Dragon Gate Express

Excellent food! Portions are large and can be easily split amongst two individuals. I had teriyaki chicken which consisted of two nicely sliced breasts along with brocoli and beef with vegetable fried rice and angel hair like rice noodles. The food was amazing and there is plenty of room for eating in.

This establishment was not selected by choice. Rather, it was selected because it was the then-​nearest Chinese restaurant on the way home from my wife’s work.
So my wife ordered me a two-​item combo of chow mein with orange chicken and teriyaki chicken. She ordered a one-​item, fried rice and kung pao chicken.
Needless to say, when she came home, she immediately said, «I don’t think you’re going to like it. It looks like their food has been sitting out under a heat lamp since they opened.»
I opened the styrofoam box and wanted to give the food a chance. Unfortunately, the orange chicken had so much batter and it was too hard — like it has been sitting out under a heat lamp. I didn’t finish the food, which was a rarity. I then took a bite of the teriyaki chicken (sauce on the side) and it was WORST! The chicken was very tough, with burnt edges. It didn’t taste good, that I only took one bite amd threw the rest away.
The chow mein had two separate coloration, which I could only assume that they made one batch, and made another one, while dumping it and mixing it together.
I’m just hoping I don’t get food poisoning (or my wife).
I can make this statement: I’m not coming back here. And I will not recommended others to come here.
Disclaimer: my review is for their food only. I’m sure their service was okay.
That’s my two cents. Thanks.

Gave them another shot and got the chow mien and mushroom chicken bad choice. The chow mien was the worst I have ever had. It tasted like paste and felt like it. The mushroom chicken tasted watered down as far as flavor. The meal is a complete rip off I can’t see how they can rip people off selling food like this. Will never go there again.

[Actual Rating: 2.5 stars]
One day Unilocal will listen to the thousands and thousands of reviews asking for half-​stars on ratings. I’m on board with that because you end up having to rate higher than you want to. Ugh, the everyday struggle. Anyhow… I am not particularly a fan of Dragon Express, I got food poisoning in high school and nope, never again. Back then they also had a fabulous «C» rating. So when Mummy Dearest expressed her sincerest wish of having me go pick her up lunch from this place because she is currently nursing an ankle injury and isn’t supposed to drive, I whined and complained. But, being the amazing first born that I am, I hurried off to the restaurant so I could, with any luck, get out of there quickly. The parking lot was relatively empty when I pulled up at about 2:50pm. Granted it’s on a Saturday but the only other car in the lot was a taxi cab! What?! That isn’t a good sign. Sure enough there was only one elderly gentleman seated inside enjoying his meal, I think, and reading a newspaper. But hey, they had 3 employees and an «A» rating now, so I ASSUMED the food I was getting would be decent.
I ordered the 2 item combo, with chow mein and steamed rice as the sides. My original request was orange chicken and Mongolian beef. I had to repeat my order FOUR times and the girl still asked me «you want fried rice or steamed rice» um. really?! She either wasn’t paying attention or she was seriously in LALA land. I’m not sure which. When she got down to adding the chicken options she paused and literally stared at the food for a minute before saying «we don’t have Mongolian beef, only beef with broccoli» so then WHY is it on your menu?! Why, why, why?! So, I switched to the Kung Pao Chicken instead of doing a double orange chicken like I seriously considered. and I should have gone with that to. But no. After 10 minutes I was finally at the register, she asked if I wanted my receipt (no, thank you), still got one. So for standing there for 10 minutes, constantly repeating my order, and her not actually knowing what they had and didn’t have available. ended up costing me just under $ 8. Not bad. For subpar Chinese fast food. I’ve had better service from Panda and I’m hardly a fan of their food either. Customer service tanked and I don’t understand why they need 3 people if service is soooo mediocre and pokey!
The food was okay at best. The Kung Pao Chicken was soggy and whatever else was mixed in was crunchy almost. I poked it with the plastic fork and it made an odd grating sound like it was coated with sugar or something. It was bland whatever it was. The chicken was actually lukewarm, and the flavor was not even spicy nor did it resemble the flavor of any other Kung Pao chicken I’ve eaten elsewhere. The Orange Chicken was decent. But did not have a good flavor to it. Sort of like it was yesterday’s chicken reheated? Yucky. The chow mein and steamed rice was actually yummy — though I’m not sure how you can really mess up either of those. I’ve only come here recently for my mom and she usually phones the order in so I’ve never had to experience this wait. or poor customer service. If I wanted tasty Chinese fast food I would probably Unilocal elsewhere because this is not a good place for me. «A» rating or not, I didn’t find the food to be any more appealing than the time I went in high school.
For me this is not a go to place. I would recommend avoiding this place unless I seriously hit an off day, but I won’t be coming back to find out if I did or didn’t. My poor tummy is still not happy with the icky Kung Pao I tried to eat, and if my tummy isn’t happy, well neither am I. Sorry Dragon Gate, it just wasn’t meant to be for you and me.

They have the best egg soup. Very friendly staff clean area. Their chow min is really good too. I would recommend this place one of my fav chinese restaurants.

Food is delicious, but the staff is horrible. They were rude and unprofessional. They weren’t even working. They were all sitting out with a friend just talking and being loud. They disturbed a nice lunch I was having with my mother. Definitely getting my food to go next time IF I decide to go back.

After passing it by for a year or two, I’m glad I did. Customer services was great. The food was stale (chicken), hard with a terrible old smell. You are better off going to big chain such as Panda Express.
Try it and judge for yourself :-/

This place is a great go-​to when you want quick Chinese food at an affordable price. We’ve tried a handful of places in different areas nearby and this seems to be the best. Most important!, I have never felt ill after eating here. Everyone is very nice and friendly, it is clean, they accept credit/​debit cards and the food is very good. You will definitely find something you like here!

