Dragon Buffet

FOOD

Dragon’s Chinese-American buffet gives the meat dishes plenty of company from the seafood selection. Mongolian beef is one of the main preparations to consider, bringing the familiar sweet-savory style of a sauced beef dish into lunch or dinner. It is a natural partner for rice, with the beef providing a substantial alternative to the chicken dishes. The selection can change through service.

General Tso’s chicken supplies a familiar Chinese-American main dish. In its usual form, coated chicken pieces meet a sweet-and-savory sauce, making this one of the sauced poultry preparations to consider. Chicken meatballs are part of the selection too, served as small, rounded pieces. Teriyaki chicken adds another preparation from the reopened buffet’s repertoire, with the familiar teriyaki style bringing a savory-sweet, soy-based seasoning to chicken.

Sautéed shrimp presents the shellfish without a batter coating. The peeled pieces keep their curled form, making this the pan-cooked seafood choice alongside the fried preparations. Shrimp has a natural sweetness that suits a savory meal, and the sautéed version leaves the shellfish itself as the main substance of the dish. It is one of several shrimp preparations available in Dragon’s Chinese-American spread.

Salt-and-pepper shrimp brings the seasoning-focused Chinese preparation into the meal. The familiar style emphasizes salt and pepper around the shrimp, without needing a heavy sweet sauce to define it. Fried shrimp offers another treatment, with a golden coating around the shellfish. These are different ways to enjoy the same main ingredient, so the seafood portion of lunch need not depend on one preparation alone.

Spring rolls and egg rolls are among the fried appetizers. The spring rolls have smooth, thin wrappers, while the egg rolls show a more blistered surface. Those wrapper styles give the two familiar rolls different characters even before considering their fillings. They are small savory foods that fit naturally beside the sauced beef and chicken, as well as the shrimp dishes.

Crab Rangoon adds the filled wonton to that appetizer selection. Broad, triangular wrappers enclose the filling, giving these a different shape from the rolls. In the familiar Chinese-American preparation, a creamy filling meets a fried wonton wrapper, a rich little bite that has its own appeal among the hot dishes. A few Rangoon can share the meal with the sauced entrees without turning lunch into appetizers alone.

Fried rice supplies a substantial accompaniment, with yellow-toned grains visible alongside the meat dishes. Long noodles are another part of the selection. Both make sense with Mongolian beef or General Tso’s chicken, carrying some of the sauce into the rice or around the strands. The noodles also sit comfortably beside the green beans and mushrooms, giving the meal another combination beyond a plate centered entirely on meat.

Sautéed green beans give the meal a vegetable preparation of its own, served as long, whole beans. Mushrooms also appear among the accompaniments, with their rounded caps providing another familiar Chinese-buffet food. Butter potatoes add another starchy side. Together with rice and noodles, these are substantial accompaniments to the chicken, beef and shrimp.