Golden Dragon Restaurant, the popular Chinatown establishment has opened a 300 cover flagship in Colindale, North London. Is it worth a visit? Read further..
Indo Chinese Cuisine is quite popular way back home in India and hence talk about Chinese, you will find me drooling. I was so excited to visit an already established authentic China town restaurant in UK, to experience an authentic cuisine. My partner in crime – my better half accompanied me to the Golden Dragon Restaurant with classic Hong Kong style décorand that specialises in dim sum by day and Cantonese and Pekinese á la carte in the evening.
Well, does the restaurant cater to herbivores at all? Yes, the list is quite small but a recipe page full of authentic food will spoil you for choices and I would highly recommend you to try authentic Chowmein Noodles along with mock chicken.
We visited the restaurant for lunch and our first impression on entry was wow.. Golden Dragon's elegant decor with a radiant black and gold colour scheme created a luxurious and elegant vibe. The sophisticated restaurant features ornate Chinese illustrations on the walls creating striking visual impact. At the reception, we were asked on our choice of seating and we picked a super cosy seating by the large windows.
On arrival, we were offered our choice of tea's.. Hari chose a Jasmine Tea for himself and I was glad to sample on the Oolong Tea. The concept of siping hot tea whilst lunch was quite new, but thoroughly enjoyed. Soon after tea, the manager asked us what we would like to order? We picked a classic starter & Soup combo – Vegetable Spring Rolls , SweetCorn Soup & Clear Soup..
The service was super quick for a 300 cover restaurant. Even before we actually expected, soup & starter arrived. Both the soups were mild, delicious and infact our appetite for lunch got better. Spring Rolls had the perfect crispy covering and you can make out how fresh and yumm it tasted.
We immediately made up our mind to return back soon to the restaurant atleast for the soups & starters with kiddos as they would have loved it.
Whilst we were enjoying our soups, the staff kept coming back to enquire if we were okay and always ensured we were comfortable.
As we were skimming through the vast menu, where vegetarians have a real small choice to order, we were a bit confused. But the manager who came to get our mains order made it really easy for us. He mentioned to us -" A lot of Asian food is all about sharing and the portion sizes are really huge." Back home in India as well, we believe in sharing the platters , so we found so much similarities.. We had a choice between the vegetarian set menu and Ala Carte to chose..
First Q the manager asked was how is your appetite? Really hungry or usual hunger? Vegetarian Set Menu has an elaborate set of dishes chosen for 2 people but can be enjoyed by 3. Since we had already enjoyed a portion of starter, we picked Vegetable Chowmein Noodles, Fried Rice and Mock Chicken for the main course..
What was amazing was, the manager asked us what kind of noodles would we like to savour from their list of 10+ varieties – Chowmein, Crispy, Rice Noodles etc etc… Think of Chinese and the authentic Chowmein is on my mind and we stuck to the standard one.
We were absolutely glad on our decision and the noodles were authentic loaded with vegetables, well seasoned. Wow.. Mock Chicken made from tofu is shaped like chicken. It is a sweet and sour starter that looks no different than a ' real' chicken starter and pairs well with rice and noodles.
Boy, the portion sizes were really huge and we decided to takeaway the fried rice.
We really didn't have an appetite for Dim Sum after a heavy lunch, but still had to end with a sweet tooth. Just ordered for a Sweet Mango pudding and we shared them between us. LOVED it!! Mildly sweetened with the perfect flavors.
Pricing is absolutely reasonable and works between 40-50£ for 2 diners.
This lunch experience cannot be justified by mere words. One needs to experience to understand and thoroughly enjoy it.
Disclosure: We were guests of Golden Dragon Restaurant. All opinions expressed here are of my own.
The best Chinese in North London at the very least. Service was exceptional and the Peking roast duck was mouthwatering i'm thinking about it now, Melting in your mouth.Not to mention the Crispy Pork which for me was the best I ever had.
Will return at least once a week for my Chinese FIX can't wait.