Go 4 MooShu Pork & Crispy beef at New Dragon Chinese Buffet

Not wishing to sound like a broken record, I must once again reiterate my general dislike of buffet food in general. I won’t repeat my objections here because you will find them in any post under the tag buffet. I only bring this up because I have now found an obvious solution for myself and any of my readers who may feel the same way: Don’t eat the buffet, order from the menu instead.
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Now, in some cases, this may not be possible. At Ruby King in Orleans, for example, there simply is no menu. The buffet is the only option. Likewise for the Emerald Buffet in Eastview, though they do at least have a Mongolian Grill option where you can select fresh food and have it cooked while you wait. The problem for me in particular is that in our Supper Seven group, I am in the minority and, somewhat like the Liberal Party in the new parliament, often have a hard time making my opinion count. When buffet was suggested, I at least tried to steer the group to an untried (within the last few years at least) venue. 

Where we went: For those readers who know the area, the Dragon Restaurant has been a fixture on Montreal Road at Bathgate in Ottawa’s East End for as long as I can remember. I am not honestly sure if that location is still in what used to be Gloucester or not. From the outside, little seems to have changed over the years. Even as we stepped in the door, things looked pretty much the same. Glancing at the buffet, I might even have suspected that the food was the same that we could have seen on our last visit! Let’s face it, not much has changed in chinese buffets in the last few decades!

What we ordered: Since our son, Ian, is staying with us for the summer, for the interim, the Supper Seven has once again become eight. It was an interesting division, since three of us, Dorothy, Ian and myself, ordered from the menu, while Norma, Gregory and the three girls opted for the buffet. We had been talking about ordering crispy beef and moo shu pork long before we even arrived at the restaurant, so it was a foregone conclusion that they would be part of our selection. To this we added a shrimp and vegetable dish along with steamed rice.

What we got: I can only say that we were very happy with our choices. We agreed that all three dishes were as good as any that we had tried in other locations. All three were hot and fresh. The crispy beef was especially good since it can sometimes be overcooked and a little tough as a result. Here, the crispness was still there but the beef underneath was still tender. Although the moo shu pork was only advertised to come with 6 pancakes, it was delivered with 8. At the end, we had enough left over to take home and make a lunch for two the next day.

Worthy of note: Even though we all ate our fill, we ended up with food to take home and yet our cost per person ordering from the menu was less than if we had chosen the buffet. It’s true that we did not have dessert which was included with the buffet but was not very enticing consisting mostly of ice cream and the typical rubber squares of cake. You may note that even the sign picture at the top of this post shows as the ‘ Dragon’ , the actual name is ‘New Dragon’  to reflect a recent change in ownership.

Summary

• Positives: Food was excellent and reasonably priced.
• Negatives: The buffet was just the ‘normal’ and although nobody complained, neither did anyone rave over it!
• Recommendation: If you stick to ordering from the menu, this is definitely worth a visit!

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