Golden Dragon at the corner of Liberty & Franklin, Trenton, NJ., looks like a new entry in the Chinese Take Out Wars. The shop is cleaner than many, with room for four tables for those who prefer to eat in (like me). The young family that runs the show seem to know what they're doing, with the wife at the counter taking orders and money, and hubby wok and rolling in the kitchen. The third wheel, perhaps a brother, helps out and does deliveries.
The lunch specials are the standard pork, chicken and shrimp in a variety of overlapping goopy sauces. The fried rice is made in one large batch and has the yellow dye of most other chicken broth based steamers. Unlike many of the other houses, this one is full of chunks of pork, peas, onion and carrots. It actually tasted good. My Pork Egg Foo Young was two pancakes, crisped edges, and loaded with meat, veggies and spouts. The brown sauce was decent and packaged separately to keep things firm and able to be used at will. It was a decent version of this old time dish.
Service was as limited as you would expect a basic take away store to be. No accommodation for customers wanting to eat at a table. Everything packaged in styro and plastic, with thin fork and spoon to handle the mouth shovels.
Still, at under $6., with soup or soda, it was a good deal.
Nice quality for a take out joint, even if they don't really want you eating there. Offer hot tea in addition to soda, and put the food on a real plate with better plasticware for those who eat in, and Golden Dragon could easily be a four star experience in take out cuisine.
UPDATE: MAY 3, 2017 - Have to say that my second visit to Golden Dragon has put me in a generous mood about the quality of their food. Today I sampled their Hot & Sour Soup and General Tso's Chicken.
The soup was surprisingly good. It contained fresh cut mushrooms floating on top, and two types of soft tofu beneath. The vinegar quotient was just right, and with the other veggies within, was about the best Chinese take out hot & sour I can remember tasting. Sucked all of that plastic container's contents dry. The Chicken was also mostly meat and less shell, with a nicely balance spicy/sweet dark brown topaz sauce. The fried rice was plentiful, and although mass produced, still granular and full of pork, pea, carrot, etc. chunks.
Overall, an impressive lunch from this far flung outpost of the Chinese Empire at the corner of Franklin and Liberty.
Do it again, and you could find yourself the recipient of a full forth star. But, for now...
3.5 Stars, with a bullet! read more