We are already fans of this comfort Chinese chain, having visited four out of its now five locations. And today we were by Metrotown for its latest, which only opened last Monday when we stopped by.
As is the case with its other locations, they all have the same menu, but different curated decor as the space allows. This was a smaller footprint and they utilized the arena the best they could with narrow tables and a hovering counter. It is just as well considering the food comes out fast and you tend to eat it quick.
The new location is christened with a new logo and electronic menus with a red backdrop and golden frame. For the occasion they are celebrating their grand opening with buy one get one free bubble tea specials, but their teas are already very affordable at $4.99 a cup; whereas other places are charging $8 to $10 for theirs.
We got their popular Pinapple green tea with grass jelly and a bold Lemon black tea with coconut jelly. Both great accompaniments to their food as a palate refresher in between spicy and heartier bites.
As for their bowls each is customized to your preference and the screens walk you through the process and the options. Step one you choose your size and pay accordingly. Kids, small, medium, and large. Next step is protein type with options for more at more. Chicken thigh, beef slice, pork tenderloin, lamb shoulder, jumbo shrimp, and vegan with vegetable and tofu. Lamb and shrimp are an extra $1 and $2.
Each bowl comes with 3 sides of your choosing. They rotate month to month and you can order then visually from behind their front glass showcase, presented in order from mild to most spicy. They have 15 total, and today there was beansprouts, corn, stewed leafy green vegetable, lotus root and edamame, seaweed knots, and noodles. On previous visits there were only four options, so it was nice to have more choices today. Between the two bowls we would order beansprouts, corn, lotus root, and seaweed knots. They were scooped into their own sperated plastic tray to stack ontop of your chosen protein and base.
Just like the sides they now have new bases to choose from too. Not just spring salad greens, steamed white rice or brown rice, and/or rice noodles. They now have scallion oil thin noodles and scallion oil sliced noodles, both of which we recommend as our new favourite base. The oil is so fragrant and adds another level to the meal, that doesn’t overpower or hinder your chosen sauce for the overall bowl.
Sauce options include dragon sauce, curry, black pepper, black bean sauce, and mushroom as a plant based option. For those who like it hot the spicy dragon is a good starting place and their devil chilli the max potency.
And for those who don’t want to choose, there are specialty bowls that are already curated. Beef shank, beef brisket, and chicken leg only available in a large size and tuna mix rice which is new and only available as a regular serving.
We got a large lamb shoulder bowl with extra meat in their Dragon sauce with sccallion oil thin noodles; and a side of seaweed, beansprouts, and lotus root.
For our second bowl we got a large chicken thigh bowl with black bean sauce over scallion oil sliced noodles; alongside seaweed, corn, and beansprouts.
We made both a combo with a side of their soothing bone broth soup with chunks of daikon and carrot. And were so excited to eat that we forgot to ask for one of their popular braised eggs for each bowl.
Everything was as expected and we thoroughly enjoyed every bite. My partner declares Dragon Bowl as one of the restaurants that if he drives past will always stop in for a bowl at.
Dragon Bowl
4929 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 2E5
(604) 564-4854
dragonbowl.ca