“We’re still kind of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant,” says Weilin Zhang of her dad’s place, but in the context of a best-kept-secret. “If you know, you know.”

Enough people know about Green House Chinese Restaurant to have kept the Hunter’s Creek “hole in the wall” in business since 1997. And even more since 2014, when its original owner handed off the keys to Jianhang Zhang, but my Chinese food-loving heart, which fell first (and hard) for Cantonese fare, still doesn’t think it’s enough. Which is why we’re here today.

Well, really, we’re here today because Zhang is.

That happened in 1995, when just 15 days after Weilin was born, he left the Guangdong province for America, in pursuit of a better life. New York City was his first stop.

“It was really hard finding a job as a Chinese immigrant,” she explains for her father, whose English is better than my Chinese, but still falls a little short of a two-way conversation. “He was working at a factory, but didn’t want to do that anymore.”

He also didn’t want to stay in New York, and before long found his way to Orlando — and the restaurant life.

It took several largely separated years and lots of visa-related wrangling, but Zhang’s family eventually arrived stateside, too. Weilin was 8. And her dad’s hustle never slowed.

He continued building his skills at various restaurants, including Green House, but it wasn’t his last stop.

Best Chinese: 2023 Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards

Even so, Zhang and his former employer remained friends, and as he moved up the ranks toward head chef and manager, good timing served as a next-level threshold

“He was ready for his own restaurant right as the owner of Green House was retiring,” his daughter says. But the menu of 20 years ago wasn’t yet the one that lured me to Hunter’s Creek.

“The original owner was Cantonese, but the food was not,” she explains. “What people here knew mostly was American Chinese — General Tso’s chicken and chow mein. In order to make money, we had to sell the Chinese food that people wanted to buy.”

When business dipped a little, though, Jianhang decided to take a chance on the food he loved to eat.

“Cantonese food has always been in Orlando, even when I first came here,” says Weilin. “But it was very limited. On weekends, our family likes to get dim sum, but back then there were only two or three places we really loved. And most were much more central in Orlando, close to downtown.”

Alas, the Green House kitchen was too small for the massive variety of dim sum, so instead, Zhang began introducing white-board specials.

“He wanted to give the menu a facelift, add some spice, spark some new business,” she explains.

Soon, word of mouth had Chinese customers showing up.

“It was mostly tourists, people here going to Walt Disney World or who came for conferences, but they were from all over, the United States and international. And we’d see them again and again. … In a city where people have niche places for Cantonese food — where it’s really hard to pull them away from their favorites — we started to become one.”

And there’s good reason in the spongy perfection of Green House beef chow fun ($15.95), a dish I’d nominate for Most Comforting of All Comfort Foods. Green House makes the noodles in house, a game-changer in this dish, in which the balance of chew and char are beyond delicious.

Roast duck egg noodle soup ($13.95) was an across-the-board hit at home.

Long simmered (“it’s quite a process,” she tells me, “similar in time to good Vietnamese pho”) the broth melds the rich flavors of pork and chicken bones and spices along with the beautifully roasted duck over which it is poured. “Done Cantonese, it’s so savory,” she says. “Umami.” She’s not wrong

Packaged separately for take out, the duck is a tempting, if greasy, grab on the ride home.

And if you’re a trend-forward foodie looking for a find, the duck at Green House has long been prepped by the same chef they’ve acquired over at YH Seafood Clubhouse in Dr. Phillips, where a whole duck will run you about $14 more than at Green House. It’s one of the Zhangs’ newer favorites for dim sum not coincidently, now that the city’s options have multiplied.

Dim sum, Cantonese specialties shine at YH Seafood Clubhouse | Review

Ma Po tofu with minced pork ($16.95) is one of a handful of spicier dishes, “a really famous one,” she says, and a nod in the Sichuan direction to be sure. Stir-fried eggplant ($13.95), soft and savory, puts a few other vegetables into play. Fish filet congee ($9.99) is another exercise in comfort. Zhang and I bond over its cold-cure effectiveness.

“When we were sick, my mom would not let us eat anything but congee,” she says, chuckling. “It just makes you feel better and full.”

It also works when you’re feeling just fine, by the way. Leftover congee breakfast is a thing of beauty that rivals cold pizza.

Clams, first blanched, then wok-fired, are tender stars in a balanced black bean sauce ($16.95), and the steamed, cut chicken, which comes by the half, is available with ginger and scallion sauce (and with or without a soy sauce bath) as well as in chili sauce ($19.95). It’s one of Green House’s most popular offerings, in particular with Cantonese customers.

Zhang treks to east Orlando for local free-range poultry, she tells me.

“He loves to support other small-business owners and also really values fresh ingredients. … and when you dip it into the ginger scallion sauce. …” She trails off, then references Remy in “Ratatouille,” describing each unique flavor, then the magic that happens when you combine them in various ways.

It’s apt, as Zhang works full-time for Disney as a graphic designer, helping out at the restaurant on weekends and in whatever other ways she is needed. It is all about family here.

And the food reflects it.

If you go

Green House Chinese Restaurant: 12915 Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, 407-438-0988; greenhousechinesefl.com

Want to reach out? Find me on Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join the conversation at the Orlando Sentinel’s Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook page.