By Jennifer Colbourne (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 20, 2012
2-33550 South Fraser Way, Abby
604.853.3878
Price: $4.95-$6.50 lunch; $9.50 dinner
Hours: Sun to Mon, Wed to Fri: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Fri until 10 p.m.); Sat: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Tues: closed
Walking into the Golden Dragon, it appears to be your typical Chinese food restaurant; charmingly gaudy decorations festoon every inch of the walls and shelf spaces while traditional Chinese music softly plays in the background. However, though it is lunch hour, the Golden Dragon is dead. This is never a good sign; it means the restaurant has trouble attracting loyal returning customers. And now I know why.
The waitress serving us was polite and very quick, though I certainly would have hoped so considering that my husband and I were practically the only customers. We ordered two of the lunch specials: Pork Fried Rice, Chicken Chow Mein and Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls on my part, and Pork Fried Rice, Honey Garlic Pork and Breaded Almond Chicken for my husband. Initially, I was impressed that Wonton Soup, one of my favourites, also came with the lunches as a starter.
Quickly enough, though, my positive first impression turned to dismay. Out came two unbelievably tiny bowls of wonton soup—literally, there was nothing but two little wontons in the bowl, not even veggies or meat—and they were just terrible. The broth had no taste whatsoever, as if the wontons had just been boiled in water. As for the wontons themselves, they were full of gristle; I had trouble even choking them down as I bit down on rock-hard unidentified meat bits.
I still maintained hope the rest of the meal would compensate. One does not need to have the highest standards for Westernized Chinese food, after all. And at first it seemed like it would be okay; the rice was presented in a neat-looking square shape, and the sauces on the meat were glossy and tempting. Everything looked edible, at least.
I couldn’t tell you what was worse. The sauces were beyond sickly sweet – after just one bite, neither of us wanted to eat any more of the honey garlic pork. Though the sweet and sour sauce was similarly unappealing, we found it necessary to counter balance the tastelessness of the chicken inside the spongy balls.
The almond chicken was decent, but considering that the Chinese food place across the street, Bamboo Palace, has hands down the best almond chicken in town, it wasn’t that impressive. Similarly, the rice was OK, though it didn’t have a lot of flavour either unless you added a lot of soy sauce.
My standard of a good Chinese food restaurant, however, ultimately rests on the chow mein. I have yet to find a chow mein in Abbotsford that blows me away, but I certainly found the worst in town. Like everything else, it was bland, bland, bland. No flavour at all and its mushy texture was not appealing in the least.
Suddenly it made sense to me that the only two customers we’d seen—one leaving, one coming in—were octogenarians. The blandness and mushiness of the food may possibly have an appeal for those whose taste buds and teeth have long forsaken them. Otherwise, I have no idea how Golden Dragon is still in business. I would assume that they were having an off-day, except that a few years ago I ate similarly terrible tasteless take-out from them. Evidently I should have learned my lesson the first time.
After we left, my husband informed me that while we were eating he heard a very loud sneeze from the kitchen that had instantly turned him off of his meal. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or not that I hadn’t been paying attention. Disgusting.
Without a doubt, my husband and I are never coming back. The prices were average, and to be honest the food was so terrible I wouldn’t even eat there if the food was free. I’d recommend eating at the mall over this place any day.
