Dragon Café is in a strip mall area, so I had some high hopes. I walked in and saw about a hundred photographs (yes, the actual photographs) taped to the window of the lobby. They had numbers on them, I’m assuming which corresponded to the numbers on the menu I hadn’t seen yet. The food looked pretty good, again, keeping my hopes up.I got seated immediately even though the place was much fuller than I expected it to be for Shakopee. I was given a lunch menu which had quite a few things on it. A LOT of really cheap lunch specials. I decided on the Kung Pao Chicken and an eggroll (a lunch combination of some sort). I stuck with water, even though I saw a guy with a can of Dew on his table – will power, people.
The food came out amazingly fast (and yes, I know it takes almost no time to whip up most Chinese food), which also meant it was going to be brutally hot. I wasn’t thinking about that when I bit into the egg roll and immediately regretted it. Once I got feeling back in my tongue, this egg roll was pretty good. Just a faint hint of cinnamon in it and the vegetables tasted pretty fresh in it. No complaints on the appetizer portion of the combo. The Kung Pao Chicken was honestly really good. One of the better ones I’ve had. You could taste each of the vegetables like they were freshly stir fried, as opposed to sitting in the same vat before cooking so they all tasted the same. The dish was also super hot, but I was smart enough to let this one cool down. There was celery, water chestnuts, onions, cashews, chicken, pea pods, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and peanuts in the Kung Pao. The flavor was really good, even though it wasn’t at all spicy – as the menu indicated. There were lots of onions in the fried rice, but I powered through anyway. The whole thing was really quite good.
While waiting for food and eating I noticed there were a lots of white people. LOTS. And in fact, many of them were what you’d call “hill people” or serious rednecks. I was amused through the entire lunch. There were soooo many conversations that started with things like, “I ain’t never…”
and used phrases like “get on up” (not in the cool James Brown way, either). I’ve also never heard so many people order their food with no vegetables. Wtf?
I was pretty pleased with my meal at Dragon Café, although with this large list I need to work through, it might be some time before I make it back there. If you’re in the neighborhood, you’ll get a good cheap meal (My meal was $6.15 and I got plenty full).
Top 5 things about Dragon Café
1. Kung Pao Chicken
2. Egg Roll
3. REALLY cheap
4. Plenty of lunch specials
5. They have Dew
Bottom 5 things
1. It’s a significant drive for a lunch-time drive-by
2. I wonder if it is frowned upon to check the menu and then go back into the lobby to check the photos?
3. There was a door/hallway filled with boxes and vacuums and other junk right inside the main door and then a table in the front covered with stuff that looked like it would have better off hidden out of sight in back somewhere. Are these people hoarders? hahaha
4. Clientele need to take some grammar or English classes (and learn to eat vegetables)
5. Cash only
576 Marschall Rd.
Shakopee, MN 55379
(952) 445-9615
1 comment:
Dragon Cafe takes local checks and had started taking CC close to a yr. ago. We live in Shakopee, Our daughter worked there for 3 yrs. and we have always been well taken care of....the table you mention is the table where ppl waiting for takeout orders usually sit & and when slow the family visits guests there and also eat their family meal together there. Your experience with the food you ate that day was not even questioned in my mind...they make all their food their fresh...including rolling their own egg rolls...in that little hall that you mentioned is where you could have gone back and watched your specific meal being prepared through a glass window in the kitchen.
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