Top Island Seafood Restaurant

I had Chinese New Year’s Dinner here today (a little early I know), and the meal was satisfying. Our party consisted of 14 people and we were crammed into a «large» table but unfortunately had little to no elbow room throughout the meal. I was a little disappointed with the service because I knew the staff realized that the table could not accommodate our entire party comfortably, but now onto the food. My grandpa ordered a pre-​set menu that came with an entire pig and a bottle of wine for ONLY $ 250 (not including the rest of the meal). When I say we ordered a pig, I mean we ordered a whole pig — snout, legs, and everything. The pig still had skin on it which was very crunchy and delicious and the dish was memorable, but so was the price.
We also ordered scallops with bok choi, live fish, peking duck, tofu two ways, fried rice, pineapple bread, west-​lake beef soup, and much more. What I really appreciate about Asian restaurants is the portion sizes. You definitely get what you pay for, and after every Chinese meal my family always has leftovers. The food was very tasty, but unfortunately my review encapsulates both food and service, and their service missed the mark. I know for Asian restaurants customer service is not as important as efficiency, but when the waiter brought out the rice bowl he dropped the serving spoon on me and did not even bother to say sorry!!!
Overall, it was a pleasant meal. The food was came out hot, it was appetizing, and most importantly it was authentic. Each dish is reasonably priced (considering how much food you get), and you won’t walk out with an empty wallet, but rather a full stomach.

food: ⁴⁄₅
service: ⁴⁄₅ typical asian service
Popular Chinese food restaurant in asianville. I’ve only been here for dinner and I was impressed by the quality of the food. Slightly more expensive than other places but dishes are better here than average. Top Island can be reserved for banquets too. This restaurant is very clean, and all their tables and silverware look taken care of. Service was typical asian, very hands off and didn’t check on you too much. But this place does clear your plate mid meal if you had seafood/​shellfish. I would come here again to try their dim sum.

food sucks and expensive for dead crabs that are equivalent to the ones you eat at a Chinese buffet. service was crappy bc I had to ask three times to get a glass of water for the incredibly salty food. dead fish in fish tank was depressing. and hours of operation on a saturday was ridiculous… go and find out for yourself.
never going here again…

We had our doubts before coming because of the outrageous low price on their specials, but the quality was one of the best I’ve ever had. We were looking all over town for King crab, this place offered it for $ 13.99 per pound (with $ 50 purchase of other food). We were very skeptical at that price thinking it may not be true King crab, or maybe it’s dead/​frozen, and we were wrong.
We asked the server if we can take a picture with the crab before they prepare it, and he was happy to. 10.95lb King crab was prepared into 2 dishes: the legs were prepped plain with a little garlic and salty egg yolk with the body.
We also wanted the lobster, but can’t have it at their special price, but we were ok with that. Got a 7lb lobster also prepped 2 ways: sashimi lobster tail, and green onion fry the rest. We passed on the geoduck because none of it was in the fish tank, so it made us think it may not be alive.
Along with other dishes like chicken, fried rice, and veggies, the bill came out to be $ 385, very cheap considering the food.

Christmas Day December 25,2015. We made reservations for 10 people at 18:00.
When we arrived 5 minutes before 18:00, check in with reception, and ask us to wait for table, no table available for my party. I asked we have reservations at 18:00, the lady told me reserves a table doesn’t mean guarantee for a table. The funny issue more than five table still empty at the time.

Don’t make a reservation at this restaurant and expect them to honor it. In their own words, «Just because you have a reservation doesn’t mean we’ll have a table for you.»
We made a reservation a week ago for Christmas dinner. We’d eaten here before and the food was okay. My parents physically showed up to the restaurant and put their name down. So imagine our surprise when we showed up to the restaurant and were told that our reservation was worthless. Not just us, but multiple families who had made Christmas dinner reservations. The entire lobby was packed with extremely angry customers who had made reservations but weren’t able to be seated.
Thanks for the Christmas gift. We won’t be back.

