Dragon Express

Hands down one of the best places to get Chinese food in Wichita! Jan and her husband make some of the best food… it will make other restaurants food disappoint you. Check them out if you are hungry on the Eastside of Wichita!

Excellent authentic Chinese food. Full of flavors and the place is very clean compared to those other Chinese places

Hands down best Chinese restaurant in the town might look like an average shabby place to you but it’s an authentic cantonese restaurant! Wait gonna be longer so if you can call and order early that will be a good idea. It’s not fast food so takes time to make it! Love this place!!!

The food is decent… nothing too special. But okay. The staffing is TERRIBLE… RUDE RUDE RUDE RUDE RUDE!!! I eat here often and as I was making a phone order she cut me off mid sentence and told me that she «had to go» that she had «customers waiting»… I am a customer! This ius not the first time she has been rude. I’m so polite to her and it makes me sad. I won’t ever eat here again. Horrible grumpy old lady.

I have been waiting for 1 hr and 15 min to wait for my order and i asked her about it politely. She replied with a very rude answer telling me that its not fast food. She finally served the food she suddenly said «i dont have to tell you that it takes a lot of time to cook a fish» Disrespectful and rude auntie is all that i can say.

I drove out of my way to pick up an order based on the Rating and Reviews here on Unilocal.But the food was very bland. I am giving it a 3 Star rating because the place was very clean and the portions were generous. But the ‘Kung Pao’ Beef and Chicken were not at all Spicy and was mostly celery and onion., very little meat. The ‘Sweet & Sour’ Chicken was some deep fried battered chicken pieces with a cup of runny sweet and sour sauce on the side, The ‘Fried Rice’ had some soy sauce and about 6 peas and carrots (total). My husband and I shared it for dinner and neither one of us finished it. I will explore other options in the future. Anyone out there know of some truly AWESOME ‘Kung Pao; in Wichita? If so, message me!

Awesome canto food! Order from the Chinese menu. I am not a hipster so I don’t have a boring essay on «authentic Chinese food» however it’s good import china chinese cuisine! Not perfect nevertheless my favorite Chinese place in town. That’s all.

Next door to Passage to India you might notice the innocently-​titled Dragon Express. At first glance, it seems like your average Wichita Chinese restaurant — the first menu you see upon entering is stocked with things like Moo Goo Gai Pan and Kung Pao Shrimp for sale by the pint. That’s not the one you want. The menu you want is by the register, and reveals Dragon Express to be far more than just an Americanized Chinese restaurant.
When Chinese food was first popularized in the United States, it found success through adaptation and homogenizing its flavors to suit American tastes. Ming Tsai bluntly refers to it as «dumbed down» and «fried vegetables and some protein in a thick sauce,» which I think is fairly accurate on both accounts. While Chinese immigrants were finding success with these simplified dishes, they still had a desire to serve the food of their homeland to their fellow expatriates, and thus the secret menu was born. There’s at least three secret Chinese menus in town, and Dragon Express has offered one for the fifteen years that the Wongs have owned the place. Their Cantonese heritage is strongly communicated through their food, though with over seventy five items on the Chinese menu and even more on the Americanized menu, their enthusiasm is met with the limitations of the kitchen.
Even on the Chinese menu some dishes heavily rely on that protein-​vegetable-​sauce stereotype. «Pork with dried tofu» sounds more interesting than the bright red char siu turned out to be. In the «braised mushrooms with bok choy and tofu,» the undercooked cruciferous vegetables created a thin and watery sauce. The sweet and sour fish was just the opposite: the tender and lightly fried pieces of fish were suffocated by a sickly sweet sauce that was clearly more influenced by American palates than the balanced version of Chinese heritage. Even in a dish with a name like «braised pork with pickled veg,» the promised veg was hardly to be found, though it did seem to add a little bit of acidity to the sauce. But the true star of that dish, as it was in every dish in which it was featured, was the pork belly.
Pork belly is what bacon would eat if it was anthropomorphic. It’s tragically underutilized in Wichita, though it’s a fickle thing to execute well. Heat has to be applied in such a way that the alternating layers of fat render properly while the meat cooks to the crispness that makes bacon so satisfying. The pig begins its journey on Saturdays, when the roasted pork belly is sold by the pound. Here, the fat is not only rendered beautifully, but the top layer of meat is broiled to be so crunchy as to have the texture of hard candy. It’s a sight to behold, and would be enough to merit a recommendation to Dragon Express in itself. The belly finds its way into other dishes, like that «braised pork and pickled veg,» and ends up carrying the dish.
There’s other delights to be found on the menu, like the barbecue pork buns, the sesame balls, or the roast duck. They sell whole duck, chicken, and fish preparations for a surprisingly small amount of money, and if you want something more challenging, they also offer pork trotters, squid, and shark’s fin soup. It’s frustrating; sometimes the restaurant’s preparations are so excitingly different that it makes me a little giddy when I first open that takeout container and view my spoils. Other times it’s simply Chinese foods with American preparations. Even the rice is medium grained and difficult to pick up with chopsticks, though they’re certainly not stingy with the portions.
There’s a lot to like about to like about Dragon Express: its deceptive façade, the Chinese menu, the pork belly, the way Jan is always sure to thank me when I give her my money. Many restaurants labor under a too-​large menu, and this one is no different, but with a style of cooking that’s difficult to find in Wichita, you can’t help but be enamored by the treasures that can be found. Sometimes finding them is half the fun.

Visited over lunch. Food bland and uninspired. Typical Wichita Chinese. Nothing special here worth going back for a second time.

I came back and ordered the pork belly with pickled vegetables, the pork with bean curd, and stewed duck. The stewed duck was as good as the roasted, but saucier. The other two dishes were alright, but I won’t be ordering them again. The flavor or something was off for the belly. It’s quite a famous dish, and Dragon Express just didn’t nail it this time. O, I also got the plain steamed bun, which were tiny. I was hoping that these buns would be good enough to replace the rice that they serve there (it’s not jasmine), but they did not. I’ll add back the half star if other menu items turn out as good as the roasted products.
Still a very good solid restaurant.

This place seemed to be run by just a pair of old couple. Service is o-​k and price is reasonable, but food takes FOREVER. I called them 30 minutes prior but they still did not have my food ready. When I asked about my order, the medium-​aged chinese lady seemed confused (on a side note, she looked exhausted!) So, I had to wait another 35 minutes or so in the end.
I really think they should hire someone to keep the business flowing.
By the way, why is it «Express» when it’s not «express» at all? Ironic much

Very Good!

They serve some really authentic Cantonese food, really nice people from Hong Kong, China. Strongly suggest to order from the menu if you want to try real Chinese food. Prices are reasonable for a lot of food.

Bottom line: delicious Chinese food for both the lover of real Chinese food and those who enjoy lo mein and fried rice (trust me — I’m both).
While Dragon Express serves combo meals from a buffet-​type spread like a mall joint, I suggest you skip past that and order something from the menu (usually stashed by the register) instead. We have yet to order something that wasn’t delicious, whether a Chinese or American-​Chinese dish. The hordes of Chinese students from all over China (judging by the various dialects you’ll hear) seem to agree.
For those who care about things like service, in which case Chinese places are probably not your favorite: this is a tiny place with just a few tables and what appears to be one woman in the front and one, maybe two, people in the back. Things sometimes come out slowly and the woman is very quiet, but the food is worth it.