Restaurant Review:

Some would call the consistency of Golden Dragon ordinary, but I prefer to think of it as reassuring.

This feeling begins the moment you walk into the restaurant, which has been a fixture on Harbor Boulevard near Victoria Street for more than 30 years.

One of the owners, an elegantly dressed petite Asian woman, acts as if you are a long-lost cousin and hugs you.

That was a first for me, getting hugged by any employee of a restaurant. It actually was a really great tone to set for our meal.

The food is as comforting as the affection we were given. The lettuce cup, which I always associate with Thai restaurants, was described as minced chicken and vegetables in a soothing lettuce cup.

The soothing lettuce was actually glistening iceberg, and that is standard with this dish.

Once I would like to see something different, maybe butter lettuce or romaine. The chicken had almost a smoky taste to it, which I liked, and the vegetables were nothing more than minced chestnuts and table mushrooms. That was perfectly acceptable, but I think I would have liked some shredded carrots and onions as well.

The two sauces that accompanied it were both quite good. The first was a hoisin sauce, which gave the lettuce wraps a little sweetness. The second was a ginger sauce that was less thick and appeared to be made with sesame oil and rice vinegar.

Most Chinese menus are intimidating, with pages and pages of choices, and Golden Dragon was no different. There were more than 15 choices under seafood, beef, chicken and vegetable categories.

Traditional dishes can easily be found in all of the categories. There is orange peel chicken, moo shu beef and sweet and sour shrimp.

But there are also a few surprises. The asparagus chicken looked intriguing, as did the sesame shrimp and string bean pork.

My guest and I aren’t real big beef eaters, so we looked at chicken and seafood. I found a walnut chicken. Often that dish is more associated with shrimp — the honey/mayonnaise glaze seems to work better with the shrimp — but I thought the chicken was great.

The sauce, which is sweet, wasn’t slathered over the chicken like I have had it with the shrimp, and it was a nice mixture, working well with the lightly battered and deep-fried chicken. It came with walnuts that were crunchy and broccoli that was al dente.

The other main dish we got was the Happy Family. It was a seafood mix, complete with scallops, shrimp, fish, chicken, pork and vegetables in a garlic brown sauce.

There were ample amounts of shrimp, scallops and fish, though I didn’t see any chicken or pork. The vegetables consisted of oyster and table mushrooms, carrots and snap peas.

The dish was very good, and the garlic was subtle. I love garlic so I’d probably ask for more the next time I ordered it.

Both of us dislike white rice, so we looked for an alternative. The restaurant does not serve brown rice, which was disappointing, but then I saw tofu and bean curd dishes, which were worthy substitutes.

Next to those, however, I saw “chu mein” and thought I had stumbled upon some original dishes. We ordered the chicken chu mein and instantly liked the flavor. It had a nice, mellow soy sauce mixed with shredded carrots, white and green onions and thin noodles, though it tasted suspiciously like chow mein.

When our hostess/owner came to check on us, we remarked that the dish was good and that we had never seen chu mein before. She laughed and told us it was a typo, one of many we spied as we perused the menu.

While the selection of separate dishes are plentiful, the combination plates are sparse. There are only four of them, ranging in price from $12.25 to $19 per person, and we didn’t see any of them that thrilled us. The choices seemed limited, especially for two people.

With all the choices, though, you shouldn’t need to get a combination plate. The restaurant has more than enough to choose from, and it would be easy to make your own combination dinner. We did and thoroughly enjoyed it.

When we left, we got another hug and the catch phrase that she has said for years, “See you tomorrow.” You just very well might.

Golden Dragon

Address: 2023 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

Phone: (949) 642-7162

Website: www.cmgoldendragon.com

Cuisine: Chinese

Specialty dish: Peking duck

Alcohol served: full bar

Entrée price range: $8.50 to $40

Family friendly: yes

Credit cards accepted: American Express, MasterCard, Discover and Visa

Rating: *** 1/2

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at Nolimepublishing@aol.com or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.