This place has been around for a long time, ever since my high school or even middle school days.
Used to come here for Dim Sum a lot. It’s not that great. Typical Dim Sum place in the 626 area. It gets packed as always. I don’t even know why. I guess Asian parents and Granny’s love this place.
It converts to a family style restaurant in the evenings like all other Chinese restaurants in the area.
Located in the same plaza as Big 5.

This is another one of those restaurants that you can classify as a «banquet» type Chinese food; although they have the generic fried rice and chow mein, the star of this place is their fresh seafood, exotic food and expensive wine.
Most of their fresh and exotic food is not cheap. The waiter did try to talk us in trying this fresh fish. He did tell me the type of fish but when he said it was going to be $ 75.00 a pound (no, not a typo, $ 75.00 a pound) I passed. The waiter also recommended their abalone and a few other exotic food which we also pass. They had an impressive wine collection behind a glass case; but judging by how much dust accumulated in there, I don’t think many people come here for their wine.
If you order more than $ 50 worth of food, you can opt for their «Alaskan King Crab» at a special price of $ 13.99 a pound. The one they picked for us was a little over 10 pounds. To be honest, it didn’t seem anywhere near it. My opinion is the crab was more closer to 6 to 8 pound range. Although the meat was fresh, it didn’t seem there was much to eat. The other questionable is I’m not quite convinced this was an Alaskan King Crab; it seemed like it was more of a Russian or Korean king crab.
Else, the remaining dish we got was very tasty and well done. Although the place is pretty big, they fill up pretty quickly so call and make a reservation.

We had dinner here Thanksgiving night last week. We had a private room as there was a larger party but I’m not sure if there’s a min you have to pay to get the room. You can bring your own bottles of wine but it’s a $ 10 corkage fee (per bottle?).
I think my mom ordered a pre set dinner menu and added on a few more items.
We had:
COLD COMBINATION PLATTER
There were jelly fish, duck, chicken, cha siu pork, stewed beef, and I’m sure another item I can’t remember on this platter. The duck was probably my favorite but there didn’t seem to be much meat on the duck.
SQUID & CHINESE BROCCOLI
The squid was neon orange for some reason but the table loved this dish. I only tried the Chinese broccoli (it was fun seeing it shaved in ribbon form).
BLACK MUSHROOM
The thick black mushrooms tasted meaty. There’s sea cucumbers stir fried with the mushrooms. Elders liked the bitter mustard greens underneath.
WALNUT SHRIMP
This dish was a hit at the table. The batter wasn’t so thick that it overpowered the plump shrimp. We enjoyed the mildly sweet mayo sauce that covered the shrimp.
PEKING DUCK
The peking duck here is very good and some duck skin had a nice layer of duck meat under it. They brought out an entire lettuce head for the 2^nd course of the peking duck. The minced duck meat tasted a bit salty in this dish. I liked the use of the cilantro and water chestnuts.
GINGER LOBSTER
This fresh lobster tasted AMAZING. It was wok’ed to perfection with abundant ginger and scallions. I think you can tell it’s live lobster when the meat pulls away easily from the shell.
LIVE FISH
The soft, almost silken. flesh paired so well with the faintly sweet soy sauce that bathed this beautiful fish. There were a ton of fish bones so be careful not to inhale this dish too quickly.
The restaurant was 100% full by the time we finished dinner. They have a few private rooms. Service was ok — perhaps a bit scattered and disorganized at times. But it was a busy holiday evening so gotta take that into account as well. I’d like to come back to try their live king crab dish as multiple tables were ordering the crab left and right.

