Dragon River Restaurant

I order takeout every night; however, I just realized that I was overcharged by $ 10 according to the takeout menu. I asked them whether the takeout menu’s prices were updated, but they told me that all prices were current; however, as the conversation proceeded, they told me that the price of every dish has actually been increased by $ 2 to $ 3. Especially, all vegetable dishes are market price, as told by the cashier.

This restaurant is very good. Tasty, fresh Chinese food for a good value. They make a great spicy tofu & broccoli dish. Also, their Szechuan spicy beef is delicious. Very friendly & fast service. We order from there all the time.

Very average Chinese food… Came in as a group of 8 and the service was good! Very nice waiter/​waitress! We were all super hungry, and finished everything regardless! The soup was not flavorful, but I did enjoyed their lettuce wrap!

Service was terrible, wait time was 50 minutes but it took 75 before driver picked it up. So now our food will be cold. #hangry

Great folks who own the place and it’s delicious too! Fair value for the food. I come here often

I go like this place foods is good price is average. The place is clear service r great! I have friends that like that place even my parents parents friends likes it.

First time here, food was delicious. had won ton soup, bbq fried rice and sesame chicken. Great service, very nice, attentive and polite unlike other places. Will definitely be returning for more!

I forgot to take pictures.
This is my first time going to this restaurant so I am using Yan Yan Seafood Restaurant and Empero Taste as a reference benchmark since the prices are the same. This was on a Tuesday night at 7PM with my mom. Typically when my mom and I got to any chinese restaurant for the first time, we will order two dishes to use as a reference point as listed below. Before we even went in, there was not a single customer inside and as we all know, that is a bad sign since even the caucasians knows not to go to any chinese restaurant if no chinese goes to it as that is a major No No but I just had to see if the high Unilocal!ratings after multiple change of ownership within 3 years can be trusted! ;)
1) Beef Chow Dried Chow Hor Fun or stir-​fried flat wide noodles $ 6.50 — the waitress has never heard of this dish in her entire life when the waiter told her it’s just Beef instead of Chicken. This should already be a bad sign. ;) When this dish came out — it was about ²⁄₃^rd the portion size of Yan Yan and Empero Taste. There was no much beef as basically they took very thin slice of beef and cut it into pea size pieces. The flavor was average as it used too much baking soda which had had bitter taste but lacks what the chinese calls wok hei.
2) Mandarin/​Peking Spare Ribs $ 7.50 which are just a type of Sweet and Sour Pork Chops — When this dish came out, it was ½ the size of Yan Yan and Empero Taste as far as portion size goes. And as these are known as gwat or bone in chinese, they really defined it as basically picture it like this, they bought Pork Chop End Sirloin Chops, the cheapest type of pork chops available at the supermarket and then basically kept 90% of the meat to sell in other dishes and gave you all the leftover bones instead, similar to what the local family dog would get after the owners are finished with their meat that included bones on it. The flavor was decent.
Forgot to mention earlier that they provide complimentary Spanish Redskin peanuts but there is no house soup and dessert which appears to be the normal these days at Chinese restaurants. Yan Yan does not provide free house soup during dinner but they always provide free marinated chicken feet for lunch and dinner with a unlimited quantity of desserts of which you can choose from 5 different options.
Basically, for the price, it is a major rip-​off in another way to say it. Yan Yan is good but Empero Taste is even more gooder with bigger portions at the same price as Yan Yan as a fellow friend pointed out which was also how I discovered Empero Taste.

It took us a while after we moved into the neighborhood to find Dragon River, but I’m so glad we found them at last. What we do is order ahead and pick up our yummy dinner. The food is good. It’s not the most gourmet food in town, no, but it’s consistently tasty and fresh. We’ve settled on a standard order of a few favorites, but we’ve never had anything bad. I’ve only eaten in the restaurant once, and it was a fun family dinner. The place is family run, and it shows in the friendly service and neighborly attitude. We had a lot of bad food in our search to find our neighborhood Chinese restaurant, but our search is over. Dragon River is reasonably priced, has good food, and is run by friendly people. What more could you need?

