Dragon Star Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Mundelein

My wife and I landed here for an early dinner by default. Our first choice wouldn’t allow us to eat in at 3:30 PM on a Saturday. Dragon Star, on the other hand, quickly and happily offered us a table. We ordered mixed vegetables with string beans, shrimp Egg Foo Young, and hot and sour soup. These absolutely delicious dishes can be summed up as fresh, expertly prepared, and light. The Egg Foo was THE best I’ve ever had anywhere in the Chicago suburbs! Three patties were made mostly of medium shrimps, vegetables and egg, LIGHTLY fried with a brown sauce on the side. It wasn’t greasy, heavy. It did NOT use canned teeny shrimps and lumpy thick gravy! These sumptuous, generous portions were delicately created. My wife’s vegetarian dish was piled with fresh beans, broccoli, mushrooms, Bok Choy, carrots, onion in a light brown sauce. Also delightfully hot and sour was the soup that included mushrooms, tofu and all the other expected ingredients. Memorable! Inviting! Friendly! We shall return! ...

My more 'local' favorite Chinese take out place closed around 9 months ago (Chens in Palatine) and I've been looking for a new one since - after trying a dozen+ restaurants, I think this is the winner! It's a bit of a hike from lake zurich, but so worth it for good Chinese food! (I ordered our usual favorites: sesame chicken, pork lo mein, steamed dumplings, egg roll (and one that I don't always order with my kids, hot and sour soup). I have other favorites, but those ones are the "bare minimum" of "must be great")

(The Lo Mein - top right in the pic - is the one thing that I have been searching for someone else to get right since my last place closed.)

I also love that for the entree, for a small upcharge, you can swap the standard included white rice for a side of fried rice, or lo mein. We rarely ate much if any of the rice, but we will eat fried rice (lo mein as well, but I usually order that as a...

I ordered the Dragon & Phoenix dish for takeout. The description sounded great: fresh shrimp, chunks of chicken, bok choy, mushrooms, snow pea pods, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots. Unfortunately, the reality didn’t live up to the expectations.

The biggest issue was the chicken. It was dry, tough, and tasted like it had been cooked a long time ago and just reheated. It was very unpleasant to chew and really took away from the dish. The shrimp, on the other hand, were good — fresh and tender. Most of the vegetables were also fine.

However, the dish was missing two of the listed ingredients: bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. Their absence noticeably affected the texture and overall experience.

This dish could have been delicious, but the poor quality chicken and missing ingredients really ruined it. I hope more attention is paid to preparation and order accuracy...