Royal Dragon Restaurant — Restaurant in Maplewood

Visited 02/16/2024 at 2:30pm 3/5: Under new Hmong ownership since 02/09/2024 with current soft opening. Staff is still getting a rhythm to get acclimated so don't expect top-notch service yet. The food is decent but highly-priced. Nice place to visit for the first time to support our local community; Great place to visit if they have a Boat Noodle special like this time but not yet on my all-time top list to visit consistently. I'll visit again once they've got time to settle. Chili heat levels for dishes are 1 to 5 (mild to hot)

Chang Boat Noodle $19.95 (Today's special $10): Quite decent. More savory than sweet (I love that) but needs more of an aromatic punch of spices. The broth is seasoned well otherwise and is rich & thick. Generously meat-heavy. Would have preferred more herbs, bok choy or another green vegetable, chili peppers & kapik, and blood cubes. Priced high for its portion size.

Beef Pad Krapow $14.95 + $2 for protein choice: Not your usual Pad Krapow. Expect it to be a typical stir fry. Very light in the basil base. No fried egg. Beef and vegetable slices are chunky. The flavor is good like for any stir fry but it's not "Pad krapow". They do use real chili peppers to spice your desired heat level but it's not spicy. Dish was ordered to be a level 5 but the actual heat level was a 2. The portion was lunch-sized, not entree (shareable).

Papaya Salad $12.95: The first several bites were very good. The flavor was Hmong (right between Thai & Lao) with a distinct tamarind background. Papaya shreds were perfect (not too thick or too thin). Heat chili level at ordered at a 4 but tasted like a 1. After several bites, it was predominantly sour (limey & tamarind-rich). Priced high for its portion.

Raw Beef Laab $16.95: Ordered to go. Decent appearance at first glance and a quick taste. At home, the actual taste was salty but bland. Not enough rice powder nor herbs. Bitterness was perfect as requested. The beef was very minced. After several bites, the rest was chucked in the trash. Sad. Priced high for its portion. Wouldn't order this dish raw again.

Green tea was good but very sweet. Iced Thai coffee was very sweet and...

Quick review on Royal Dragon yesterday. Service was a bit slow but I'm not going to hold that against them right now since they just opened. Instead I'll just review the food.

We got an order of eggrolls and boat noodles. Boat noodle wasn't bad but could definitely improve. This is just my personal preference on it, but I think the boat noodle was a bit watery. I usually like mine to be rich. It could also be a bit more flavorful. They put whole meatballs in which is fine, but a personally would have preferred them to cut the meatballs into smaller pieces. I don't think I would've felt cheated out of meatballs even if they cut them up and put less. I think it would also save them a bit of money making them. Celery inside of the broth was unnecessary in my personal opinion. All of the toppings such as bean sprout, and pork grind should've also been side toppings as an optional. I also think the price tag of $20 for their bowl is a little steep when compared to other places around the Twin cities.

Our eggroll came out after we already finished our boat noodles and unfortunately came out still cold in the middle, and was a bit bland, and seemed too rely on the sauce to add any flavor. I generally like egg rolls to be good on their own and dip it in sauce if I want to.

Overall food I would say 2.5/5 for now since it just opened. I would definitely like to give them a few months to adjust and settle down and give them...

Big menu. Kinda expensive for just asian food honestly. We decided to see if it was able to beat Bamboo, which was there previously.

Bamboo 7/10. Orders took forever. Food was okay.

Royal dragon 6/10 food was okay. But I felt it was to expensive for what it offers.

Customer service was okay. Served checked on us twice and I had to call on him once. We ordered: Spring rolls 6/10: 2 for $7. It was okay. Two dipping sauces. It's spring rolls. Special, Regular size bowl of pho 6/10: $16. Pho was okay. But not $16 okay. Some tendon pieces which I know will eventually disappear down the road. Broth was decent. Good noodle/meat ratio. Get rid of the shrimp. Leave shirmp for seafood bowl. But for $16 for a regular and $20 for a jumbo, price vs quality was not there. If the pho was priced better, say $8 for regular and 12 for jumbo, I'd rate it 7/10 Pad kra pow 7/10: Egg was cooked right. Just too much ground pork. Not enough basil or veggies. Thai chili wasn't spicy. Sauce was okay. Would be better if portion was a bit smaller or give more rice.

Overall, if the prices were to come down a bit, I wouldn't mind coming back. But shoooooo, $16 bucks for a regular bowl of pho and I didn't get a back...