Dragon Gate

I love Dragon Gate. Best Chinese ever!

I should have taken the bad reviews more seriously. This place is musty and out dated with a miss match of dining tables and chairs. No air conditioning. We ordered the dinner special. The chow main and fried rice tasted like yesterday’s. It was all greasy, there were dried pieces and it was over seasoned with onions and soy sauce. The other dishes were all over breaded and barely any meat. The fried crab won tons and won ton song were the only good items.

Stopped in for lunch, and the food was fantastic! Also the price was reasonable for the lunch serving we got.

I got food poisoning from eating here on Friday night which was my second time eating here.
The first time we ate here is definitely worth mentioning. We sat in the bar, the food was okay, and after eating I went out to take a photo of the fish tank in the lobby area because the décor is quirky and I thought it was cool. As I was standing in the lobby a little lady that seemed like she might be the owner, came at me with some kind of cooking utinsel in her hand and very excitedly said «What are you doing!?» I began to tell her I really liked the restaurant décor and wanted to share this place with my friends, but I never got to finish what I was saying. She raised her voice to me and told me to go back to the bar or get out. I tried to tell her I didn’t mean to offend, but it was pointless, she said excitedly again and again to get back to the bar or get out while waving her spatula at me.
Don’t ask me why I went again, I suppose I was giving some leeway for language barrier misunderstanding. After my experience last Friday night and being sick all weekend I won’t be back.

Really REALLY bad food. Confusingly bad. Unlike any Chinese food I’ve ever had… ordered
the szechuan chicken, General Tso’s chicken & egg rolls… each dish tasted nothing like it’s supposed to… even the egg rolls were horrible (& I’ve never met an egg roll I couldn’t eat). No flavor, no spice… gross gooey, oily textures. Mall food court Chinese or Panda Express is waaay better than this place. Wasted $ 20 and threw it away.

This placed is old, musty and dirty. The food was terrible and the service was the same. I ordered the Mongolian beef and some pot stickers, the best part of the meal was the pot stickers. The Mongolian beef was tasteless and greasy. Not sure why it has so many positive reviews, but it was a terrible waste of time and money for me.

I’ve read a lot of so-​so reviews on this place. But, really — I’ve been coming here for quite a long time, and my in-​laws and family friends even longer. This place is a staple in the Des Moines area.
Now, I have NEVER eaten in the restaurant, so I really can’t speak to that. But, I have spent ample time in the bar playing in a weekly dart league — so, we’ve had our share of drinks, food and bartender experiences.
First the food — it’s always hot, it’s always fresh tasting, and it’s always a good value. The almond chicken is served atop crunchy cabbage and is really the best I’ve had. I’m not typically an almond chicken fan… but, this place does a good job of it. Secondly, anything you order here with broccoli is going to be amazing. Seriously, I could order just the broccoli and sauce and be happy! It’s always bright green, crunchy and never overcooked! Also, the chicken fried rice is exceptional.
Second the bar — drinks seem normally priced. I’ve been here often enough that the bartenders know my drink order and those that I come with. Seems to be a place where regulars hang out — and, from my knowledge, that’s how it’s really always been. The gal bartender is an absolute shit-​show. So, the reviews that mention her, are totally right. However, the guy that works there is really great, personable, helpful and attentive.
If you’re looking for a fancy night out, or an upscale/​updated place to eat — this is not it. Order your food to go and enjoy the weather in the summer time, or a cozy night at home during the colder months — the food is good and a good value.

Food awesome as always. Little old lady too nice this time, really really grandma sweet. I really liked the old spicy her, but this one is ok too. Big portions, ready fast, very fresh, good price.
One of our all time favorite restaurants!

I’ve lived in Des Moines 20 out of the 30 years of my life and had never been here. I’ve driven by it many, many times. Decided to stumble in with a couple friends to give it a try and was not disappointed. The food was not bad and the service/​bartender was helpful and diligent!

Good food. Incredibly horrible dining experience. I haven’t seen such lack of competence and proper manners. My girl friend doesn’t eat much so we wanted to split. But apparently that is forbidden at dragon gate. If you want take out great if you want to dine run away. The place is horrific. I’d leave 0 stars if possible

Really 2 ½ stars but will upgrade since hubby liked. His regular Chinese place was closed the day we came to Des Moines so looked on Unilocal and find this place a block away. The lunch specials were super cheap ($ 7?) and the lady who helped us was nice (but I could see how some would take her the opposite way). Everything about this place is old school Americanized Chinese (nothing has probably been updated since the 1960’s). I had the Mongolian beef lunch specials — it was ok (not good, not bad). However, I did get extremely ill when I got home (so they definitely use MSG). I won’t be back but could see hubby coming here for lunch on his own…

Atmosphere was dark and quiet, but the Orange Chicken is great. Food arrived quickly; quality, price and service are fine. A good place to get a Chinese food fix.

Great service and food was good! Very quiet inside even with the bar in the back, which I really liked. Ren was super awesome and sooo funny! I have never had that much interaction with hosts/​waitresses in asian restaurants so this was nice. Food was enough to get full on and have some leftover for the next day. Loved it!

LOVE THE BAR! small but comfy feely. really nice people.
food’s not bad either. bartender is willing to try out any drinks if he has the stuff to create it for you. just give him the drink recipe.
feels like a small «Cheers» bar. :)

Sometimes you just want flourescent sweet and sour pork. Like during a bad breakup, just before getting a tattoo, or when you just want to have cheapish cocktails and cheapish Chinese food.
They’ve got that. In a good way.
I like it. I don’t think I’d take guests necessarily, but I like it.