They take dinner reservations for party of 8 or more.
My parents are quite the choosey type when it comes to eating out. They shoot down pretty much all the places you know are delicious. We’ve frequented this many many times over the years whenever we are going to have a Chinese style dinner.
Always order NO MSG.
I prefer this place over New Capital in Rowland Hts, just because the consistency of the food is higher than New Capital.
Some dishes we keep ordering:
Roast duck: consistently above average. It’s not the perfect roast duck, but this is pretty solid.
Lobster in ginger/​scallion: not coated in batter, flavorful and well seasoned. These restaurants you are almost guaranteed to be cheated 2 – 3 pounds of the actual weight they serve you, at $ 9 a pound.
Sautéed Pea Sprouts (seasonal): they do it right, and do it well. Some places blanch them and then sauté, and it turns them leaves brownish and gross. You’re supposed to truly sauté them with rice wine and good amount of oil.
Sweet and Sour pork: not over coated in batter, not overly fatty, good sweet/​sour flavor, crispy.
We’ve ordered other dishes such as:
water spinach: moderate, and seasoned well.
goat hot pot: IMO this is above average, because I don’t eat goat when it’s super gamey in flavor. This was just right for me, and the dried tofu skin pieces in there are delicious, with all the juice.

My go to place for some afternoon dimsum. They have all the basic dishes but sometimes run out if you go too late. I believe they end dimsum around 3pm which is perfect for my lunch break. The food is good and decent. The service is good as well. It does get crowded but you can usually find a seat during lunch time. Dinner is much better and definitely a lot more crowded. Their lobster dish with noodles is delicious.

Food is decent, service is horrible. Typical of Chinese Resturant.
Waiter refilled our tea and spilled hot tea on my leg. He apologized and laugh… what a prick.

The Service: Restaurant opens till 1am. Pretty popular place if people want to have late night supper. They have less staffs working on late night shift; therefore, the service is a little bit slow and is not as attentive.
The Food: They do have special supper menu with discounted price. Food is always prepared very quickly, very efficient. Good portion, perfect to share as family style. Sorry… no dessert on supper menu.
The Parking: Parking lot sharing with other restaurants and retailers.

Top Island
CA: Alhambra
11am Monday 31^st August 2015
Three Stars
It was my aunt Margaret’s Birthday so we convened at Top Island Seafood Restaurant at 11am which really means 11:30. After all of us were greeted and seated, the swarm of push cart ladies arrived. We accumulated meatballs, chicken feet, tripe, stuffed mushrooms, pork buns, sweet buns, and variety of pork, shrimp, and vegetable dumplings. Then the food dance begins. You must not take too much, especially of the good stuff. You are suppose to let it pass and let your elders take first. Then after the lazy susan passes around, you grab a bit and wait. The food was good. The service was decent as well.

This is one of my favorite places to get dimsum. They usually have all the main dishes that I want and like such as the pork buns, daikon cake, egg tart, shrimp wrap, and many more. You won’t be disappointed when you’re here. However it gets really crowded during the weekends, so you have to go early! It’s even crowded before 10am! Customer service is like any other Asian place. You have to go out of you way to ask for things, but it’s fine. You kind of have to hunt down the carts to get the food you want haha

3.5 stars. This place is pricey but really good. Service was also not bad. I do not know how much all this cost but I know it was… super expensive: O
Got treated to king crab made in 3 different ways. 1. Steamed on top of rice noodles in minced garlic (fkin sweet n delicious !!!) 2. via fried rice in the shell of the crab 3. fried and then stir fried a bit :) Honestly, this is the only dish I remember haha it was so good.
Chicken with ginger and scallions. yummy but a bit dry
Fish balls with spinach and tofu. eh a bit too bland for me.
pineapple bun… that. actually had pineapple jam inside. For anyone whos ever had Boh loh bao… thats not normal lol. The crust also was really bland.

