Golden Dragon Elmwood — Attraction in Buffalo

As is tradition, my girl and I got some Christmas Chinese food, and this place just happened to be close. I checked the reviews, and I almost skipped this place due to the negative reviews. I wanted to give some fair feedback on both the food and our experience.

First, the service was like most Chinese food spots; food is ready in about 15 minutes. They told me as much, but it only took a little under 10. The woman was very nice and courteous. I have nothing bad to say except..

The price. Most things were a dollar or two more expensive than the menu, and as some other reviews have mentioned, they do skimp a little bit on the protein portions. I understand that everything is expensive now, but I spent $65. On this one issue, I think they could do better.

So how is the food? It's about as good as any other local Chinese place. That's not to disparage them. It's what I expect when I go to these restaurants. I wasn't let down. In fact, I could tell that everything was cooked fresh except the wonton soup. That may have been on the heater a while as the wontons fell apart.

In addition to the Wonton Soup, we ordered General Tso, Beef Lo Mein, Sweet & Sour Pork, and Boneless Spare Ribs. Here's my thoughts on each of them.

-General Tso: It wasn't very crispy, but unlike a lot of places, they do serve it on a bed of broccoli, and the broccoli was perfect. I would otherwise say that this item was mid.

-Beef Lo Mein: This had some of the most tender strips of beef I've ever had in a beef lo mein. This was the real winner 10/10. My main issue was the amount of beef included.

-Boneless Spare Ribs: The strips of ribs were also tender, but I've never had it served on a bed of broccoli, and unlike the General Tso, they covered the entire bottom of the dish with broccoli which lead to far less meat than I would otherwise have gotten. It was very good, but I felt just a little bit gipped.

-Sweet and Sour Pork: These were great and didn't make the ride home. They were crispy, double fried, and delicious. I don't usually dip in sweet and sour sauce, so I have no review on it. The pork balls were good though!

-To sum it up, we had a good experience albeit costly. If I got the same quality for $10-15 less, or just a little more meat for the price paid, I would have given an additional star on all points.

Maybe my experience was different than these other people, or maybe they were expecting fine dining....

I'm currently a leukemia patient at RPCC, and was undergoing a procedure that ran long and as RPCC's food service was closed, I decided to order from here via Uber eats because I'd had good luck ordering some appetizers (pork egg roll, teriyaki chicken and a pint of pork lo mein) on the 22nd. This time I chose crab rangoons (6) and the pepper steak with onions combo platter with the recommended 'pork fried rice' upgrade and an egg roll. I enjoy spicy food so I asked for "extra spicy" as well. The food that I received can only be described as the worst, most repugnant offal I believe I have ever experienced. I've been ordering Asian takeout for 50 years, and this? This was not fit to feed livestock. The "crab rangoons" were simply flat fried wontons, poorly fried, greasy and tasteless with less than a teaspoon of filling in each. The egg roll was of course passable as these all come frozen from somewhere in New Jersey and are just fried to order. But now, now we come to the pepper steak. The beef was flavorless and wasn't even velveted so it had the consistency of a rubber bicycle tire, and it hadn't spent any time in a wok that I could see. The "sauce" was clearly from a grocery store bottle, not the hearty brown wok sauce it should have been, but more like a thin Szechuan garlic sauce with some added chili. The bell pepper and onion were OK though not properly stir fried, and the end result was something that tasted like thrown together leftovers poorly prepared. The reason I am so angry about this is that pepper steak is such a SIMPLE dish to prepare that I was amazed someone could ruin it SO completely. And finally we come to the "pork fried rice." This was a truly disgusting looking and flavored dish that looked more like it came from a microwave than a proper cooking utensil. It contained nothing but long grain 'yellowed' rice, some sprouts, a few measley bits of onion and cubes of sad, gray pork with, again, NO wok fried flavor. Two entire packets of Wah Joan soy sauce couldn't even do anything to improve it. I'm not a vindictive person, and if I hadn't paid $40 including delivery I wouldn't be complaining so loudly. I have several pics of the food which I'll post when I can so you too can witness the horrors of this meal...

Elmwood Avenue Golden Dragon on Elmwood Avenue. I want to say when they first opened, The food had flavor and was fresh. Not anymore. I actually gave them four tries to get it right, it got worse. I would also agree with the other reviews. I've read about the skimpy amounts of Protein, seafood, chicken, pork. I received mostly noodles with six pieces of chicken in my last order which was undercooked. Rangoons had barely anything in them ,Mostly wrapper. I brought the food back that I didn't finish and told them that they failed. I didn't want my money back or anything. I just wanted them to know. I gave them the reasons. With a blank look on His face he said he would let The manager know. I never received a phone call from the manager, So I posted a review. I Don't like to give a bad review. But at this point it's so necessary to let people know. I don't mind paying for delicious food. But I don't want to overpay for terrible food. Nor should you.

Wow ....