectly fried with a little bit of crisp on the outside. I don’t believe this is frozen & then cooked because I would be surprised! Served with sweet & sour sauce on the side.
Hainan Chicken Rice w/​Flavored (lemongrass rice) — Another popular item here. Personally, I thought it was OK but the chicken was a bit dry and the portion was just OK as well. They serve it with a MISO soup instead of the typical chicken broth/​pork broth soup. I personally prefer the chicken broth over Miso so hopefully they’ll start doing the chicken broth.
Satay beef & enoki pot — thinly cut slices of beef with onions and enoki mushrooms. Initially, the dish seemed a bit bland and flavorless but a friend of mine recommended adding some of the soy sauce (apparently you’re supposed to no matter where you go, as this dish is supposedly always bland). Once I added some soy sauce, I really enjoyed it!
Shrimp/​Pork Dumplings — had an order of both dumplings they have available. The dumpling «sauce» isn’t real dumpling sauce it just tastes like regular soy sauce. I am hoping that they change it to a real dumpling sauce in the future instead of using a generic one that isn’t specifically for dumplings.
SERVICE:
Service was great. Our waiter was very attentive and constantly checked in on us for any water/​drink refills. When we finished, she took the initiative to go ahead and park our items for us.

Finally decided to come back and give Grenzone a second go around. I’ll have to admit that I had set my expectations low from the previous experience a few months ago.
This time around we started off the meal with their shrimp and pork pot stickers which came with two different dipping sauces (garlic soy and a ginger vinaigrette). I’ll have to admit the pot stickers were perfectly pan fried and the two sauces were pretty damn tasty. Definitely would recommend this appetizer to share amongst the table.
Seeing how disappointed I was with their Hainan chicken rice, I decided to skip it and try their grilled chicken instead. The chicken was grilled perfectly and I loved the subtle lemon grass marinade which left a nice citrusy aftertaste. I substituted the white rice with their lemongrass flavored rice (typically comes with the Hainan chicken) and this time around I can honestly say the rice was tasty! Though not as good as the rice one can get in Singapore but a huge improvement over our last visit.
Service this time around was spot on and any requests were taken care of the first time around. I hope the kitchen and staff have worked out all the kinks over the past few months and I’ll definitely be back.