Dragon Garden Family Restaurant

Terribly overpriced and very overrated. Sweet and sour pork dry and unedible, fried rice just ok. Very disappointed after spending 80 dollars for 4 dishes and no one enjoyed the meal. Won't be coming back here again.

The visit at Gympies Dragon Garden was one of the nastiest experience in my whole culinary life. They will never see me again

As I've said in previous reviews , I'm always a little wary of any places that make grandiose claims , fortunately this place does not.We arrived just on opening time , and plainly staff were still setting up a few minor things , but we were greeted warmly , and seated shortly , menu's delivered and a drinks order taken.Drinks arrived shortly , and a conversation with the owner about a selection ensued , and we ordered a Shredded meats Special , Sweet & Sour Pork and steamed rice , with some Lup Cheong (Chinese Pork sausage) as a starter.Lup Cheong arrived promptly , with some soy if needed.We always carry our own wooden or bamboo Chopsticks , as we have a preference for the shorter ones , so we used these to eat with.After consuming this we had a chat with Douglas , the owner , as we'd been to China often and talked about the various dishes we enjoy whilst there. He explained how his expenses had escalated in the last couple of years , and we sympathised with him , as we are both involved in Commercial Catering , and know the issues well.After about 10 minutes our food arrived and we tucked in with gusto , our first Chinese for quite some time.The rice was steaming fresh , always a good sign , light and fluffy , well separated grains.The Sweet & Sour was a generous portion , not too heavy on the batter and a sauce that did not overpower the Pork , a good dish.Happy wife !My dish also contained prawns & scallops , together with beef , pork , chicken & BBQ pork. The veg was onion , capsicum , carrot & bamboo shoot , all in a sauce. The prawns were cooked perfectly , all the other proteins were tender and cooked well , with distinctive flavours , and again , a generous serve.My only minor critique was the sauce , it was a little indistinct in flavour , and I felt it needed reducing , would have bumped the seasonings way up.We washed all this down with a couple of beers , and they do serve Tsing Tao beer , a point score from me for that.Now , this place has plainly been there for quite some time , and it does show. There have not been any obvious improvements made for some time , except maybe the updated Aircons , but otherwise it looks like a 60's style build.The decor is showing some signs of age , and wear , but I'd have thought that may simply show the place is reasonably well patronised , it's quite near the centre of town , without the drama's of town parking.So , we had an entertaining meal , were very well looked after , had a good conversation , and better than average food.I guess the biggest rider here is that it's not the Chinese that you would get in any of our Capitals , it is Rural after all , so one has to make allowances for them catering to their mainly local clienteles tastes , as they plainly have done.At least , after talking to the owner , he did say that if you did have any specific requests , they would do so if at all possible , so my choice would be to organize the next visit prior and talk to him. We talked about reviews , and I mentioned that he's got some good & bad , but generally I pay attention to how many a reviewer has done , and check those out before making a decision to try a place.As I've stated many times , I want these business's to succeed , as the best comes through a diversity of competition , not too many "me too's". And I do want every place to strive to be better , certainly better than just average.I mean , just how many average Pizza, Burger places do we really need ?So , will we return ? Yes , will try it out again , with some more unusual dishes next time, give the Chef a good workout !

We recently decided to get takeaway after friends suggested dragon garden. The service was great had our order within 5-10mins of ordering lady behind the counter very friendly and accomodating allergies. However we found it more expensive than what we are use to, most dishes were $16.50. Honey chicken was dry and fried rice wasn't that great very dry also. Sweet and sour pork great just needed more sauce. Won't be back in a hurry have had much better at cheaper prices. 3 dishes at $42 definitely not a cheap takeaway night.

We walked in & they asked if we had a booking which we didn't so the three females had a lengthy conversation about fitting us in. We were taken to a table. The whole restaurant had only 3 other tables with diners. There were lots of vacant tables so we assumed they must have had lots of bookings as they had a great debate about fitting us in. We ordered,ate our meals which were terrible during this time no one else entered the restaurant. The worst chinese food I have ever eaten. The young lady who seated us tried very hard but the other waitress whom I am assuming was part of the management would certainly rather have been somewhere else. Not cheap either.