Two years later, we returned and had a nice meal at this neighborhood Chinese restaurant. The waiter had trouble with his English, but everything worked out.
She had beef chow fun with gravy. I had beef stew clay pot. The beef was only about half meat and half tendon. I prefer more meat. It tasted good with the rice though. We also had steamed rice noodles with beef.
Was satisfied with everything. Food arrived rapidly.
Prices are still very good and portions are large.

I know my chinese food and this is very good quality food for the price. great for groups. I came here for a family dinner and got one if the set meals. Well worth it.

Great food, even better prices. Even if something isn’t on menu, explain it, they will make it for you. Very friendly staff and wait time is very short. If in the area I recommend very highly.

I called in for a take out order of Beef Chow Fun Dry. When I got there, I was told they ran out of the fat noodles. Hummm, Saturday night around 8:30pm and ran out of the fat noodles? Drove over there for nothing. Rather disappointed.

I am giving 5 stars for exceptional value
We have found the food v good on several visits. Actually never disappointed, though you might find different I suppose.
Large servings, good food
Forgettable décor
Ok service
We mostly order salt And pepper squid
A simple dish well prepared. Be sure to get the green sauce with it
Enjoyed the hot and sour soup. Needed to add some spice for our taste but rich broth and lots of good ingredients.
Also enjoyed the beef with gravy
Cho fun. Again a large serving
Ordered a 2^nd hot and sour soup to go.
Total price just over 30 for two very full people.

This place is one of the best Chinese places in the area.
You should ALWAYS order «Lobster Noodles.» Their lobster noodles is $ 11.99!!! Where else are you going to find a place this cheap for a FULL lobster and a heaping plate of tasty noodles during dinner hours? The next cheapest place I found in the bay area is $ 14 at dinner, but that’s hard to find. I have no clue how they can make a profit on this dish because the cheapest lobster I’ve seen in the supermarket is $ 6.99/lb and these lobsters are greater than 1 lbs., and prepared much better than you could at home. And you know what? The lobster is fresh and they don’t cheat you. The lobster tank is in plain view at the back and you literally WATCH them take out the live lobster. Within 10 minutes, you will have a big plate of an entire dissected lobster on top of creamy noodles (flat egg noodles). I also don’t know how they cook it so fast.
You should also consider their crab. I think they charge $ 8/​lb. Most of their crabs are probably in the 3 lbs. range or about $ 24. That’s pretty damn good. Think about it. All you ‘trendy’ followers love go to R&G Lounge and PPQ to get their amazing 2.5 lbs. crab for $ 40. I don’t know why. Dragon River is just as good and half the price. You also see them take it out of the tank when you order crab.
Other stuff to try
–Remember, this is a Hakka restaurant, so they serve Hakka dishes in addition to the regular Chinese stuff
–Salt-​baked Chicken — Pretty good and juicy. This is done exactly how it’s supposed to be — plain, but tender and moist. Use their generous dipping sauces to add flavor.
–Clay Pots — They actually stuff this very well and it’s generally cheaper (under $ 10) than most places.
Dessert
–They give you a free hot dessert soup at the end, based on what they make during that day. We’ve had black seasame and taro dessert soups. Free is always great!
Service
–Service might be a little slow, but that’s because it’s a family restaurant and the lady server has to take care of everybody. It’s not slow because she’s lazy. She’s actually working 2x faster than most servers out there. It’s just a lot of dishes to bring and clean up for the size of the restaurant. But she always brings a smile. Please tip her for her efforts.
Give this place a try. If you’re waiting at Sichuan House two doors over, I recommend you come in here for a treat instead.

There’s a dish here that I just can’t quit.
I’ve never actually seen it prepared anywhere else, but it’s basically Westlake beef soup with fried wontons floating around in it. Yes, you read that correctly fried wontons.
I can’t even begin to describe the depth of flavor and texture presented by this combination but it is perfect. On the menu, it’s called «Supper wonton soup» presumably it’s supposed to be «Super» but who knows. Make sure when you order it though, that you do tell them that you want the soup with the fried wontons, because I’ve ordered it once before and gotten something completely different and inferior.

