Golden Dragon - Taj Samudra — Restaurant in Colombo

From what I was hearing in Colombo, there are two top Chinese eateries. One of them is Golden Dragon, at the Taj Samudra. During my research, I was aware of this restaurant (and it was on my list). What was most attractive to me (on the internet), was that they had half portions for numerous menu items. Perfect (since I am not a big eater and was traveling solo). However, when I got to the restaurant and was handed the menu, the story was totally different. No half portions. Staff was surprisingly clueless about this fact. Another point before I forget, hours before coming here, I called the hotel and they “strongly” suggested that I make a reservation, even if it was for only me. When I walked in, the place was almost empty. Ha ha ha.

So now, it was time to order the food. On the table there is complimentary prawn crackers, chili paste and Kim chi (I would say this is a Chinese version, a little sweeter and now my favorite over the Korean counterpart). For real food, I chose the Singapore Rice Noodles with Vegetables and the Fried Fish in Honey Chili Sauce. Both dishes were prepared extremely well. The fish pieces were battered optimally, served nice and hot, with the sauce perfectly balanced in bursting flavors, viscosity and mouth feel. The noodles were also done well, had good optics, cooked al dente, nice texture, with a distinct and satisfying taste. The service could have been better. The servers seemed preoccupied and were running around and it took time to attract their attention. It seems, when you dine alone, after the food is delivered to your table, servers move to more high density and more lucrative locales within...

We visited in Jan 2020.

Mediocre food Excellent service

Was the service able to make up for the quality of food, I wish it could coz Kasun’s and Vijith’s service was excellent. This is the second experience at Taj after the pandemic and at both times the food was subpar. Their vegetable fried rice was worse than that of a low key road side eatery, tasted bland like unseasoned boiled veggies and scrambled eggs added to steamed rice. we also got a seafood fried rice the only difference from the veggie fried rice was they had added some tasteless chilli paste ( I’ve tasted their chilli paste before 2020 and it was amazing!). All in all the food that we consumed were not up to the 5 star standard and was definitely not worth the price. It is a bit saddening as Taj was one of our go to hotels and we have added it to our black list after this experience. That being said they should not have compromised the food quality after increasing the prices substantially!! Highly...

Amazing food, Brilliant service and lovely ambiance😍 Visited the Golden Dragon restaurant in Taj randomly last weekend for a casual lunch. The food was so fresh and exceptional as usual. Everything was perfect including the cocktails and indeed we enjoyed a great authentic chinese lunch! They have maintained their standard consistently with regard to the flavors of each individual dish. The service was also brilliant from the time we entered the restaurant. Love the rich ambiance. Specially appreciate the friendly, prompt and courteous service provided by KASUN, ERANDA & THILNA who deserve a special commendation 👍🏻 They also maintained the highest standard of health and safety regulations with the present situation. Could improve more by adding a variety of desserts. Would highly recommend to anyone and hope to visit again definitely. Thankyou all for making it a...