Authentic Taiwanese comfort food, famed for vermicelli soup
"Golden Leaf is a reliably great Taiwanese diner in a San Gabriel strip mall, with excellent braised pork belly rice and oyster pancakes. But our number-one draft pick here is the beef vermicelli soup, with heaping portions of green onion, suan cai (Chinese pickled cabbage), and spinach, in a marrow-rich broth. Golden Leaf also has their takeout game figured out, with everything individually packaged so nothing gets soggy on the drive home." - brant cox, sylvio martins
"With their slight musk and unyielding chew, intestines can be challenging for some. But at the Taiwanese restaurant Golden Leaf in San Gabriel, the kitchen ingeniously slices the offal lengthwise, trims it into bite-sized pieces, and fries it to a golden crisp. This technique yields an awesomely crispy texture that glistens like lacquered duck skin, while the flip side’s molten layer melts in one’s mouth." - Cathy Chaplin
"San Gabriel’s Golden Leaf serves Taiwanese comfort food that’ll combat any cold, and probably also have you inventing fake illnesses so you have an excuse to go here. Their specialty is vermicelli soup—we like the beef one because it’s rich and has huge, tender pieces of short rib, but not so heavy that you won’t be able to get any work done if you have it for lunch. The minced pork belly over rice and oyster pancake are also highly worth your time." - Brett Keating
"Our Favorite Dishes: Vermicelli Soup, Pork Chop San Gabriel’s Golden Leaf serves Taiwanese comfort food that’ll combat any cold - and probably also have you inventing fake illnesses so you have an excuse to go here. Their speciality is vermicelli soup - we like the beef one because it’s rich and has huge, tender pieces of short rib, but not so heavy that you won’t be able to get any work done if you have it for lunch. The sliced pork chop with rice and oyster pancake are also highly worth your time." - jess basser sanders, amy clark, brant cox, brett keating
"At Golden Leaf I discovered an ingenious way to enjoy intestines: sliced lengthwise, trimmed, and fried to a golden crisp so the exterior glistens like lacquered duck skin while a molten layer on the flip side melts in your mouth — a preparation that yields an awesomely crispy, texturally intriguing offal." - Eater Staff