Now my experience here has always been a hit or miss. I have never been here for the dim sum but I hear that’s pretty decent. This review is based off their late night dinner. I love going here for some late night grub because they offer some kick ass family style dinners. Alternatively you can go to a café in the area but the food there are always too greasy. Eating here with a few friends hits the spot.
Late night dinner starts at 9:30 p.m. and that’s when the dinner prices get really cheap. They recently bumped up the prices of there dishes so the lowest tier is $ 6.99 and the highest is $ 8.99. They have a huge menu and plenty to order from. Now they do have some dinner specials like if you order over $ 35 dollars worth of food you get a free hainan chicken. In addition, they have on going specials for lobster, Alaskan king crab, and geoduck. Great deals at this restaurant and much cheaper then market price. Now be warned. they won’t tell you about the specials, you have to ask for it. Having a chinese speaker helps!
Seating is never a problem because this place is huge enough to host weddings. Also with your late night dinner, you get a soup starter, unlimited rice, and sometimes a fruit or dessert at the end of the meal.
Now this place has been a hit or miss for me. The food, for the most part, has always been pretty consistent, but it’s the service that kills the deal. It is an Asian establishment so as most of us are aware, you don’t go to eat Asian food to be treated like royalty. You are simply there just to eat good food and move on with life.
Overall, the food is good. They offer great late night meals at a awesome prices. Service can be iffy but we always come back and end up having a good meal.

Decent dim sum, low prices, eh service. You can get a large amount of food for a decent price. The food tastes pretty good, although this is the 626… so there’s gonna be better places to get dim sum. But this place definitely delivers decent food at low prices without a long wait. The Tea they serve is delicious. Chrysanthemum tea, my favorite!
I enjoyed the pork siu mai, shrimp har gow and BBQ pork buns. The congee was pretty bland. The Chinese donut with rice noodle was okay, and I could probably skip that. The dumplings were also decent.
Overall had a decent dim sum experience. Average dim sum, eh service and short wait times. Maybe return to this location for a dim sum quick fix.

Came here on a Saturday morning with visiting family members, expecting to order cilantro and green onion rice paper rolls, like we usually do. But this time, they won’t help you make it on weekends (anymore.) Wtf?! Since when did this change?! I got irritated because I came here just to order that! And everyone else was expecting to eat it too. What a bummer… felt like I have failed to satisfy my families expectations.
Anyways, service here is bad too. These new workers are horrible! You call them over when you want to order something, and if they can’t hear you over the loud background noise of rowdy Chinese people talking, they’ll roll their eyes at you when you repeat what you want a couple times and if can’t hear you, they rudely tell you to speak louder. Like, honey come closer to me so I don’t have to f*cking yell across the table for you to hear me! These workers are dumb… you can tell they don’t want to be there but they’re just there to make ends meet.
Overall, come for the good dim sum. Service is just downgraded.

Came here with my parents and boyfriend for Christmas dinner. I wasn’t super surprised that they would be very busy — we waited exactly an hour and 15 minutes before getting seated. We were a smaller party — seem like most parties were pretty big — it also didn’t help that they had some tour groups from China dining there as well so they took up a good 3 – 4 large tables. We got there around 6:45 and didn’t get seated till 8.
Whenever it’s busy, the service is always so-​so actually even when it’s not busy the service is so-​so as well. We ordered five dishes — and one of the dish — the Crispy Pork and Taro Pot is not as I expected. It was not Crispy Pork! it was Chinese Sausage and fatty Pork Bacon but in like pieces plus the whole pot was mostly taro. I was very disappointed because I was expecting Crispy Pork. It didn’t even taste good. The other dishes were Tofu with Brown Sauce — which was okay. The Black Pepper Oysters were bad — fatty and chewy and way too drenched in the sauce. The Snow Pea sauteed with garlic was okay. They would have forgotten our Lobster if I didn’t ask about it… and when it did come it was already cold like it’s been sitting there.
Everything from service to the food was just bad. Didn’t actually want to come here but my parents thought eh why not give it another try — we haven’t come here for dinner for a long time and the last time here was for dim sum. They definitely didn’t change or improve a bit. In my opinion it’s just not good for dim sum or for dinner.
It actually really died down after we got seated for a while — around 8:30ish they had a lot of tables left and no one else was waiting. Could have missed the dinner rush if we just came a bit later.