Dragonwell Bistro

In my ongoing search for the best sweet and sour pork in Portland, I chose this place. They don’t serve sweet and sour pork, 😔 so I went with the General.. Most people will find it passable, but it’s very soy heavy. I was not impressed enough for a return visit, but I am difficult to please.

After navigating downtown Portland for the better part of an hour and coming up on some not so favorable establishment. We looked best Chinese restaurant and DragonBall Bistro came up as a choice. I'm here to tell you the food we ordered was outstanding!!! The cook got a major Thumbs up and Colton our host/server got two thumbs up for the attention to detail on what I was looking for in my meal. I was delighted with the outcome and the outstanding service and amazing meal would erase all memories of my wife and I struggles to find a good Chinese style restaurant in Downtown Portland. So if you are in town, don't want to drive anywhere outside the Downtown area, this is a 100% must stop for a meal place you should check out. You won't go wrong.

We really liked Dragonwell in the past, but it has been a couple of years and I am wondering if it has undergone a change of ownership or management. The fact that the place was empty on a Saturday evening should have clued us in. We ordered spring rolls and pot stickers to start.. the fried spring rolls were obviously frozen and fried.. the texture outside was crispy and good, the inside was like like eating paste. The pot stickers that once were great have changed, this time they were not good at all. Not crispy but rather soggy and flavorless. Finally we split an order of sesame beef that was simply over seasoned with the strongest possible sesame beef syrup they could find.. it was an extremely thick sauce on bits chewy meat. There was no rice with it nor an offer for rice. I don't usually write reviews.. an especially not negative ones, but this was so bad that I feel obligated to warn folks.

$20–30

$50–100

Good are very tasty but the environment around the restaurant is not good

Was one of my go to lunch spots when I worked down town. Their food is great but on this occasion our take out order was missing the key components for our mushu pork (no pancakes or plum sauce). Called the restaurant and offered to comp it next time which I appreciate. But would have preferred a compete order.

$20–30

Great Chinese food, downtown. Parking next door. The food is fresh and authentic. Very friendly staff as well. Prices are fair for downtown cuisine. The honey walnut shrimp is a must on every visit and the beef is mouth watering awesomeness!

I ordered to go. Got home and the food had bad/little flavor, extremely small portions, and they left off a whole side of fried rice. BTW shrimp means 1 shrimp. Literally 1 shrimp. It’s crazy it costs so much. Wrote this to warn others.

$10–20