Golden Dragon in Cloverdale

We were on our way to the ferry and realized we were not going to make the 7 pm ferry which meant we had time to have a meal before we went on board.   We were nearing Cloverdale and pulled up Urbanspoon to see what was good and what was not.   We ended up choosing Dragon Village in the heart of Cloverdale.

The place is mainly a take out restaurant, they have put no money into the decor.  Based on the look of the interior and nothing else we would have walked but we trusted the good rating on Urbanspoon and stayed.   When I looked into the kitchen I could see where they put their money.  The kitchen is bigger and better set up than most mid sized Chinese restaurants kitchens I have seen.

Initially it was only going to be Sheila, Stephen. Max and myself, but Catherine, Ben and Daniel met up with us there so we were six and a half for dinner.

We ordered based on only three and half of us eating and ordered the dinner for three and added to that their ginger beef and dry garlic spareribs.   When we realized the others would be joining us I thought we would have to order more but that was not the case.   The five dishes were enough for all of us - do not forget that Ben and Daniel are teen aged boys/

The pork fried rice and chicken chow mein were huge plates of food, large enough we did not finish them.   They were well done for what they were.  The chow mein had more bean sprouts than I have normally seen.  The sweet and sour pork was well done but unremarkable.

The ginger fried beef smelt of ginger, I have rarely encountered that in your classic "Canadian and Chinese Cusine" restaurants.   It also tasted amazing.   The beef had an outer crunch but still retained a tender centre.   The sauce was thin and not gloopy.  It was also not very sweet at all and really more of a ponzu type of sauce.   I used some of the extra sauce on top of my rice instead of soy sauce.

The pork chop suey looked very good with nice thin but large slices of pork.  I did not get to try any of it but I was promised by the others it was good.

I devoured the dray garlic spareribs, they were some of the better ones I have had.  They seem to have cooked a bit differently that some ones I used to love at this restaurant in Vancouver, their colour was a darker brown than I remember.  I ate most of them.

The whole bill for the meal and six pops came to $60.20.   The prices are honestly too low for food this good.   We feed seven of us for this price.  Most of the dishes on the menu range from $7.20 to $8.90.

When we are passing through Cloverdale and have time I expect we will be stopping in again.