GOLDEN DRAGON
Address:
2023 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa (four blocks from Triangle Square)
Phone:
(949) 642-7162
Food:
Classic and authentic Cantonese style
Hours:
11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day
Price:
Dinner appetizers $3.25 to $6.95, entr & #233;es $5.75 to $10.50; 3-course lunch weekdays $5.25 to $7.50
It is heartwarming in these uncertain times to walk into a restaurant and know that Mom’s going to give you a hug when she sees you and a hug when you leave, where Dad is in the kitchen cooking, where two or three of their boys are working alongside. They are the guys with big smiles taking orders, serving food, bartending, and visiting with absolutely everyone. Seems everyone wants Mom to sit down with them and talk for a while. Such comfort; like going to an old friend’s home. Actually, that’s what Golden Dragon in Costa Mesa is to all its customers. This is one of the best Chinese restaurants in OC for its food, and it’s been a stable part of our dining scene for 26 years.
This is the realm of the Wang family. The love for customers is not for show; it is as genuine as the food. The boys are not here helping out because it is expected of them to help save money; they are here because they too genuinely enjoy being with the customers and being around their parents. All of them have full careers outside the restaurant but they seem to bloom in this atmosphere. Mom is absent from the restaurant on Friday evenings. Not because she wants the night off; she thrives on this customer contact after all. Rather, that is when she teaches all 11 grandchildren Chinese.
It’s such a pleasant looking restaurant. Just behind the foyer is an attractive bar and lounge (very unusual for a Chinese restaurant), a comfy place where you can eat and watch sports. The dining rooms are a sea of high back Oriental rosewood chairs with a big matching sideboard adding its personality as well. A huge bas-relief, inset with mother of pearl, is a dominant piece of art. Booths hug the back wall of the main dining room, while tables,all covered in pink linen with turquoise napkins,meander throughout the rest of the space.
The menu is chock full of undiluted, unadulterated tastes. These are the classic Chinese dishes of the Cantonese genre,the foods that made Hong Kong a gastronomic capitol of the world. The dishes are not modernized, overwrought or fused with other cultural influences. They are the real thing, and that’s a hard commodity to find any more. Yet another factor feeding into the success of Golden Dragon is the menu pricing, which they have deliberately kept very affordable out of respect for their customers. The food is not overspiced. Indeed, a lot of restaurants have even taken to throwing generous amounts of jalape & #324;o,a fiery hot pepper unknown in China and whose flavor does not match Chinese food anyway,into the wok. Not here. A few menu items have a star after their name, and they are spicier, but you will not be downing water by the glassful to slay the dragon in your mouth.
Start your meal with sizzling rice soup. The crunchy, browned thin layer of rice comes to the table so hot from the wok that it sizzles furiously when dropped into the soup and releases a breeze of nutty aroma. The broth comes already stocked with big, whole shrimp, slices of pork, bean sprouts and shreds of Chinese cabbage. An appetizer we rarely miss is potstickers (fried dumplings). These cleverly pleated half-moons of pasta dough stuffed with seasoned beef and cabbage are steamed (you can have them that way as well), then crisped on the bottom. They come with a nice red wine vinegar sauce strewn with julienne of ginger and scallion. The egg rolls are so crisp they shatter a little when you bite them, and they are filled with a nicely flavored meat and vegetable mixture.
At our most recent visit, we had a combination entr & #233;e plate that found al dente diagonals of fresh asparagus and delicious saut & #233;ed shiitake mushrooms acting as dividers between the sweet scallops and beef medallions scattered with some sliced bamboo shoots, julienne of carrots and snow peas. Americans perceive honey walnut shrimp as a nouveau Chinese dish. Not so. All of the components of this dish are in the centuries-old repertoire. It just happens that the dish made its way over here in more recent years. This is as good as Chinese food gets. A platter full of shrimp are individually dipped in a tempura-like batter and fried in almost smoking oil, giving an extremely crisp coating. Walnut halves are boiled, drained and sugared. The two are tossed together with a little mayonnaise and a drip of honey and,voila!,we have one of the tastiest dishes ever invented. Aha, you didn’t know that the Chinese were using mayonnaise long before the Western world caught on?
Saut & #233;ed green beans with minced pork along for additional flavor are not deprived of their texture, either. I love the broccoli with mushrooms. Simple, clean, satisfying. Curry is gentle and sleek here: with shrimp, beef or chicken. I am in heaven with this sauce alone and my bowl of steamed rice. You will not find a better balance of flavors than in the sweet and sour sauce from this kitchen. Like the curry, it is available over meats and seafood. Also, I would encourage you to order the sweet and sour pork ribs,a true love affair between meat and sauce. Order the house fried rice,combination of white mushrooms, shrimp and strips of pork with the rice,to go with your meals.
Old favorites like oyster beef, cashew chicken, orange peel shrimp (or beef) and moo shu pork seem to always find their way to my table. They are part of the reason we go to Golden Dragon. Likewise, crispy duck is an automatic choice. This duck has been braised to fork-tender status then quickly deep fried to crisp the skin. The braising spices are restrained, yet you get an extra rush of taste when the morsel hits the mouth. These are but a few of the intrigues of this restaurant. The menu is extensive.
