Dragon Oriental Restaurant — Restaurant in Manchester

As it’s a new place in Chinatown, thought i’de give it a go.

Was met by a staff member who showed us to a table. And was left to look at the menu. We ordered a couple of drinks and 4 different dishes.

Curry fish balls, homemade siu mai, 3 roast meat and rice, cheese baked chicken and rice.

Drinks were fruit punch and white cow (aka snowball)

Curry balls were small and all you could taste was the sweet hoisin sauce it came with. Siu mai were terrible, worst siu mai I’ve ever had, would not recommend. 3 roast meat , duck , pork belly, char siu pork was terrible, expensive and meat felt like it was just scraps ( I would recommend happy seasons for this kind of dish, much better quality.) The duck was mostly bones, barely any meat. The Char siu pork wasn’t too bad. The pork belly was just fat, no meat whatsoever. The cheese baked chicken and rice was quite nice. Very filling too.

The prices for all of these are quite high for the quality they provided.

The fruit punch drink was a drink made of real fruit and what tasted like ribena and lemonade. Not too sure of it to be honest. The white cow (aka snowball as we call it in the U.K.) is a glass of lemonade and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It wasn’t too bad but the glass was full of ice which made it hard to mix the drink and get the ice cream mixed up with the lemonade.

Drinks again are expensive for what they were. Also received the drinks after the food had been brought to us.

Some of the staff attitudes just aren’t right for a job in customer service here. They give off an unwelcome vibe and it feels like they don’t want you there. The service charge is stupid, why add a service charge when a decent service isn’t there?

Wouldn’t recommend going here until they change, if...

I wanted to meet up with my family for an informal birthday lunch. We are in London so I have not eaten in Manchester for many years now. Chinatown has changed a lot but I found Dragon Oriental through a web search. I had not heard of this place before.

I emailed Dragon Oriental with our requirements: 17 people including 1 high chair for a baby, a child with nut allergy and a vegan. We also had an idea of what we would order, subject to maybe one or two changes/additions on the day so I sent a list. Matthew and his team responded very quickly each time and was very accommodating. On the day, our table was available at the time we wanted even though it was very busy. It was a bright and modern diner with small tables but they managed to put together one long table to accommodate the whole family. Food arrived very quickly. We ordered about 14 main dishes to share from noodles, rice dishes to roast meats. It was fresh and delicious. The staff were very friendly and helpful. My husband arranged a surprise cake which he purchased from the nearby bakery and the staff brought out the cake with candles and played the birthday song. I also got a free birthday treat, a delicious mango tapioca pudding! I did not want a big birthday party but just a quiet lunch with my family. This was perfect! Food was lovely and service was great! Thank you to Matthew and the Dragon Oriental team. We will definitely pop by again next time we are up North! Look forward to trying the breakfast...

Obvious attempt to rip off customers. I’ve been to this restaurant many times because of its stable food quality although it’s more expensive than other HK-style restaurants and it imposes a 10% service charge. Last time I went there, they made me pay cash, claiming there’s a rule all bills below £15 had to be settled by cash, while the truth is I never brought cash with me and every time I visited this restaurant to have the same meal, I settled by debit card. I went there today and I couldn’t finish my stir-fried noodles and thus asked for a plastic container to take it home. I was perfectly fine with the 50p charge they asked for (noting many restaurants wouldn’t ask for this charge), but they had the cheek to bring me a teeny tiny plastic box I’ve never seen in my life. I looked at the container with bewilderment and asked the staff member: are you serious? I’m paying 50p for this and you’re bringing this container to me? He then cheekily squeezed the noodles in the box and quickly put it in a plastic bag and tied a few knots. I deliberately took it out to take pictures to show how ridiculous it was and found two corners of the plastic lid were broken. When I got home, I put it alongside another plastic box I got from another restaurant for comparison. It’s just horrendous. I have kept their little membership card with me so you can see I’m a rather frequent customer, but I don’t think I’ll go...