Dragonwell Bistro

Delicious! Our all time favorite in Portland. Try the string bean chicken-​it is the best I’ve had.

Coming into the restaurant it was very clean with a modern atmosphere. The hostess was friendly, who was also our server. Her name is Theresa, sweetest girl ever. Not too mention amazing food! The Xiao Long Bao dumplings are delicious, they have so much flavor for such a little bite. I will definitely be back and with friends, I highly recommend this place. If you are new to Portland or visiting it’s nice to see the train go by and also a great location for locals, or anyone traveling by Max in the downtown area.

This food was so bad. Really, really awful. Broccoli and tofu had no tofu and a ton of garlic (we requested no garlic). They didn’t give us the rice we ordered. The other food was soggy and the sauces were obviously from a powder. It was too gross to eat.

I found this place getting delivery, food was amazing! I tried it a second time got take out, and again amazing! I want to dine in next place looks fancy! :)
Price was great as well!

Disappointed, perhaps I expected too much. Ordered takeaway from Amazon Prime. The food was fresh and well prepared. However, the flavors were lackluster and pedestrian.
We ordered the broccoli, which was steaming hot and well cooked, however the garlic sauce was off and detracting. The short ribs at 18 dollars were downright terrible and overpriced by at least 50%. Mixed lomein was the best of the lot, however it was rather greasy and flavorless. Don’t think I would order here again. It was an expensive bill and in the end not too much better than Panda Express.

Stumbled across this place using Amazon Prime Now. It’s been a challenge to find great Chinese food (and for a reasonable price) in this city. We figured we would give them a go, and it turned out to be one of the better ones we’ve had!
Overall the prices are reasonable, except for the chicken dishes (we got the General Tso). I already thought it was a little more pricey than some of the other selections and it didn’t even come with a side of rice. It had a good flavor but it wasn’t as spicy as we like our General Tso.
We also got an order of the chicken lo mein and the house fried rice. Both were really good, especially the lo mein. Really good flavor and the noodles were tasty. I would definitely get those again. They gave pretty big portions for each dish. We are big eaters and still had leftovers, yum!
Pretty excited we found this place. Solid Chinese dishes and for a (mostly) reasonable price.

I walk by this place all the time and can’t believe I never ate there. A colleague took me there. We had the eggplant dish, which I know sounds boring but may truly be one of the best things I have ever had, with an incredible sauce, done slightly crispy, and the lo mien noodles with chicken. The food was great as was the service. Will definitely go back.

We have eaten here several times recently and have not been disappointed. Really appreciate the gluten-​free specific menu, which you do need to ask for. Casual but nice atmosphere. Service attentive even when they’re busy. Food is excellent. Full bar. Convenient, downtown location. Would recommend a reservation on the weekends. We’ll be back.

We had several starters and everything was excellent. I particularly recommend the sizzling rice seafood soup. Service was outstanding as well.

People talk really highly of this place, but I’ve never been impressed. I’m eating a really chewy beef dish right now.

When traveling, we visited here several years ago and loved it. We made sure to come again when in Portland for several days.
We were so disappointed. We eat earlier than most people, so. . getting a table of our choice was easy. The host was very pleasant and accommodating (5 stars) — and then it went downhill.
We ordered soup, another dish and tea. The entrée portion was a mixed mushroom dish and it was soooo disappointing, as it had only button and portabella mushrooms — really not much of a variety!!!
And…the meal ended — NOT with a chinese type cookie (fortune or almond) but rather an Andes mint — hmmm. I don’t know that we’ll be back.

Two years ago my now boyfriend and I went here on our first date. We loved it, the food was delicious, the staff was very friendly, and the ambiance was light but comfortable. We ordered the cashew chicken (we opted to let the waiter surprise us and pick between our two choices), and it was very good. The potstickers were a wonderful appetizer, just the way you want your potstickers to be (tender, flavorful, lightly crisp on the outside, ya know?).
Fast forward to this past Saturday. We decided to re-​create our first date from two years ago, and go to a late lunch here and enjoy the sunny day downtown. So, we parked in a lot up by the PSU campus (cheaper, easier, lots of spots, so why not?), and walked down to the restaurant (which is a decently long walk). When we got there it was probably 2 pm, and we watched a gentleman in front of us try –and fail– to open the front door. They were closed. Apparently they’re only open from 5-​closing on a Saturday. During the Rose Festival. Saturday is the busiest day of the week, especially this time of year, and they were closed.
I guess we should have checked their hours before leaving the house, but we didn’t even think about the fact that they would have their shortest hours on the day of the week that most people go out. They lose so much business. There were multiple people, not just the gentleman before us (and us), who wanted to eat there but couldn’t. Several people tried the door and we had to tell them that they weren’t open until 5 (as we searched our phones for somewhere close-​by to substitute).
I guess we’ll try again another time. Buh.