It is exactly as others have reviewed. The interior design looks a lot like China in the 80s, plus this old and angry-​looking lady working there appeared to be as if I was in the scene of Jackie Chan movie where there are Asian gangster and prostitution hidden behind the restaurant. The lady greeted me and my sister pretty rudely by asking loudly: «EAT? EAT?» when we just walked in. The lady seems annoyed most of the time, so I started to ask her some questions to get to know her. Eventually, she smiled at us a bit which made the astmosphere better.
Coming from Asia, I have great and sensitive taste when it comes to Asian food, so let me tell you: the food here is really really bad! We order A1 course which comes with wonton soup, orange chicken, beef broccoli, bbq pork fried rice and chicken chow mein. All the food is excessively oily. It made me feel like they accidentally poured too much oil in it but didn’t wanna take it out. Also, we ordered cheese crab wonton, and again it’s just extremely bad.
Besides the great Chinese design, decent price and late night open, there is no point for you to come to this restaurant. Save your money and go somewhere else!

I tried this restaurant for the first time a couple days ago. I took my food to go. The service was prompt and friendly.
Based on the recommendations here, I tried the crab ragoon. Boy am I glad I did! Mouthwateringly delicious! It was the perfect combination of flaky, crunchy, creamy, and bursting with flavor. Best crab ragoon I’ve ever had!
For the entrée I tried the sweet & sour chicken. The portion size was huge and included steamed rice. It wasn’t the absolute best sweet & sour chicken I ever ate, but it was very good. Everything tasted fresh and delicious.
I will be going back here for sure! The best part is it’s only a few minutes from home.

I only had one dish (wok sauteed green beans).
They were okay.
But the place was old school, American Chinese food. The music was country and Dean Martin. The bar was crowded and the people were having a lot of fun. The waitress came over to apologize for the noise, but hey, they were happy customers.
I had a nice quiet evening. Not bad at all.

At first, when I walked in, the place was completely empty so it made me a little nervous. We sat down and had a look at the menu. After looking my Mom and I decided to order the Crab Rangoon, Garlic Chicken Wings and Deep Fried Prawns for appetizers and the Combo Dinner.
I did not like the crab rangoon personally. I didn’t taste the crab in it and it was way too creamy for me. The chicken wings were good. The only problem with them was that there were no drumstick at all. And the prawns were good. Not great, just good. They came out with a little too much breading on them and a tad bit over cooked.
When dinner came the boneless almond fried chicken was good. The sesame chicken had too much breading on it, but other than that it was good. And the egg rolls that came with dinner were not good. The BBQ pork was also a little dry.
Then at the end of dinner the fortune cookies were brought to us unwrapped and they were stale. All in all the food was good, but I would not go out of my way to come here again.

This is a top notch place to get chinese food. American chinese food. I’ve driven down to burien then passed des moines, and cannot find a better place to fulfill my appetite for american chinese cuisine.
Off the bat, My recommendations:
Crab Ragoon (MUST HAVE)
Mongolion Beef
General Tso’s chicken
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Honey Walnut Prawns (MUST HAVE)
The other dishes are actually great as well, kung pao chicken etc, however the above list are my personal recommendations.
First, the Crab Ragoons are the BEST I have ever tasted, and I have tried many places in chinatown. In fact, I drive from northgate area down to Des Moines (passed like 20 chinese restaurants) JUST to get some Crab Ragoons. In fact, I heard a story that a dude comes in and orders TWO plates of these Ragoons just for lunch. It’s that good. It’s sweeter than normal crab ragoons, but it has the cream cheese, chives to balance the sweetness. It is fried fresh and crispy. Must have this.
The Mongolian Beef is superior to majority of the chinese dishes in chinatown. I understand that cooks would add baking soda to make it more tender, and I do not know if they did it here, but the natural texture of the beef is there… soft, but still beef. Mixed with chili peppers and fried rice noodles served in a generous (and I mean GENEROUS) portions, it is definitely a dish to start off with. It’s not too salty, but it may be for certain folks, but that’s typical sodium counts for dishes such as these. Highly recommended.
The General Tso’s have CRISPY outer texture. I feel they just battered it up and fried it on the spot for you. Then the sweet, with a little tang, and soy mixed in, and you have this wonderful dish. The chicken tasted fresh, and of course was white meat, none of the cheaper «cubed» pre-​made ones you can find at say panda express or other quick chinese food joints. These chicken was battered and fried, fresh. the taste alone confirms this. I usually eat rice with this dish, as the sauce can be too sweet at times. Rice is FREE.
Honey Walnut Prawns is a very typical dish that people order at chinese restaurants. Very few restaurants can mess up this easy and very tasty dish. However, Dragon Gate goes above and beyond the normal fried shrimp. The prawns are REAL prawns, some chinese restaurants uses shrimp, which is much smaller. The outer texture is crispy fried, just right, and tossed in sweet milky-​mayo sauce. served with brocoli garnish, or is it even garnish??? Tons of brocoli goes with it. Very surprised to see such effort and quantity put into a dish. The walnuts was cooked just right, soft, with a bit if a crunch and goes well with the sweet milk-​mayo mix. Must get this dish while eating there.
A lot of people complain about the service, but I for one, do not care. Sure the service could have been better, nicer, greet-​friendly, but I drove there for the food, I was hungry… and boy was I satisfied. I still drive down here to get the crab ragoons to go!
Overall, If this restaurant was placed in the middle of chinatown, neighboring chinese restaurants would have trouble keeping up with the dishes I have mentioned above. In every way, the Crab Ragoons, is the best, and should be entered in some kind of food competition. The honey walnut prawns is superior and would generate lots of buzz. The same goes with the other high quality offerings. The only reason why this restaurant does not get any more ratings, is because it’s hard to locate. It is part of a bar, and very hard to find, but once you find it, you will not be disappointed!