Double check your bill if you ever eat here. We were overcharged for every single item we ordered (see photo). Granted, we asked for spinach to be added to the eggplant dish so we had a mixture of two vegetables instead of all eggplant. This substitution amounted to an extra $ 1.50? Awesome.
In the end, we were overcharged about $ 4 (if you include the extra charge for spinach) for a $ 30 meal. That’s 13% of our meal. Sure, $ 4 isn’t a lot, but if you multiply that by the 12 or so tables they may overcharge at any given time throughout the day, it could add up to a lot. Also, what about the principle of the matter?!
Fortunately, my fiancé’s fortune cookie told him he is «good with finances» (see photo), which prompted him to ask the lady to recalculate the bill based on the real menu prices.
No apologies from any of the staff. I guess this was just business as usual at the Dragon River Restaurant?

We haven’t been back here since they changed owners. The restaurant was refurbished. Gone are the specials posted on the walls. The food was ok, nothing to call home about. I do have to say that some dishes were too hot and spicy. The lamb clay pot was a goopy mess. Really, lay off on the corn starch and everyone will be happy.
I did not like the fact that all the dishes were served on fancy square plates. Yep that means portions were small.
I want to like you but sorry, you’re not going to make the cut on our birthday rotation.

This doesn’t happen very often, but I have been having the most serious craving for good Chinese steamed rice so I finally make use of my Dragon River bookmark and gave this place a try. My credible source said this place was once better a few years back before a divorce that took place, but my visit was still marked by a very celebratory atmosphere where every table was filled, including two separate and ongoing birthday banquets to further the family-​oriented vibe.
This décor reeked authenticity as special Hakka dishes were written on the walls with a modest layout that will take you back in time. My order of half Hakka chicken ($ 7.75) came with a sizable portion of steamed chicken and a tasty side of ginger sauce. The chicken was delicious but I didn’t anticipate it to tastes identical to the Cantonese steamed chicken. My order of stir fry string beans ($ 5.95) from the wall specials was one of the better ones I’ve had. The flavor encompassed a generous portion of string beans stir fried with jalapenos, plenty of juicy gooey grounded pork, and a tiny spoon of red pepper to give a slight kick. I thought the string beans could be stirred in the wok a little longer for it to dry but the grounded pork was a major obstacle since the ones being served were ultra fatty. I thought their steamed rice was okay but for some reason it didn’t hit the spot.
There was no noticeable difference in service as I was treated the same as any other big tables. To my delight I was given a complimentary sweet red bean dessert and fortune cookie afterward to give it a strong finish. The red bean dessert had hint of mandarin orange that I thought was interesting but still delicious. I thought the meal was a strong 3.5 stars until I discovered a $ 1.80 overcharge for the string beans. What a let down after a pretty decent meal! It’s time to go back to Eight Immortals where authentic expressions were just as affordable and on point. 3 stars for the overall experience.

Had the chance to try some new dishes here this past weekend!
With such a «bare bones» interior, the food at Dragon River continues to be full of awesomely delicious flavors–
Crab and Mushroom Soup– 5 Stars, not overly salty, full of refined flavor, and made with fresh crab meat.
Chicken Wings-​5 Stars, in a finger licking delicate sauce (see photo) and a balanced combination of sweet, sour, and spicy!
Beef Stew Won Ton-​4 Stars, 5 Stars for the won ton because they really are some of the best I’ve tasted in the world, having lived and worked in the Far East. DR’s won ton are perfectly round, plump, firm, slightly crunchy and juicy. Minus 1 Star because I found a tiny little bone in the beef stew.
As always, for those with food additive and preservative allergies, Dragon River continues to do a respectfully «YAY» job of honoring my request for no MSG. Rock On Dragon River!!!