We had a great family dinner at the Dragonwell. 10 of us went there for a graduation celebration. The food was wonderful and the portions were generous. We had several vegetarians in the group and they loved the veggie choices. The celebration was made special by the staff and the owners who were patient and gracious. We went there as a family with ages from 80 to 21 and we were all happy with the food choices and the food quality. Since most of us were into the oldies music anyway, we were pleasantly surprised by the choice of background music that kept us busy competing for who knew the singer and the year of each song.
Most special was the service because they were patient with our questions, accommodated all of our changes in food requests. The told us about each menu item that which allowed us to select just what we wanted. Best of all were the reasonable prices. We will return for more food as soon as we can.

this restaurant is so nice
everything is great!!!
love this restaurant and also its tea

Both unabashed foodies, my husband and I are always looking for the next great restaurant, especially for good Chinese food. Dragonwell Bistro was a delightful find — it’s not your typical Chinese restaurant in its location and décor. We were very pleased with the food, the service, and the tasteful modern Asian décor.
I think their soup dumplings are some of the best I’ve had, far superior to those in Seattle and New York. The menu has many standouts including their Eggplant and Basil chicken as well as their caramelized spare ribs. The bar also turns out great cocktails. We have returned with family and friends many times since then.
More importantly, this past summer I hosted a family reunion in Portland and I needed to plan a Saturday night banquet for 100 people. Working with Jack Chu, the owner of Dragonwell, we were able to throw an amazing party — a truly sumptuous banquet including those amazing soup dumplings, seafood, meat and vegetables, all very tasty. My Chinese relatives, who travelled here from the east coast, Midwest, the South, and California were unanimous in their enjoyment. Furthermore, Jack and his wife went above and beyond all expectations in preparing for this event. They had special tablecloths and embroidered table runners made in China for the banquet round tables. The evening ended with karaōke for the very brave and the young people. Thanks to the Chus and their entire staff, the Saturday night banquet was the highlight of our Portland reunion. Many thanks to Dragonwell Bistro!
In fact, after reminiscing about our experience, I’ve made reservations for this evening — and I can’t wait!

As a Unilocal reviewer, I try to never give a 1 star review… unless I experience an extremely unfortunate event like this evening.
Our family of 8 is a regular on Christmas Day going on 5+ years. We know the drill on this date; very busy and the food might take a bit longer than a normal night here. Understandable. But tonight was a different story.
We arrived early for our reservation and were okay with sitting at the bar until our designated time but were actually seated as a table had just opened up. That’s where the good news stops. Only given 3 menus for a table of 8 is a bad start. We next tried to order appetizers but were told many of our selections had already sold out (it’s 6pm at this point) and that the food would take about 30 mins. We then order drinks both alcoholic and non. Never have we had weaker drinks in our lives. The food actually arrives faster than expected… but undercooked and rushed. We then try to salvage the dinner by getting our entrees in as the place is now a mad house with tens of people waiting for to-​go orders or to be seated. We’re again told the kitchen is very backed up and that the food would be another hour. Again, this was expected so we ordered wine for the table.
Never in my life have I seen a bottle brought to the table already uncorked nor did our waitress ask if anyone would like to taste. She just left on the corner of the table. We all paused in awe then asked if she could pour the glasses on her next trip over. We should of just passed the bottle around ourselves because her pouring technique included missing multiple glasses and losing a ¹⁄₅ of the bottle on the table. No apologies given.
Our entries, like our appetizers, arrived quicker than expected but again were extremely rushed and undercooked. Zero flavor, extremely bland and to top that off we had to walk to the kitchen to receive cutlery. The night now getting worse and worse.
After half of our party was finished the waitstaff decided for us that the rest of the table was done and began to remove all plates and drinks. This included our second bottle of wine that had just been opened. We were then told dessert was not an option as they needed the table for the next group.
At this point we asked for the manager but were given an unruly angry bartender and told that we weren’t the only people upset with them this evening (we watched another table leave after waiting 90mins for food and never received it) and «didn’t care» if our experience was poor. This was followed by him violently throwing his hands in the air and pacing through the restaurant verbally complaining whilst staring at our table. A performance usually reserved for Oscar winners.
We paid our large bill and left. Bartender still giving us the stare down as we walked out to never return again. Merry Christmas.

We went here last night for dinner. It was our first time as we live in SoCal. The food was delicious! We had the pork hot buns (I can’t remember what they are called!), the moo shu pork and combination fried rice. The staff was very friendly and helpful! We would go back for sure!

at 12:15 today I walked in to make a to go order. Chicken and broccoli and the special hot and sour soup (only $ 1.25 with an entrée). First they tried to charge me full price for the soup, I corrected the lady and she was polite and changed it. I even tip a little even though I’m picking up. I get the order all wrapped up and the soup is not in the package, however I’m already back at my office and don’t want to waste 20 minutes to walk back and get my soup.
Rule 1. Don’t forget the soup! You owe me $ 1.25.

The service is clumsy and a bit absent, but once I got my Georgetown Lucille IPA — a very nice IPA, BTW, I was happy.
I had a couple beers and some Hot and Sour Soup and caught up with an old mate.
They were busy, and I guess their food is great? The Hot and Sour soup was just okay. It wasn’t hot, by that I mean spicy. The menu denotes, spicy*. My friend share his entrée — -beans and prawns. This was a nice dish, but I wasn’t overwhelmed.
Perhaps, I will try another dish if I return. I do like the hangout factor at the bar, it seems they have some regular clientele.
*I am also aware, that many Asian food establishment denote spicy on their menu, but they are never really spicy at all. Let down.

I’m being seated on a wall full of windows at a table without a window:
Me: could I get a seat with a window?
Her: we don’t give out 4 chair seats for 1 person.
The only 2 seat table is the one with no window.
There’s nobody else in the place. It’s 11am
After that, the food is moot.
And, it didn’t even matter that I was going there semi regularly.
Plenty other lunch places downtown besides this one.