Happy Dragon — Restaurant in Sarasota

I am writing this review because I am just tired. Tired of these Chinese food take outs in Florida that pop up everywhere and try to pass themselves off as authentic Chinese food. Why do most of these pop up Chinese food take outs feel that we will just except the poor quality of food they are serving. I know we are in Florida but because of that do they think we just do not know any better. I feel fortunate that I have had the opportunity to have Chinese food all across this country, so I am not expecting it to be great here in Florida. What I am expecting is it to be at least comforting and appealing to the pallet. Don't get me wrong, being able to call one of these Chinese food take outs at 5:10 after work and having it ready in 15 minutes so I can pick it up on the way home to feed my family is a great thing. Unfortunately Happy Dragon was the Wonton that hit the fan for me! After spending almost $50 dollars on only five items, it was very embarrassing and waist-full having to throw most of it out because it was so bad. Thank god for hot dogs and mac and cheese or we would have had nothing to eat that night. I ordered the the large spare ribs that were dry, fatty, and took a chainsaw to remove it from the bone. I also ordered the pork fried rice that had less flavor then Uncle Ben's 10 minute boil in the bag white rice. I ordered the Mongolian beef with black been sauce that had no black bean taste, vegetables way under cooked and beef that was tough and chewy. Mongolians must have strong jaws to eat that dish. I ordered the house Lo Mein that was dry and had a burnt taste to it that most bad Chinese restaurants always seem to master. The worse was the Cashew Chicken or should I say Cashew with a Mystery Meat. If that was chicken I ate then Happy Dragon invented a way of turning chicken into the worst tasting and worst texture chicken I have every put in my mouth. It also looked like they put in it whatever vegetables they had laying around and then sprinkled on top some pieces of cashews they bought from the dollar store before closing the lid. Oh, by the way thank you for putting the order of spare ribs in a Styrofoam to go box so that the sauce spilled out all over the place. Did you think those magic staples you used to close the box would also stop the sauce from spilling out when you packed it on its side. My experience was so miserable that I had to call and tell them how bad their food was. They did kind of apologize and offer to make me something else. All I wanted was my money back, but of course they could not do that. There was nothing happy about this meal. I went to sleep that night feeling like...

With Truman's being unexpectedly closed today, we were compelled to try Happy Dragon (again) for lunch. My wife ordered chicken and broccoli, and I ordered chicken fried rice, along with drinks, $22.68 + tip. We sat at one of the five tables and waited. After a while, the young lady behind the counter called out to us, "Take-out eat-in?" My wife replied eat in. Whereupon the take-out packaged and bagged order was left in the delivery area next to the ordering station, for us to go get and deal with ourselves. I wouldn't have minded all that, even though I had already tipped well, but the food was THE WORST Chinese food we have ever had (and I'm also a NY/NJ/SF/DC guy, used to outstanding Chinese). The only worse meals of my life I can think of were LRPs (freeze-dried dehydrated field rations) and K-rations in the jungles of Vietnam. The chicken tasted boiled, machine-cut into long, thin strips, roughly 3/16 inch square and two to three inches long, slimy and tasteless. A few peas, a few micro-cubes of carrot, rice that had been fried only in someone's imagination. No number of packets of soy pepper sauces could revive this mess. The portions were large, as ordered, but we ate the minimum needed to make it until dinner tonight, and dumped the rest in their trash can. Nothing was even good enough to take home and use in making soup. For the life of me, I can't understand how anyone could ever like a meal...

I never leave reviews. But I just finished leftovers from yesterday and caught myself saying "Yumm! That was GOOD!".

I ordered Shrimp and Chinese vegetables. And I forgot to specify white sauce but it came with white sauce. And LARGE shrimp.

Everything was perfectly cooked. I also ordered the house rice. Again, large shrimp, chicken and all the veggies and it was light brown (should be brown) and not yellow fluff. Bonus.

I haven't dipped into my wonton soup yet but I sipped the broth and it was fine.

Coming from Massachusetts, we are used to high end, Polynesian style Chinese. Like, fancy restaurants. So I'm always nervous when trying a strip mall take out place. Especially since I never get takeout and always cook healthy and clean at home.

After this experience, I will order again and hope the...