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Nestled quietly on the side of Shopper’s Lane in Pasadena, Green Street Restaurant preserves the feeling of a dim-lit, smooth and classic restaurant, known for their featured zucchini bread. A place to indulge in classic and original breakfast, lunch, and dinner entrees with friends and family.

I came in at 4PM on a Thursday, the look and feel of the entire place felt very warm and welcoming, complemented by the comfortable nature of the host who showed me to my table. The setup of this restaurant included booths in the middle and towards the side, designed in a curved and groove fashion, while the rest of the restaurant was like your typical setup.

The theme was very suburban with a hint of class, emphasized with wine glasses for every table. Their bar looked like a fancier version of a kitchen island counter with a broad assortment of alcohol, wine, and draft beer. Everything about this place just seemed crisp and calm, I even noticed that everyone else in the restaurant nearly maintained a library-voice tone,  respecting other guests, as if the ambience of the restaurant has gotten to them.

Their lunch menu for consisted of salads, burgers, sandwiches, pastas, dinner entrees, and featured specials. Their dinner entree menu list had salmon, snapper, thai chicken, parmesan chicken, chopped steak, and pork chop. The specials that were featured ginger flank steak, lemon branzino, Green Street’s chicken salad sandwich, spicy shrimp tacos, and seafood pasta jambalaya.

I inquired about two signature orders that sounded like promising original recipes. The “Pasadena Steak” sandwich consists of  tri-tip beef and sauteed onions, bell pepper, roasted garlic aioli, served in a sourdough roll. The “Green Street’s Chicken Salad Sandwich” featured their “famous” chicken salad, La Brea walnut cranberry bread, mayo, and fresh greens, paired with the suggested sweet potato fries.

I asked the waiter which of the two were most popular, and he leaned towards the chicken salad sandwich. I then asked about the “All American” burger and it’s popularity due to the burger patty being made of the infamous Kobe beef. The waiter didn’t hesitate to suggest that it was a favorable choice by guests and confirmed to me that he also thought it was really good.

The “All American” burger features a Kobe beef patty complemented with a classic setup of thousand island, mayo, red onion, lettuce, tomato, and pickles served in a brioche. I chose pepper jack cheese and decided to go for a medium cooked burger instead of my usual medium rare. The side options included the house fries, sweet potato fries, coleslaw, tomato slices, or fresh fruit. I was delighted to know that I could actually get half and half of the sides, so I just went for half fries and half coleslaw. I don’t usually eat coleslaw but I was curious to try it when he mentioned that they use their house-made mayo and added cranberries.

When my order came, it was neat and served presentably. I noticed that the Kobe beef patty was very generous in serving size and was exceptional size for a typical restaurant burger. When I bit into the burger, I was rather disappointed to find that it was a featuring of the Kobe beef. The burger recipe was so plain, nothing about the burger’s flavor was anything more unique than your average, backyard-barbecue burger with thousand island and lettuce, I couldn’t even taste the cheese. Although, they did cook the patty to medium perfection. The coleslaw was really tasty and filling while the house french fries were very typical.

Overall, I really gave in to the smooth feeling and friendliness of this restaurant, especially of how crisp and clean everything was kept. I loved how it wasn’t rowdy and had respectful, social employees who made you feel at home. Although, I didn’t try their featured zucchini bread, I noticed they had a lot of it displayed near the front as their main retail option.

The suggestion of the burger over my other inquiries was underwhelming and was not the best burger I’ve had in the 15 dollar price range, regardless of the Kobe beef quality. I suggest this place for a clean, quiet, plain, lunch or dinner.

4.0/5.0

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