It’s always exciting to find new places opening around where I live because it’s mostly industrial businesses and we hardly ever get to see any new restaurants around. There is a business plaza right across the street from my house that had a slew of restaurants and spas before but ended up closing. It ended up being placed by better businesses like Oku 1 (tea house), Paper Pot Shabu (shabu shabu), Health Station (healthy Chinese dessert/pharmacy), and finally the recently opened Green Zone (organic Chinese food).

This place is a little hard to find, but they’re located in the back of Golden Springs Plaza (intersection of Golden Springs and South Lemon Avenue). They took over where Pon Pon Cafe used to be and made it more bright and lively with wood and nice metal finishes for their wall decor. I quite enjoyed how they redesigned this place to look so nice and open. Parking was also very easy to find, it’s usually really empty in the back and if and when it does get busy the plaza also offers underground parking. We ended up snagging a space apparently what we thought was their front door was actually their back door so we had to walk around to the front.

We were sat promptly by what seemed to be the owners’ daughter (not 100% sure, although might be owner herself) but later was taken care of by their staff. The daughter was so nice and kind as well as easy to talk to, her personality shined very bright and made us feel so welcome in the restaurant. She went out of her way to explain some of the dishes to us when I asked what ‘goi’ was in the Asian grilled chicken rice entree. Their menu is made with organic ingredients hence why the price is steeper than their sister store in San Gabriel and really I don’t mind, I love healthy eats myself.

We ordered their Organic Hainan Chicken ($12.00), Asian Grilled Organic Chicken (no rice, sub with goi salad) and their Mini Spicy Wonton. The owner/daughter even double checked with me that goi had fish sauce in it and it was something I was okay with. We were served in a timely matter, the Hainan chicken came with miso soup and my order was actually wrong, instead of grilled chicken I ended up with their organic grilled pork dish, but it wasn’t a huge deal and I ate that entree instead. Their miso soup alone was AMAZING, the flavor of their broth was so pronounced and well cooked that I was just stunned by the way it tasted. It didn’t taste cheap and diluted like 95% of the places that serve cheap miso soup. I immediately fell in love with it and wanted more. The owner/daughter came back and was remarkably generous in giving me another bowl of miso soup for free instead of charging me because she was glad that I had loved it so much.

The grilled pork was also very delicious, the meat was tender and had great taste with the subtle hints of lemongrass infused in it. The goi was lovely, it’s a Vietnamese cabbage salad lightly drizzled in fish sauce. I’m usually not a fan of cabbage but the salad went very well with the grilled pork. Their Hainan chicken was incredible, the meat was so soft and just so juicy and tender with stunning flavors of garlic, scallion, and ginger. My boyfriend loved the dish and the lemongrass rice. Finally he ended his meal with mini spicy wontons and was very impressed by the sauce as it was almost on par with Din Tai Fung’s although the wontons were a little too shrimpy for him (he’s not a fan of shrimp) but definitely found his meal enjoyable.

We were so happy and satisfied when we left, we were also thrilled that such an amazing restaurant had opened up in Walnut/Diamond Bar border and would definitely frequent again. 🙂

Rating: ★★★★★
Address: 20657 Golden Springs Dr. Ste 104-105, Diamond Bar, California
Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday- Sunday: 11:30am-3:30pm; 5:00pm-10:00pm