Woking Dragon Chop Suey House — Restaurant in Maple Ridge

It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either. I've been hearing so many raves about this place I had to check it out. I did not enjoy it but I went back a couple months later to give it a second chance. I thought they might have been having an off day since everyone else seems to like it. The second time it was just as bad.

(Feb 2019) My first visit I ordered chow mein, chop suey, almond chicken, sweet and sour pork for take out. The food had zero flavor. It's like they didn't use any sauce, salt, msg, soy sauce or anything at all. The noodles were cooked perfectly. But it was like they cooked them and then did absolutely nothing to them. No sauce, no spice, no flavor. Completely naked bland noodles. So the texture was great. Same with the chop suey. The veggies were fresh and cooked perfectly. They were nice and crispy. But it tasted like boiled broccoli, cauliflower, celery and mini corn. No sauce, no salt, nothing at all added. I've had worse. Some restaurants make their noodles and veggies all soggy and mushy so I appreciate the crispness. But is it common for restaurants to add nothing to these things? Or maybe they did and I just couldn't taste it at all. It just tasted like water. The almond chicken was flavorless. It literally tasted like flour and water. Again no salt or msg or whatever it is that Chinese restaurants usually add to give it that zing of flavor. The quality of meat in the sweet and sour pork was good. Cooked very well again but no flavor again. Is this an msg free restaurant, did they run out of salt, did they forget to add sauce? I've not a fan of salt, I never add it to my food and I often find Chinese food to be heavy on the salty flavor. But I found this food inedible without drowning it in soy sauce which I don't usually do with takeout.

(May 2019) Decided the give this another try, maybe they were having a bad day. Ordered the same thing for takeout plus Char Siu and ginger beef. The veggies and noodles had a bit a flavor this time but nothing special. So that's an improvement there. But the almond chicken was so undercooked. It was soggy and completely white. I'm used to almond chicken being slightly browned (almond colour). I had to pull out my deep fryer to brown and crisp the chicken for my family. The ginger beef was pretty good. I've give it 7/10. The Char Siu sounded amazing on the menu "slowly oven roasted to perfection" but tasted like a chewy, tough pork chop. We ordered enough for 4 people. Usually all the food is gone with Chinese but most of it was left over. No one in the family was really into it.

So overall good quality meat and veggies but poorly executed. You don't get very much for the price and it seems a little high priced. The staff was nice both times I went in for pick up. Very young though and inexperienced. Several of the girls looked about 15 years old. I think it's great that they are offering students in the community their first jobs. Would I recommend this place? I don't know. I know I'm never going there again because I was not impressed. But the rest of the Chinese restaurants in Maple ridge and Mission are awful with soggy mushy food and gnarly meat. So by default it makes this place "the best Chinese in town". I guess I'd say give it a try and decide for yourself. I'll leave you with this, at least it's not...

Woking dragon-5

We have had really crisp fresh tasting food here in the past, So my wife always defaults back to it. To me , It has always been under seasoned but can always add salt. A couple months back I ordered a dinner for four and 5 minutes from pickup was called and told that they cannot substitute honey garlic for sweet and sour pork. Fair enough as menu states no substitutions, in my mindbequal items shouldn’t be a big deal so I cancelled our meal.

My wife had another craving for Chinese and I reminded her of our last adventure, but she was determined lol. I told her if she can get the substitution I’ll gladly pick it up! She worked her magic and I switched my route. I picked up the food when it was scheduled for and headed for home.

When I arrived home and showed our two boys (4) (5) what we had they were thrilled! Sadly they’re highlight is the soy sauce for any meal that provides it. I quickly reached in the bag to give them the goods and was sadly met with only one more package to share for me and My wife after I doled them out.

Needless to say I was disappointed with the provided condiments. 3 packs is a bit ridiculous for a family of 4. I would assume you’d receive 8 packages minimum, not that I’ve ever even have to think about being shorted soy sauce at a Chinese restaurant!

I should have soy sauce at home no doubt, but we’d recently run out so that wasn’t the case.

I called the restaurant to see if this was normal, apparently that’s the same amount every meal receives whether meal for 2 or meal for 6. That’s just what goes into every bag.

I asked if some could be left when driver was in the area as three did not suffice and was greeted with significant hostility from the manager. I said there was no rush as we were gonna have some leftovers, we would appreciate if a driver could drop some off when in the neighbourhood leaving the entire night open. Nothing came of it and we will not be back.

The food was subpar this time to boot, the usually crisp broccoli was mushy, the fried rice was crunchy, not in a good way! Chow mein was as expected and the substituted honey garlic pork was good.

Not worth the mess around, We will be going elsewhere...

Have ordered from the Maple Ridge location a few times over the last year. It was pretty decent until the last couple of orders, especially last night (Boxing Day). I called in a three-item order for pick-up, thinking it would be about a 20-30-minute wait and was told it would be a 40-50 minute wait. Ok, I get it, day after Christmas and people want a little break from the usual holiday fare, but, oh, well. I stopped in at the 45-min mark, only to be told I was "15 minutes early". Lobby area was now full of people waiting for their orders, so the cashier offered to call me when my order was ready so I could avoid waiting in the restaurant. As I return to my car, another customer leaving the restaurant in his van at a fairly high rate of speed nearly smokes my car in the process (must have been waiting a long time, too, lol).

I get the call as promised, right at the one-hour mark. The flimsy paper bag almost fell apart, guess they're cheaping out on the heavier paper bags they used to use. Food felt just a bit more than lukewarm for food that was supposedly just cooked. I get home to find that the food was also lukewarm at best. Chicken fried rice and sweet & sour pork looked and tasted like it was just scooped out of a buffet tray into the containers. The Woking Special Lo Mein was a little pile of seemingly-steamed meat and veggies placed on top of a bed of fried noodles drowning in this jellied, coagulated, salty grey-brownish-coloured sauce. I'm Asian and have been eating this stuff for years and can tell when something is freshly cooked vs not. I also asked for 'no MSG' but one could hardly tell in the lo mein dish. The extra star was for accommodating one special request due to food allergies and the bevy of young front-end staff (all the type you would find at C@ctus Club or E@rls, not a surburban Westernized Chinese food joint, lol) trying to...