I absolutely love Dragon Gate Express. It is off the side of Ming’s Fine Dining and serves comparable dishes with great prices. The staff is excellent and always remembers exactly how our family likes our dishes prepared. We give this restaurant 4 thumbs up!

The girl who works here is awesome! ! She always gives me the best deal. Luv the chicken sandwich cant beat 4 sandwiches for 2.19. Lunch yea

Great Place, Great Variety Of Food. Free Samples. Nice Beer Selection. Fast Service, great Environment.

The quality of this place has seriously decreased. I used to come here all the time because Panda Express makes me ill and I love chinese fast food. The food used to be really good and the price was always low. However, I just dropped in for lunch and the price was still only $ 6 for a 2 item combo, except the food was dare I say, gross. My orange chicken was almost like mystery meat and I kept getting hard pieces of like cartilage. My biggest disappointment was the chow mein. I love chow mein and I have no idea was this stuff was. The noodles were way too soft and super squishy, it was hard to eat. The texture was like chewing paste. I had to add soy sauce and sriracha to create a better taste. Plus my food was barely warm. I’m so sad that the quality of food has slipped to low. The place has a B rating for God’s sake.

Thought maybe this place was as good as Ming’s next door but not really. Grabbed some fast food for late lunch… food was way too cool but still had some good flavors. I am not a fan of fast Chinese. This is why. Fast wok format way past its prime. Only redeeming point. I got some veggies.

I’m a panda express eater but currently looking for better fast Chinese food, I got the half chow main and half rice, teriyaki chicken and Kung pao chicken and it all suck, only had a few bites, if you don’t like panda express well its way better than this place…

I use to go to mings it’s the restaurant of this Chinese fast food that’s next door and always love it and here too I be on a crave for Chinese and other locations in bellflower not to good but this place always never let me down good food and service

What the !@#$*&??? I left this place with a numbness in my mouth. I had the salt pepper chicken and sweet and sour pork (all sweet… no sour). I think it was something in the salt pepper chicken that affected my mouth.
Either way, the food here was just bad and I will never come here again.
If you are desperate for food and nothing else is open the go ahead and try… Otherwise just keep driving by. Life is too short for bad food.

Best fast Chinese in Lakewood. Owner and managers are very nice. Always offering samples of new dishes. The soy chicken is great. Soups are tasty too.
Low prices. Highly recommended.

Don’t know why people like this place, its gross and the quality of the meat is like a random chinese buffet in the middle of the corner.
Much rather spend an extra few bucks at good or any other Chinese food place really.
Even my little cousin who eats anything, especially noodles refused to eat it
Only reason why it gets any stars at all was because the cashier lady was too nice.

Sausage fried rice. For those of you who don’t know, Lap Cheong does not come cheap! This is the first fast food chinese place I’ve seen that actually uses it! (Its the red sweet pork sausage that you’ll probably see more at the sit down fancy dining chinese places).
I’m not sure if the girl is new, but when she was serving me, she was nice enough to add in a free sample of curried rice noodles… thing is, I’m not really a fan of curry anything. She never really asked me, so I had to stop her when she was serving it. There was a guy also serving with her, I think he was the owner. She had accidentally double-​served me on the spicy tofu I wanted, but the guy said to leave it alone and give me the extra serving free. Nice! I think he felt bad about the curry thing because he ended up giving me an egg roll and soup too. Er, maybe thats customary for ordering a combo, idk.
My first visit here left me impressed. Between my friend Steven S & I, we had: sausage fried rice, chow mein, teriyaki chicken, hot & sour soup, orange chicken, egg flower soup, egg rolls, crème cheese wontons, sweet & sour pork, and spicy tofu. All were pretty good except the spicy tofu had more tang than spice for me. I think a little less vinegar and a little more chili would suit my liking better. I’m sad to see another review that mentioned spicy tofu w/​eggplant as that is one of my favorite dishes, but I didn’t see it available during my visit. All the more reason to go back, though. :)
Parking is ample. The fountain drink cups are amusing & speak of the sad tale of a former employee… JK. The wording on it makes it appear that way. :P

First, I am HUGE Fan of any Chinese food. Sit done family style, fast food, gourmet, mom n pop shops or fine dining. My birthday dinner requests are most often Chinese Food. Now all that being said, here is my review.
As so many other reviewers have said, yes, there are a million Chinese fast food places in LA and Orange County. This one, Dragon Gate Express, is far better in the quantity department. They serve huge portions for the money and the quality is above average for Fast Food. Far better than the Chinese Fast Food Chain I think most of us are familiar with, that panda place with the higher than average prices and smaller than average portions (and barely average in quality). Dragon Gate Express is a great fast food alternative when you need a big meal at a great price and want better than average food. I especially like their chow mein noodles. Hearty perfectly done noodles that are not all dried out ala Panda. They have excellent rice and all the meat dishes are very tasty. They have another favorite of mine too, grilled green beans.
The Dragon Gate is located in the same building as Mings Chinese. Dragon Gate is the fast food cafeteria style place and Mings is the sit down made to order place. Since they are in the same building (and probably the same owners) it gets confusing when you drive by and see two Chinese places at the same location. Mings is sit down family Chinese restaurant with a mix of Cantonese and Mandarin dishes. If you want a step up in quality, go next door to Mings, but it is a little more pricey, but not above average for what you get. See my Mings review for more on Mings.
Bottom line, good food, it gets 4 stars because even though ts great food and an excellent value, its still fast food and i believe Chinese food is an art, and shouldn’t be rushed. but if you have to rush, this is how you do it.