Good Shine Kitchen Chinese Food — Restaurant in Monterey Park

The low down: Bad service, good food. Quality varies. Quantity meh.

Intro: Good Shine has been a staple of Monterey Park aka "Little Taipei" for 4+ decades. The restaurant has endured and changed hands multiple times but the flavor hasn't changed much. Most likely the original owner had good notes.

What happened: Having missed this restaurant since pre-pandemic, I was delighted to see the restaurant still operating. I went to the restaurant hoping to reminisce the good flavor. I ordered 3 dishes (pork fried rice to test the cook's technique, stir fried pork stomach to see if the cook had the right style of knife technique for the ingredients, and finally thick bonito soup with squid.

The pork fried rice was spot on with great wok chi (a flavor and aroma created when oil is cooked at extreme high temperature to stir fry ingredients). The rice was chewy and not jasmine rice which is the correct Taiwanese style. The stir fried pork stomach used sesame oil and ginger which was great but the owner used precut canned bamboo shoots instead of hand cut, and the stomach pieces were cut too thick but the flavor was overall satisfying when eaten with rice. The thick starchy bonito soup with squid smelled and tested correct however was missing cilantro and basil on top and the squid was post processed with fish paste and then cut into small uneven pieces.

I was thinking this is not bad except for the squid soup and reflected to the female owner that the squid pieces were on the scarce side. She strongly defended her dish saying all squid pieces are of equal amount, and she didn't cheat me. Thinking she didn't really see the amount, I wanted show my side of the argument so I took out all the pieces of available squid and put them in a small rice bowl in order to show her it really wasn't a lot. She proceeded to lecture me about the hardship of keeping business afloat and how she is there to make money not charity. Without asking, took my bowl from my table proceeded to show other tables the amount asking them to pass judgement on whether that was fair, before lecturing me again about price vs quantity. Honestly, a sorry but we'll try harder next time or well I'm sorry that's how we present the soup in this restaurant would have suffice. I didn't pay to have a lecture on restaurant economics for 15+ minutes.

5 stars for surviving pandemic, -1 star for wrong squid soup, that would have been it but, -3 star for owner's response and attitude towards a customer. ...

There is nothing like some hot comfort food after a night of drinking and partying. And Good Shine is the perfect place as they open until 3am! This is like the chinese version of hodori in k-town.

Portions here are small if you come here for a regular dinner. However, I find them perfect for those coming in for a late night meal to recuperate from the night's mayhem. They have a variety of taiwanese food, from noodles to wontons to stir-fry, and even stinky tofu. Quite a number of tables ordered the stinky tofu when I was there, so I assume it must be good.

The prices are on the pricier side of things if you compare them to other restaurants, given the portions and sizes are smaller than usual. However, when this is the only place around that serves this type of food in the middle of the night, you would find it to worth every penny!

The place is small, and I can imagine it getting really packed. The wall has pictures of their more popular dishes, but the actual menu has a lot more items to offer.

Parking: Small parking lot shared with a laundromat...

This place is a mom and pop shop, and the lady who serves the tables is very nice. When I was there she asked me what I want to order, and would recommend that she think I should get. She also will make sure that I didn't get too cold by closing the door as the afternoon/evening time got a little cold with the breeze with the door open. The food is like your typical taiwanese food - however the price per item was a bit steep for Taiwanese food. I am not sure if I should be surprised since there is inflation everywhere.

The parking lot is shared with other businesses there and may be hard to find parking, but there is also street parking as well that is free.

It is a good spot to grab some dine in taiwanese food and also comes with free hot tea or water.

Would come back again since its locally in MPK and support small businesses, but probably not often considering its a bit pricy for...